Hadiya Rafidah Kassis - Hadiya is a tall Jinn with pale clay colored skin who gathers her very long brown hair tastefully beneath an earth colored scarf, but leaves her arms shockingly bare. Both of these decisions are based more on practical concerns than fashion or ideology, for Hadiya is the head of the Royally Chartered and Sacred Alliance of Brick Makers, and is an acknowledged Master of her trade, and so well acquainted with clay and mud of all sorts. Since the majority of structures in the city are made of fired brick or are supported within by fired brick, there is a great call for the trade of the Beyg Kassis and her colleagues, and great honor in the work. Hadiya's arms are as muscular and powerful as all but a very few male Jann, and she has a polite but forward demeanor in public quite far from the simpering languid women of the fashionable salons. She is considered quite comely and well-formed by even the most critical of observers, but her bulging biceps, far from demure personality, and high station intimidate even the most confident of suitable suitors, and she suffers fools, fops, and rakes poorly. Rumor has it that she has a paramour among the Dao, but whether the rumor is true or slander composed by some rival or embarrassed suitor is not commonly known. When about her trade, she wears an apron of dragon leather, and arms herself with a pliant cord of some unknown metal that once was the scourge of an Efreet taskmaster. With this, she dispenses discipline to her sometimes unruly mixed crew of water genasi, earth genasi, and especially her quarrelsome fire salamanders and enslaved fire elementals. Hadiya is proud of her fire and earth heritage, and will accept no slights against them, but she's equally a fierce Qaybar partisan and Jann nationalist. Although they are frequently at odds over policy and often wroth with each other, there is a great measure of mutual respect between the Lalla Kassis and Sheik Salib.
Ayah Lujain Samaha - Ayah Samaha is considered the finest glassblower in Qaybar, famed equally for her her well formed panes and her delicate ewers and containers. Any alchemist of the city with the necessary funds prefers "a real Samaha" for his alembics, distilling tubes, and measuring cylinders, and the glazers and formers of stained glass windows equally prefer her work. So high is the demand for her art, that she may turn away whatever commissions do not suit her, and still live quite comfortably and practice her art continually. Ayah is a wand slender, graceful but surprisingly powerful Jann with much admired radiant chocolate brown skin and large shadowy eyes. She dresses in saffron and brown, and goes about unveiled. When not at work she prefers to decorate her face with powder and thin gold foil in the forms of delicate insects. She has many suitors and enjoys flirtation, but never has publically taken a lover or accepted any serious overtures of courtship, preferring to devote herself at present to her craft.
Maysoon Lubadah Kanaan ("Lalla Kanaan", "Mulazima Kanna", or "Maysoon the Ice Lalla") - Maysoon Kanaan is an officer among the aswaran (Jann, Rgr6), noted as being one of if not the best archer in Qaybar. She is a pale skinned Jann with unusual frost grey hair and opalescent eyes, who has earned the nickname the "the Ice Lalla". She prefers to dress in pale blues and sand colors, and in public goes about veiled and cowled. Fierce and taciturn, Kanaan is not well liked, but she is respected and feared. She harbors an unquenchable hatred toward the Efreet, and does not hide her pleasure at slaying enemies of the city. Fitting her personality, she is armed with a large icy burst composite bow +2. No one in the city would dare admit that her nickname is a result of her personality rather than this weapon. Most that know the Ice Lalla would not imagine she has a softer side, but she has a great affection toward her pet hunting eagle which she dotes on almost like it were a child. She also is firmly in the political camp of the Bey Salib, whom she treats like a beloved father. He in turn allows her to address him as 'Uncle', and shows a tenderness of speech toward her quite unlike his famously acidic tongue.
Sheik Abdul Rayib Bey Salib ("Abdul Bey Salib", "Skeik Salib", "the Bey Salib", "Old Thunderer") - Abdul Bey Salib (Jann Sheik, Ari15) is a veteran of the revolt against the Efreet, and one of Qaybar's most seasoned and feared fighters. A former commander of the garrison, Sheik Salib is nominally retired from the post, but is still highly respected by all of Qaybar's fighting forces and his military advice is held in the highest regard. Sheik Salib lives in his own fortified Palace which is continually drenched by an eternal rainstorm, surrounded by many servants and the few family members that tolerate his presence continually. As a staunch supporter of the Marid and Djinn, he despises anything to do with fire and only tolerates earth as a necessity - going so far as to abstain from cooked food or distilled beverages to show his scorn for the Efreet and anything to do with them. In a culture that prizes itself on always observing at least the forms of politeness, Sheik Salib is known for his forthright and acidic tongue, which is never far from finding a curse or an obscenity to punctuate his observations. Nonetheless, owing to his reputation and prevailing manners, virtually everyone in the city responds to this blistering assault by ignoring it, and continues to observe every small nicety whether out of fear or a feeling that answering in kind is beneath him. Although he never tires of complaining of his failing health and strength, no one in the city doubts that he is not still a swordsman of great prowess and skill. He goes even in the marketplace clunking about in highly weathered sea green full plate armor and carrying a large two handed curved keen falchion +3 with a pearl pommel, both of which - he claims - were forged without the aid of fire. He has a train or cape of living water which responds to his commands. Except when going to battle, he goes about unhelmed - revealing his heavily scarred bald pate. One side of his face is badly burned, and he is blind on that side - he covers his destroyed eye with a black patch. If ever he was handsome, there is no remaining trace of it and he seems to take delight in his hideousness. To evade the rays of the sun, he is accompanied on such excursions by two water genasi slave girls, who hold canopies above his head.
