origin unknown
The Deep Janeen are spirits of the of the earth. Creatures of timeless, decadent intelligence, they live deliciously in palaces set down within the living stone. (They cannot work their magics on worked stone. The greater the mass of masonry around them, the safer they feel (from other Deep Janeen).)
Deep Janeen are larger than men, with skin like blue veined marble, an strong, thick-limbed bodies curved like the sides of a vase. Their voices are like water being poured into an upturned bell.
Voracious and confident, Deep Janeen take pleasure in
their rank. Lords of Stone, commanding much submission from the earth by magic
Art, these master can grant wishes and, it is said, attain all a soul
may dream of, if it pleases them. They might be called half-gods of the
Underworld, were they ever to leave their Mazes and the Courts within. But
leave they rarely do.
Filippo Baratti
[Design Logic
The power of a Dao, or Janeen, over stone itself, combined with their many other powers, makes them astonishingly potent in the volumes of the Veins, where stone is the substance of all things, and where the challenge of transporting ‘stuff’, of feeding, lighting and sustaining, is so all consuming.
Why then do they not rule the Underworld? And what role might they play in the intrigues of adventurers?
To answer this; the logic of the Maze-Court; a grand, expensive, eternal and eternally changing folly, or bower-bird nest, of worked stone, within which the Janeen dwells and to which they dedicate almost all of their substantial yet always-perishing wealth.
Culturally and psychologically, the Deep Janeen are trapped within their mazes and their courts. Economically they are trapped within their status and their culture, for a Deep Janeen seen doing useful work, and getting gain, by other Janeen, would be mocked, ruined, exiled and destroyed (socially), and this is the worst thing that could ever happen to a Deep Janeen. So they must relentlessly gain resources, yet never be seen to do so, and must spend even more relentlessly, on highly visible luxuries and on their Maze. And so they are poor. They have a lot of money and a lot of luxuries, but they have even more expenses and demands.]
Maze Courts
The Court is a Maze and the Maze is the Court. To reach the Janeen one must pass through the Maze. The Court lies at the centre of the Maze, or beyond it, or above it looking down. But the Court also interlaces with the Maze. One is never certain if one has fully left the Maze.
The Maze is always under development, always being worked on. (Not directly by the Janeen, that would be abominable), but by slaves, or, for those of a liberal temperament, employees.
The Maze drifts, moving through the stone ocean of the Veins, both via its eternal and continual building and re-building, and through the magic of the Janeen, whose maze it is, so it is like a magic island which moves slowly about a sea.
These are not just dungeons. The mazes are works of art - works of status in every sense, works of pride and competition. The Court-Maze is the highest expression of a Janeen’s power, intelligence, style, and an untranslatable form of potency, of class, of virtu, a transmissible energy or spirit which both shapes and displays the vital selfhood of the Janeen. They need not eat, or sleep, and can live for mortal eternities. Their existence is a status game. The opinions of others are the truths of their lives. The mazeworks are like riddles: if everyone can understand them then they are worthless; if no-one can, then the same is true. They are set like palaces, at least in terms of statuary and stone. Water aspects and others will be of a luxurious, (yet lethal), mode, like Turkish baths. Think the Alhambra underground.
Indeed some Janeen are crowned with Mazes as some surface Gods were crowned with city walls. A Janeen without a maze is not really a Janeen. Maze-loss creates, not a physical transformation, but a psychological and cultural one so total it may as well be. A Janeen with a poor maze is a Poor Janeen, regardless of how much specie they control. A Janeen with a stupid Maze is a stupid Janeen. Or an unfashionable maze, or a simple one, a crude maze or an ugly one… and so on.
Why Seek the Deep Janeen?
The Janeen can answer wishes. To an extent they can re-make reality, by fair means or foul. And their powers are greatest in the earth, where we are. Even their lesser powers of change and transport, of alteration, creation and exchange, are enough to wipe slates clean. If their favour can be won.
If that is not enough, consider these lesser, but still practical treasures; a stone-road stave. An iron ring that holds a hero’s soul, bound for seven services. A lantern with a rock-evaporating light. A pet fire spirit which will serve you so long as its golden chain is linked. Songs of Unbecoming. Warping wands. An eye of Lapis Lazuli which terrifies the spirits of the earth. Crowns of mutable stone and sheaths of living Jade. Maelstrom bombs. Tongues of transport. A serpentinite torc that becomes a venom’d sword at your command. Ascension wells. Lithomantic potions. A book of sliver-thin slate with the means to make golems of stone.
origin unknown
Pauper Princes - Why They might meet with You.
