Our Genies Are Different

aka: Our Djinn Are Different

Your wish is their command... Sometimes.^note Clockwise from top left: The Genie from Aladdin, a Djnn from Arabian Nights, Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie, and a malicious Djnn from The Witcher.

"I beg you, my son," she said, "by the milk with which I suckled you, throw away the lamp and the ring! They can only cause us a great deal of terror, and I couldn't bear to look at that jinnee a second time. Moreover, it is unlawful to have relations with them."

— Aladdin's mother, Arabian Nights

In Middle Eastern folklore and Islam, genies (jinn, Arabic for "hidden") were the first beings with free will, created out of "smokeless fire" by God before he created the First Man out of clay. They are (usually) invisible beings that are actually more like humans than we realize — they are born, grow up, marry, have children and eventually die. They are said to be made of "smokeless fire", perhaps something along the lines of Energy Beings. They are also extremely long-lived and highly skilled in magic. However, they can be killed by mundane means, if the Arabian Nights is any indication. (At least a couple of genies there being done in by a rock to the head.) They were sometimes trapped in bottles. They might grant you a wish if you free them, or they might have been bound to something like a ring or a lamp and forced to obey the orders of anyone who summoned them. Genies are creatures of free will; they can be good or evil and may even be religious (there are Muslim genies, Christian genies, Jewish genies, etc...), and when there are enough of them around, they can form a Wainscot Society, sometimes living invisibly alongside humans. There are even various types of djinn, not unlike how The Fair Folk comprises many different creatures. Belief in genies is still common in the Middle East today.

In Islamic theology, God told the Djinn that they should bow to man's superiority, but their leader, Iblis, refused to do so; thus, a good chunk of them ended up imprisoned by Suleiman and other holy men in lamps and such and forced to grant wishes. Genies in Islam can also possess humans for a variety of reasons — they might have a crush on the human, or they might just be a jerkwad. During exorcisms, the genie is given the option to convert to Islam, leave the body of the human or die. Iblis, by the way, never repented, and in fact swore that he would corrupt mankind... in other words, he's their version of Satan (and in fact is sometimes called Shayṭān or Shaitan).^note On a related note, linguists have proposed that that the word Iblis is etymologically derived from the Ancient Greek word Diabolos. That is, the Devil.

In popular Western media, genies are immortal beings almost invariably trapped inside a lamp or a bottle, often materializing through a puff of smoke. (Originally, at least part of those items only acted as a means to summon the genie and didn't actually contain it). They must grant you Three Wishes ("And ix-nay on the Wishing for More Wishes!"), which they may or may not screw up horribly. (In the Arabian Nights, this number ranged from one to infinity). Their precise spelling varies, but "djinn", "jinn" and "genie" are the most common; generally, depictions based more closely on the original folklore are called djinni or jinni, while the more modern three-wishes kind are more likely to be called genies.

Also, Genies are extremely likely to be an Amazing Technicolor Population and to have Fog Feet. Female genies in modern media typically wear Bedlah Babe outfits.

A few specific types of genies also tend to crop up. The most common are efreet (also spelled ifrit, afrit, and afreet). In Arabic folklore, these are generally understood as a particularly dangerous and chthonic, but not necessarily inherently evil, type of spirits; they usually have some link to "regular" jinni, and may be seen as a specific kind of the broader group, but this is somewhat vague and not always constant. In modern fiction, efreet/ifrits are usually a specific type of genie, and are often depicted as closely linked to fire; they are usually either evil or simply more powerful and less predictable than other or true genies.

The correct Arabic grammar is "one djinni", "two djinn" (also spelled jinn(i)). The English word "genie", used to translate "djinni", derives from the Roman "genius", which is the spirit inherent to any person or object, such as in the term genius loci. The same concept in Hebrew is called a shed ("one shed", "two shedim") and shida in Aramaic.

See also Genie in a Bottle, Benevolent Genie, Literal Genie, and Jackass Genie. Not to mention Our Ghouls Are Creepier; ghouls have their origins as a class of djinn, although modern Western works rarely depict them as such. And there's always a chance that The Genie Knows Jack Nicholson.

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Examples:

Animation

• In the English dub of Nana Moon, the lunarians are referred to as "moon genies" despite having absolutely nothing in common with stereotypical depictions of the mythical beings. In the Chinese original, they're called "moon elves" instead.

Anime & Manga

• Doraemon: Nobita's Dorabian Nights, being a Crossover with the Arabian Nights-verse, have a few odd genies.
  • One of the new characters introduced in the episode is Mikujin, a ditzy robot-genie from the future hired by Doraemon as a tour guide. He looks like a cat crossed over with a genie, but is a robot underneath, with his name lampshading it ("miku" - a variant of "mirai", or future. So he's a "future"-djinn, get it?)
  • Doraemon and gang are rescued by Sinbad halfway through and gets to explore Sinbad's castle of enchanted goods, one of them being a Genie in a Bottle - when the bottle is sealed, the genie sleeps inside at a Sleep-Mode Size. It then grows into a kaiju-sized behemoth once the stopper is removed, and carries out every bidding given by it's owner. Unfortunately said bottle gets stolen by the villains late in the story.
• Dragon Ball:
  • Majin Buu, or Djinn-Boo in the Viz manga, is quite genie-like both in appearance (most notably his Arabic clothing), and in the fact that he first manifests as smoke after being unsealed from a container. Other genie-like attributes include his magical powers (such as shapeshifting and being able to transmute other objects/beings), effective immortality, and debut appearance which featuring him being summoned by an evil sorcerer who tries to order him around. As noted earlier, he was called Djinn-Boo in the manga, as one could make a case for translating it either way. Though due to the "M" symbols on Buu himself, and other Buu-related things, "Majin" is generally preferred over Djinn.^note Good luck finding a consensus on Boo vs. Buu, though In a 2007 interview, Toriyama stated that he came up with Buu's design because he saw The Arabian Nights as a kid, and "had this set image of what a Majin, or genie, should look like", confirming that he thinks of Buu as a kind of genie (or at least modelled him on one).
  • The dragons themselves combine this trope with Our Dragons Are Different. Shenlong (or "Shenron") is the first such creature introduced, and appeared to be an all-powerful, Eastern-style dragon with no limitations regarding whatever wish is asked of him. Later, it not only turns out he's entirely mortal (when he's killed directly by King Piccolo), but that he is only capable of granting wishes that don't exceed the power-based limitations of his creator (an alien that confirmed he designed the balls as Plot Coupons as a test of character to whomever decided to collect them). If the creator dies, the dragon goes with him. Note that while their powers may be different, every dragon depicted in the series is generally presented with the same setup: they're sealed inside a magical object, an incantation must be recited to awaken them, and then they'll grant one, two, or even three wishes. They're not jerks, and are kind enough to admit when their restrictions will not work in the wisher's favor, even suggesting different wishes as an alternative. Then, they take their leave, waiting for the Dragon Balls to be gathered again to do the same shtick all over again.
• In Magi: Labyrinth of Magic, djinn are more like Olympus Mons, Bond Creatures, and Guardian Entities.
  • And former humans who absorbed soul power after one of their former allies lost her mind (she watched her god get murdered by Solomon) and ritually sacrificed 99% of life on the face of the planet.
• In One Piece, one of "Big Mom" Charlotte Linlin's sons, Daifuku, has a Devil Fruit power that doesn't turn him into a genie, or grant him a lamp, but instead makes Daifuku himself a lamp, able to summon a halberd-wielding genie from his own body by rubbing himself, to fight his enemies.
• Turbain use a genie as his guardian ghost in Shaman King.
• In Bucchigiri?! genies are referred to as "Honki people" and Senya mentions that "Honki" has the same spelling as "Majin". He's still able to grant wishes for people but he and his kind have a rich history of fighting opponents to become stronger, which causes lots of annoyance between Senya and Arajin who each seek different things. Another unusual detail is that instead of a lamp, Senya resides in a tiny metal plate that gets stuck on Arajin's head. There also exists another Honki genie named Ichiya.

