Tieflings
The existence of tieflings have long perplexed magical and historical scholars. Aside from their clear infernal heritage, no one is certain where they actually came from. The first time tieflings were recorded en masse was around 1,000 AC in the Province of Requiem near the location of a city that had vanished 200 years prior. This has led to a few theories:
1) The human city of Chamenos was once a hub of magical study and research, boasting one of the most prolific pre-Antecean universities. One of their biggest focuses was on inter-planar research, and much of the work that had been published and sent to other cities was used in creation of the Nexus. However, one day, the city simply vanished.
Nothing more remained of the metropolitan area except smooth stone and soot. It is widely believed that the city's wizards somehow managed to teleport the entire city into one of the lower planes, though excursions have never turned up any evidence of this. In regards to tieflings, it is believed that the citizens of Chamenos struck a deal with one of the devil lords in exchange for their survival, and a few hundred years of servitude in the Nine Hells twisted them into what is now known as the tiefling race.
At some point, the new tieflings found a means of escaping and reappeared where the Chamenos once stood. They attempted to rebuild but were quickly driven off by human lords who believed them to be demons. Realizing they could never exist in any organized settlement due to their infernal appearance, the tieflings became nomads and slowly evolved into the variety of species we see today.
There are a few problems with this theory, namely that there are some records of tieflings existing prior to the disappearance of Chamenos, which had led to the most popular theory of:
2) Tieflings are humans that made pacts with a number of different beings from the lower planes. They may have done this for a variety of different reasons: power, protection, or immortality to name a few. Whatever the reason, it is generally assumed they came with evil intentions. For this reason, most common folk treat tieflings with disdain. Some folk may believe that any given tiefling made the pact themselves, while more learned folk understand that at the very least, they are several generations removed from the ancestor who made the pact. Either way, evil is inherent to their bloodline, or so followers of this idea believe.
Then of course, there are the scholars with a better understanding of the nature of the planes and look at a larger picture:
3) There are many other species that appear to bear similar origins to the tieflings, especially when one looks at some of the other inner planes, namely: genasi, eladrin, and most notably, aasimar. These beings generally make their homes on other planes of existence, but do occasionally find their way onto the material plane. It is clear that these races have adapted for the climes of their respective planes, but still share many traits with their human cousins. Followers of this theory tend to believe that these "plane-touched" humanoids did not come about because of the human part of their blood, but the supernatural element.
It is believed that powerful entities from these other planes, for whatever reason, took an interest in mingling their powers with mortal blood, giving rise to the various races and their many sub-races. This would account for the wide variety of tieflings and would sort them in the same category as aasimar, whereas instead of a celestial ancestor, they were initially spawned by fiends.
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