Wreathed in luxury, they are poor. Well.. not exactly. They have resources. However, they are likely in staggering debt. They are in the red, or at least in the black.
The Maze, the Maze, the Maze costs all, consumes all, absorbs all. The sheer prices involved! You would not believe! The Maze must grow, must breathe. The Maze must live so the Court might thrive and the Court must feed so the Maze might grow. All this requires stone, slaves, food for them, logistics, organisation and so on and so on. And that’s just the unending construction, the Court itself requires servants, entertainers, musicians, dancers, illusionists, poets, cooks of various kinds and so on…
Worse, nearly as bad as owning an inferior maze; a Janeen can never be seen doing useful work. They must not toil. They are beings of Pure Nobility.
Yet, somewhere, somehow, work must be done. They do it through shell organisations. They do it in disguise, through other names, through deniable servants. They do it any way but directly and in public view. They all absolutely deny doing it, and they are all doing it, and will mock those seen doing it, while doing it themselves. Such is the toil of the Deep Janeen.
Conflicting Cultures of the Deep Janeen
Aesthetic Questions rule the scene; Schools on stones and mazes, arguments over treasures, gold and dreams.
The Two Schools of Shadowed Mass; many Deep Janeen love gloom and the beauty of huge masses of worked stone. The first, Umbral, regards the placement of massy shadows of prime importance and arranges all stonework to produce precise gradations of shadow and depth. The second, the Lithic, regards the placement of shadowed mass to be the true path to beauty and arranges all shadows to highlight masses and arrangements of stone. Few but the Deep Janeen can tell the difference between the two schools, though they loathe each other.
The Six Schools of Maze-Making; Softling, Towered, Monstrous, Braile, Falling and Fincular. Don’t ask me what these mean. They seem to have some relation to the styles of Mazes, (of which, more below), but how the theory intersects with built object, and what the borders and definitions of each are, is a source of argument amongst all Deep Janeen. A “Fincular Crystal Swam Maze, with Softling influence”? Sure.
Schools of Dream interpretation and defence. Musical styles. Schools of poetry and aesthetic magic. Argument upon argument. Point upon position.
Janeen like sculpture but tend to loathe painting, as well as any material that pretends to be what it is not, though the definitions of what exactly this means, again, vary deeply. Is a Bernini sculpture acceptable? How about a Trompe ‘d Oil painting used as part of a trap to confound rogues in a maze?
They love beauty but only bound. Free beauty is nothing to them, but lock it in an object or trade it as a service and they love it.
Weeks Edwin Lord
To Meet the Janeen
You do not meet the Janeen. Certainly they are not out and about (unless in disguise), and one does not simply challenge a Janeens Maze (unless invited).
You meet their Vizier;
Janeen Viziers
Their forms are many; beautiful golem factotums, lesser spirits of stone, living statues (of the Janeen themselves obviously). Rug weave and tympanum zoom calls (the rug threads shift and change - you can hear them whispering). A statue of stone containing a caged spirit of air, water or fire. A whisp of salt. A clicking mosaic. A Vampire in Jade. A Mirror Liche – their corpse dead but its reflection still live and subtle. A Corpulent Immortal or Hot Undine. A drifting cobweb golem, its voice that of a certain harp, played by a blind, mute slave. Three stone ladies, one of igneous, one sedimentary and one metamorphic, (they finish each others sentences), or a big intelligent bird, kind of like a very fancy muppet – it’s not clear who or what it is the ‘puppeteer’.
Arclord of Nex - Pathfinder Community
The Vizier - “Behold this value.”
The Vizier writes down a certain number or total, and shows it to you.
“This is a value which shall be two parts and two, that is, split into equal thirds, and the last third halved so that the totals are thus; one sixth, one third, one third and one sixth, for a total of four parts in these proportions, and in this order.
Do you understand?
The first part, should our speech go well, you shall surrender to me upon its’ end, in any portable form.
Know this first; The Janeen does not do business. The Janeen does not make deals. The Janeen entertains Right Noble Guests.
Are you such kind?