Card Games

• Magic: The Gathering features both djinn and efreet as creature types. They tend to be fairly powerful for their cost, but often have some drawback or ability reflecting their general fickleness, like dealing damage to their controller, making enemy creatures stronger or harder to block, or only attacking or blocking when they feel like it according to a coin flip. They're also two of the few creature types that have cards specifically intended to neutralize them — King Suleiman and his legacy, respectively; the former can destroy any one djinn or efreet when activated, while the latter destroys all djinn and efreets on the field when played.
  • Djinn are usually tied to Blue mana; they are usually associated with either air or water, more commonly the former. They often have powerful abilities, such as Djinn of Infinite Deceits, which gives you control of one of your opponents' creatures while giving them control of one of yours, and Djinn of Wishes, which lets you play up to three cards of your choice for free. In older sets they're more monstrous and hostile, and have a weaker link to Blue mana; more recent djinn are more clearly Blue-focused and consequently tend to be more contemplative and peaceful. Older djinn usually have Fog Feet; modern ones resemble blue-skinned, pointy-eared humans instead. The ones from the plane of Tarkir also have horns.
  • Efreets were not particularly distinct from djinn in older sets, and consequently don't appear there much. Modern efreets are closely tied to Red mana and to the element of fire, and have a clearer Blue Oni, Red Oni relationship with djinn — while djinn are passive and thoughtful, efreets are wild, emotional and impulsive. Efreets from Tarkir are tall, spindly humanoids with red-and-black skin, three backwards-pointing horns and short barbels around their mouths, while those of Arcavios resemble red-skinned humans.

Comic Books

• One of the main characters of G. Willow Wilson's Cairo is a three-piece suit-wearing genie inhabiting a water-pipe who grants wishes by manipulating probability.
• The DC Comics character Johnny Thunder was a clueless young man who inherited a genie-like being called The Thunderbolt (who seemed to be a living bolt of lightning) that obeyed his commands- if he said the magic words "Cei-U" first (pronounced "say you!"- as you can imagine from that, hilarity often ensued.) It was later revealed that there's a whole dimension of creatures like The Thunderbolt. The Thunderbolt later passed to a young African-American boy named Jakeem, and merged with another "genie" to create a new being summoned by the magic words "So Cul" (pronounced "so cool").
  • Also the original Green Lantern was actually a man who find a Genie in a Bottle.
• Djinn: Rather than wish-granting spirits with foggy feet, they are Middle-Eastern Succubi and Incubi with the ability to enthrall virtually any human with their beauty, but they are devoid of compassion, love and feelings. Jade, the main protagonist's grandmother, was one such creature and was the Ottoman Sultan's favorite concubine in his royal harem.
• Eight Billion Genies: Earth, a short time from now, gets a visit from eight billion genies, one for every person on Earth. The genies are small, translucent blue creatures from another dimension, they offer one wish each, and there's one of them assigned to every human being on Earth. Madness ensues very quickly.◊ They're not bound by a lamp or any other restriction: they grant wishes because they see it as an art. As a result, they refuse to grant wishes that would cancel out too many other people's (a zombie apocalypse, world peace, any one country taking over the whole world), and break out in applause when they get to grant a completely selfless wish.
• Fables plays with the idea that a djinn's lamp is actually a very elaborate prison for a very powerful, very destructive being of chaos. As such, it is very important that your third wish be for the djinn to return to his imprisonment in the lamp.
• Gold Digger reveals genies to be basically a highly evolved version of artificial magitech lifeforms made as companion-pets who'd 'aid and protect' the children they were with as one of their functions. This directive leading to them, as they grew in stature and intelligence, developing further powers they could only unlock in the service of others- or, 'wishes.' Reflecting the two designs of the original companions, the genies have two physical variants, one with four arms, and the other with their eyes on their stomachs rather than their faces.
  • The latter configuration causes trouble for one woman who went on a date with a coworker who happened to be a Genie. At the end of the date, she convinces him to show her his real eyes, and she spends some time staring into them, face-to-abdomen. Problem was, they were sitting in a car, and a photographer waiting for them came to entirely the wrong conclusion...
• According to a story in Legion of Super-Heroes, the Djinn were a technological race who attempted to invade the wrong planet: Oa. The Guardians promptly sealed each one in a bottle until he or she granted someone three wishes. The Legionnaires find one 40 light-years from Earth.
• Baraka from Soulsearchers and Company is a Arabic fire demon (also known as a djinn) who dwells in a bottle. However, he is also a slob and whenever his bottle gets too dirty, he moves into a new one.
• A genie who manages to combine Benevolent Genie, Literal Genie, and Jackass Genie shows up in one Xxxenophile story. He's in love with the heroine, and, when an evil general captures her for the expected reason, he interprets one of the general's commands as creating a new legal identity for the heroine, thus allowing him to grant her three new wishes, which she uses to defeat the general. He's also bound to his lamp until someone makes a wish that he wants to grant but isn't able to. This being Xxxenophile, that wish is for another round of wild sex right after he's exhausted himself.
• The genie of one weird sci-fi tale was actually a super-advanced alien whose ship was freed from the ice it was imprisoned in by an Arctic explorer. When he mentioned the tale of the wish-granting genie the alien offered to use his vast psionic powers to grant his rescuer three wishes. He promptly screws up and after accidentally wishing himself with his third wish into being transformed into a copy of the alien inadvertently uses the powers he had to prevent himself from ever making the bargain in the first place (although the alien has to explain to him that he'd granted the fourth wish himself).

Fan Works

• Avenger Goddess: Djinn are reality-warping beings who were created in the Primordial Chaos of another dimension, and can be bound to any object with the proper seal.
• Gaz Dreams of Genie has a genie named Azie whom Gaz gets Three Wishes from after intentionally breaking her bottle to annoy Dib (which counts as opening it). Azie is noted as looking like the typical image of a genie, being a woman in a belly dancer outfit whose lower body tapers into a smoke tail, and has certain limits to her powers, such as no wishing for more wishes. One key thing, however, is the curse that comes from breaking the bottle — if Gaz doesn't make a single Selfless Wish (which she doesn't), she's doomed to switch lives with Azie and take her place in the restored bottle, complete with being aged up and stuck in the same outfit (according to Azie, it comes with the job).
• RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: The camels of Naqah, back over a thousand years ago, created djinns, camel-shaped living weapons who tend to use one of the four elements. No wish-granting here, unless that wish involves covering something with large amounts of fire (not that this stops people who know about their existence asking them to grant wishes anyway). They're also bound to an amulet, and anyone who holds it can command them.
• The Second Archon War: When the Archons start popping up on Earth and flexing their godly power, it causes much discussion in theological circles regarding their true nature. When the Muslim Bashir Saeed grows upset about calling them gods or angels since it conflicts with his faith, Nahida suggests he can deem them jinns as the Archons are powerful supernatural beings with their own goals and free will. Jinn also is the term children use when they meet Aranaras, who are tiny plant people invisible to grown ups but enjoying games and songs.
• Vow of Nudity: Most flashbacks involve Haara growing up a slave in the Genasi Empire. In D&D canon, Genasi are the rare offspring of mortal-genie unions. Here, they're a full-fledged civilization with their own empire, four distinct subcultures catering to each elemental variant, and they reproduce through biological families like any other race. There's even a fifth variant, the Void Genasi, who serve as the royal family.

Films — Animation

• Aladdin:
  • Genie is a giant blue humanoid with Fog Feet, lives inside a lamp, has to grant three and only three wishes to anyone who rubs his home, and is a really nice jinni who doesn't go for the literal or jackass route even when he's saddled with an evil master. The wishes have three limitations: genies can't kill anyone, make people fall in love, or bring people Back from the Dead. (Well, Genie elaborates that he can do the third one, it's just "not a pretty picture". He's probably just joking.) He is doomed eternal servitude to an endless series of masters unless someone wishes for him to be freed.
  • Freed genies seem to be much less powerful than genies of the lamp, as Jafar (now a genie himself) utterly trounces the newly-freed Genie in Aladdin: The Return of Jafar (and Genie himself describes his former "phenomenal cosmic powers" as "semi-phenomenal, nearly cosmic"). They also have subtle references to traditional beliefs about genies. Genie is blue, which is a reference to the marid, which were believed to be blue djinn who were mostly goodish. Jafar on the other hand is red, which is a reference to the ifrits who were associated with the color red and were Always Chaotic Evil.
• Wish Dragon has Long, who resides in a jade teapot, can revert wishes if he misinterprets them, can shapeshift into a human form, he's a dragon, and so forth. And much like Genie from Aladdin, he also can only grant 3 wishes and has 3 limitations; he can't kill, can't make people fall in love, and can't Time Travel. But perhaps the most notorious unique traits of Long are that he Was Once a Man and granting wishes to 10 masters is Heaven's intended way of making him atone for his cruelty during his life as a human emperor.

