The Djinni Wars of Hegemony was a series of conflicts from aprox. 4200 BA to 3800 BA, in which the genies from the Plane of Air, under the rule of the Grand Sultan of Geniekind, managed to subjugate most of Sarhal after defeating the other groups of genies that inhabited the continent. Due to the scarcity of sources and the nature of the power of the jinn, the text below is a reconstruction made by Rector Salkha, one of the most famous scholars on Genies, using all available knowledge, but its validity cannot be fully confirmed.
Rise of the Sultan[]
Starting in the late 5500s BA, the Djinn began to arrive en masse in Sarhal. It is unclear as to what had spurred this, as the Djinn were otherwise seemingly uninterested in Sarhal bar a few individuals. Regardless as to the reasonings no doubt now long lost to time, this meant that many were forced to the fringes, scattered across Sarhal, but primarily across the Salahad Desert.
In 4378 BA, a Djinn of untold power emerged in the central Salahad, who records only refer to as the Grand Sultan of Geniekind, Master of all Sarhal. This Djinn emerged from the Plane of Air with a vision- everyone shall bow to him. Unlike most genies, however- he was able to enforce this idea. Unusual abilities and magical expression are not seemingly necessarily unique to just mortals, as this genie possessed the ability to not just bind genies, but bind them specifically to his will- essentially turning them into puppets, a forced, conscious extension of his will, capable of being drawn on for their magic to enhance and supplement their own, allowing greater and greater feats.
His first, being uniting the disparate Djinni sultanates of the Salahad under his banner. Those who did not kneel were beaten and then bound to his will- not imprisoned physically, but down to their very soul. Drawing upon his subjugated kin’s power, he created armies of wish-wrought creations, and sent envoys to the Giants of the north, offering land and glory to those who would fight by his side. Many Stone Giants and their retinues of surviving ogres would take up these offers, bolstered by a number of Fire Giants from the Forbidden Plains. In quick succession is the lands that would become Bulwar scoured completely of any non-Djinn genies, being bound or banished and more Djinn are summoned forth from the Plane of Air and bound to the Grand Sultan in exchange for territories and honours in overseeing what will become modern Bulwar.
Conquest of West Sarhal[]
The Sultan then turned to the lands of modern Akasik and Fangaula, and in a great storm buries the palaces of the Shaytan who dwell in Akasik, before banishing them and binding the various Marid Queens of the northern coasts, going as far as to make them personal concubines of his various strongest supporters in an effort to both humiliate the Marid Queens and further subdue them. It is at this point that many of the other genies of Sarhal begin to receive word of the Grand Sultan’s exploits, and the genies of southern Fangaula- primarily Shaytan and Afarit, with some Orisha and even rebellious Djinn, gather on the savannas of Fangaula in order to contest the Sultan's power.
The battle is a colossal failure for the growing resistance, seeing many of these would-be rebel Djinn bound or banished, and a whole new volcano erupting from the earth due to the volatile earth and fire genies attempting to (unsuccessfully) trap the Grand Sultan. After this battle, for loyal service the Fire Giants sworn to the Sultan are awarded the volcano and its surrounding lands, and the Stone Giants are awarded Akasik in its entirety. During this period, several Djinn trade for ogrish servants, and settle them against the Serpentspine to construct for them lavish palaces and elaborate terrace-gardens using the runoff of the mountains. During this time, the Grand Sultan settles more Djinn into the now empty Fangaulan Savanna.
Subjugation of East and South[]
At this point, the Grand Sultan makes his way eastwards, along the modern Gnollish Savanna into Madriamilak and the Shadowswamp, subjugating the Orisha, Shaytan, Marids and Silat who occupy the region. There is token resistance, but most outside of the Marids subjugate themselves before the Grand Sultan, being rewarded for their compliance by not being bound, in exchange for providing wishwrought creations to serve as warriors. Circling south into modern Bamaliwuni and Ishyamtumu, the Grand Sultan meets much more of the same- until reaching Ardimya.
Whatever occurred there is left unrecorded in any historical records. Any attempt to inquire about the event from a genie- if one survives the attempt and somehow has one that is aware of what occurred, is simply given a “We did as we needed.” and no more will be answered on the subject. It is suspected that Wish Magic had a responsibility in the original desertification of the region- undone with Ardimya herself arriving and using her magics to undo the damage. But regardless, the Grand Sultan himself did not settle any Djinn in the region, instead leaving it to become inhabited by nomadic tribes of humans unsupervised by Djinni authority.
Final Wars[]
Moving north, the Grand Sultan would focus the last of his efforts on subjugating the Lizardfolk and the wild lands of Horashesh, who had the least amount of genie presence due to the historic presence of the Lizardfolk, who had some ancient means of checking the power of Geniekind until their forced regression by the Precursors. Afterwards, many genies- primarily Silat, Orisha, and Shaytan moved into the region and took a guiding role in the development of the Lizardfolk. These genies fought valiantly to defend their independence, but were ultimately crushed under the combined weight of the rest of Sarhal, being bound or banished.
By the time the Grand Sultan subjugated Horashesh, all of Sarhal bar the Fahvanosy Isles were brought under his reign- the Marids there having successfully turned the sea entirely uncrossable through their command of the waters and waves. In 3876 BA he would declare himself supreme ruler of all of Sarhal; but now he sought to make sure that his glory and conquests would never be forgotten.
Birth of the Djinn[]
Gathering all the genies bound to his Will from the wars of conquest, he commanded them to go to the region near, or perhaps even over- Lake Nirakhet itself. Here, he would construct a ritual to rewrite reality itself, aptly named the “Ritual of Djinn”. For the Djinn during this time were not named the Djinn- and in fact, the word “Djinn” itself in genie tongue roughly means “Supreme Jinn”. The Grand Sultan wished to ensure that none would ever forget the glory and mastery of his people over the rest of geniekind.
Drawing upon the magic of over 10,000 bound Genies to bolster his own incredible prowess, the Grand Sultan made moves to enforce his will upon all reality- to write his desires into its very fabric and in so doing ensure forevermore that his people would be known as the eminent variety of Geniekind, and in so doing he was successful, Partially.
A genie is held manifest by its incredible will- it is, in theory, the source of its very immortality. But what would occur when that will, that desire, if even for a moment, is supplanted by something greater? And in so doing, the Grand Sultan achieved his wish- at the cost of unmaking himself, unraveling his very will from his form to enforce this Wish upon reality. All of Geniekind would forevermore be forced to acknowledge the Djinn as their superior-
But the Grand Sultan would never see it, having broken himself down to forevermore enforce this new law of reality.
The Grand Sultan’s dominion over Sarhal in that instance shattered, and the Djinn would sunder themselves into three main groupings, more bound by a shared ideology than any strong ties- these are the Isolationists, lead by the four “Good Sultans” of Bulwari myth, who take over Bulwar and work to ensure that their dominions are unbothered by the chaos erupting after the Grand Sultan’s undoing. Second are the “Hegemonists”, who seek to continue Djinni Hegemony, primarily focused in Western Sarhal and the Fangaula Savanna. Finally, there are the Binders- those Djinn unfortunate enough to have been involved in the Grand Sultan’s ritual, who were broken and damaged by the sheer amount of power involved, who take up residence in the central Salahad and northern Khetapera, acting in their own self-interests and attempting to bind their rivals.