The Right Nature of Guests
A Right noble Guest is any of the following;
·
They are born of Aristocracy and Nobility.
·
They have notable gifts of Art, Speech, or Music
(not Painting).
·
They have great and recognised magical power and
skill.
·
They are of great and well-attested Wealth, for
one who possesses so vast an accumulation of wealth is no longer like other
men.
·
They are of personal beauty or charm.
· They Amuse.
Are you such as I have said? If you are not, leave now.”
The Maze-Court
The Forms of the Mazes are many. Maze-Court stye and aesthetic, as well as its nature as a maze and nest of puzzles etc, is something else that Janeen will argue over and mull over themselves. Some are sever classicists and use one of the below styles only, and that exploited to the maximum effect with every possible Here are some;
1. Fromsoft
Style - trickly 'looped' mazes where the Janeen’s court is visible almost
immediately, but you have to do a lot of fucking about to actually get to the
main bit
2. Knightmare
Style - Like a pit dungeon where the Janeen’s court stands above looking
down on the party - last part is stairs up, so they join the court and they in
turn can look down on others
3. Tower
Style - Court is at the top (though the 'tower' itself may be simply a
series of cave or rooms in stone, the 'court' is usually kept somewhat open, in
imitation of a real tower, perhaps with a mosaic-view of an imaginary
surrounding land
4. Zzarchov
Style - rooms all the same size, linked by visible and invisible dimension
doors, locks, keys, riddles and codes. Lots of going back and forth, solving weird
problems - fucking annoying!
5. Gravitational
Style - Rather normal dungeon/maze design but in places you walk 'up' the
walls and stand on the ceiling. you can look up or down at people or things
'above' you, other than that, this is often a pretty standard dungeon (though
in a Janeen style)
6. Fallingwater
- A bathhouse, (artificial) waterfall. Plenty of fountains, a 'water level'
with swimming, underwater monsters, mysterious grottoes (artificial),
7. Maze
of Transformations - somewhat Alice in Wonderland style with lots of
shrinking, growing, possibly transforming into animals or other things, with
seemingly escher-like arrangements and lots of tricky unfair bullshit mixed in,
but often without the clear recursive discipline of the 'Zzarchov' style,
where, though the answers may be cryptic, there *is* an answer while in 'Alice'
mazes, there may be an answer, but the maze itself may be broken, irregular, or
just perverse.
8. Maze of Crystal Swarms - the walls made of some swarm or flocking creatures made of glass or crystal. The actual volume of the maze is not that great but the maze itself reformats around the PCs like the structures of a computer game write themselves into existence as they pass and turn through it, the flock or swarm moving in great clouds and reforming behind. Some Janeen would say this is more a 'method' than a style. Though it demonstrates incredible wealth, skill and magical power, that doesn't necessarily make the form of the maze as-a-maze that good, other Janeen, those who can afford a Crystal Swarm, tell them to go fuck themselves.
Steven Craig Hickman hopefully not slop
Meeting the Janeen
Lets say you actually get through the Maze, and to the Court, (or at least the Court-like parts of the inner maze. This is the Deep Janeen;
Titles
The
1. Shaker
2. Dreamer
3. Luminator
4. Judicier
5. Composer
6. Navarch
of/in
1. Knowledge
2. Tectonics
3. Sleeping
stone
4. The
Mountain Metamorphic
5. The
Flawless Fault
6. The
Stone Wombs Heart
Face
1. Haughty
but smiling often with the dazzle of a diamond tooth.
2. Alabaster,
like a carved youth with the combined cruelties both of youth and of age.
3. Eyes
of starry glass and hair a slow stone river woven with gold boats.
4. A
potter's abortion but delicately repaired with gold.
5. Flesh,
except the eyes and mouth reveal the skin is shallow stretched on perfect
stone.
6. An egg with a cruel crack smile and glittering blue peridot eyes.
Clothes
1. Skin
marble, dark, and rippled with red. Her robes are black wire, woven subtly
enough to shame silk. They draw the gaze toward her crown of ashen tar, stuck
stork and bright frozen peacock feather.
2. Smoke
blacked armour, brass cast, etched by vandal artisans with one thousand and one
victories of the Deep Janeen.
3. A
hermit's simple robe or a sacred thinker’s cowl, made from one thousand
torture-sourced silks in the blues, blacks and bruise violets of the sky’s
storms.