Films — Live-Action

• The remake of Clash of the Titans has Djinn, even though they are from the Arabian lore rather than from the Greek mythology. Here, they appear as black-colored humanoid creatures with bright blue eyes that use blue fire magic that seems organic based (they tame scorpions, heal the hero and are claimed to rebuild themselves of wood). And they also can suicide bomb themselves.
• In The Curse of Sleeping Beauty, Richard tells Thomas they were attacked by a djinn and that the djinn can possess inanimate objects. The rest of his explanation is straight out of classical Arabian mythology.
• In the Arabic-English Tobe Hooper movie Djinn, the Djinn are pretty much The Fair Folk, including the use of Glamour and replacing babies with non-human ones. They're intelligent beings who live in haunted places and kill any human intruders, though one man manages to make a bargain by offering the life of his friend. They don't offer any wishes though. Also, it turns out that the male lead is a Djinn, which he didn't know about.
• The Field Guide to Evil: In "Haunted by Al Karisi, the Childbirth Djinn", the eponymous djinn manifests as a goat and passes judgement on a pregnant teenager, later possessing the girl's invalid mother-in-law wreak vengence on her.
• Kazaam: A genie's bottle falls into a stereo and produces a rapping genie. Also, the main character says that all genies are naturally slaves, and "djinn" — or free spirits — are nothing more than fairy tales. We find out that Kazaam became a genie as a punishment long ago when he was human. Also, a genie can only create or manipulate objects, which is a lot of power but far less than the feats of reality-warping seen in some other genie stories, and not much use to someone whose true desire is something non-shiny. "Make or summon something for the holder of the radio, three times," is what a genie can do, period — and this means even a nice holder can't say "I wish you were free." ("I wish for more wishes" wouldn't work either, probably.)
• My Darling Genie is a Shaw Brothers fantasy-comedy film where the titular genie - played by the gorgeous Cherie Chung - lives in an umbrella. She was released when the down-on-his-luck protagonist (played by Derek Yee) accidentally opens her parasol and tags along with him, but trouble occurs when news of her "magic umbrella" makes her target of loan sharks.
• In the Italian 1986 film Superfantagenio (or its version of Aladdin to U.S. audiences), Bud Spencer stars as the genie. His wishes are his master's command as long as the latter addresses one as "I want _____." Also, his powers don't work at night. This genie is also very much a Benevolent Genie as he defends Al Haddin, his master and his family (within his limitations) and refuses to grant a wish to a villain that's captured him and Al (via the bad guy telling Al to make that wish) to eliminate all the world's armed forces except his own personal army.
• According to Detective Ringwald, the villain in When Evil Calls is a dark djinn who grants one wish that works perfectly so long as the wisher passes the text message on to others. Thus the wishes are propagated through the phone network, and the djinn horribly twists the wishes of every subsequent wisher. The djinn can only be defeated by the original wisher wishing their original wish to be undone. For some reason, the djinn manifests as a Monster Clown.
• The djinn in the Wishmaster series are some kind of byproduct of God's creation of the universe and are all inherently evil and as such were banished to some Hell dimension. The main one is trapped in a red jewel on Earth and if he successfully grants his summoner's three wishes he can free his brethren and get rid of whatever it is that's restricting his powers so that they only activate for wishes. He also collects souls and has a very loose definition of what exactly constitutes as a wish.

Gamebooks

• Scream of the Evil Genie features a Jackass Genie whom you released from a Coke can. Her wishes are of the Exact Words variety - wishing yourself to be attractive turns you into a beautiful painting, hoping to be famous and you become the star of a Kids' Show Mascot Parody that you loathe, and so on.

Jokes

• One joke concerns a bartender who used up his three wishes and afterwards kept the genie's lamp on the shelf behind his bar as a curiosity. A customer entered the bar, looking with curiosity at a nine-inch-tall man playing the piano in the corner, and then noticed the lamp and asked about it. The bartender offered to lend it to the man, it being of no further use to him. The man summoned the genie and wished for a thousand gold bars. The genie made him look outside, and when the man did, he saw a thousand old cars lining either side of the street. The man re-entered the bar and complained that the genie was a little hard of hearing. The bartender replied, "Well, yeah. Do you seriously think I wished for a nine-inch pianist?" *rim shot*

