Tiefling

When the influence of a demon, devil, or other fiend infiltrates the bloodline of a mortal family, tieflings are the inevitable result. Tieflings carry the sinister mark of the fiendish planes upon their flesh, and their specific abilities and physical qualities vary according to their heritage. Hellspawn are those who descend from devils, grimspawn hail from daemonic influences, and pitborn bear the influence of demons, though these are only the three most common among a wide variety of tiefling lineages.

Generations might pass between a fiend’s direct influence and the time a tiefling child is born. For those born to ignorant or fearful parents, childhood is particularly hard, but even those whose families accept and nurture them face fear and prejudice from society as a whole. In some cases, this rejection encourages a tiefling to embrace the evil within their heritage, though others carve out a place and live a fulfilling life despite the challenges facing them.
If you want a character who is supernaturally infused with sinister forces, might have a unique appearance, and can fill the role of a complicated or unexpected hero, you should play a tiefling.

Physical Description

Two tieflings, even siblings or twins, might not look similar at all, for the influence of fiendish lineage manifests in unique and unusual ways. These variations never make a tiefling’s appearance so strange as to obscure their humanoid ancestry, but horns, a forked tongue, vestigial wings, a tail, or a cloven hoof in place of a foot are all common and obvious signs of their heritage.

Versatile Heritage

Tiefling

Uncommon, Tiefling
You descend from fiends or bear the mark of the fiendish realms, manifesting as some unusual feature that belies your heritage, such as horns or a tail. You gain the tiefling trait, in addition to the traits from your ancestry. You also gain low-light vision, or you gain darkvision if your ancestry already has low-light vision. You can choose from tiefling feats and feats from your ancestry whenever you gain an ancestry feat.

Tiefling Feats

Other Information

Abandoned by Faith

Few tieflings have positive relationships with the faiths of good-aligned deities. Sometimes this friction stems from ignorance; experienced priests might know to differentiate a tiefling from a demon, but a random lay follower might not. Sometimes it's just a clash of perspectives—tieflings are more likely to have seen the kind of darkness that makes holy idealism look laughable. Other reasons stem not from divine limitations but earthly ones, such as overstretched churches failing tieflings in need due to a lack of resources.

Family Matters

Powerful raja rakshasas see those beastbrood tieflings who can hide or disguise their fiendish features as potential infiltrators or agents and thus valuable pawns in the games they play to cement their influence. Rakshasas willing to wait for untold time might even seek out old enemies who reincarnated as tieflings and gain their trust so that, once the tieflings regain former status or achieve a new station, there's a debt to be repaid. Very few rajas do anything out of the kindness of their hearts, but some ask less of those they take a liking to— they might even become doting. This special treatment happens most often when they share a familial connection, see something of themselves in a beastbrood, or recognize the potential for greatness.

Lurien's Library

Lurien's Library is whispered to possess a collection of dire secrets about various deities of the multiverse. Though Lurien themself is a deity with many of their own secrets, many immortals and extraplanar beings have come to embrace Lurien's Library, even if they do extract a steep cost. Tieflings, especially faultspawn, often catch wind of these truths:

• Brymod isn't simply carefree and filled with aimless wanderlust—she actively distances herself from the woes and near catastrophes she has caused.
• What Terragar truly craves most is complete control.
• Tallia is likely a child of Koldin and a lucky mortal.
• Many rakshasas believe newly minted gods who perform the Rights of Amatos are reincarnations at best and, at worst, future asuras who don't believe the truth about themselves. Neither is complimentary.
• Only a few deities are never held in contempt by Lurien.

Tiefling Settlements

Given the nature of fiends, tieflings are among the most common of planar scions, especially in areas where demonic or diabolic corruption is most powerful, such as in the lands of the Bleakspan or under the rule of the Ishlen'Isila in Drethranor. In such places, it's not unheard of for a few dozen tieflings to form their own small community. These places tend to be paranoid and precarious, sometimes worryingly vulnerable to the cults of dread gods or unholy fiends.