Khayal

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Khayal were secretive genies of the Plane of Shadow.

Description
Khayal were largely humanoid in form, often said to look like tall, wiry muscled humans with dark grey skin, black hair, and black eyes.

Personality
Like all genies, khayal were arrogant and confident; however, khayal were also very deceptive to the point of making an art of it. They were easily offended.

Abilities
Khayal were natural users of shadow magic, being capable of using the black candle fundamental and pass into shadow mystery at will, as well as the dusk and dawn and sight eclipsed mysteries thrice each day, the bolster mystery twice each day, and the umbral body mystery once each day.

The greatest weakness of the khayal was that they could not survive long away from the Plane of Shadow; after a maximum of 24 hours away from that plane, they began to sicken until they returned.

Combat
Khayal were confident to the point of arrogence and courageous in combat, but they considered the concept of a fair fight to be ludicrous and made ample use of ambush tactics, sneak attacks, and their own magic. They would retreat from a losing struggle, but found such actions humiliating and would hold a grudge against those who drove them to it.

Society
After the characteristic arrogance of genies, the most defining trait of khayal was their penchant for deception and lies. They viewed other creatures as weak and delighted in deceiving them (though they never lied to one another). However, by tradition, if a "lesser being" ever confronted a khayal with irrefutable proof that the individual had lied to them, that khayal had to perform a service to the lesser one in penance for being caught.

Khayal were sometimes known to work with mortals who impressed them, or who had goals that aligned with their own. In such cases, khayal always tried to assume a leadership position, sometimes being surprised when the others didn't simply accept them as superior.

Khayal had an aversion to all other genies and were especially hostile to jann, who they fought a secretive war against for millenia.

Homeland
Most khayal lived in the City of Onyx, a place of twisted spires and minarets reaching in all directions, ignoring any laws of architecture or physics. The marketplaces bustled with all manner of people come to trade or travel, but the center was off-limits to all non-khayal. The ruler of the khayal was called the Malik al-Khayal, the King of Shadows, who dwelled in the Grand Palace of Endings. The leaders of other, lesser communities of khayal in the Plane of Shadow claimed the title of emir.

History
Some sages theorized that the first khayal were formed of an absence of the elements, and that they drifted through the planes until their absence bonded with shadow magic, thus explaining why the khayal held themselves apart from the rest of geniekind.