Tiefling

Tieflings are a people cursed by a fiendish taint in their blood. A tiefling bloodlines could have started from intermingling with demons and devils or a fiendish pact, but the origins are often unknown or hulled in mystery. Tieflings are very diverse in their appearance. They are humanoid but with a feature, a tell, that gives away their fiendish origin.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Tieflings are very diverse in their appearance. They are humanoid but with features, a tell, that gives away their fiendish origin. These tells can be a combination of, but are not limited to these features; horns, fangs or sharp teeth, forked tongue, catlike eyes, six fingers on each hand, goat-like legs, hoofs, tail, leathery or scaly skin, odd coloured skin, cast no shadow or reflection, exude a smell of brimstone. Most have tieflings have three or four fiendish features but can have more. The most common features are horns and a tail closely followed by hoofs even though less than half of tieflings have them. A tell that can shift slightly from generation to generation. The tell usually reflects the fiend the taint came from, the ancestors and the tiefling's early development.

The most substantial influence on the fiendish features is the fiend that inflicted the taint on the bloodline. Most of the fiends responsible for inflicting the taint are devils because of their tendency to make deals. There are tieflings of other fiends like demons, but they are rarer. Depending on the fiend, the taint can leave the bloodline looking eccentric to appalling.

The ancestry can influence the look in two ways. One way is the type of sin the past few generations veered towards. This can twist the taint ever so slightly to represent that. The other way is the traits non-tiefling ancestors brought to the bloodline. While tieflings always breed true and the magical taint supersedes most other racial traits, dwarven ancestor could make them a bit shorter and bulkier. These changes are slight. Different tiefling bloodlines can mix and express the taint in a newly combined manner. This is the most significant visual change that can happen to a taint.

When a tiefling is growing up, the personal development they go through until they are full-grown can slightly influence the fiendish features. Exaggerating specific features to reflect the personality the tiefling develops in those years.

by Miguel Regodón

by Miguel Regodón

by Miguel Regodón

Genetics and Reproduction

Tieflings can reproduce with any other race as long as they are sexually compatible. Tieflings always breed true, meaning any child of a tiefling will also be a tiefling. This is because tieflings have a magical fiendish taint which can not be bred out like normal traits.

Growth Rate & Stages

They have the same growth rate as humans but live a bit longer. They can reach an age of anywhere between 90 and 150 years.

Civilization and Culture

Culture and Cultural Heritage

Like other races that were the result of the breeding of two or more others, tieflings have no true culture they could call their own. However, there are many archetypal features of tieflings that are not necessarily innate. This includes their attitude regarding their heritage, and while some tieflings embrace it, others are repulsed by it, forging the two most common stereotypes of tieflings.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Tieflings, in general, didn't get along well with the other races of the world and were slow to trust others of any race, even their own. Tieflings are often regarded with mistrust because of their fiendish nature, even if they have no relation to anything fiendish or evil except their heritage. If a tiefling want to do good they often have a harder time proving it.

by david talaski

Origin/Ancestry

Fiend