Dear Mr Stroud,

1. How are djinn created, or their name discovered? Do you just pick a name and organize a certain amount of essence? If so, why would any magician bother to discover the name of some competent djinni instead of making one themselves?
http://bartiforums.com/topic/3602/1/#new

2. Why are djinn male of female? Is this just a cosmetic thing chosen by the djinn?
http://bartiforums.com/topic/2484/1/

3. Are there size limits on guises? Could Bartimaeus take the form of a mountain? What about a bacteria?

4. Is there a limit on how many demons can be controlled by a magician at a time?

5. Do all demons speak all languages? What about a made up language like Esperanto?
http://www.bartiforums.com/index.php?showtopic=1158

6. What are demons allowed to do when on Earth? For instance, could Bartimaeus simply not follow an instruction? Nathaniel couldn't use the Shrivelling Fire on him as Bartimaeus knows his name. Could Bartimaeus randomly kill commoners while on a charge? Could he fly to Italy or something? Could he go to another magician and tell them Nathaniel's birth name just out of spite?

7. Why can Bartimaeus take on Amanda's form (in theory) in the Amulet of Samarkand but not Nathaniel's? Doesn't he have to know her birth name?

Thank you.

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Questions already covered linked to and striked out - admin

Hello - thanks for your questions.

3. Size limits: there are no 'official' guidelines on this, but yes, I think that there is a correlation between the size and power of the spirit and the guises it can take. So Bart tends to favour middle-sized guises, and never goes massive. An elephant would, I think, be too big for him. He can go small by compressing his substance down, but going too large would weaken him considerably. A bacteria is probably too tiny to be comfortable for him.

4. Limits to slaves: the limitations depend on the power of the magician and the power of the slaves. So a strong magician can (like Nat in PG) have several middle-ranking spirits. Or s/he could have one or two really strong ones, or lots of rubbish ones.

6. The secret of a good (non-fatal) summoning for any magician is to include sufficient word-locks and bonds to minimise the harm the spirit might do when on earth. All spirits have the capacity to do any of the things you state - that most of them don't is because they know they'll get badly punished if they deviate from their orders. At its simplest, they HAVE to obey instructions for fear of the Shrivelling Fire. Bart knowing Nat's name is a special case, and alters the balance of power between them.

7. Amanda C isn't a magician, so Bart DOES know her birth-name!

All best wishes,

J