Becoming a Djinn

Becoming a Djinn
Well, it happened. Something bad happened to your character. Maybe they had everything they ever loved destroyed before their eyes. Maybe they were hurt and desperate and tortured. Maybe they were careless with their magical whatever and got it smashed. Doesn't matter how you got Shattered - all that matters is getting out of that state before some bigot ends you. While becoming a Zombie is a valid way to get out of that state, no one really recommends it - becoming a full Djinn is a much better idea. But the question is, how?

About the topography of a Shattered Soul
A Steling's soul is fully and properly integrated, whole and immutable. When a Sterling's Shell breaks, the Pieces of their soul become loose, drifting, untethered. As long as the newly Shattered continues to live, this is a reasonable, but ultimately awkward, state of affairs. This unpatterned alignment is pretty useless, and very risky. A Shattered is plainly visible as such in soul sight, and it's initial alignment, what little there is of it, marks a newly Dead Inside as easy prey. To become Djinn, a person must regain some connection and order within their Soul.

About Aligning a Soul
Souls are immutable and resistant to outside intrusions while inside a living body - even a newly Shattered Soul is like a steel sculpture to all but the greatest magic workers while a Shattered draws breathe. The only way to affect a Shattered Soul is through the influences of it's owners Mind and Body. The first step for every Shattered is to come to grips with the reason for their Soul breaking. For some, this is simple, and for others, it can be the hardest part of the process. Simple or difficult, the process is hard - the character is trying to make sense of profound pain, horror, and destruction - a trip to the local malt shop is not going to cut it. It may mean forgiving the person that brutalized them, or killing the same. It might require giving up and forgetting something they cared about deeply, or finding a way to establish a new link to the dearly held, or finding a proxy of some sort for what was lost. Getting professional help may be the answer, but, potentially, so is writing a memoir, becoming a hermit, or destroying their old existence. There are a hundred ways to Shatter, and there are just as many ways to come to terms with it.

Once that's done, the former Sterling must reconnect to each of their pieces - a process accomplished by 2 methods. Regardless of method, they must gain 8 successes - 1 for each Piece of their broken Soul.

The Original Method
The first Djinn gained their new nature by virtue of completing acts which re-affirmed their personalities and values. A person who desires peace finding a way to calm a neighborhood torn by violence, a person of strength competing and overcoming the odds and their physical limits, a physicist overcoming a difficult problem after years of study and effort. A Shattered using this method must exert themselves in a way that re-affirms who and what they are in a fashion that relates to how they perceived themselves. Some one who feels strongly about their heritage might become a pilgrim to the homes of their ancestors to reconnect to their Quick piece, for example. This method is nearly full-proof as long as the accomplishments are meaningful - a GM should push the sense of completion and connection, and penalize a player who are takes their tasks lightly, or treating the experience as a simple checklist. Conversely, it is possible to gain more than 1 piece unintentionally. If the above pilgrim walks far and wide to reach the various places of their fore bearers, the GM may rule that the journey was arduous enough to re-affirm the character's physicality, and grant a recovered Brawn connection at some point on the trip, either after it's most difficult point, or at it's end.

This is often referred to as the slow way, because it often takes significant time - either to quest, or to even find an appropriate quest to take. This doesn't mean a Piece can't come quickly - making a split second decision to save someone's life might uphold a character's morality and re-enforce their connection to the Immaterial, or playing a game from their childhood with their family in a way that is particularly satisfying or meaningful might call to a Quick, Brawn or Mind piece (depending on the game) as nostalgia and connection to things held dear bring them back, but this sort of happenstance can't really be planned - it is in the moments of satisfaction and completion that the Pieces come; expectations can hinder and prevent recovery. This can mean a quest is doomed from the start if the character doesn't get a deeper meaning and a personal sense of accomplishment from it.

The New Method
The second method centers around self-enlightenment - the act of exploring one's self to gain understanding. With this method, a character will Meditate on various aspects of their life in relation to a particular aspect of a Piece, devoting their mind and will to tirelessly understand themselves and their history through this particular lens until their bodies fail from exhaustion. This is often referred to as the fast method, because it can take someone from Shattered but resolved to Djinn in as little as 8 days (each day devoted to a new piece). Of course, it is not an easy method for most, requiring great skill, concentration, and self awareness.

First of all, a character must meditate for a number of hours equal to their natural Stamina limit, making a check and losing 1 stamina each hour, culminating in a Meditation Skill check against 8+the strength of the Piece + the number of pieces already regained (because the established connections are paths of "lesser resistance" - they are understood, and thus the character's mind seeks them out instead of the desire goal) in the final hour before the character falls over. The pieces are recovered in the order of their strength, largest first, as that is the piece that made the greatest impact on the character's life (in theory). Of course, most people can't manage such intense introspection, or many find the connection to later Pieces too difficult, and instead pursue the Original Method to complete their spiritual journey.

Completion the Transformation
Once the last Piece is recovered and integrated, the character falls over, as if dead. Certain changes occur, primarily the eyes turning red and scelera turning black, but other transformations may be possible, including unusual skin/scale/fur colors developing, either uniformly, in splotches, or in patterns of various designs. Unusual structures may occasionally change or develop, such as webbed appendages, wings, and bone formations. It is fairly common for new Djinn to appear sturdier. It is certainly true that all Djinn are sturdier - the Djinn trait Improved Hardiness takes effect over this period; each hour, 1 point of Hardiness gets added to a Djinn's effective Health, and one point of Health is added to their effective Hardiness. As long as the new Djinn is not killed, this counts as "healing" for the purpose of staving off the Death Affliction, and the additional point of Health does increase the amount of damage required to put them permanently down.

This state persists for one hour, plus one hour for each point of Stamina that needs to be recovered when they "died," or until Improved Hardiness has fully taken effect, which ever is longer. During this time, damage may be dealt, so it is recommended that a Djinn have someone present to keep them safe. Upon awakening, a Djinn will have an instinctive knowledge of a single ability relating to their type - this serves as the basis of their first spell node. This ability does not generally use up Stamina (unless used for a prolonged period), though Djinn are limited to using it no more than Stamina times per day. Sustained effects may not be used more than Stamina*10 rounds per day initially. As a Djinn gets closer to being an Efreet, this power is enhanced - transformations are faster and more detailed, damage-oriented effects are more Forceful, Afflictions are harder to shake, enhancements last longer, that sort of thing.

Please note these free abilities are not initially powerful - most damage oriented effects, for example, are weaker than an average punch when they start. Transformations take a number of turns, and are initially fairly imperfect if used as a disguise to be something or someone specific, Afflictions have low values for resistance, Enhancements rarely give more than +1 to 1 stat for a single turn. They are often worthwhile in certain situations anyways, but they should not break the game. (Again, these powers are improved as a Djinn gets closer to becoming an Efreet)