Ashana, Female Genie (44012) Or, the Reversal of Fortune.

[Rigel 10420]

 

 

 

 

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Spoiler

 

"O Amahd, can it be you? Surely when I saw you a month ago, you were a beggar in the marketplace. And now you are dressed in fine raiment and weighted down with jewels! Allah has surely seen fit to bless you! Tell me, how did this come about?" 

"Indeed, the Compassionate One has blessed me greatly! And it is as you say. I was a beggar, and an unlucky one at that, for few of those with riches gave alms, and those with little could give little. I was companion to dogs and vultures. At length, starving and alone, I thought, 'Why not make an end of yourself? Surely what comes after will be no worse than such a life!' And I took myself to the ruins beyond the graves, out to the east, to cast myself down a dry well, and there perish." 
 

 

"But then a marvelous ocurrence befell me! Down in the well, at the bottom, was a glint of brass, lit by the mid-day sun! Instead of dashing myself down, I climbed carefully into the well and retrieved the object, thinking to sell it to a merchant for a few weeks worth of money to sustain my miserable existence. And as the evening approached, I climbed out with--a lamp!"

 

"The top of it and the spout were sealed with wax, and this wax stamped with strange designs I knew little of. Thinking there might be further treasure inside, I peeled back the wax on the spout. And then--as surely as Allah lives--thick smoke in a multitude of colors began to spill out!" 



"The smoke then condensed into a pillar of iridescent cloud, which took on the form of a woman, majestic and terrible of aspect in her beauty!"

 

 

"It was, it told me, a DJINN! One of those spirits of air and fire bound into service and contained in the lamp by Sulimein-bin-Daoud, who had power over all such spirits. In gratitude at being freed after many centuries, it offered me three wishes in the space of a day."
"Being a beggar, my first thought was, of course, for riches. I wished for wealth like that of a mighty sultan or a merchant prince. The djinn laughed at this in derision, but in an instant brought me heaps and mountains of gold and silver, orichalcum and emeralds, the treasuries of empires buried and forgotten a thousand years."

 

"But I have heard that even princes grow tired of riches without company, and remembered my loneliness as a beggar. So I wished for women of great beauty and trustworthiness, who would prove true to me and to the Faith. At this, the djinn outright sneered in contempt, but obeyed with great haste. She was able to find four such women, sultanas and khatuns from far-off lands, skilled in every art." 



"But then I bethought me, 'Ahmad, having wealth, will not others try to possess it? And will not other men of power be jealous of me, and seek to steal these women away from me? How can one safeguard oneself against calamity?' Long I thought, perplexed. Then--praise be to the Merciful One!--I thought to enquire of the princesses, who had spent their days in gentle discourse rather than in scrabbling for alms! And the wisest of them counseled me to wish for the wisdom to know who would deal honestly with me and who intended ill towards me. And at this, the genie smiled, saying 'IT IS DONE' and vanished, leaving me clothed in princely garb and endowed with the stately beard you now see."



"And as you, O my friend, were always one to give when you had in abundance, and I see no guile or trickery in you, take this sack of flawless rubies in thanks for your alms in former time--for such charity is pleasing to Allah!"
"This is a wondrous tale indeed, Ahmad! Surely there is neither might nor majesty save in God the Most High and Wonderful."

(Special guest appearances by a RAFM egyptian assistant as Ahmad the beggar, an Artizan Afghan warlord as Ahmad in good fortune, Almah the Merchant Princess (60052), Jasmine Silverveil (02497), Nemesra (03767), and Bombshell's Qadira.)

Bonus content! Let's see the two sisters, Ashana and Ziba, reunited: 

 

[Glitterwolf 205078]

Wonderful!

Love all those colours and the storytelling is superb!

 

I wonder how many of Ahmad's former friends will turn out to be untrustworthy..

[Peithetairos 2456]

I, too, love the story. You put the pics and narrative together in a most pleasing way. I really enjoy the colour scheme of the djinn and the nice blends (wet blending?). 

 

The skin would benefit from more contrast, mostly deeper shadows and I did spot some mold lines on the cloud, which does detract from your great blends a bit.

[Iridil 6657]

I like this colorful version - very different and creative and great story telling!

[Inarah 42731]

Your colors and blending are beautiful.  Great to see the "ladies" painted up, too.  

[Lostraven 1848]

I love your story telling. I like your take on the Djinns - very exotic and other-worldly.

[Rigel 10420]

Thanks, all! Used an airbrush for most of Ashana's blends. You can see all the airbrush colors jumbled up on the scabbard--I liked the effect. 

21 hours ago, Lostraven said:

I love your story telling. I like your take on the Djinns - very exotic and other-worldly.

I appreciate it! In my games, these are the kinds of entities that are difficult to interact with, in a 'Scanners' kind of way, without wards and protections. Come away from a conversation with one to find you've been weeping blood and your teeth are loose, that sort of thing. Humanoids aren't engineered to encounter that sort of power directly. "The stress of her regard," indeed.

