The Djinn's Bargain

Overview

Among the most enduring myths of Tulara is the tale of The Djinn’s Bargain, a legend that explains both the remarkable longevity of the city’s cisterns and the periodic disappearance of its greatest scholars. Though largely dismissed by the faculty as superstition, the story remains one of the most widely circulated narratives in the surrounding region.

 

The Myth

According to tradition, the early builders of Tulara struggled to construct cisterns and cooling tunnels capable of withstanding the desert’s shifting sands. Walls collapsed, wells ran dry, and entire projects were lost. In desperation, they sought the aid of a conjurer who summoned a djinn on the salt flats outside the city.   The djinn, vast as a storm and burning with internal fire, refused their offerings of silver, incense, and even their lives. Instead, it demanded one scholar every hundred years; specifically, the brightest mind of each century. The chosen would be erased, their name forgotten, their works dissolved, and their memory lost even to family. In return, the water would flow, the stone would hold, and Tulara would endure.

 

Interpretations

Scholars have proposed several readings of this myth:

Etiological: The tale explains the city’s remarkable infrastructure and rationalizes gaps in the historical record. Several centuries show promising figures mentioned once in rosters or correspondence, only to vanish from subsequent records.

Moralistic: The bargain may serve as a cautionary tale against hubris. In a culture where intellectual brilliance is prized, the story warns that excessive pride in one’s gifts may invite divine (or infernal) retribution.

Ritualistic: Some folklorists suggest the myth was tied to a ceremonial practice of offering tribute to spirits of the air. Though no such ritual is recorded, scattered references to “the debt of the wind” may hint at forgotten observances.

Modern Significance

Today, The Djinn’s Bargain persists in both scholarly and popular imagination. Professors cite it as an example of “myth as social control,” while townsfolk continue to warn: “Better the djinn take a genius than a fool, for the fool we must still live with.” Students, meanwhile, often treat it playfully; a common joke among undergraduates is to attribute the sudden disappearance of an overworked peer to “the djinn’s century.”