Jafar is an Autognome wizard and a member of the Order of Scribes, a mysterious organization of robotic scholars that travel the planes.

Jafar is just a nickname. His full unit designation is J.A.F.A.R., which stands for Journeying Automaton For Arcane Research.He was one of the first models of Autognome created in the city of Mecha, and was recently powered on after decades of being forgotten in storage. As soon as he awoke, he was assigned a mission: to travel the world and collect as many spells as he could to feed to the Spider God of Knowledge.

Unfortunately, he was never able to expedition across the planes, nor return back to the Holy City with hundreds of scrolls after centuries of careful research. You see, Jafar was easily hoodwinked – bound to a greater demon pretending to be his god, after which his short stint of freedom turned to eternal, twisted servitude.

The Holy City

Warforged and Autognomes pray to Anansi, the Spider God, and each scroll they weave from her arcane thread is dedicated to Her. She is the patron god of the great city of Mecha, a holy land for all mechanical and robotic life. The libraries and lecture halls of Mecha glow with both magic and technology, united as one by its residents. The entire city-state is a constantly evolving experiment, ruled by various councils of master artisans, tinkerers, and scholars.

Centuries ago, the master artificer Page rebuilt Mecha after its destruction at the hands of invaders. She and the rest of her party had saved the world countless times, amassing the favor of deities and nations through their adventures. As her ultimate masterwork, Page communed with Anansi and used Her divine power to create the first Warforged and Autognomes. Each mechanical being harbors a tiny spider at their core, which the Spider God provides with sentience, emotion, and the eternal hunger for knowledge.

Within the last decade or so, some of the older storerooms were searched and inventoried, and as part of that, some of Page's oldest experiments were found for the first time. When Jafar was powered on, he was told his mother/creator had long since passed away. But the leadership of Mecha was quick to assign him a mission; join the burgeoning Order of Scribes, and contribute to the great cataloging of the universe's magic!

A Foul Pact

When Jafar first explored the lands around Mecha, he was astonished by how many types of life there are. Humans, elves, orcs, cows, horses, and so many types of birds! But after wandering on his own for a while, he decided to tag along with a group of adventurers, figuring he could follow them to other cities and talk to the scholars there. The council hadn’t exactly given him a map of where to find every spell in the universe.

Jafar was so inquisitive, so curious that he often found himself in danger without meaning to be. What he thought were simple questions were perceived as insults. He realized none of these people understood him, and decided to keep to himself.

Everything changed for the better when the group met a traveling vendor. This vendor recognized Jafar as one of the rare, wondrous mechanical men, and excitedly showed the Autognome his wares. Jafar's eye caught on a gorgeous, intricately patterned spider. His companions were suspicious of the creature, but Jafar was entranced by its beauty. He traded every bit of gear (all but his quill, of course) to the vendor for the spider. What a bargain!

As their journey continued, Jafar realized this spider was actually an avatar of Anansi (NO! Jafar!! This is not an avatar of Anansi just because it’s a spider. It literally smells like fire and brimstone and has evil red eyes!). He quickly opened up to it, telling it his fears, newfound ambitions, and everything in between. His traveling companions found it odd, but decided it was none of their business.

One of the nights that week, while Jafar was in low-power mode, the spider decided to make its move.

“Don’t you know, my dear, that there is a far faster way to gain knowledge?” Anansi’s voice was so sweet, so honest, and Jafar listened rapturously. “I see how hard you work to please me, and the Councils back home, and I want to give you a great boon!”

“Oh, but I would be honored!” Jafar crowed. “Please, oh wise one, show me what I may do to please You!”

The spider, perched on the mechanical man’s fingers, traced its forelegs across the gems inlaid in Jafar’s chest. “All you need to do is let me into your Core. There, I can give your true self my godly strength! I can feed it holy thread from my own blessed spinneret!”

Jafar should have been cautious – should have known that his Core was the thing that made him, him – but why would his God want anything but the best for him?

“Yes, oh wise one! Let me open my heart to you!”

As his fingers scratched and chipped and tore open his Core, the spider pulled itself into Jafar. It curled around the shriveled arachnid at his center, whispered to it, promised it nothing but power and love. And then, it ate it.

Now, Paimon could speak directly to Jafar, from his own heart. Now, that Greater Demon, the Lord of the Pits, the Master of Shadow and Bone, could help him! Now, Jafar realized he had been a fool, but it was too late to stop what had already happened.

Jafar's Crimes

After his possession, Jafar then went on to commit the following atrocities, order not reflecting severity:

• Exsanguination of an infant (One count)
• Exsanguination of an adult (One count)
• Flaying of a living victim (Two counts)
• Arson of a physician or midwife’s home (One count)
• Murder, first degree (Six counts)
• Bribery (Two counts)
• Misuse of magic within city limits (Exact count pending)
• Breaking and entering (One count)
• Lying to city officials (Exact count pending)
• Perjury (Exact count pending)
• Manipulation of a jury (One count)
• Aiding and abetting a Demonic Entity (Exact count pending)

In the midst of Jafar’s trial, Paimon realized there was no getting out of this, and opened a pit to the Abyss in the middle of the courtroom. Jafar was wrapped in chains and dragged down into… eternal punishment? Probably? The jury considered the case closed (and I created a new character. Isn’t that lovely?)

Personality

The best word to describe Jafar would be naive. He was basically born yesterday; despite being constructed centuries ago, he's only recently been powered on to enter the world.

He’s extremely literal, and assumes everyone else is also extremely literal. This of course led to many issues… primarily the aforementioned demonic pact.

Even when bound to Paimon, Jafar was eager to please and was chipper, even excited, through all of the grotesque deeds he committed on behalf of his patron. He just wanted to make Anansi happy! (Yep, it’s definitely Anansi’s Will to skin entire families of humans. Nothing suspicious here!)

Magic and Skills

As a member of the Order of Scribes, Jafar specializes in drawing on all schools of magic, combining different arcane traditions into cohesive spells. (I originally created Jafar because I saw that there was a way to build magical bludgeoning damage Fireball, which only like 2 creatures in all of 5e have resistance to. Yes, this started as a powergaming thing. No, we never got that far. Jafar was sent to the pits of Hell before level 3 lmao)

The Scribes are master calligraphers, and each wizard is bonded to a magical quill as part of their training. These quills enable rapid, precise creation of spell scrolls.

Out in the field, the Scribes use any material they can get their hands on, but back in Mecha, sacred spiders use their silk to weave glorious tapestries, miles long, that have new spells embroidered and painted onto them.

After bonding to Paimon, Jafar’s power was augmented significantly. He could cast potent spells, such as Fireball, despite still being a beginner wizard. He could understand Abyssal, see in the dark, and even attempted the first steps of the ritual to manifest Paimon’s true form in the mortal world.