Tiefling

Tieflings are human-based planetouched, native outsiders that are infused with the touch of the fiendish planes, most often through descent from Demons, devils, evil deities, and others who have bred with humans. Tieflings are known for their cunning and personal allure, which makes them excellent deceivers as well as inspiring leaders when prejudices are laid aside. Although their evil ancestors could be many generations removed, the taint lingers. Unlike half-fiends, tieflings are not predisposed to evil alignments and vary in alignment nearly as widely as full humans, though tieflings are certainly devious. The celestial counterparts of tieflings are called Aasimars.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Tieflings tend to have an unsettling air about them, and most people are uncomfortable around them, whether they are aware of the tiefling's unsavoury ancestry or not. While some look like normal humans, most retain physical characteristics derived from their ancestor, with the most common such features being horns, prehensile tails, and pointed teeth. Some tieflings also have eyes that are solid orbs of black, red, white, silver, or gold, while others have eyes more similar to those of humans. Other, more unusual characteristics include a sulphurous odour, cloven feet, or a general aura of discomfort they leave on others.
In many other ways, tieflings are similar to humans physically. Tieflings are, on average, just as tall as humans, from 5′6″‒6′2″ and weigh just a little bit heavier at 140‒220 lbs. Tiefling skin is usually human-like in colour, though extending past normal human colours into reddish hues as well. Tiefling hair is also often the same colour as human hair, though dark blue, red, or purple are common shades amongst the race. Although it is not always the case, tieflings tend to have better reflexes than their human kin. This, along with their natural propensity for hiding and deceit helped to give tieflings a reputation for thievery and duplicity.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Like other races that are the result of the breeding of two or more others, tieflings have no true culture they can call their own. However, there are many archetypal features of tieflings that are not necessarily innate. This includes their attitude regarding their heritage, and while some tieflings embrace it, others are repulsed by it, forging the two most common stereotypes of tieflings. The former tieflings, who are proud of their fiendish past, are often fascinated by the dark and sinister events that touched the world, but are not necessarily evil or inclined to perpetuate them. Some tieflings of this type choose to use their knowledge of evil and their own fiendish abilities to thwart these dark plots and schemes. Others seek to learn more and to emulate these evil deeds.
Other tieflings are ashamed or even frightened of their heritage and wish only to escape the shadow that lurks over them as a result. Some do this through constantly doing good, as though to make up for the evil that begot them. Others instead hide and try to go unnoticed as they pass through the world, preferring to be ignored and forgotten than noticed and made a target because of their past.
Regardless of their motivations, tieflings often distrust one another, sometimes even casting the same preconceptions on one another that others do on them. In spite of this, many secretly desire to have another tiefling nearby, if only to experience some small kind of kinship. Some of these tieflings gather as partners-in-crime, while others are sought out by good tieflings who hope to redeem others of their race.

Lifespan

90 - 150 years

Average Height

5′6″‒6′2″

Average Weight

140‒220 lbs