Section 33: On Djinn and Traitors / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page Section 33: On Djinn and Traitors.

AnActualCrow 05 Sep 2021 17:21

A rat always knows when he's in with weasels
Here you lose a little every day
Well, I remember when a million was a million
They all have ways to make you pay

This is Team Bacon's second wandercon post! The Huntsman hub should be coming soon-ish (sometime before the contest ends).

All fabulous images in this article were created by Dr Whitney does not match any existing user name.

Critters: Thank you to GremlinGroup, Rounderhouse, and Dysadron for the feedback.

+ Author Commentary

On Djinn is pretty much the opposite of "A Practical Guide To Beginner's Magic:" it was an idea I had a long time ago that my brain had been soaking in until Wandercon rolled around. J Dune asked if I wanted to write about a monster hunter, and I joined so that I could finally write my guide on how to deal with djinn.

The first version of this article was a bit simpler and a lot worse than the final product. All the sections of the article were separate, opening with the first half of the Huntsman's search for the vampyre manor and substituting his conversation with Marcio Silvia with a guest section written by Silva¹. It was structured like a guide, sure, but it didn't make a very good story. After some feedback from GremlinGroup, I copied On Djinn's code into a new sandbox tab and restructured/rewrote it into something pretty close to the final version (turning Marcio's section into a conversation where he betrays the Huntsman was his idea). After some more feedback from Rounderhouse, I extended the vampyre hunting anecdote into the second half of On Djinn.

One interesting challenge with this article was keeping it culturally sensitive. In Islam, djinn can be good or evil. However, that wasn't how I was wanted to characterize them in the article. Since it was written from the Huntsman's perspective, the solution was to have the Huntsman characterize them as universally malicious while calling attention to how biased the Huntsman is.

---

If you want, you can read my other articles over at The Crow Corner! No pressure though.

Footnotes

1. I'm 2 for 2 when it comes to swapping out written documents in stories about genies in favor of conversations.

---

Forum signatures were a mistake.

Last edited on 29 Dec 2021 08:01 by AnActualCrow Show more

Whitehills 05 Sep 2021 20:25

…This was great. It encompasses the conflict of what "Monsters" are perfectly.

You can see both perspectives, and it really leaves you to think. Of course the Huntsman would think that it was the Djinn tricking Marcio, they're known to be tricksters, and to some extent - maybe it was trickstery, but is the philosophy he acquired really wrong?

---

-Wanderheil

Sergeimosin 08 Sep 2021 23:03

Outstanding! I love the concept of Djinn as trickster gods, and I love the idea that their tricks run so deep that they trick people even when they're not tricking them. Great work with this post.

Maxyfran73 13 Sep 2021 07:26

This was amazing. I wasn't sure how to feel about the mixing of both stories, but by the end it really brought things together. Both stories were really interesting, although the Djinn one takes the lead here; it was really good, and a fun quandary on the Huntsman's philosophy. You're left wondering what really was the truth here, of this 'trick' of the Djinn.

Anyhow, loved the article. +1~

UncertaintyCrossing 15 Sep 2021 18:50

Think you did a good job balancing the Huntsman's perspective with his bias. These sorts of creatures are often portrayed as beyond our concepts of morality, but that doesn't mean their actions are without intent. A solid read and I like the style of having the intertwined stories! Nice work all around.

---

But the time flies, irretrievable.

cafecow 05 Feb 2022 02:37

Very good work all around! At first I was a little hesitant with how the two stories were mixed but their climaxes tied them together perfectly. You can understand the Huntman's bias even if you can't agree with his actions; it leaves the reader wondering who is really mislead and that's a great motivator for conflict.