On 2/11/2020 at 9:54 AM, Inarah said:

Your colors and blending are beautiful.  Great to see the "ladies" painted up, too.  

Thanks! I tried to make her more ethereal and vernal than Ziba, more smoke and less flame. I just realized that her hair spectrum ends about where Ziba's begins. Don't think I could have done some of the blending without the airbrush

On 2/11/2020 at 8:18 AM, Iridil said:

I like this colorful version - very different and creative and great story telling!

Thank you! I had fun with the story and always love an excuse to break out these badelf Middle Eastern ladies. The colors were a lot of fun too, though now what will I do for the next genie? I'm thinking more sullen smoky dark reds and slaty blues. 

On 2/11/2020 at 3:42 AM, Peithetairos said:

I, too, love the story. You put the pics and narrative together in a most pleasing way. I really enjoy the colour scheme of the djinn and the nice blends (wet blending?). 

The skin would benefit from more contrast, mostly deeper shadows and I did spot some mold lines on the cloud, which does detract from your great blends a bit.

And you know from colour blending! Yes, a bit of wet-blending to shadow and highlight and get the airbrushed tones to work more as a color gradient.
Good advice on the shading--and the mold lines ARE an issue for these ladies. That's what I get for taking pictures in the setting sun--it's unforgiving on those little ridges at that angle. 

On 2/11/2020 at 1:23 AM, Glitterwolf said:

Wonderful!

Love all those colours and the storytelling is superb!

I wonder how many of Ahmad's former friends will turn out to be untrustworthy..

Thank you, and you know good storytelling! 
The good (?) news is, he didn't have many former friends, and most of those were solid. But for narrative purposes, at least one will be filled with jealous envy. They will sift the sands until they find the wax seals of Suleiman, and through some subtle scheme endeavor to trap their own Djinn. And what if they succeed? and threaten the captive spirit with sorcerous arts learned from forbidden texts unless it grant them wishes? Ahmad is going to need the wits of all his wives to get out of this one!  

[Peithetairos 2456]

Quite intriguing how you styled the Djinns of your setting. "The stress of her regard" is a great concept (awesome titel for a story section, too) and I am already suspicious of the three wishes granted. It seems Ahmad got all he ever wanted, teeth intact...and he gained the power of insight. Maybe that is his final curse: If you are rich and famous no one is "truly" just your friend, but always has ulterior motives.. even the solid friends from ones humble past. Maybe he can see it in his wives, too. An unsettling idea to have such power ... yet to be never fully happy with it. 

 

7 hours ago, Rigel said:

And you know from colour blending! Yes, a bit of wet-blending to shadow and highlight and get the airbrushed tones to work more as a color gradient.
Good advice on the shading--and the mold lines ARE an issue for these ladies. That's what I get for taking pictures in the setting sun--it's unforgiving on those little ridges at that angle. 

 

I really  need to get more into air-brushing the basic blends. I did try some two-brush blending (so one brush loaded with paint, then a second wet one to fade out the transitions. Works well most of the time, but can get stressfull ;).

 

I got myself a microchisel for mold lines and will be interested to see if it works well on the Bones Black material. Usually I use a really sharp scalpel, but it is a challenge to not cut away too much material. Especially on a shape like the cloud.

[Rigel 10420]

On 2/13/2020 at 2:22 AM, Peithetairos said:

Quite intriguing how you styled the Djinns of your setting. "The stress of her regard" is a great concept (awesome titel for a story section, too) and I am already suspicious of the three wishes granted. It seems Ahmad got all he ever wanted, teeth intact...and he gained the power of insight. Maybe that is his final curse: If you are rich and famous no one is "truly" just your friend, but always has ulterior motives.. even the solid friends from ones humble past. Maybe he can see it in his wives, too. An unsettling idea to have such power ... yet to be never fully happy with it. 

Oh, you are right to be suspicious! When I get another Djinn painted up, I'll have to continue the story...full of betrayal and paranoia, of course! The wheel turns...

"The Stress of Her Regard" is a line from the Clark Ashton Smith sonnet "Sphinx and Medusa," and it was used as the title for a Tim Powers novel about...beings of a greater sort than humans. Siliceous muses, elemental vampires, gorgons, nephilim. Brilliantly written; the guy is one of my favorite authors, and does his homework. "Declare" is another excellent work of his; Cold War supernatural arms race stuff. 

 

On 2/13/2020 at 2:22 AM, Peithetairos said:

I did try some two-brush blending (so one brush loaded with paint, then a second wet one to fade out the transitions. Works well most of the time, but can get stressfull ;).

I got myself a microchisel for mold lines and will be interested to see if it works well on the Bones Black material. Usually I use a really sharp scalpel, but it is a challenge to not cut away too much material. Especially on a shape like the cloud.

Two-brush blending is a good technique. Bones Black responds well to scalpels, but TBH I am usually impatient and/or paranoid when it comes to removing lines. Hope the microchisel works well!