Azma Nazaa Beyg Kattan - The Beyg Kattan is a the wealthy widow of a famed memory merchant of noble linage, who died as a result of an unfortunate alchemical experiment. Their union produced no heir, and the Beyg Kattan has never remarried. The Beyg Kattan is still a very beautiful woman, ageless and graceful, with flawless almond skin, a great mass of black hair tied up in ribbons and covered with a diaphanous shawl that extends to her ankles. She wears many layered dresses, embroderied and decorated with small gem stones and pearls. She prefers subtle colors such as white, pale yellow, and pale pink. In her youth, she was said to be a singer and a dancer of some reknown (Jann, Brd6), but in her present station she does not perform - at least not publically. Rather, the Beyg Kattan is known now for the quality of her salon and the company she keeps. She is famed for inviting the finest scholars, researchers, artisans, poets, composers, and philosophers - both mortal and immortal - to have tea or dine with her, and hosting them in the most elegant and refined fashion. She possesses great erudition, a keen and penetrating mind, and a gift at making the most socially awkward feel at ease. Whomever she speaks to feels as if she were keenly interested in their work, a knack only enhanced by the fact it is often true. Invitations to her salons are thus highly prized, often with surprising results, for the Beyg Kattan's reputation extends beyond the walls of Qaybar into unexpected places and one never knows quite whom they are going to meet - though the Beyg Kattan is a fair enough judge of character to generally avoid inviting two rivals to the same party. Likewise, her introductions are considered to be worth more than gold, for to be found by the Beyg Kattan, and deemed suitable to introduce in high society is almost a sure ticket to success. Many romances have also begun in her salon, and she has a reputation as a matchmaker. Although it is not worth her reputation to invite someone unsuitable to a party, she is not above extracting favors from those of lower station whom she could aid, and above all she expects to be repaid with contacts.
Khawaja Misbah Al Tami Deeb ("Kawaja Deeb") - Misbah Al Tami Deeb is a rare Makhluqtin, that is a genie of a tribe native to the para-elemental plane of ooze, who styles himself a Khawaja - or an Honored Master amongst the people of Qaybar. Little is known of these rare people even to the Jann, so whether he has this title among his own kind is not known. The Makhluqtin are believed by most scholars to be the result of some union between Marids and Doa. Such suggestions cause Misbah Deeb to quiver with suppressed rage, and he is quick to assert that his people are the the native spirits of their home and not mixed blood interlopers at all - whatever logic and evidence may assert. Khawaja Deeb is somewhat short for a genie, standing at about 7' height, but of reasonable height among the Jann. He is also about as broad as he is tall, with stumpy thick arms and legs ending in fat digits. His chin and belly have many rolls and folds, and shake gelatinously whenever he moves. His skin is a dark grey color, like the thick mud at the bottom of a pond, and continually glistens with moisture. He dresses in short breeches, simple sandals, a sleeveless vest, and a tasseled fez, preferring green colors but his clothes are always stained. This appearance, were he a Jann would mark him of such low birth as to be beneath regard in even moderately respectable circles, but Khawaja is by demonstrable power no Jann but be being of the elemental planes. Between this and his claim of rank, the Jann of Qaybar reluctantly accept him as a social peer - regrettable though this may be. Aside from his stature, Kawaja Deeb is a very wealthy merchant, and however lightly he regards his displaying his wealth, his resources are considerable and his importance to the economy great enough that few would dare offend him. Kawaja Deeb is a clay miner and merchant, employing scores of workers, owning many slaves, and bringing to the city laden wagon loads of clay of every sort - from the heavy brown clays from which come fired bricks, to the pale fine grained clay that forms the cities famous porcelain. When deprived of access to nearby clay by the city's constant motion, no one is more reliable than Kawaja Deeb at keeping the supply of clay steadily flowing. And when one requires or desires clay with special properties, no one is better at finding it. Although he's tolerated among the upper class of Qaybar, he is well liked by the more common classes. Although he insists on being addressed at all times as a superior, he otherwise has few airs, he is free with his money, and his tastes run to the common. He is a great lover of beer - by the barrel - and of simple food, especially stewed vegetables, of which he can consume whole cauldrons of a time. If the food is slightly spoiled it is no barrier to his appetite, and mold and mushrooms he delights in as a connoisseur. He laughs often and loudly, often at himself. He is no great conversationalist, is frequently rude without meaning to be, and cares to talk at length about little except the virtues and glories of muck and ooze, clays and slime, and wonders of acids. But he is greatly entertained by crude jokes and risqué stories, and content to listen to such fare.
