Tieflings are mortals who have unknown planar ancestry, typically (and largely accurately) assumed to be from among the creatures of the Lower Planes: tanar'ri, baatezu, gehereleths, yugoloths, and others. Often distrusted as a result, tieflings feel a strange mixture of pride and shame with their identity. They're referred to as plane-touched, although that term also includes aasimar and genasi.
The planar ancestry is typically more than a generation back -- half-tanar'ri such as the cambions and alu-fiends do not count as tieflings, for example.
Appearance[]
No two tieflings look alike, each betraying some aspect of their ancestry: Cloven hooves, claws, patches of scale, or even just a constant shadow across their eyes.
Although tieflings tend to be a largely planar phenomenon, there are some worlds with a rather high preponderance of tieflings, such as Toril, a world with much magic and planar travel.
In approximately 119 YFHR, Asmodeus enacted a ritual on Toril, ensuring all tieflings in the world would have the "mark of Asmodeus" -- effectively rewriting all tieflings such that their ancestry could be traced to him. This was a gambit to make him the "racial god" over the world's tieflings, allowing him to ascend to full godhood rather than merely being a Lord of the Nine.
Accordingly, for decades afterward, Toril's tieflings all had a similar appearance, owing to their shared ancestry: primarily reddish skin, a tail, and horns. However, tieflings of other ancestry (and appearance) continued to exist in other worlds and planes.
- A table for randomly generating tiefling appearance traits can be found on Planescape: The Planewalker's Handbook, p. 80
.
Background Information[]
- "Tiefling" comes from the German "tief," meaning deep or low, a reference to their Lower Planar origins.
- The 119 YFHR year for Asmodeus' ritual was determined by taking the publishing year of the Lost Gods trilogy (1997) -- a crossover series covering Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, and Planescape -- and its date in Dale Reckoning (1368 DR). Planescape books published in 1997 take place in 129 YFHR. The date of Asmodeus' ritual took place in 1358 DR, ten years earlier, so subtracting 10 from 129 gives us a date of 119 YFHR.
- Of course, this assumes time flows at the same rate in Toril and the Planes, which may not be the case: there's a difference of approximately 150 years between FR's 1st Edition (1357 DR) to the most recent of 5th Edition as of this writing (Acquisitions Incorporated, 1496 DR)
References[]
- Planescape: Planescape Campaign Setting, p. 12-13, A Player's Guide to the Planes
- Planescape: Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix, p. 112-113
- Planescape: The Planewalker's Handbook, p. 78-80