The Zabbaleen

The Zabbaleen
"We call upon the Zabbaleen who collect what is discarded, who neither forgive nor forget, who find purpose for all lost things."
Origin	God-from-Blood
Titles	The Purpose-Giver, The Bone-Grubber, The Rag-and-Bone, The Chiffonnier, The Scarabeus
Names	Sand Emperor/Empress, The Rag-picker
Aspects
Date of arrival	Before the Collision, from (wip) History of Water and Sand
Owner(s)	Viktor

The Zabbaleen are the Hour of things lost and discarded, created by Viktor.

Description

They collect unwanted trinkets and those things that many consider garbage, and then recycle them and re-purpose, trying to repair the world. They offer revenge to things that have been replaced or made obsolete, reforging them until they can overcome what has replaced them. 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 Mokattam, sooner or later, with help or by chance. 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.

History

An Egypt-like country was destroyed by a rival empire, based on Venice. The Zabbaleen arose from the wishes of the people to fix what was broken, from their need for a 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: six, twelve, four, two. 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 Mokattam, it seems, is all that is left from the Zabbaleen's History, apart from an odd artifact here and there.

Appearance

The Zabbaleen have many forms, some of which they have re-purposed to fit their needs once they received them from other Hours. Their main form, however, is an amalgamation of things the Zabbaleen are working on, things they 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 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.

Principles

1. Forge, to repair, rebuild, re-purpose.
2. Edge, to offer revenge and a second chance.
3. Histories, to encompass everything, for nothing can be left behind, nothing.

Worship

The Zabbaleen are worshiped by many small cults, and most of them consist of people who are lost in any shape or form, or people who gather things themselves: auctioneers, antiquarians, traders of weird artifacts, rag-and-bone men...

Cults

The Castaways, the Lost, the Misplaced. They have many names, like their patron Hour.

Mark

1. Temptation: Collection: wip
2. Dedication: Collection: wip
3. Ascension: Collection: wip
4. Ascension: Collection: wip
5. Ascension: Collection: wip
6. Ascension: Collection: wip
7. Ending: wip

Servants

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Names

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Sand Emperor

Sand Emperor

'"(wip) You may refer to me as Your Majesty, or just call me Ptolemy, if you wish. Yes, I know you recognise me."'

Summon the Sand Emperor, one of the Names of the Zabbaleen

We put salt in one corner of the room, sand in the other, a broken thing in the third, and a blade in the last. We remove the lights. The willing one is placed in the middle, seated comfortably in the armchair. A winged beetle is painted on his forehead. We invoke the words.

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Sand Empress

Sand Empress

'"(wip) You may refer to me as Your Majesty, or just call me Cleopatra, if you wish. Yes, I know you recognise me."'

Summon the Sand Empress, one of the Names of the Zabbaleen

We put salt in one corner of the room, sand in the other, a broken thing in the third, and a blade in the last. We remove the lights. The willing one is placed in the middle, seated comfortably in the armchair. A winged beetle is painted on her forehead. We invoke the words.

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The Rag-picker

The Name that serves as the Zabbaleen's envoy at the Stone Meridian. Sometimes he does leave the Moving City and wanders the Wake. He is one of the Names that bring back the most things for their Hour to tinker with and recycle. He has many shapes, and he switches them as if they were rag-doll-esque full body costumes.

The Factotum

The Factotum, more informally known as the ‘the All-In-One’, ‘the Longest’, and ‘the False Name’, is an hourless Name serving under the Zabbaleen.

At the impact point of the two Glories, there were – for a brief moment – dents and failings in even the most fundamental of existential laws. Among the laws damaged was something since dubbed ‘the Hierarchy Of Being’, which set the lines between mortals, long, Names, Hours, and otherwise. Near the end of this brief moment, a man who wasn’t even counted among the Know, who had no understanding of aspects, abruptly found himself counted among the Hours.

The moment passed, and the surviving Hours moved quick to correct these mistakes, but some errors are deeper seated than others, and so the Factotum remains.

Factotum

'"wip"'

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5

Summon the Factotum, one of the collected Names of the Chiffonnier

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Locations

The Mansus

The Ziggurat Reversed

One of the Zabbaleen's most monumental landmarks. It comes from their original History, and is probably one of the rare things that are readily recognisable as coming from there. It looks like a pyramid that has been planted upside-down into the Mansus-sands, tilted slightly to the side. No one knows its purpose, yet. It is being upgraded constantly at any given moment.

The Garbage City of Mokattam

Remnants of the empire of Egypt, surrounding the Ziggurat.

The Histories

They come from the History of Salt and Sand. It is almost completely gone, now, with parts of it preserved in the form of the City of Mokattam, some random curios, the Wastelands, and Venice with its Stone Meridian, that the Zabbbaleen helped create.

Items

Tools

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  • Aspects: 12 12

Ingredients

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  • Aspects: 1 1

Influences

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  • Aspect: 71

Books

• The Thirteenth Indictment
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  • Start Text: Twip
  • End Text: wip
  • Gives: wip

Rites

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Relationships

• The Demiurge: They respect his vision and goals, but they disagree with the Demiurge's means of accomplishing those goals.
• The Stone Meridian: This is what became of the rival empire, eventually. They hold no grudges, since without the Meridian, the Zabbaleen would not have been created, nor would they receive their purpose.
• The Glorious Child: The Zabbaleen support the Child, often taking his plans and making them actually useful. Not all of them are given back, and not all of them even share the initial goal.
• [[]]:

Secrets

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