They have lots of Names, some they collected from the lost Hours, and some of them have been discarded by their Hours. They collect other Hours' forms that they no longer use, too. The lost and abandoned things always eventually end up in their domain, the Garbage City of MokattamDust, sooner or later, with help or by chance, fished out of the waters of the River of the Rocks, or from the shifting sands around the City. The Chiffonnier accepts everyone and everything. Very rarely, and quite incomprehensibly to the Zabbaleen themselves, there are those who leave ''them''. Such lost ones are welcome to return, and would only require a little bit of tinkering to be fixed. Otherwise, the Bone-Grubber searches for those with fiery fervour and tries bringing them back; ''clearly'', the reshaping process was faulty, and they need fixing again.

An Egypt-like country was destroyed by a rival empire, based on Venice, some time around the Industrial Revolution. The Zabbaleen arose from the wishes of the people to fix what was broken, from their need for a new purpose. The Hour salvaged the big part of an entire History to make a new one, where the country has never been defeated, and prospered. Their work was almost done when the Histories started clashing and dividing: from three, six; from six, twelve; from twelve, four, twoone. The Zabbaleen's History was once again bashed to pieces and dispersed, but with that calamity came all the other Histories, with their people, things and places that were now lost and without purpose. Thus, the Zabbaleen expanded their goals. The City of MokattamDust, it seems, is all that is left from the Zabbaleen's History, apart from an odd artifact here and there. Everything else was reforged beyond recognition.  The Collision didn't change them that much, apparently; one might say it empowered them, but they had nothing to do with causing the cataclysm. In fact, the Glory being damaged almost spoiled their grand plan: to ascend higher, to become of Light, and to merge with the Sun above the House. They ''are'' different, now, though; they found themselves unable to let go of who they are, and thus they prolong their Great Work, introducing small, almost insignificant flaws into their every creation, so that they never run out of things to tinker with. And once they do, their time will come, and they will be mummified in their Ziggurat (with the help of their new Name, the Mantle, who was once known as the Hour called the Embrace), which will finally reverse into its proper position and lift them up towards the Glory.

The Zabbaleen have many forms, some of which they have re-purposed to fit their needs once they received them from other Hoursor beings.Their main form, however, is an amalgamation of things the Zabbaleen are working on, things they have gathered recently, their own Names and Long, and whatnot. It is covered by fabric, with many limbs poking out from beneath, and it might associate someone with a scarab beetle, which are is another one of the Chiffonnier's symbols. They can send the Names and Long out to gather things, or serve as envoys, etc. Another symbol are the raccoons, and some speculate that they were created by the Zabbaleen for some strange goal.