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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nellisir" data-source="post: 6060156" data-attributes="member: 70">Um, because they're not fey.  They have a similar role in folklore, that of the trickster spirit, or of the spirit of wild places, or of the half-fallen angel, but they're not fey.  D&D could make them fey, I suppose, but I don't see any reason for it.There are some elemental associations.  Ifrit/efreet are associated with fire, marids with water.  Djinn is a generic name, a variant on genie.  I've never found an origin for dao.  Beyond that, you'd have to ask Gary Gygax, or do your own research.So it makes sense to split evil creatures into categories based on how organized they are, but not elements?  That makes no sense to me.  As far as expanded cultures...like I said, there are hints in the stories that genies have a culture similar to that of humans -- which is the case for just about every folkloric creature ever, anyways.  But no one wrote long epics about the folklore of djinn in the Middle Ages.  If you go with what's written, you can basically sum it up in a paragraph or two, and it's basically the same as every other folkloric spirit creature.  Invisible, can shapechange to look like people and animals, sometimes good, usually evil, hangs out in dark lonely places.  That's pretty boring.Imitating "real" folklore and stories doesn't get WotC very far.  At some point they need to start making up their own.  If it doesn't suit you, redo it.I'm confused by what you want, and by what you're confused by.  It sounds like you want a lot of monsters to basically be the same thing.  Giants are giants are giants; it's easy to argue that frost and fire giants aside, all other giants should be identical.  There's no difference in folklore between a cloud giant, a storm giant, and a generic giant.  The Jack and the Beanstalk giant lived on a cloud, but that's the only one I know of. Stone giants derive from Tolkien; how is that more legitimate than D&D's giving them elemental powers?</blockquote>

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