Edimmu

Edimmu

(Creature)

Type

Undead
(incorporeal)

CR

3

Environment

Any desert

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: House of the Beast, pg(s). 82f.

The remains of powerful genies bound to a master even beyond death, edimmu haunt abandoned desert ruins.

Appearance

An edimmu resembles a dark, ghostly skeleton cloaked in wind-lashed tatters and hunched over from the endless ages spent damned to their current existence. Their skeletal form walks from amid a roiling storm cloud of dust and desert sands and the edimmu is constantly surrounded by buffeting winds which it can control and use as a weapon. The eyes of the edimmu are like glowing embers burning amid the surrounding storm.

Habitat and ecology

Edimmus are the undead spirits of malevolent genies trapped in the mortal world by binding magic and unable to return to their home elemental planes. As such they are often bound to places long since abandoned, many tales of daring exploration feature bound genies long since dead that still guard great treasures. These edimmu are often bound within some innocuous object or structure that releases them if disturbed. Some explorers seek to completely free edimmu from whatever pact it was that originally bound them to this world, unfortunately these pacts are ancient and often all but unbreakable. To make matters worse, most edimmu have long since given up on the idea of freedom, instead becoming incarnations of bitter elemental rage. Still, those willing to risk entering the lair of the edimmu can sometimes find great wealth as the ancient genies were often summoned to serve as guardians for treasure vaults, harems and other valuable sites. These places have often been looted but some, those that have been lost to the desert and guarded well by the edimmu, still contain vast treasure hoards; these lost locations are most common in Osirion, Katapesh and Qadira.

Edimmu ecology is quite unique, (the closest equivalent is the damned undead genies known as ghul). Edimmu arise from the corpses of genies slain but whose spirits, due to powerful binding magic, are unable to return to their home amongst the elemental planes. Most edimmu date back to the truly ancient past when cruel genies such as ifrits tried to trick gullible mortals into worshipping them like gods. Fearful of these powerful creatures, mortal wizards managed to find ways to bind and control them; the most hateful and evil of these genies where bound for all eternity as punishment for their crimes. As time wore on and these evil genies succumbed to murder and other violent ends, the early binders realised their mistake as angry ghosts arose from the corpses of the genies they once controlled. Now most genie binders try to make sure their magic does not bind the genies soul to the Material Plane as few want to face a freshly risen edimmu.

Folklore

Edimmu, despite there relative rarity, actually play quite a large part in the folklore of many desert nations. Tales of pitiless edimmu stalking the dark desert nights to bring misery to any innocents they encounter are particular common in Qadira and the many nations that were once their vassal states. These tales are often moral tales and each normally features a wise character who knows how to fend off an edimmu with some special ward. These wards include: using a circle of ox blood to keep it at bay, covering oneself in funeral garbs or scripts, playing a funerary dirge (which causes edimmu to flee), or confronting them with an elemental being like a genie (which edimmu will not harm). It is not known how reliable any of these folk tale wards really are and it would be a desperate adventurer who had to rely on one of them. These cultures also often feature tales of treasure-filled ruins guarded by foul edimmu, their riches almost a match for the dangers one must endure to get at them.

External links

• Edimmu (Real-life mythical entity) on Wikipedia