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INFO.
Bartimaeus of Uruk
sakhr al-jinni
According to some, heroic deaths are admirable things. I’ve never been convinced by this argument, mainly because, no matter how cool, stylish, composed, unflappable, manly or defiant you are, at the end of the day you’re also dead.
Basics
NAME
Bartimaeus
AGE
5000+
FROM
The Other Place
SPECIES
Djinni
HEIGHT
Depends
HAIR
Depends
EYES
Depends
VIBE
Annoying
Bartimaeus is an irascible, sarcastic and cynical djinni from a world in which spirits of all forms are enslaved by human 'magicians' to do their bidding. Over his many thousands of years of enslavement, Bartimaeus has seen the worst of humanity come to the fore over and over again as he's fought their battles and defended their magicians. He uses humour as a front to cover for his bitterness and anger, but his relationship with humans is a little less antagonistic in comparison to many other djinn, as he's been defined by his erstwhile fondness for a very tiny number of his masters over the years.
First impressions
➵ APPEARANCE Bartimaeus is a frequent shapeshifter, capable of transforming himself into absolutely anything. His true form is a swirling mass of 'essence', like liquid smoke, but that's almost never visible. He can alter his appearance into various animals, humans or other creatures, including mythological ones, and even inanimate substances like wisps of smoke or a wooden footstool. That said, he does have a few favourite forms.
His most frequent is that of a young Egyptian boy, about fourteen. The other recurring face is that of a teenage girl, about nineteen, with short-cropped dark hair. Aside from humans, his other frequent favourites include a blackbird, a sand cat, a lioness, and a scarab beetle, and in terms of mythological creatures he often appears as a minotaur and a stone gargoyle. The thing that connects his forms for the most part is that he prefers to look aesthetically pleasing – when there are exceptions, they're deliberate, purposeful, and a little embarrassing for him.
➵ CLOTHING He'll fit in with the fashion of the day, as he can transform his clothes when he transforms his appearance. He likes to dress simply but with some expense – though that expense is of course only skin-deep, since he can't give his transformed clothes to others or sell them, so they only have aesthetic worth.
➵ DEMEANOR Bartimaeus has two modes. The first is a wise-cracking, irreverent, cocky djinni who likes to make jokes and treats everything as if he's above it all; this is the vibe he gives to most people, flippant and ebullient like everything around him is just waiting to be joked about or made fun of. The second is a much more serious energy, where his age and non-human-ness really show; this is reserved for tough conversations about parts of his personal history. His anger tends towards wrath.
➵ AURAL For the most part, he's fast-talking, with a consistent 'energy' that marks his voice as specifically Bartimaeus from one form to another. His voice is usually recognisable across forms which don't typically speak, but when he's in a human shape the voice subtly shifts to accommodate – if he looks like a woman, he sounds like a woman; if he looks like a young boy, his voice matches, though there's always something recognisably Bartimaeus about it. He's mostly chirpy and irreverent, frequently using slang terms which belie his true age, often dipping into incredibly ancient, dead languages when insulting others; by contrast, his speech becomes more formal and archaic in a serious conversation.
➵ OLFACTORY Normally smells of absolutely nothing, but he can emit smells on purpose as part of his magical repertoire. They can be pleasant or horrible.
Favoured forms
Bartimaeus can look like almost anything or anyone he wants, but he does have some favourites.
A young boy, no older than fourteen, with warm skin, brown eyes, and an inquisitive manner. This is Bartimaeus's most frequent form and the one that most will come to associate him with – an extremely faithful recreation of his beloved, long-dead former master, Ptolemy. The boy is recreated in loving detail, down to his moles and freckles.
A young woman, nineteen, with short-cropped dark hair. She's fairly frequent in his repertoire. Another lovingly rendered recreation, this time of another very close friend, the commoner Kitty Jones.
A beautiful young woman with long, dark hair in curled ringlets, usually dressed in the fashions of ancient Rome. This form is based loosely on Julia, a Vestal Virgin Bartimaeus once met in Rome who would sneak away from the Sacred Flame by night to bet on chariot races.
A handsome young man of Sumerian descent, with brown skin, brown eyes, and curled black hair. Sometimes appears with wings the shape of a butterfly's but made of pure white feathers.
A wiry, pale-skinned teenaged boy, no older than seventeen. Faithfully modelled on another former master, Nathaniel. Feelings about him are still complicated and a little sore, so he's rare, but he appears now and then.
