Tieflings

“All beasts are happy, for when they die,

Their souls are soon dissolv'd in elements;

But mine must live still to be plagu'd in hell.

Curs'd be the parents that engender'd me!

No, Faustus, curse thyself, curse Lucifer

That hath depriv'd thee of the joys of heaven.”

-- Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus





Damning whispers and vicious rumors follow the old family on the hill, who trucked with demons long ago. A young woman curses her inheritance as she draws a hood over curved horns. The daring courtier makes a scandalous stir, with eyes aflame and a tongue as barbed as his tail.

Bad Blood

Everything has a price. This is the lesson learned by proud emperors, who sold the souls of their subjects for one more victory. By desperate merchants, who made promises that should never have been kept. By unwise sages, who signed away their lineage for tidbits of knowledge.

Condemned for some ancestral sin, tieflings are born into bloodlines ravaged by ancient pacts or divine curses, branded from birth by fiendish essence. The scions of wicked houses and survivors of damned kingdoms, tieflings endure a foul reputation they never earned.

Hounded and feared, the mistakes of the past hang heavy over the tiefling race. Their inheritance is darkness, one that their greatest heroes defy time and again.

Inherit the Earth

Tiefling skin ranges across normal human tones, from savannah dark to winter pale, as well as bloody reds, ashen greys, bruise blues, and stranger hues. While most tieflings have a largely human shape, some exhibit hooved or clawed feet, scaled skin, bony protrusions, membranous wings, forked tongues, or pointed ears.

All share a few features, however. Eyes of one solid color, with an unnatural gleam. A thick tail, four or five feet long, that coils and sways. And horns – curved or straight, large or small, ridged or smooth, many or few.

Tieflings are accompanied by less physical deformities, such as the smell of brimstone, a twitching shadow, or an unnatural reverberation of the voice. These omens do little to endear them to the common folk.

Dance with the Devil

Actual tiefling nations are rare, the splintered relics of pact-ridden empires. Those hellbred with common origins often form a diaspora, scattered across the world but bound by shared suffering. More isolated bloodlines are the issue of lone hubristic nobles or depraved arcanists.

Whatever their history, tiefling families are insular by necessity, teaching children to be suspicious of kindness and loyal to proven kin, ready to pack up their lives and flee the moment disaster strikes. Tieflings are an easy scapegoat for failed harvests or sudden fires, and many are left orphaned or confined to slums.

At times, the tiefling curse will emerge in a family that had long-forgotten its dark roots. Such unfortunate babes are often abandoned at temples or orphanages, and raised to hate what they are.

Highway to Hell

Despite their small numbers, a sizeable portion of tieflings become adventurers. Already used to a life of unpredictable danger, they seek the truth behind their hellbred history, or an escape from the judgement of strangers. A great many dream of a chance to win fame and fortune, to overturn the fear and hatred their bloodline bequeathed to them.

Tiefling Names

Tiefling families who take perverse pride or find bitter honor in their ancient oaths use names of fiendish origin, passed down through generations. As a result, children desperate to reject this dark legacy often adopt new, fresh names that express a concept or virtue they hope to uphold.

Others are simply named according to the mortal customs of their homeland – or whichever will accept them.