4. Albino
furs and pearls carved into linked-up chains. Her shoes, paired slender spires
of colourless gem, stabbing the ground with each purposeful stride.
5. Stone
clothes, carved so expertly it’s difficult to tell except by touch. The gems in
each of his many rings hold maps, impossibly detailed air bubble depictions of
each architectural triumph.
6. A
metal articulated robe discards a trail of scrolls as it scrapes a furrow
behind her thundering boots. Lackeys pick and continually re-archive her
forgotten plans in the robe’s metallic folds.
Manner
1. Pauses
long and whispers more than yells.
2. Cruelties
are always a little kind but kindnesses are without mercy, reason or restraint.
3. Gaze
is an extension of its grasp; the Janeen studies to own.
4. Fresh
skinned gloves finger lists of plans and inventories.
5. Each
half stroke of the hour everything is stopped, servants scurry forth, teas,
meats, and glistening delicacies arrive. Calm and mild pleasantries rule until
the last drop of tea.
6. A small live animal is presented to be crushed with each and every footstep.
Opulence
1. Slaves
wave slow pennants of black velvet in their shadowed wake to intensify their
gloomy majesty.
2. Kebabs
on silver skewers which they use to pick their teeth, then throw away.
3. A
ticking harem of clockwork courtesans in polished ebony and blazing gold.
4. Every
stone and tool and fold of cloth enchanted to whisper their praises with each
move, the air fills with a susurrus of quiet adoration.
5. Zoo
of surface animals kept petrified when not in use. Awakened and re-petrified
with insanely expensive potions sprayed from golden tubes.
6. Lamps are petty fire spirits bound in silvered skulls of Ælf-Adal.
Earth_Djinn from Guild Wars
The Vizier Continues;
“…. Noble Guests who adore and respect the Janeen, and who often bring gifts they hope shall please. Curiosities, which they know the Janeen does not need, and which the Janeen will refuse
But they shall offer again.
The Janeen will, again, refuse.
But, wounded by this, (though not explicitly
so), the guest shall offer a third time.
And this time, purely to avoid offence, and out of charity, the Janeen will accept (though a servants hands, they will not touch the gift themselves).
The value of this gift shall be no less than the value of the second part, which was one third of the total value I have shown you.
At this time the entertainments shall begin, which shall last for no less than eight hours, and during which, it may please the Janeen to place an idle bet on this thing or that.
As you know, fortune, at all times, follows virtue, nobility, greatness and courage, and so the luck of the Janeen is uncommonly good.
Do you understand me?
Though it may pass in whatever proportions you wish, in the course of entertainment, the total shall not be less than that of the third part, which shall be, again, one third of the total I have given you.”
Activities
Amusements
1. Smashing
in their vaulted roof, slowing it in time, having chained-up poets scribe the
falling stone.
2. Naked
girls in golden cages locked 1001 times. Each good story earns a key.
3. Tattooing
children’s backs with idle thoughts, making them run around till sentences
form.
4. Collected
court of Clerics of each god, Deep Janeen converts to a new religion every
hour.
5. Archean
orchestra on toxic instruments, so slow it plays one note each hour.
6. Forcing scholars to debate the merits of a grain of sand. Winner rewarded, loser killed.
Strange Dreams
In their endlessly-rebuilt palaces deep beneath the earth, the Deep Janeen are often troubled by strange dreams. Explaining the troubling dream in an effective way, without inadvertently insulting the Deep Janeen, can vastly raise you in their esteem.
1. “I
stand upon a yellow shore. A silver ship burns. A survivor turns to me and
smiles. ‘Is this ever acceptable?’ he asks.”
2. “I
am a Lion (which I know is good) and eat a ghoul (which is bad). I taste
cinnamon and sleep for seven days.”
3. “A
city of glass and shadow. I wait. The dawn comes, but not the dawn star. Why?”
4. “I
am speaking to a giant that crawls around my house tying knots in my columns
and doors; the giant whispers names I cannot hear.”
5. “I
crystallise, memoryless, in the magma chamber under the hill. It will not let
me out.”
6. “I am a souk in a city of brass, merchants trade in my veins, thieving children run across my golden heart, yet I protect them.”
