Knots

With the rise of a new people in the fifth era, came new types of hardship, unknown in the world before. One such example of this was knots, a terrible condition that doomed any jinn it afflicted to a life of impotence.

At the start of the Era of Satisfaction came a new race, that of the jinn. This people had the unique feature of an endless supply of yarn and thread that made up their tails and hands. As their tails, this yarn was used to form structures like hooks, wheels, or, for the more advanced, wings, which helped these people get around, as they had no legs to walk on. As part of their hands, these threads helped the jinn in all their daily activities, from making simple tools to interact with the world around them to being the backbone of their trade, for those lucky enough to become threadcrafters. However, as the new era wore on, a new challenge started to emerge: knots.

Knots themselves were, of course, not a novelty to the jinn. They formed the basis of their crafts, and were often required to supply some level of support to their tools. The issue came from unexpected knots in the wrong locations. If a jinn left threads connected to their body too long and became distracted, especially when at night, there was a chance that the next time they looked at their hands or feet, they would find large knots locking up their functionality. A more lucky jinn would have a benign knot, which could be severed and then replaced with a regrown section of yarn, but those unfortunate enough to have a malignant knot would find it too close to the roots of the hand or tail to be cut or grown out. These knots would stay on a jinn's appendage for the rest of their life, preventing any of the yarn attached from changing, except to become tighter the more the knot was pulled on.

To contract a malignant knot was akin to a death sentence for the jinn. One did not merely lose a limb, they lost most levels of functionality. They could still create threads with their other hands or tail, but it could no longer be sculpted into shape to fulfill their necessities. Some jinn would spend the rest of their lives at home, too nervous of falling through the immense Loom to leave, and had to be attended by family members or hired assistants. Some jinn went insane, dedicating all waking hours to trying to unravel the ever-deepening maze that inhibited all ability. Some jinn even went so far as to amputate their knotted appendage, not wanting to have the constant reminder of their impotence following them around for the rest of their lives. The more brave among the jinn went out into the Loom to try to live their best semblance of a normal life, but their level of skill, no matter how refined, could never beat that of one with full access to their threads.

In response to the rising threat of knots, many government officials launched programs to raise awareness of the behaviors that could lead to contracting one. Children were taught from a young age to never extend their yarn more than was necessary for what they needed to do, and to always cut their yarn before going to sleep. New technologies were also developed to help the disabled jinn. Harnesses were built that could be controlled by hand, to help the jinn who no longer had access to their tails. Splitting tables were made, so that a jinn who had lost the function in a hand could stand at and pool their yarn from the remaining hand around a large block fixed at the edge of the table. This would give the jinn the perspective of having two independent sources of yarn to manipulate, better paralleling the experience of having both arms, to allow them a larger range of actions that could be done with their remaining hand.