Literature

• A Master of Djinn has djinn returning to the world. They coexist peacefully among humans and even have children with them. Their appearances are very diverse and rarely give their true names but go with geographical regions or titles. When in a bottle, they aren't necessarily trapped than sleeping. The first chapter with the main character has two teenagers opening a bottle to get their wished granted. They woke up a very annoyed and anti-human marid, who chose to grant them one wish. "Very well. I will grant you only wish. You must choose. Choose how you will die."
• American Gods has a very odd side-story about a gay genie who was stuck as a cab driver after immigrating to America, passing his status as a mystic creature on to a man he engaged in a one-night-stand with. The only indications that he wasn't human were flaming eyes and, er... flaming something else showcased in a sex scene. He does not grant wishes, however. Though he did kind of grant the wish of the guy he had a one-night-stand with by liberating him from his dead-end life, and giving him a chance to start over as a New York cabbie.
• There were several genies in the Arabian Nights. Here's a sampling...
  • One was trapped in a jar. Apparently, being stuck in a jar made him so cantankerous that his idea of showing gratitude was to let his rescuer choose how he would die. Which wasn't his original plan — when first sealed into the jar, he pledged that the one who freed him would be granted three wishes. After a thousand years, he pledged to reveal to his rescuer all the treasures of the Earth. After a thousand more, he pledges to grant his rescuer the choice of how he'll die.
  • Another took a fancy to a handsome young man. After whisking him away to show him to another genie, she dropped him in Damascus, far away from his own home.
  • A woman rescued a female genie from an amorous male genie — by throwing a rock at his head and killing him. The grateful female genie offered to help the woman in the future if she needed it.
  • The genies in the Aladdin story are bound to a lamp and to a ring. The genie attached to each item must obey whoever holds it at the time.
  • A particularly Literal Genie granted a man's wish for a bigger manhood... by making it gigantic. Like fallen tree gigantic.
  • A man throws a date pit away and accidentally kills a genie's son with it, causing the genie to swear revenge. Until three men tell stories that impress the genie so much he doesn't kill the man. Even evil genies have a tendency to be Lawful Evil and allow you a way out of your predicament. Which Arabian Nights characters almost always find.
  • Prince Ahmed gets married to a genie after a failed attempt at gaining a princess (Long story).
• The Bartimaeus Trilogy has a whole pantheon of spirits (afrits, jinn, etc.) who magicians use spells to bind to their will. Typically, their actual appearance is that of an Eldritch Abomination, and they use shapeshifting and glamour to take other forms.
• Book of Imaginary Beings: The Jinn were created from smokeless fire by Allah like angels were created from light and men from earth. They are normally invisible but can take many forms, and live in wells, crossroads and abandoned houses. They can be good or evil and pious or impious, and due to being able to access the lower heavens and listen to the conversations of the angels they can provide soothsayers with knowledge of the future.
• Robert Louis Stevenson's story The Bottle Imp does something like The Lord of the Rings with its One Ring — taking a traditional fairy-tale MacGuffin and turning it into an Artifact of Doom. The imp is a demon and buying the bottle is like making a Deal with the Devil; the only way to escape hell is to sell the bottle for less than you purchased it. Unfortunately, if you are ever dissatisfied after selling the bottle, the imp will make something nasty happen to you to pressure you into buying it back. The story did have a Happy Ending, more or less. The hero was more or less trapped, having bought the thing for only three French centimes (a centime is worth one tenth of an American cent), meaning that finding someone he could convince to take it would be almost impossible; but a drunken sailor who had deserted his ship figured his soul was damned anyway, and did so.
• The White Witch from The Chronicles of Narnia is half Jinn and half Giant.
  • Or at least, that's the origin Mr. Beaver gives in the first book; specifically, he says she's descended from Lilith, Adam's first wife. The prequel book reveals she's from neither our world nor Narnia's, so that story is thrown into question.
• The Daevabad Trilogy has a highly complex society of djinn (originally called daeva, their own word for themselves) mostly hidden from human sight. There are several tribes with different cultures, magical powers, and languages. Outside of djinn society are ifrit, dangerous and Unfettered beings who refused to submit to Suleiman's judgement. The "wish-granting genie in a bauble" that humans usually encounter are slaves; they are often imprisoned by ifrit who deliberately let them be found by humans who will cause the most chaos and destruction (inevitably, it ends with the slave killing their master). Djinn society is ruled from the city of Daevabad in Central Asia, where all the tribes intermingle. Finally there are the shafit, part-humans who are treated as second-class citizens (if they're lucky) and confined to the city, supposedly so they don't wreak havoc in human society.
• Declare by Tim Powers has British and Soviet intelligence agencies vying for control of the djinn who live on Mount Ararat. The djinn here are beings of pure thought, often taking the form of storms, flocks of birds, or the movement of a mob, and view things from a completely, utterly inhuman perspective. Bargains or deals struck with a djinni can grant immortality (which works just as well for nations as individual humans) and other supernatural powers, but the price is often a Deal with the Devil.
• The Discworld novel Sourcery has a yuppie genie who apparently isn't bound to his lamp; he has several lamps, including "a small but well-appointed lamp where he lived during the week, another rather unique lamp in the country, a carefully restored peasant rushlight in an unspoilt wine-growing district near Quirm, and just recently a set of derelict lamps in the docks area of Ankh-Morpork that had great potential, once the smart crowd got there, to become the occult equivalent of a suite of offices and a wine bar." He's rather overcommitted on lamps, in fact, and is thinking of diversifying into rings. He grants wishes, if he approves of them, but insists that nobody says "Your wish is my command!" any more.
• Harlan Ellison's story "Djinn, No Chaser" features a very angry genie trapped in a lamp. He proceeds to make life hell for a couple on their honeymoon and gets the husband temporarily institutionalized until the wife decides to just bust open the lamp with a can opener, releasing the genie and earning his gratitude.
• In Tom Holt's Djinn Rummy, the genies are transdimensional beings (which is how they can fit into those bottles), and like to hang out together in their spare time and get drunk. On milk.
• Enchanted Forest Chronicles: The same idea as in the first Arabian Nights example is used in Dealing with Dragons. When a genie is accidentally let out of the bottle, he explains to Cimorene and Therandril the terms of reward with years of imprisonment, and then insists that their only choice now was their manner of death, which Cimorene responds to by choosing "old age". Also in keeping with the theme of the story, the genie actually had only been in the bottle long enough that he'd be forced to grant them three wishes for his release instead of killing them. Because no genie was ever released before the "kill-the-releaser" period, he felt that granting the wishes and not killing anyone would make him a laughingstock. He decides to follow Cimorene's advice and return to the bottle for another three hundred and eighty-one years, when the two of them would certainly be dead of old age and he could go home without granting wishes or breaking his oath.
• Fancy Apartments features Tisa, who usually looks like a short girl, but can change form into an eight-foot jinn.
• Somer, a guardian genie who has the form of a cat-dog, is the first arrival in A Fantasy Attraction. He name is pronounced so-mer, not summer.
• Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid:
  • In the dialogue "Little Harmonic Labyrinth," Genies are allowed to grant wishes, but not wishes about wishes, which are known as meta-wishes. Meta-Genies (who come from Meta-Lamps) are allowed to grant meta-wishes, but not wishes about meta-wishes, which are within the authority of Meta-Meta-Genies. The word "Djinn" is generically used to designate Genies, Meta-Genies, Meta-Meta-Genies, and all others in GOD (which stands for "GOD Over Djinn").
  • In the chapter "Typographical Number Theory," "djinn" is an undefined term used in place of "natural number" in setting out the five Peano postulates, with "genie" taking the place of zero.
• The Portuguese translation of His Dark Materials literally translates "daemon" as "genie" ("génio"). In this case, "daemon" is derived from a Greek term defining any lesser supernatural entity, and it was under that definition that jinns originally fell; in other words, those are essentially the Greek and Islamic analogues of The Fair Folk. In the context of the books, daemons/genies are your soul walking around as a sentient, talking animal, whose species reflects your personality.
• Hurog has Oreg, who fits neatly into the genie archetype: an ancient being capable of great magical power, bound to a ring passed down in a family line which forces him to obey the orders of the holder, but is never referred to as such. Turns out he's actually a dragon.
• Djins in the Myth Adventures series come from the dimension of Djinger, a place so strapped for funds that they've resorted to hiring out their citizens to work in magic lamps, rings, bottles and so on. Don't believe the hype about what they're capable of; after all, they're only a few inches tall. Usually. They underplay their power very heavily.
• In Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos, the genie is sealed in a bottle (with Solomon's Seal no less) but does not have to grant wishes. Virginia must use psychological tricks on it.
• In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero's Daughter trilogy, djinni are among the beings Prospero Inc. must keep from causing natural disasters.
• Piers Anthony took a sci-fi twist in the book, Prostho Plus. An Earth dentist repairs the "tooth" of a powerful robotic being. The being declares that he had waited so long he had sworn an oath he would kill his rescuer, but a previous oath bound him to grant him a wish before his death. The dentist wishes for a delay of 50 years. For the rest of the book, he has a faithful Deus Ex Machine who protects him from all harm, declaring "None but I shall do him die!", and even goes to the point of helping him get together with his lady-love because married humans tend to live longer.
• Jinn in Septimus Heap sport both heavily armed Warrior Jinn and the more peaceful "actual" Jinn. The former are antagonists in the final phases of Syren.
• In her 500 Kingdoms novel Fortune's Fool, Mercedes Lackey used an ifrit as the villain. At the end, he is sealed into his bottle "until you repent of your evil ways, and are ready to join your lawful kin in the City of Brass." Djinn do have free will, so it's a valid condition.
• Sandy Frances Duncan's The Toothpaste Genie is about an unskilled young genie bound to a tube of toothpaste. He explains to the protagonist that the more successful and esteemed a genie is, the better the container they're assigned to by their superiors. Toothpaste tubes and boxes of laundry detergent are apparently the bottom of the totem pole, with fancy bottles being near the top.
• Malik ibn Ibrahim, the main character of the anthology Wandering Djinn pretty much Walking the Earth, has the ability to disguise himself in a myriad of human forms, knows a lot of different folklore creatures because he's met a lot of them, and has the creepy appearance of skin that's so dark blue it borders on black, golden cat eyes, and instead of hair a scalp covered with flame. If he wasn't such a goofball, he might be frightening.