Fear of Sleep
The Janeen fear sleep and the power of the Aelf-Adal. Due to this they avoid sleep and are often insomniac, and some would say, irrational. Many Janeen employ a Dream Guard or Praetorian of Sleep whose purpose is to protect them even while they dream.
Fear of Plots
The Janeen is convinced everyone around them is plotting against them and while this is never completely true, it is still largely true.
Petulant Rages
Intervening in the murderous and easily-triggered rages of the Deep Janeen can be deadly; so can not intervening in them.
1. Constructions
of anything but stone. The existence of ‘plaster’ and ‘wall-paper’. Deep Janeen
has never seen them but hates them.
2. “There
is a forged coin somewhere in this room. Find it! By the stones of the abyss
you will bleed fire till it is found!”
3. “You
Ifrit Fuck!” Deep Janeen thinks the fire in a lamp is laughing at them. Hunts
and smashes lamps, lights and flames till it is found.
4. Deep
Janeen convinced reflection in a particular pearl exhibits a single flaw.
Curses pearls, casts them aside then hunts through them, demands larger and
larger pearls.
5. Deep
Janeen stricken by violent self-loathing over inferiority of own mazework.
Believes counter-arguments proof of secret contempt.
6. Universal
and malignant incompetence of inferiors. Demands your agreement then turns on
you. Demands agreement of others re – your worthlessness, then turns on them.
Secrets of the Janeen
Hidden Economic Engines
The Janeen is making money some how, though they do
not wish anyone to know exactly how, they do wish everyone to know there is
money being made… somewhere.
1. They
are a River Trader
2. They
control and organise transport between Realms of reality.
3. They
are in mining.
4. They
scout mines for other powers.
5. A
mercenary company or similar.
6. Mass
Golem Construction.
7. Writing
saucy novels on the side
8. Silkweaving
sweatshop
9. Manufacturing dimensional transport which makes underground economy possible -bags of holding etc
Deals They Must Make... Now! (But Must Not Be Seen To....)
The Janeen has a secret, desperate need, but the PCs
don’t necessarily know about it, or even know that it exists (the Janeen
desperately tries to keep this from them, without also revealing it).
The Need
1. Silk
2. Gold
(its amazingly heavy stuff)
3. Slaves
(they keep dying)
4. Political
cover in some elemental political situation.
5. End
the Tariff!
6. Dolphins
(don’t ask why)
7. Mining
Rights
8. Migration
rights
From;
1. Aelf-Adal
2. Knotsman
Lord
3. RayMen
4. dErO
5. Archeans
6. Olm
Clan
7. Dvargir
8. Funginid
Mentality
Clues/Evidence PCs might stumble into
1. Singing
Fish
2. Bell
Music Notation Code
3. Wordform
shadow elemental
4. Opal
Bat Snitch
5. Actual
Letter from...
6. Graceful
Golem Courtesan
7. Whistled
Code from Bird
8. Waking Dream
Pathfinder, creator not known
The Vizier Goes On
“It does, at times, occur, in these hours of intimate diversion, (but never before the fifth hour, or beyond the seventh), that the intimates of the Janeen, in the course of conversation.
In the course of conversation, you understand?
May confess to this or that trouble, or disappointment, be it in this thing or that, which afflicts them, and, in the course of conversation, they might discuss with the Janeen, their Intimate Lord and nearly-friend, potential cures and alterations to their sad state, and the Janeen may reply "How terrible! Surely something must be done!" or words to that effect.
There the matter shall rest, and no more shall be said of it.
When the entertainments come to a natural close the Intimates of the Janeen will part Joyously with the Janeen.
Now, after a certain time, it may be that the circumstance or amelioration so desired by you shall be attained, though various means, perhaps obvious or unknown.
When this should occur, the Intimates shall send via secure and trusted means, another gift, to the value of the total of the fourth part, which was one sixth of the value I have given you - to the Janeen, via myself, with a fulsome and full-hearted written thanks for any efforts the Janeen, may or may not, have taken or ordered to be taken on their behalf in the mater which happened to pass between them as Intimates at that time when they were guests of the Janeen, and if the Janeen themselves took no visible or provable action in the matter, no doubt it was the great fortune which attends to the Janeen and all that they do, which did mark the weave of fate in this matter, in which case even greater thanks are given (though the value of the enclosed git need not be greater, (but should be no smaller) than I have said).
The matter shall then considered to be closed, and no
further contact either accepted or desired"
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