Apologies for three self-indulgent world building captions in a row. I know they're not everyone's cup of tea but I've just had a few ideas knocking around in my head for a while, and figured I'd write them down before I forget them. 😓

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Next:

The women of the genii tribes value their men. Specifically, they value them at seven silver dirhams, around the same price as a camel on account of them both being bad-tempered, spitty, smelly animals. The emotionality of men makes them unfit for responsibility, and in ancient days their endless squabbling rent the region with conflict.

For this reason, Genii men spend much of their existence in storage. Out in the burning dunes, far from the next watering hole, one surplus mouth can doom a caravan. When the caravans are packed and the water tallied, the men are packed as well, decanted into arcane devices that transmute and contain their flesh as beings of smokeless fire: weightless, requiring neither food nor water, and secure from the ravages of the desert.

Corked and sealed, the women can thus begin navigating the dangers ahead unbothered by distractions. They have grown into the role of protectors and pathfinders over many generations, and stand broad-shouldered and a head taller than other human women.