Jahan Mirza was a highly placed sorcerer of the Cherkess court. He was born in a small town, and came from a common family, but developed great skill as a sorcerer — achieving the rank of archmage — and was said to be among a small handful of the most powerful arcanists in Cherkessia. Mirza was conducting spell research, working on creating a new form of magic. The nature of his research was secret, and even today the exact details are unknown, but as it turned out, Mirza was researching a form of magic that allowed him to take control of a person's body, manipulating them like a puppet but leaving their mind free. This magic would thus be unstoppable by protections against enchantments.

Mirza's magic had a weakness, which he was working hard to remove: the control could be broken if the subject experienced very strong emotion. Perhaps out of arrogance, Mirza decided to test the latest version of the spell by using it on his apprentice, the young sorceress Gulchatai? — and then raping her. She managed to break free of the spell's control and escape; Mirza fled, leaving Cherkessia.

Gulchatai, who looked to have a promising career as a sorceress of the court, was terribly traumatized by the experience, and she has been living with her aunt and uncle at her family's estate; she is listless and uncommunicative. Her father, Narek — member of the Council of Ministers, advisor to the king, and overseer of foreign trade — would love to see Jahan Mirza brought to justice, but Narek is dedicated to his work, and Mirza has not been back to Cherkessia since committing his vile crime. Gulchatai's mother, Darya?, left Cherkessia to seek out Mirza — a quest of personal vengeance for what the archmage did to her daughter. (See this session log and also this other session log for details of how the player characters discovered this information.) Disturbingly, at least some people seem to believe that someone at the Ivory Citadel sanctioned Mirza's experiments — surely not Amir himself, but in any case someone of high office.

After his self-imposed exile from Cherkessia, Jahan Mirza joined the Cult of the Fallen Trickster, and was even brought into the Cult's inner circle. He has close ties to the efreet?, who have given him sanctuary, and are sheltering him at an unknown location. The nature of Mirza's relationship with the efreet is unknown, but it can be assumed that the efreet want access to Mirza's unique control magic. Mirza has had years to continue his research, and it's likely he has perfected his creation, and removed its weakness to strong emotion. It is also possible that the efreet value Mirza for his knowledge of Cherkessia — as an archmage of the court, Mirza would have knowledge of the Ivory Citadel's layout and defenses, the tactics of Cherkess battle-mages, and much else of value to any enemies of Cherkessia (which the efreet are).

During Jahan Mirza's time with the Cult, he has worked with the other arcanists in the inner circle — Ileana?, Vladislav Chernovsky?, and the spell weaver Omicron? — on various special projects. Prominent among these was the project to create a new version of the shadow walk spell suitable for use on the plane of Acheron, which involved using Vasily's mind in novel and interesting ways. Most recently, Mirza participated in the Cult's failed attempt to kill the great hero Siegfried at the behest of the Grand Sultan of the efreet. Though this plot was foiled by the player characters, Mirza escaped unharmed.