Kholabi?

I didn't know if this would be better asked under culture or religion, but I was interested in more information on Kholabi! Who is she? Why do we not want her looking at us? (I love the dice game btw). Or is this something super mysterious? I assume there's some known mythos about her, though, since there's a whole dice game centered around her spooky self.

Either culture or religion works, as the answer is a bit of both! The dice game is a fun little thing Pilgrim came up with -- lorewise it would be played throughout the caliphate, for gambling or just to pass the time amusingly.

Kholabi was a goddess in the ancient pantheon of deities known as the Children of Noon and Night. She was the goddess of magic and arcane mysteries of all sorts, as well as refined civilization. Nobody truly worships her or the other deities of the pantheon any longer, as the Children of Noon and Night are believed to have retreated from the realm of mortals and to reside now beyond the reach of human supplicants. She was once the mother goddess of Amunat, both respected and beloved, and her protection was often called upon by many -- but her ways were also mysterious, and ill luck could be attributed to her sometimes unfathomable will.

Like many pagan deities, Kholabi has been vilified by the monotheistic worshipers of The One True God and is now thought of more as a fiend. She is sometimes presented as an angel who fell afoul of the God for her ruthless thirst for knowledge and power that could belong to no one but the God Itself; other times she is described as an extremely powerful jinni. In either case she is viewed with dread and a little awe, and even if she is removed from direct contact with the mortal world some people still fear attracting her notice somehow. The evil eye is a power whose origin is ascribed to Kholabi -- her ancient symbol is an eye.

Kholabi's name remains attached to the seventh month of the Sirdabi calendar, when the barriers between the material and the spirit worlds are believed to be at their thinnest. Her constellation appears in the night sky as the zodiac symbol the Eye.
 

I love all of this. Thank you for the lore tidbit!