Like their angelic counterparts, the aasimar, and their elemental counterparts, the genasi, tieflings are not a race in truth. Rather, to be a tiefling is to have been born with a deformity that touches both body and soul. They are typically born to human parents, whose race seems most capable of interbreeding, although tieflings born to elven, dwarven, or even orcish parents are not unheard of. Yet regardless of the parent race, tieflings are easily identifiable, though not always by the same sign: skin discoloration, towards a fiendish hue, is fairly common, as is the manifestation of horns, mutation of the eyes, and the growth of a tail. In rare cases, tieflings are born with bat or dragon-like wings. All of these signs point towards a fiendish heritage.
Indeed, all tieflings live with the knowledge that some ancestor consorted with fiends, and bear the guilt of that affiliation generations later. Contrary to popular belief, a tiefling is not necessarily the result of sexual communion between a mortal parent and a fiend: almost always, such a union results in the birth of a cambion, rather than a tiefling. However, this fact is of small comfort to tieflings and their parents, as the precise mechanisms that produce a tiefling remain little understood. Myths, legends, and folklore maintain that any interaction with a fiend is sufficient to risk the birth of a tiefling, from forging infernal compacts to demon-worship, even to mere exposure to a fiend's foul presence. Such intermingling may not immediately result in a tiefling child, but the taint of such interaction may manifest generations later. As such, the birth of a tiefling is considered both an indictment of a family (demonstrating prima facie proof that some ancestor of the family consorted with devils, demons, or worse) and an ill omen.
Contents
- 1 Physiology
- 2 Psychology
- 3 Sociology
- 3.1 Kalathar
Physiology[]
The appearance of a tiefling almost always bears proof of fiendish heritage, although the manifestations of this heritage may vary wildly. Most commonly, a tiefling bears horns, be they relatively small and easily disguised by disheveled hair, or large and ridged, stretching out from the brow and wrapping around the head. Next, the skin of a tiefling usually betrays his or her heritage, ranging in hues from hellish red to deathly pale with black veins. In addition, the eyes of a tiefling often evidence their otherworldly heritage, ranging from glowing, golden orbs, to pitch black pits. More uncommonly (although still true in more than half of known cases), tieflings are born with tails resembling that of reptiles. In rare cases, tieflings can be born with wings; rarer still, these wings function, enabling the tiefling to fly.
These characteristics aside, a tiefling is otherwise very much like their parent. They grow to a size within the expected range of any other child of their parents, often being of middling height and weight. In those cases where the physiology of a tiefling differs significantly from that of the parent, they tend towards slenderness and dexterousness, as opposed to brawniness.
Psychology[]
The common folk generally consider tieflings to be of a devious nature, appropriate to their heritage: selfish, conniving, and psychopathic. The learned generally consider these faults to result from upbringing, rather than inherent nature: after all, when a child is ostracized from birth and branded a criminal by fault of heritage, that child is likely to adopt the insults hurled at him or her, regardless of race. Truly saintly tieflings have existed, as well as truly evil ones--just as truly saintly humans and truly monstrous ones have. As such, the learned consider the personality of a tiefling to be molded largely by the individual's upbringing, rather than a fatalistic certainty.
Even the learned, however, must concede that tieflings on the whole demonstrate an uncanny cleverness. Their appearance bears the mark of fiendish heritage, to be sure; yet the surer sign is an uncharacteristic intelligence, even charm, suiting a child of fiends. Tiefling children typically learn faster than their more mundane peers, and seem capable of using wits and a silver tongue to manipulate others. In addition to this inherent cleverness, all tieflings demonstrate an inherent affinity for spellcasting. For common folk, this is all the more reason to distrust tieflings; for the learned, this is all the more reason to recruit tieflings as scholars and mages.
Sociology[]
As tieflings are more or less cursed or deformed humans, there is no tiefling culture to speak of. Those tieflings permitted to continue living in their homeland adopt the culture of their parents; those who are outcast, exiled, or orphaned tend to be wanderers. A lucky few find a city in a faraway land where they are not immediately treated as monsters to be slain, and they will adopt the culture of their new home.
Even in a new, more accepting home, tieflings tend to be relegated to the outskirts or slums of a city. While mobs may no longer hound them as pitchforks, cosmopolitan tieflings are still often distrusted, and may struggle to find legitimate work. As a result, many tieflings find it necessary to resort to a life of crime in order to stay fed. A fair few succeed wildly: a disproportionate number of crime bosses across Andaria are tieflings. As expected, this does nothing to help the public perception of more honest tieflings.
Then again, a tiefling rising in social station through more honest means is not unheard of. Typically, a tiefling does so either as an acolyte of a faith or a scholar. Tiefling scholars and priests are appreciated among the learned for their innate grasp of magic and planar lore. Some tieflings instead opt for the life of a soldier or mercenary; should they survive and earn glory, they often become something of a mascot for their company, whose soldiers might proudly boast of "their" devil.
Such tieflings who seek to earn admiration from their peers, rather than scorn, sometimes adopt a "virtue name." A tiefling abandons her birth or given name, instead adopting a new moniker in the form of an ideal that the tiefling seeks to uphold or with which the tiefling strongly identifies. Examples of virtue names include Art, Carrion, Creed, Hope, Nowhere, Reverence, Sorrow, and Torment.
Kalathar[]
Tieflings enjoy something of an unusual status in the dread domain of Kalathar. Owing to the rise of Vaelor's Infernal Eccelsiarchy in that dark realm, the birth of a tiefling is more often considered a sign of the First God's favor rather than an indictment of an ancestor. Typically, tieflings are given over to the care of the Ecclesiarchy, who raises them to be honored servants of Vaelor. As a result, a grossly disproportionate number of leadership roles within the Ecclesiarchy are filled by tieflings.
Those tieflings who do not find a future with the Ecclesiarchy live varied lives. Unfortunately, some rural villages that the Ecclesiarchy has yet to reach still practice tiefling infanticide. Conversely, it is not at all unusual for a Kalathim noble to be born a tiefling, owing to the Kaal's long history of demon worship and consorting with other dark powers. Regardless, for those tieflings born to the common folk of Kalathar, the Ecclesiarchy is often the best chance at a decent life they have: at best, a commoner tiefling in Kalathar is still a commoner in Kalathar, and that is a miserable existence indeed.