Bartimaeus is a fourth-level djinni. In his world, djinn are high-ranking spirits and the most commonly summoned type by strong magicians, since they're powerful and intelligent without being as unwieldy as higher spirits. Bartimaeus himself is resourceful and cunning, and just as likely to run away from a fight he knows he might not win as he is to partake in it. He's not impossible to kill, but he is a significant threat nonetheless. On the other hand, he's a little bit of a braggart who overestimates his own strength, so take it all with a pinch of salt.
➵ SPECIES Bartimaeus has a number of innate abilities simply due to the fact that he's a powerful djinni. His true form is not a body at all but rather something called 'essence', which is sort of like multicoloured liquid water floating around in the air. He constrains himself to various shaped forms while on Earth, though, and his true essence is very rarely seen (more on this later). As a result of all this, he possesses superhuman strength, agility and endurance, as well as a lot of magical ability. He technically doesn't need to eat or sleep, and is instead rejuvenated by returning to the Other Place, while the longer he stays away from it, the weaker he becomes, as even the simple fact of being on Earth is damaging to him over time.
➵ THE SEVEN PLANES The Seven Planes are seven separate but overlapping planes, and each one shows a different level of magical activity. The more powerful a spirit is, the more planes they can typically view – technically, there are more than seven, anything that can see higher than the seventh plane is just showing off. Magical abilities, items and traps can be seen as an 'aura' on secondary planes, even when they're invisible on the first plane. In terms of his own magic, Bartimaeus's shapeshifting ability extends across multiple planes, but can be seen through by other entities on higher planes.
➵ MAGIC His magic is fire and air based, usually things like funnels of air or blasts of fire. The spells themselves have various names, but essentially their destructive ability can be boiled down to fire or air. The extent of his abilities isn't very clearly delineated, but there are several named spells which come up frequently.
➵ SHAPESHIFTING Technically speaking he can visually become anything he wants, including inanimate objects, but his favoured forms are birds or other flying animals as well as animals commonly seen in ancient Egypt, and he's also not above appearing as mythological creatures such as a minotaur. His 'standard' form when existing around other humans is a very faithful recreation of a young Egyptian boy. He also regularly becomes inanimate moving objects such as a wisp of smoke or a whirling sandstorm, and has discussed the capability of turning into a simple wooden footstool. If he wants to shapeshift into another real person, he needs to know their true name to 'get a handle on them', as it were – but he tends not to do this for most people, as for him appearing as another real person is an act of love and devotion on his part.
➵ WEAKNESSES As a djinni, he's weak to iron and silver and he doesn't particularly like earth (dirt, mud, etc.) either. Any of these substances would sap his energy if he was overexposed, while long or serious exposure to silver (see: being stabbed with a silver blade) would kill him.
Offensive spells — used to attack.
➵ DETONATION As its name suggests, it results in a small, targeted explosion. The size and destructive power of the Detonation can vary – large Detonations can do some damage to a building, while they can be as small and ineffectual as mentos in coke.
➵ INFERNO Again, as the name suggests, this spell conjures fire. The fire engulfs its target in magical flames, which can spread to other flammable things in the vicinity – the spell itself produces magical fire, but the fire which spreads is normal fire and can be put out. He can also just produce flames in his hand or on the tip of his finger, which can be used to light the way or light other objects such as candles or lamps.
➵ FLUX A spell which absorbs other magic and removes it so as not to be a threat to the caster. Can be outranked and rendered useless by more powerful magic/magic users.
➵ COMPRESSION Squeezes the target into a tiny ball of matter.
Defensive spells — used to protect.
➵ SHIELD Typically cast around a person, either Bartimaeus or someone else, to protect them from some degree of magical or mundane attack. The Shield can be broken with enough attacks or if Bartimaeus is injured or weakened.
➵ SEAL Like Shields, but to lock spaces in – for example, a Seal can be placed on a door into a room to make it stronger and resistant to attacks, to stop aggressors getting in. Also like Shields, they can be destroyed.
Neutral spells — investigation and stealth.
➵ PULSE A neutral bit of magic which is sent out to detect magical presences nearby.
➵ CONCEALMENT Used to avoid attention in plain sight, but it can be seen through if there's such a ruckus within the threads of the concealment as to draw someone's eye.
➵ GLAMOUR Used to make one object appear like something else – e.g. he used it to transform a powerful magical amulet to have the appearance of a spider web.
➵ CONE OF SILENCE Probably goes without saying, but it generates an invisible cone where speakers inside the cone can talk without being overheard by nearby others.
➵ ALIGNMENT A telekinetic spell used to lift large objects without physical effort.
➵ UNRAVELLING Used to 'unravel' passive or defensive magical spells e.g. traps, but this depends on being able to see them and also do so without setting them off. Very finicky, delicate work with potentially the same kind of stakes as trying to disarm a wired bomb.
a note on pronouns.