Tiefling

Tieflings are a fictional race in the Dungeons and Dragons fantasy tabletop role-playing game.

Tieflings were originally introduced as humans with demonic ancestry. In 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons, they are instead a non-human race whose human ancestors made a bargain with devils to increase their power.

Publication history

The name "Tiefling" was coined by Wolfgang Baur, when original Planescape designer David "Zeb" Cook asked for a Germanic-sounding word for humans with fiendish blood. Baur derived the name from Teufel, or "Devil" in German. The direct translation of Tiefling, however, would be "deepling," since tief means "deep." A closer derivation from Teufel would be teufling.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989-1999)

The tiefling was introduced in the first Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix (1994). The Planewalker's Handbook (1996) also presented the tiefling as a player character race.

Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 edition (2000-2002)

The tiefling appears in the Monster Manual for this edition (2000) under the planetouched entry.

The fey'ri tiefling appeared in Monsters of Faerun (2001). The tiefling is presented as a player character race for the Forgotten Realms setting in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (2001), and the tiefling and fey'ri appear as player character races in Races of Faerûn (2003).

Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition (2003-2007)

The tiefling appears in the revised Monster Manual for this edition (2003) under the planetouched entry.

The tiefling paragon was introduced in Unearthed Arcana (2004).

The tiefling appears as a player character race in the Planar Handbook (2004), and Races of Destiny (2004).

Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition (2008-)

The tiefling appears as a player character race in the Player's Handbook for this edition (2008).

Fictional History

The story of the humans' ascension into the Tiefling race is called the story of Emperor Bael Turath. The Empire of Bael Turath was one of the greatest in all of humankind's history. In the Empire the noble class (Kings, Lords, Princes etc.) were completely devoted to the preservation of their power. They were so obsessed with power and glory that they vowed to even give up their humanity for it. Bael Turath made many promises to the nobles of his lands and word reached a realm called the Nine Hells located around the Astral Sea. People of the Nine Hells began having dreams or visions of the promises that Emperor Bael Turath made. They believed these visions would help keep the Emperor and the nobles in power. The visions spoke of an evil month long ritual that each ruling house of the Emperor must participate in to secure their power forever. Some of the houses refused to take part in the ritual because it promoted terrible deeds that all of the participants of all the houses must do. The houses that refused were destroyed and the ritual commenced. During the ritual devils began to appear and many houses and nobles made pacts with them. These Pacts not only bound the human nobles but also their descendants forever. Thus began the race known as the Tiefling.

Tiefling aspects

Tieflings usually have horns located on their head, pointed sharp teeth, tails ranging from small to large (depending on gender) and eyes that are usually red or black. Tieflings also exude a feeling of "evil" even though their race has become civil and no longer lusts for power. Many races distrust or outright hate Tieflings. Some believe them to be devil worshippers. However in Dungeons & Dragons version 4.0 the Tieflings do not associate with a specific god or gods. Their lack of faith also means Paladins and Clerics are seldom if ever found. Tieflings have no homeland and are very rare due to a war between them and the Dragonborn, another race seen in the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Most Tieflings prefer to be adventurers and rarely ever adventure with their own kin due to the prejudices of other races (People are concerned when two or more of their kind travel together).

Alignment

Unlike half-fiends, tieflings are not necessarily of evil alignments. Tieflings of all alignments, including good, exist, although many take more lowbrow jobs, such as that of thieves, assassins or spies.

In a standard game, Tieflings tend to have an unsettling air about them, and most people are uncomfortable around them, whether they are aware of the tiefling's unsavory ancestry or not.

Tieflings in various campaign settings

Tieflings appear in a number of campaign settings, including the following notable examples:

Tieflings in the Forgotten Realms

In the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, both tieflings and aasimar are more common than in other settings. Tieflings even have elven and orc counterparts (Fey'ri and Tanarruk, respectively). In the 3rd Edition of Dungeons and Dragons, less common varieties of the tiefling were introduced, including a dwarven counterpart, the Maeluth and a halfling counterpart, the Wispling.

Tieflings in Planescape

In the Planescape campaign setting, tieflings are a common race available to player characters, though they are mistrusted and reviled by many inhabitants of the planes.

Notable Tieflings

Livonia Darktongue appears in the book Weapons of Legacy in 2005.

Tieflings in Urban Arcana

Tieflings are a playable race in Urban Arcana, which is based on the premise that races from Dungeons and Dragons exist on earth. Most tieflings in Urban Arcana are humans with horns, although more obvious appearances exist. To regular humans who cannot perceive shadow, they appear to be cynical humans-the horns are not visible to those unable to perceive shadow.

External links

• The original source of this page at Wikipedia

• Tiefling – d20 System Reference Document entry
• www.wizards.com The news of the Tieflings new role in 4th edition.
• www.dnd4.com/rumors