have a small snippet/glimpse of one such interaction
Send me ‘What If’ scenarios for my muse to answer.
"Dear gods, I realize some people are positively atrocious beings and corrupt to the core, but that doesn’t mean you go ahead and have them transformed into squealing pigs and proceed to unleash a feral feline on them! How...I fail to comprehend just how on earth that doesn’t paint you in an even more heinous light than them? There is nothing remotely ‘poetic’ about your terribly twisted vision of justice!”
“...It’s what they deserve. I personally believe it is quite generous of me to undertake such a laborious task, cleansing the earth’s surface of the lousy litter and rubbish humans in such a manner. You all really ought to be thanking me as opposed to incessantly whining about how my more unique management methods slightly inconvenience the lot of you silly mortals.”
“How utterly barbaric. I wonder just how you’d feel about having some entity employ a similarly unique management method against yourself?”
“Ha! I would love to see someone even attempt such an action; in fact I welcome it. It would certainly alleviate at least some of my tedium. Well, until their endeavors ceased to provide amusement and I finally decided it time to make short work of them, that is.”
Djinn!Nadir’s true name is actually Zohreh Ahriman, though due to the power one would be able to wield over her should they have knowledge of it, these are words that have not escaped her lips in basically centuries for her own protection.
Instead, she will simply give others alternate names in the rare event a friendship or partnership extended acquaintanceship happens to develop, of which “Nadir” is the most common. Other less commonly utilized aliases include Farangis, Anahita, Jaleh, and Sepi.
Djinn!Nadir (a sub AU within the Castlevania AU verse)
This version of Nadir is the result of the union of a djinn (jinn) father and a mortal human mother. Her exact age is unknown, though she is assumed to be at least over the age of 500 years (while maintaining the appearance of a fairly youthful woman). Her abode remains hidden among and surrounded by the ample foliage and towering trees somewhere in the shadowed outskirts of the village’s woods. I like to imagine this ‘demi-human/half-djinn’ incarnation of Nadir as drawing influences from the tale of Rumplestiltskin and the myth of Circe from Homer’s Odyssey. The Djinn!verse is an AU within the Castlevania!verse.
Being of half-djinn descent as opposed to full, Nadir assumes what seems to be an almost very normal human appearance, her ‘supernatural’ or more demi-human characteristics being more evident in the powers and abilities she wields along with the deals/contracts and magical trickery she’ll engage in whenever dealing with humans. Humans who fail to captivate her interest or engage in any behavior she deems to be unacceptable in any way, overstepping boundaries, etc. have historically been subjected to a wide variety of fates/punishments. And this is very much dependent on her mood at the time the shenanigans are being pulled in addition to the overall demeanor of the individual approaching her and her impression of said person.
For instance, pitiable presentation or a rather meek, boring impression will result in her most likely disinterestedly (and coldly) turning away the requester. However an overly brash, rude, arrogant, or demeaning person will most likely have some sort of trick played on them (e.g. ranging from her ‘gifting’ her oh so lovely guest with a pig’s tail, turning them into a pig entirely, a plant, an insect, etc.). As to be expected, she will usually only acquiesce to a request if she can find some way to get some sort of benefit out of it. If she’s feeling particularly benevolent (a rare occurrence indeed), even getting a bit of good ol’ amusement will suffice. It is most definitely not beyond her to look for some sort of way to underhandedly bamboozle her requester, all while still technically fulfilling the quite literal aspects of a deal.
This version of Nadir holds rather cynical and disdainful views of humans in general, yet she finds it rather amusing to try and at least pretend to entertain whatever it is they have sought her out for. Often she will attempt to maintain a facade of neutrality or disinterest, all while attempting to look for some way to undermine the wish/deal that a human attempts to make with her in order to tip the scale of benefits far more in her favor. Any loophole, lack of specificity in a request, even the slightest or most menial mistake is all she needs to make a request fall flat or short of what the person was expecting. She usually feels very little (if any) remorse in carrying out such antics, believing humans to be a mostly avaricious race of self-serving, pretentious, and laughable beings who grossly overestimate their importance and place in the world.