Live-Action TV

• The jinn in American Gods (2017) has a larger role than in the original book, particularly in the second season, where we learn that he's working for Mr. Wednesday because the latter freed him from an amulet, and that he originally refused to follow Allah when given the chance. He still does not grant wishes.
• The Genie that Becky finds in Big Wolf on Campus has a bit of a nasty caveat to his wishes... once the third wish has been properly fulfilled, the Genie is set free... and the owner of the bottle becomes the new Genie.
• Charmed (1998): Phoebe is turned into one in the Season Six episode "I Dream of Phoebe". French Stewart also plays one in the Season Two finale "Be Careful What You Witch For", as the archetypal trickster character.
• Creepshow's segment "The Man in the Suitcase" features a Middle-Eastern man contorted to fit into a medium-sized suitcase, and will spit gold coins if he experiences pain. The Reveal is that he's actually a Djinn subjecting people to a Secret Test of Character - those that try to help him out of the suitcase even if it means forgoing wealth pass, while those that torture him fail, and get stuffed into their own suitcase.
• The Genie from Down Under deals with the adventures of the very Australian genie Bruce and his son Baz who live in an opal pendant and are forced to obey the commands of whoever holds the opal.
• Four words, I Dream of Jeannie. Jeannie is an atypical Happiness in Slavery version. One episode featured the "Blue Genie" (the one who initially planned on rewarding whoever freed him, but eventually decided to kill that unlucky individual).
• Imagin, the Monster of the Week race from Kamen Rider Den-O, are an odd variation of genie: they claim to grant wishes, typically twisting them horribly, and once the contract is complete they use their contractor's memories to create a portal to the past so they can alter history for their benefit. Of course, while there is an overall leader, every Imagin has its own personality and can choose whether or not it wants to obey him. The protagonists include several Imagin that decided there were other things they wanted to do (like chase skirt or become the strongest karateka) and partnered up with the kind-hearted protagonist to protect people from their malevolent brethren.
• In Legacies A genie (It's Jinni) shows up at the school. She's able to choose who to show herself to and only grants wishes that she wants to grant. Her tactics are to twist people's wishes in the traditional "Be careful what you wish for" sense and until the only way to get what they want is to wish for what she wants in the first place.
• In The Magicians (2016), Eliot and Margo try to brew some Magical Gin, but it turns out that the spell is to summon a Magical Djinn. The Djinn grants even wishes that are only thought. Margo, not knowing this and frustrated at the attention Eliot is showing his new boyfriend Mike, accidentally sets the Djinn on Mike by simply thinking: "I wish Mike would go back where he came from and suck on some other knob." The Djinn takes this literally, takes Mike to the library the group first met him at, and enchants him to lick and suck on a doorknob.
• In the Enchanted Forest in Once Upon a Time there is the Genie of Agrabah who becomes Regina's Unwitting Pawn in her plot to kill her husband, King Leopold, and is transformed into her Magic Mirror.
  • In Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, the genie Cyrus is both the main character's love interest and the show's Living MacGuffin. He also has two brothers, but they don't get much screen time. Later in the series, it is revealed that those who cross Nyx, guardian of the Well of Wonders, are punished for their desire to change fate by being turned into genies, which is what happened to Cyrus and his brothers.
• In Special Unit 2, Djinn are gaseous beings that can assume human form and can only grant wishes someone with such abilities would be capable of doing and even then only to further their own goals (a wish for a celebrity leads to said celebrity becoming a kidnap victim). They can hide themselves in containers they can make airtight by lining the insides with their molecules.
• In the Supernatural episode "What Is and What Should Never Be", the Winchester brothers track down a djinni that appears to grant whatever its victim wishes for, altering the world around them. However, Dean learns firsthand that the djinni just puts his victims in an acid-trip-like state, hooks them up to an IV, and drinks their blood for a few days until they die (but it feels like years in the djinni-induced-acid-trip). The victims do occasionally get flashes of reality, though, which is what helps Dean figure it out and get out of Wishland.
• Super Sentai/Power Rangers:
  • Smokey from Mahou Sentai Magiranger (adapted as Jenji in Power Rangers Mystic Force) is a comical cat-headed genie who was sealed in a lamp for his troublemaking and can't stay outside the lamp for more than three hours. He can grant wishes, but chooses to only grant one to his masters because he can't be bothered to do more, and only if he receives some kind of payment for it. He also doesn't get any kind of Reality Warper powers or anything that would be Required Secondary Powers for a traditional genie, so "making a wish" basically just amounts to "working to fulfill a request to the best of his ability". This being a Merchandise-Driven series, while he's in the lamp it doubles as the main weapon of MagiShine, a magical Ray Gun that's reloaded by rubbing (and at full power can shoot Smokey himself as a projectile).
  • One episode of Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger / Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (Season 1) featured an Anubis-like genie as the Monster of the Week, whom the villains are trying to gain control over so they can wish for him to destroy the Rangers. In Zyuranger, he was a pretty nice guy when not being bossed around, but would lose all his magic powers if his lamp was destroyed. In Power Rangers, he's completely evil, while his life is connected to his lamp.
  • The Crystalians and the Yodonheim from Mashin Sentai Kiramager are genies that do not come from lamps, nor do they grant wishes. Instead, they came from another planet.
• The Twilight Zone (1959): In "I Dream of Genie", the genie is an obnoxious loudmouth who smokes a cigar and dresses in contemporary clothes with the exception of "velveteen mukluks." He also offers George P. Hanley only one wish instead of the usual three.
• Ultraman 80: One of the last episodes of the show has the appearance of Marjin, a genie-like alien who lives in a vase, uncovered by a bunch of children who then use the wishes granted by Marjin to help make the city a better place, such as cleaning up the trash. But when the vase falls into the hands of a bunch of bullies, the lead bully decides to ask for a "cool monster toy as big as the real deal"... which ends up accidentally resurrecting the kaiju Red King.
• An episode of Wizards of Waverly Place featured a Jackass Genie. In their lamps they have a Reset Button for all their granted wishes.

Pinballs

• The evil genie and the player's benevolent jinn in Williams Electronics' Tales of the Arabian Nights embody most of the popular western genie stereotypes between the two of them.
• Zeala, the protagonist of Jinni Zeala, is a Camp Gay jinn who just wants to PARTY!
• Gottlieb's Genie has a sexy Bedlah Babe who teases the wizard summoning her.

Podcasts

• Genies in Hello, from the Magic Tavern follow the standard European trope of living in bottles and granting wishes to those who release them. They are not to be confused with djinn, who are spirits made of smokeless fire and want to subjugate all creation (and by subjugate, they mean help people work through their emotional issues); or with gin, which is an alcoholic beverage.

Pro Wrestling

• Satu Jinn, who appeared to be a giant genie bear before he renounced facial hair and becoming an "angel face wearing" jinn. With that said, even before shaving he began dressing more like a majin than a djinn as part of his quest to beat Goku. Winning title belts in The National Federation Of Wrestling apparently was part of this training.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons
  • Genies are elemental spirits from the elemental planes. They have several different types, each tied to a particular element. Efreet are Lawful Evil genies from the Plane of Fire. Djinn are Chaotic Good genies from the Plane of Air. Jann are made of all of the elements, can be of any alignment, and spend most of their time on the Material Plane. Later supplements added Neutral Evil Dao (Earth) and Chaotic Neutral Marids (Water), which aren't usually remembered very often since they overlap a lot with Efreet and Djinn on a conceptual basis. They all have various magical abilities, but whether they can grant wishes varies between them. Efreet can grant wishes, but since they hate servitude, they tend to be Literal Genies, if not outright Jackass Genies. Only "noble" djinn (about 1% of them) can grant wishes. In 5th edition, very few genies are capable of granting wishes, but wish-granting genies are represented among all types (except the jann, who are not present in 5th edition).
  • The Al-Qadim setting clarifies this. Genies are more or less widespread there, but treated as powerful, whimsical and extremely dangerous, albeit honorable, beings. Most people avoid any contact closer than hearing tales about them. All genies can grant wishes in proper circumstances, but usually bend any request toward their own desires; when pressed into service they are just as inventive with vengeance later, and while individual genies can be trapped or killed, this tends to upset their pals and rulers. There's also Jann ("composite" genies living in mortal worlds) and Great Ghuls (undead genies). Servitor Genies are specialized sub-breeds that have literally been bred to hold specific roles, such as miner, courier or even wine-maker. Gen are minor genie-kin implied to be kids of the main elemental types and contracted out as servants to sha'ir wizards. Again, gen may serve faithfully, but people unwise enough to mistreat one are in for a big surprise.
  • In 4th edition, Efreeti (Fire Element Genies) are all slave-trading bastards who consider plans a fun way to spend their spare time. While they can grant wishes, they don't do it by supernatural means (well, beyond their affinity for high level magic, that is); they instead use their connections within their Mafia-like societies to get things done, and always for a high price. On the other hand, Djinni (Air Element Genies) are magical craftsmen and engineers, most of whom have been sealed away. Their primary goal is reclaiming the lost creations of their "golden age" and freeing their allies and family while ensuring their enemies remain imprisoned forever. Dao and Marids also exist, having been added in a late issue of Dungeon, but are basically just their Great Wheel counterparts transported into the World Axis cosmology.
  • 5th edition eventually introduced noble genies as one of the patrons for the Warlock, which zig zags around the modern archetype. For starters Genie Warlocks get several elemental powers (depending on which of the above kinds of genies they get as a patron). As for more stereotypical genie powers, these warlocks get a special lamp, ring, or other trinket that behaves as a pocket dimension where they can hide, store things and take shelter (apparently these genies find ironic pleasure in having people stuff themselves in lamps). They can also fly (no magic carpet needed) and can eventually make wishes to their patrons, in the form of the very powerful ‘’Wish’’ spell (which warlocks don’t usually get), and a weaker version that replicates any spell of 6th level (as opposed to the normal maximum 9th spell level) or lower without any of the usual class or cost restrictions; they do however only get one such wish every few days.
• Exalted: Ifrit are humanoid fire elementals of fairly considerable power, and generally given much more respect by the gods than elementals usually are.
• GURPS: One of the Infinite Worlds is Caliph, a scientifically advanced Arab-dominant timeline where references to djinn in the Qu'ran are believed to be prophecies of A.I., and actual A.I. are called "djinn".
• Legend of the Five Rings: In the spin-off Legend of the Burning Sands, Jinn are the original creations of the Sun and Moon, or of the Ashalan, depending on who you believe. They are usually malevolent, but can be bargained with for service.
• Mage: The Awakening: One option for the fabled Sixth Watchtower is the realm of the Djinn, where Spirit and Forces hold sway.
• In Nomine: The Djinn are a type of demon, the fallen counterparts to the Cherubim. They are sullen, moody and cynical, and prone to developing possessive, stalkerish obsessions with mortals. Their humanoid vessels tend to be short and stocky; their celestial forms are monstrous, surreal beasts.
• Old World of Darkness:
  • In the fan forum Shadow n Essence, a member once proposed a fanwork called Djinn: Of Smokeless Fire that imagined them as Middle Eastern fae. An interesting idea, but nothing really came of it.
  • "Lost Paths", the Mage: The Ascension supplement which spotlights the Ahl-i-Batin and Taftani factions, features a great deal of detail on the Djinn, supernatural beings created by Allah from "smokeless fire given spirit and form and life" that normally reside within an Umbral Realm called the City of Brass. In general, they envy and hate humans with considerable intensity, most especially since Solomon compelled one of their number to reveal the elaborate facets of djinn behavior and culture, which he codified into the Solomonic Code and used to force the djinn into doing the bidding of anyone following its strictures (and imprisoning them within bottles, rings, gems, etc. inscribed with the Seals of Solomon).
    
