"Charming, mysterious, and uniquely gifted in the arts of sorcery. Of all the Amalgam races in the world of Orr, the Tiefling is perhaps the most favored. The circumstances of a Tiefling coming into the world are determined by complex mathematics, planarology, and just dumb luck. Nearly everyone has a Tiefling somewhere in their family tree, making them uniquely gifted in creating a common bond between feuding groups, as they remind us that at our core, we are all more alike than we are different." — Rennian Kaldwell, Historian
The Tieflings of Orr are born as Amalgam due to the shifting of the planar leylines, the magical energy points that weave like a lattice around the surface of the world. These leylines hum with arcane power as the alignment of the outer planes brush against one another upon the cosmic circuit they are all bound to. When two planes briefly strafe along the same point in space and time it creates a flash of resonant energy upon the Prime Material Plane. This excess, ambient power, then flows into the world of Orr and is absorbed by any number of sources, one of which being new life itself as it grows in the womb.
There is some speculation that the pigmentation and the type of horns that a Tiefling is born with may be an indicator of which planar energies the child was exposed to, but it is a hypothesis that is difficult to test with any certainty. One interesting phenomenon of the Tiefling is that should two of them become intimately involved, unlike other Amalgam, their offspring is not guaranteed to be a Tiefling as well (although it is more common).
While the races of Orr harbor no inherit ill will towards Tieflings do the circumstances of their birth being outside their control, Tiefling children do present a significant problem during childbirth. Their horns, as small and blunted as they might be, often create complications for their mothers. While new magical and surgical means have been developed to increase the likelihood of a successful birth, many Tieflings either leave their mothers unable to bring new children into the world, or, very unfortunately, cause them such damage that they often do not survive the ordeal. This coupled with their startling appearance and features often means that Tieflings are orphaned or abandoned at young ages.
An Infernal Connection
Despite the presence of Tieflings in the world being a commonly understood phenomenon, there still remains a curious connection between Tieflings and the plane of Hades where demons and devils dwell. Hades is the only other known plane where Tieflings naturally arise, and no other mortal race shares this attribute of being born outside the prime material plane.
Scholars attribute this strange phenomenon to the continent of Infidia and the Lords Who Lie Below, an unknown council of power of which the Sultans of the Seven Kingdoms communed in order to gain dominion over the lands and drive out many of the beastraces who once dwelt there. Tieflings are especially prized and revered in the lands of Infidia. Many orphaned Tieflings are 'adopted' by powerful, wealthy, and affluent merchants, and lords of the Seven Kingdoms, but for what purpose one can only guess.
Those Tieflings of the plane of Hades rarely gain the prestige and magical power to cross the barriers between that plane and the prime material, but those that do often act as emissaries and dignitaries of powerful infernal lords. Like ambassadors they survey the lands, contract pacts, and cultivate the influence of their masters.
Appearances & Attitudes
The distinct pigmentations of the Tieflings, their horns, and their tails are the most distinct features of their race. Tiefling colorations range from pale white, dull blues, blushed purple, fiery red, and onyx black. Their horns can manifest in a number of different combinations of thickness, curled, length, and weight. Some Tiefling's horns are so burdensome that they must file them down or have them blunted, and occasionally a Tieflings may possess only one singular horn rather than the traditional pair. Tiefling tails range in variation almost as much as their other features. Some Tieflings possess a long, slender tail ending in a barbed spade, while others may simply be a bare nub, and still others end in a plume of hair.
Tieflings are often flamboyant in their dress and garb, and many choose to ornament their horns with rings, caps, and hanging charms. This expression is described by some Tieflings as a means of self ownership, and self-love. Many Tieflings struggle to feel accepted in society due to their radically different appearance than their siblings or parents, or having been abandoned at a young age. The Tieflings are a people without a people. There are no shared traditions among them accept those they adopt from the culture they are born into, meaning that no two Tieflings are guaranteed to have anything else in common except, perhaps, some similarities in appearance.
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