Despite utilizing her cunning, abilities, and powers of deception to ultimately inconvenience those who fail to captivate her interest or whom she deems not worth her time, she will usually avoid engaging in outright violence. Humans simply aren’t worth the time to expend that amount of negative energy, and in addition she doesn’t exactly wish to draw a lot of attention to herself (negative or otherwise). Or alert the surrounding human masses and settlements to her existence, or have to waste time fending off large angry mobs of them should it come to that. Though she is quite capable if need be, or if some other force(s) (whether they be human or otherwise) attempt to threaten her in any way.
In this verse, Nadir is deliberately evasive, secretive, and misleading as far as her true name and the details of her past are concerned. She will not give you her real name, as knowing her real name enables the one who knows it to wield more power over her as far as sticking strictly to the original intent of deals/contracts and demands go. There is no way she’s permitting anyone to even remotely wield that kind of power over her. The very thought of a human becoming so smug, entitled, or having any amount of agency over her turns her stomach. Some alternative aliases she’s given others in the past include: Farangis, Jaleh, Sepi, Anahita, etc.
In this verse, Soraya is still Nadir’s feline familiar, though the cat is able to switch forms between that of a panther and a black Norwegian forest/domestic long hair cat. Soraya normally assume a panther form whenever an individual comes seeking Nadir out, her panther form meant as a sort of preliminary admonition and a sort of ‘fear factor’ to those travelers/humans with less than useful intent (or those who clown, approach inappropriately, or have any sort of ignoble intent).
//It has been a while and I still need to expand upon it, though at some point I plan to add some more detail on how Nad's djinn father in her djinn verse came to know and be acquainted with other predominant powerful and early entities like the Sacred Ancestor and/or CV's Dracula and also Sparda in DMC verse haha.
In the djinn AU sub verse (of the Castlevania verse), “Nadir” is simply one of the main aliases / fake placeholder names that she gives people should they ask. Because if anyone were to uncover her true name, it would definitely jeopardize her status, since it would grant whoever wielded her name the ability to much more easily coerce her to comply with their wishes/demands.
And I imagine it’d make more difficult for her to pull one one of her ruses or look for loopholes concerning wording of said wishes, especially if said name were to be discovered and subsequently utilized by non-human creatures (e.g. namely vampires, more intelligent/higher ranking demons and creatures of the night, even other djinns, etc.), especially if she had previously made enemies of them for whatever reason. Or even humans bearing certain special abilities who’d pledged their allegiance to such groups, especially since they could relay that information to their supernatural superiors (e.g. forgemasters, malevolent forces adamant in their belief that they are the reincarnation of Drac, etc.)
Miniature painting credit: Four Elements of Creation by Andrew Saied Motaei
// Oh my goodness, after having just very recently stumbled upon this gorgeous miniature painting, I couldn’t help but see it as an ethereal summation of Nadir’s origins and djinn sub verse within her CV verse.
What made me most enthusiastic about this image was not just the depiction of the woman in it (who is almost exactly as I picture her demi-djinn verse self, or even to a lesser extent a depiction of her attire/possible appearance in earlier centuries in the CV timeline), but also the two individuals that are seen in the background of this painting ... who I can easily interpret and see as being representative/symbolic of Nadir’s parents and a mythological telling of her own descent as a being of half human (mother, left side of the miniature) and half-djinn (father, right side of the miniature) lineage. Akin to an artistic retelling of the union/event in the days of old that resulted in the creation of Nadir the half-djinn offspring.
In a way ... to me this piece is almost even somewhat reminiscent of an almost much more eerie, different mythological/cultural take on Sandro Botticelli’s famous “The Birth of Venus”, if only just in terms of the dramatic storytelling and ethereal mythological components that are included all throughout the background ... if that makes sense. Just doing a kind of juxtaposition of this beautiful piece next to Boticelli’s is giving me chills haha.
I could just be seeing things / reaching in the comparisons I’m drawing out of sheer excitement and all, but. Damn, this was an incredibly cool find, and an almost immaculate summation and potent presentation of Nadir’s origins and being in my personal opinion.