    The djinn have subraces as varied as those of humanity, and range in personality from Jackass Genie to Literal Genie to almost every variation in between except Benevolent Genie. Again, about the only thing the djinn have in common other than their basic composition and access to unimaginable power is their desire for vengeance upon the arrogant human insects that dare command them — so any mage dealing with them must have varying amounts of foolishness, intelligence, boldness and charisma.
• Pathfinder Genies are naturally like their D&D counterparts, originally being from the same source. PF Earth Genies are called Shaitans, however. And yes, it's possible to be a Djinn/Efreet/Jann/Marid/Shaitan Sorcerer, not to mention the Half-Elemental Sylph/Ifrit/Suli-Jann/Undine/Oread, who often have Genie heritage. Genies are also a big focus of the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path, which deals with the aftermath of a Genie War (you can imagine how crazy that got), and takes you to the Efreeti-run capital of the Elemental Plane of Fire known as the City of Brass.
• In Rifts, Jinn are elemental demons that, if captured, can be compelled to grant a wish. However, they aren't nearly all-powerful, so if you were to wish for a million dollars from one, for example, it can't just make it appear out of mid-air, but will have to go and get it... and won't be particularly picky about where it comes from, or what he does in the process. Ever seen a Jinni rob a bank? You're about to.
• Shadow of the Demon Lord from Schwalb Entertainment, has genies being the first creatures made by the Demiurge after God had created the universe and the Demiurge and then went off to rest. The genies stole much of God's power and persona and they killed the Demiurge. All that was left of God was his wrath and this coalesced to become the Demon Lord which tried to destroy the universe for happened. The Genies were horrorified and many sacrificed themselves to be a barrier to lock away the Demon Lord and they could do it because of the remainders of God's power they had stolen. The surviving genies migrated to the world that the rpg is set in and would become the fey race.
• Warhammer: Djinn are occasionally mentioned in association with Araby, a culture that's largely medieval Arabia with the serial numbers filed off. They come in multiple different kinds — "djinn" is less a species name as a catchall category used by Arabyans to refer to powerful, non-Daemonic spiritual beings — but are all powerful elemental spirits, often toweringly tall, that are often bound to the service of Arabyan wizards. Efreets, one of the more commonly referenced kinds, are spirits of fire, and are a particularly aggressive and volatile type of djinn, and best suited for combat purposes. A character in Dreadfleet, the Golden Magus, captains a ship called the Scimitar that's powered by two colossal bound djinn — a wind spirit to inflate the sails and a fire spirit to power the engines.

Video Games

• AdventureQuest Worlds: The Sandsea saga has our hero having to battle a powerful Djinn that has become chaorrupted. Djinn are immensely powerful beings that much like the djinn of folklore can grant wishes. They cannot be destroyed, only defeated, contained or bound to the physical world through means of lamps, rings or other objects. Three kinds of djinn generally exist: the Marid, who are Benevolent Genies like Saahir; the Ghul, who are evil genies like Tibicenas (the Big Bad of the arc) once was; and the Efreet, the ruler of all djinn. When a djinn is defeated such as Saahir at the hands of Tibicenas, it usually takes him several millennia to regain enough power to return.
• Age of Wonders: Djinn appear as tier 3 units for the distinctly Arab-themed Azrac race, serving as flying scouts and ranged support units. They reappear in Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, filling a similar role for the nomads.
• Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse features a number of genies, and being set in the Forgotten Realms, it applies that system. The elemental division is clearly made — an efreet (fire) is different from a djinn (air) is different from a dao (earth) is different from a marid (water). The "three wishes" thing doesn't really come up, although the broader subject of controlling genies is highly relevant.
• In Ape Escape 3, the Genie Dancer Morph allows Kei and Yumi to summon a genie to distract enemies via dancing.
• Arcana had the hero Rooks coming into ownership of four genie-like spirits: Sylph, Efrite, Marid and Dao, representing wind, fire, water and earth, respectively. Their levels are tied to Rooks' and are mostly there to supplement the party's attacks with magical support.
• Barbarian (Titus): Djinn are portrayed as feral, demonic beings capable of magical abilities originating from an alternate dimension. As for appearance, they are Horned Humanoids that have charcoal dark gray skin and claws and pronounced canines.
• Beyond Oasis: In both the game and its prequel, Legend, the protagonist can summon a fire elemental named Efreet, who is wreathed in flames and can attack with fire.
• Born Under the Rain: An Efreet is part of the group of enemies that's blocking the way after the chest with the Serpentius Priest Hat.
• Cuphead: One of the bosses is Djimmi the Great, an orange-skinned genie with an impressive Evil Laugh who fights with a variety of Egyptian/Arabian-themed attacks.
• Destiny has the Ahamkara, shape-shifting, reality-bending Starfish Aliens that prefer draconic forms but can assume any shape that would suit their needs. In a twist on the trope, they tend to specialize in unvoiced wishes — any stray desire that becomes conscious thought is fair game for them to fulfill.
• Digimon has Lampmon, a Demon Man digimon that looks like a stereotypical green genie. His description states that he will grant wishes to anyone frees him from his lamp. However, he has a distorted personality and will instead attack his benefactor.
• Dragon's Crown: When you arrive at the final boss of the Ghost Ship Cove Route A, you have to deal with dozens of pirates, one of them carries a lamp that can summon a genie. You can even steal that lamp and use the genie against them.
• EXTRAPOWER: Magma-O the fire genie lives in Magarda Volcano. A giant being who has been watching the Earth for millennia, he is sometimes sought out for his wisdom though may not always be impressed to give an answer. In Giant Fist, hitting certain parts of the environment will reveal the Lucky Lamp, summoning a genie that grants you the ability to cast all your special attacks without cost and perform transcendental attacks without being at low health for a limited time.
• Golden Sun has Djinn as Waddling Head-like creatures aligned with one of the four elements, used to power-up your characters (like Familiars, sort of). Some are hostile and have to be defeated or tricked (or both) to gain their services. Surprisingly consistent with Arabic mythology, except that they're not trapped in rings, bottles, or lamps.
  • The Wise One indicates in the first game that the Djinn were sealed away along with the rest of the power of Alchemy, but were able to escape with the removal of the Stars, before the complete restoration of Alchemy to the world. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn states in the encyclopedia that the Djinn are Energy Beings formed from elemental power.
  • They can be used in battle to great effect, such as casting improved versions of regular spells, and also used to power Summon Magic. The downside is that using them for summons lowers your characters' stats, so using the for an Alpha Strike strategy can be dangerous (and even suicidal against some bosses).
• Guild Wars Nightfall: Djinn appear in a number of locations, some as allies and some as creatures to fight.
• King's Quest:
  • In King's Quest VI a genie by the name of Shamir Shamazzle causes trouble for the protagonist. Working for the Big Bad, Shamir shapeshifts into various people and animals, but is always identifiable by his glinting gold eyes, and seems unable to do the hero direct physical harm (instead coercing him into dangerous situations if he is foolish enough to listen to him). Whoever had possession of the lamp had control over — not just the Shamir's servitude — but his very nature. When Alexander takes possession of the lamp, Shamir celebrates the switch in master, glad that he no longer has to be evil.
  • In King's Quest II, Graham acquires a lamp, out of which a genie appears to grant him a flying carpet, a sword and a bridle before disappearing.
  • In King's Quest V, Graham gets a brass bottle that also contains a genie. However, if he opens it the genie simply traps him in his place and disappears, thereby ending the game.
• Might and Magic
  • Genies in the original setting were fairly standard, apart from being the complete opposite and sworn enemy to the Efreet, an Inferno creature. Their magic in both the old world and Ashan tends to produce random effects and they seem to have a touch of Literal Genie as well.
  • The second case is the most evident in Heroes of Might and Magic 5: Tribes of the East. Zehir asks them to create a flying city, which they do, but unfortunately they didn't tell him the price of moving it beforehand: a large amount of experience, justifying the Bag of Spilling effect of the expansions in this particular case.
• Monster Girl Quest features an avoidable battle with a genie that tricks people into making a selfish wish and then devours them. The game's flavor text mentions that only a strong-minded person with absolutely no selfish desires whatsoever behind their wish will actually have it granted.
• The Bajarls from Monster Rancher 2 resembled genies.
• Metal Slug 2/X has a genie in a lamp hidden in a secret area of Mission 2, who doesn't grant wishes but gives you a ton of coins for freeing him. If you collect his lamp without waiting for the genie to emerge though, you get 10 measly points. The same genie reappears in the remake, Metal Slug Code J to reward you with goodies if you performed well enough in the Keesi 96 boss fight.
• Pokémon
  • Pokémon Black and White has a trio of Legendary Genie Pokémon, incredibly fitting for a series that already lets you trap God. They aren't typical genies as they have no wish granting powers and are more likely to terrorize the countryside by whipping up severe thunderstorms. They're more based on Oni, specifically Raijin and Fuijin. Landorous is more benevolent and is more of a fertility god. Pokémon Legends: Arceus introduces the fourth member named Enamourus. As the only female of the group, it bears a resemblance to female genies, especially to Jeannie.
  • Gen VI introduces a an event Legendary that is a more typical genie. Hoopa's main motif is its rings, which it uses to teleport and store anything it desires, up to an including entire islands. With an item called a Prison Bottle, it can unleash its true power and become a gigantic and terrifying being of immense size and avarice.
• Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire has two varieties. The Sealed Evil in a Can Iblis and a wishgranting variety in a ring akin to Aladdin. In the backstory, another Djinni turned Julanar into a tree while she was attempting to escape from a band of brigands.
• The strategy game Rise of Legends featured genies prominently among the Alin race, which takes virtually all of its cues from Arabian Nights and Arabic folklore, with genies coming in fire, sand, and glass varieties. Some are simple units, but the three Alin hero units are particularly powerful genies, each representing one of the Alin elements.
• The Secret World features the Jinn, a powerful race of elemental spirits that can be found in both Egypt and the upper echelons of Hell. They don't inhabit lamps, they don't grant wishes, and they really don't like humans. Later investigation reveals that, like the original Djinn of Islamic theology, they were among the first beings brought into existence and initially served Gaia and the Host without question; however, when humanity was created, they were outraged and hurt by the fact that they would be "rejected" in favour of such a puny species, and were eventually banished to the Hell dimensions for their rebellion. Most are eager to wipe out humanity regardless of the cost, but a few remember their love of Gaia and reluctantly agree to help humanity for her sake — even if it means killing their former comrades.
  • However, in a subversion of standard fare, players eventually run into a Jinn that actually does grant wishes: over the course of your meeting, he offers you choices between eternal life and eternal love, wealth or power, knowledge and music. In true Jerkass Genie fashion, each choice bites you in the ass. However, it's not until the very end that the Jinn is revealed to be none other than Mephistopheles, currently serving as the CEO of Faust Capital, a division of the Orochi Group.
  • Later still, players also run into the standard Genie-In-The-Lamp... and it turns out to be arguably the most dangerous being in the entire setting with the notable exception of the Dreamers.
• Shantae: The title character is a half-genie girl who acts as her home city's Guardian Genie.
  • Shantae (2002): As well as using her hair as a weapon in combat, she can also transform into different animals by performing dances.
  • Shantae: Risky's Revenge: The end of the game shows that her human half gives her some protection against things that target genies, and that her genie half can somehow by extracted and incarnated, with the proper tools.
• The Genies from the The Sims are the standard "genie in the lamp" wish granters, but are not very competent. When you wish for money, you could either get free cash or a pile of bills. Wishing for "water" could give you a hot tub, or flood the house. Wishing for fire could heat up your social life... or burn your house down. They're more competent in the sequels, and are even playable in the third game. How do you make them playable? Wish them free, of course.
  • The Sims Medieval has a quest where either the Monarch or the Wizard can find a genie's bottle; the genie appears as a regular Sim, albeit with a unique hair and outfit color. They do grant wishes competently in the Monarch's route, and in the Wizard's route are freed with Applied Phlebotinum, though the wizard could've just freed them with a wish.
• Sonic and the Secret Rings is based on the Arabian Nights. There's Erazor, the Genie of the Lamp who is a colossal asshole who was imprisoned for his crimes and went right back to being a criminal as soon as he was freed. Sharah, the Genie of the Ring who seems to be more of the American "Good willing but bound to grant wishes". And numerous Genie Mooks that Sonic has to fight along the way — most of which don't look very humanoid and more like animated flying statues, including a cyborg Ifrit and a giant jellyfish Marid. Also, one mission states that Genies reproduce via laying eggs....
• Terraria: The Desert Spirit seems inspired by the malicious examples of Djinn. Only appearing in Hardmode deserts which have fallen victim to the Corruption or the Crimson, they have the stereotypical shape as portrayed nowadays (a muscular, shirtless man, without legs, with a ponytail). As of the 1.3.3 update, they can drop an oil lamp as well as a pants item that gives you the legless effect when equipped. If used as armor, it prevents falling damage.
• The Djinn in Tibia are divided in two races of Green and Blue Djinn, that don't get along well. They are powerful magicians and work as buyers for more expensive loot.
• Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception has djinn as Elite Mooks in the lost city of Iram of the Pillars. They initially appear as ordinary human soldiers, but when killed, they revive with their heads on fire and Glowing Eyes of Doom. In this state, they can throw fire, release a burst of fire if Nate gets too close, and teleport via flames. When killed again, their torsos light up and their fire throwing becomes more powerful. It's necessary to kill them a third time to keep them down. According to in-universe legend, they used to serve King Solomon but rebelled against him. Solomon imprisoned them in a brass vessel, but the spirits of the djinn drove the populace mad and caused the destruction of the city. However, it turns out that the djinn Nate encounters are merely hallucinations, caused by drinking hallucinogen-tainted water. The hallucinogens leaked from the brass vessel into the city's water supply, implying that this is the source of the djinn legend.
• World of Warcraft's Cataclysm expansion introduced Djinn into the game as powerful air elementals serving under Al'Akir the Windlord, a servant of the evil Deathwing. Most of them appear in Uldum (a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Ancient Egypt) and the Skywall (the Elemental Plane of Air), and they fittingly have a very Middle Eastern motif. They don't grant wishes, and are quite hostile to the player characters (being loyal servants of the Old Gods).

Visual Novels

• Razi Nassar in Havenfall Is for Lovers, owner/manager of the bowling alley where the player character works and one of her possible love interests, is secretly a djinn (he objects to the word "genie"). His magic specializes in illusions and transfiguring things — or people — into other things, though he's also capable of throwing around waves of force and creating defensive shields. His power is also specifically linked to his home territory, in this case the bowling alley: not only is he at his most powerful on its grounds, using his magic away from the bowling alley is physically painful. Razi likens it to an electrical current, which within the bowling alley is grounded so that he can safely channel it, while away from that ground there's nothing to bear the brunt of the power except his own body.
• In Marco & the Galaxy Dragon, three of the inmates in Gold Cord’s underground prison look like stereotypical genies. Gargouille punches them all out before they can do much of anything. There’s also a fourth inmate who claims to be a genie, but is clearly a skeleton.

Web Animation

• The Genie With a Dirty Mind, a Spin-Off of The Lazer Collection, in which a genie accompanies a boy in the bedroom at shop class and lunch and... does nothing except laugh when the boy says or does something that could be interpreted as innuendo.
• RWBY has the Spirits of the Relics, magical beings sealed inside the divine objects.
  • Jinn is the first Spirit encountered, dwelling in the Lamp of Knowledge. When her name is called by a Summoner, she will appear to them and offer to answer a specific number of Questions. Every century, Jinn may answer a total of Three Questions before her power is sealed and she must wait for the next era. While she cannot reveal the Future, she has access to all the knowledge of her creator, the God of Light. When asked a question, her response may be as simple as a verbal answer ("You cannot.") or as elaborate as an illusion that draws the summoner(s) into a story narrated by Jinn.
  • Ambrosius is the second Spirit encountered, dwelling inside the Staff of Creation. When summoned, he will create whatever is requested from him with the caveat that his creations have No Ontological Inertia. For decades, his power was used to hold up the floating city of Atlas. He is openly dismissive of that Task, viewing it as "pedestrian" and a poor usage of his artistry. However, Ambrosius is a Literal Genie that will create exactly what is requested, requiring that his Summoner be extremely thorough to avoid unforeseen issues. Ozpin advises the heroes to bring blueprints and other real world examples, treating Ambrosius as a Craftman being commissioned.

Web Comics

• In El Goonish Shive, during the "Goonmanji 2" storyline, one of the cards from the eponymous magical card game transforms the player into a genie form capable of tranforming others into forms from the game including the genie form itself.
• In Dan Standing's Held Within both genies are former college students who were turned into genies thanks to unknowingly making wishes on a magic amulet. No "natural born" genies have been seen. Unlike other genies, these do not have a three wish limit, and are specifically tied to their specific mistresses. Instead of lamps they have a very private connection to the women they are bound to.
• In I Dream of a Jeanie Bottle, a guy gets transformed into a (female) Genie. A spoof of I Dream of Jeannie and parodying the tropes used there.
• Last Res0rt's Djinn and Djinni-Si are so far off the myth they're practically In Name Only. Magical? sure. Long-lived? Well, they're undead, so we'll count it. Freaky colored skin? Yup. Wish-granting? No. Live in bottles/lamps? Well, Efreet CAN, but not the rest. Evil? Mebbe. Oh, and this is without including the detail that the term "Djinni-Si" encompasses ALL undead creatures, including Vampires (dubbed "Life Djinn") and Zombies. Efreet (one of the most powerful variants of Djinn) have recently been revealed to be capable of living in small glass balls.
• This strip of The Non-Adventures of Wonderella parodies the disconnect between the original djinni myths and the American pop-culture genie.

Web Original

• In Magic, Metahumans, Martians and Mushroom Clouds: An Alternate Cold War, Jinn are presented as etheric entities of great magic power, which can only be used against someone at close range, and are bound to serve whomever holds the container they're tied to. Several Muslim nations start searching for and collecting these in order to use Jinn as weapons, while the French recover some from Algeria for the same purposes.
• The Djinn in New York Magician, who works for Cthulhu and is forced to wander around New York, body to body until such a time as undisclosed.

Western Animation

• Aladdin: The Series, beyond Aladdin's blue Genie, also introduces Eden, a green-skinned female genie. She gets romantically attached to the Genie, and is going to be set free with her master's third wish, until her master (who is a lonely little girl) accidentally says: "I just wish you could be with me forever." The couple is parted... but they realize that because they're immortal they can just meet up in a hundred years or so. But they can still date each other in the mean time.
• Danny Phantom had Desiree, an evil "ghost genie" who grew in power when she granted wishes. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't stop herself from granting wishes, and that led to her defeat in both of her solo appearances.
• The Fairly Oddparents has Norm (voiced by Norm Macdonald), a Jackass Genie (in fact, most genies are like that according to Wanda) who was trapped inside a lava lamp and is weak against things made of "smoof". He follows the typical three wishes rule (although that's a bluff to avoid hard work. Masters can just wish for additional three wishes as much as they can), which are rule-free, unlike fairy wishes. He also wants to be a fairy in order to avoid being stuck in a lamp. He eventually becomes one, but it backfires on him thanks to a Chekhov's Gag.
• Genius Genie's title character is an anthropomorphic blue elephant in a World of Funny Animals who is summoned by simply saying the word "problem". Rather than granting wishes, he uses his magic to try and help solve people's problems, and while he means well, he usually tends to give silly or impractical solutions to mundane issues.
• Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats: "Wishful Thinking" has a cat genie, but other than be a cat is the typical genie in everything else.
• Miraculous Ladybug:
  • Kwamis may seem fairy-like at first glance, but they're actually repressed gods bound to jewelry and forced to serve whoever holds their Miraculous. Only the Ladybug and Black Cat used in tandem can grant a wish, but any wish they grant has to destroy the existing universe to create a new universe where the wielder's desires are realized.
  • Season 4 introduces Wishmaker, a black-and-white supervillain with the power to force people to live out their childhood dreams. Anyone hit by his stardust attacks will happily, but mindlessly, act out their dreams while transformed. (Ex. A toymaker turning into Santa Claus and delivering toys, Jagged Stone becoming an actual crocodile).
• My Little Pony 'n Friends: In "Through the Door", Aladdin's genie resembles a large, heavyset human with pointed ears and small fangs, lives in a lamp, and can conjure up anything as long as someone wishes for it.
• In Pixel Pinkie, Pinkie is a digital genie trapped in a really old mobile phone. She has to grant unlimited wishes to whomever owns the phone. She is generally well-meaning, but often falls into Literal Genie territory.
• The Real Ghostbusters: "Janine's Genie" has a genie of the Jerkass Genie variety. The genie is evil and uses Janine's wishes to open a portal from the spirit world to Earth.
• In the Rocko's Modern Life episode "Scrubbin' Down Under," Rocko uses a jackhammer in a misguided attempt to remove spinach from between his teeth. Obviously, he ends up landing himself in the hospital. While he's laid up in traction, sleeping, he dreams of a hygiene-obsessed monkey genie attempting to re-educate him about hygiene. The monkey genie is actually the doctor who's treating him in the "real" world.
• Shazzan: The eponymous character is a giant genie summoned by magic rings.
• Shimmer and Shine: They live in another dimension, their bottles are just a way to travel between their world and Earth and they don't have to return right after granting the third wish. Shimmer and Shine usually stay around to fix their mistakes and only then go back home.
• In The Smurfs (1981) we have Gourdy, Farmer Smurf's genie who only made three appearances in Season 6.
• Yogi's Gang: The Greedy Genie is free to roam the world with a flying lamp and is free to offer his wishes to anyone he wants. In his case, it means people who agree to never share anything he gives them.

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