Tiefling

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Greyhawk Creature
Tiefling


Tiefling is a creature found in the Flanaess and all of Oerth. Tieflings are either born in the Lower Planes or have fiendish ancestors who originated there. A tiefling (pronounced TEE-fling) is linked by blood to a devil, a demon, or some other Fiend. This connection to the Lower Planes is the tiefling’s fiendish legacy, which comes with the promise of power yet has no effect on the tiefling’s moral outlook.

The tiefling (/ˈtiːflɪŋ/ TEEF-ling)[1] is a fictional humanoid race in the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy roleplaying game. Originally introduced in the Planescape campaign setting in the second edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons as a player character race for the setting, they became one of the primary races available for player characters in the fourth edition of the game.[2][3]

In the Planescape setting, where tieflings were introduced, they were described as being a mixture of human and "something else" with the implication that the medium-sized non-human ancestors originated from the evil "lower planes".[4][5] In further supplements it was clarified that tieflings were usually descended from fiends, but not in the same manner as half-fiends,[citation needed] since a tiefling's fiendish ancestry lies further up the family tree.[5] This description remained true in third edition.

In fourth edition Dungeons & Dragons, tieflings are a race whose human ancestors made a bargain with devils to increase their power.[6]

Their origin is similar in 5th Edition.[7]

Ecology

Environment

Typical physical characteristics

Tiefling's appearance are as vried as the fiends from which they are descended. Some have tails, some have vasrious colors of skin or scales, while others have pointed teeth or unusual colored eyes. Almost all have horns.

In earlier versions of Dungeons & Dragons, 3.5 and previous, tieflings have any of a number of features that reference (directly or indirectly) their fiendish lineage. These include horns located on their heads, pointed sharp teeth, extra fingers, cloven hooves in place of feet, tails, and unusually colored eyes.

In 4th edition and later, tieflings are a core character race[8] and have had their appearance altered from 3.5 and earlier.[9] All tieflings possess large thick horns of various styles on their heads, prehensile tails approximately 4 to 5 feet in length, sharply pointed teeth, and their eyes are solid orbs of red, black, white, silver, or gold. Tiefling skin ranges through common human shades right into the reds, ranging from brick red to a ruddy tan. Tiefling hair, which starts behind their horns, ranges from dark blue to purple to red in addition to more normal human colors.

Tiefling Bloodlines

The physical appearance of a tiefling often depended on the exact ancestry that spawned it, a bloodline that might have remained dormant for generations. Diabolic or demonic tieflings could, besides the common horns and tails, possess a forked tongue, leathery or scaly skin, the smell of brimstone, or unusually warm flesh. Some accounts even held these tieflings to cast neither shadows nor reflections. Some diabolic tieflings also sported goat-like legs or hooves. Tieflings descended from rakshasa might have furred skin or feline eyes. Those descended from night hags could have small horns, glowing red eyes, or bruised, blue skin. Most tieflings had only one or two of these features.[10]

Some tieflings were not descended from mere fiends at all, but from powerful gods. These tieflings often had their own physical characteristics that set them apart. Tieflings sired by Beshaba, for instance, often had antlers instead of horns and pale, white hair. Those sired by Mask, on the other hand, were known for their tendency to cast no reflection.[11]

Prior to Asmodeus's ascension to godhood, the infernal blood could be diluted through intermarriage, but afterward, the union of a tiefling with another race always produced a tiefling child.[12]

Society

Language

Religion

Relationships

Abilities

Possessions

Activities

History

Notable individuals

  • Ardeth Webb (LE female tielfing Monk6/Tatooed Monk 10)—an NPC found in "Thirteen Cages", part 10 of the Shackled City adventure path (2004).
  • Captain Xendros (CE female tielfing prist of Iuz—a quartermaster of Iuz.[13]

Rumors and legends

Creative Origins

Name

The name, pronounced (/ˈtiːflɪŋ/ TEEF-ling),[14] was derived by Wolfgang Baur from the German word tief meaning "deep, low", and the suffix -ling, "offspring," alluding to their origins in the "lower planes" (in the 2nd and 3rd editions).[15]

Publishing history

Tieflings weren't present in the earliest Greyhawk sourcebooks, but this is solely because they did not emerge in official sourcebooks until Planescape (1994) in second edition. Since then, they have become increasingly more common and popular with players, even being in the Player's Handbook. Since then, they have always been a part of the Great Wheel, and present in Greyhawk's larger world. There have always been other, similar beings, such as cambions, half-fiends, alu-fiends,

One of the first artists to depict the tiefling, and possibly most famously, was Tony DiTerlizzi.[16]

Second edition

The tiefling was introduced in the Planescape Campaign Setting (1994)[6][17] with more information in the first Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix (1994)[18] and The Planewalker's Handbook (1996).[19]

Third edition

The tiefling appears in the Monster Manual for this edition (2000)[9] under the "planetouched" entry.[20]Template:Page needed

The fey'ri and tanna'ruk tieflings appear in Monsters of Faerun (2001).[21] The tiefling is presented as a player character race for the Forgotten Realms setting in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (2001),[22] and the tiefling and fey'ri appear as player character races in Races of Faerûn (2003).[23]

Third edition (v3.5)

The tiefling appears in the revised Monster Manual for this edition (2003) under the planetouched entry.

The tiefling paragon was introduced in Unearthed Arcana (2004).[24]

The tiefling appears as a player character race in the Planar Handbook (2004),[25] and Races of Destiny (2004).[26]

Fourth edition

The tiefling appears as a player character race in the Player's Handbook for the 4th edition (2008),[3][6] and again in Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms (2010).[27] Tieflings also have a racial book dedicated to them in this edition, Player's Handbook Races: Tieflings.

William O'Connor, the artist responsible for designing tieflings in this edition, commented that there were few artistic depictions of the race in previous editions. However, with the tiefling becoming a core player race, the 4th edition design team "wanted to radically update their appearance to make them look more intimidating and 'cool'. [...] The horns and the tail were the defining elements of the race so my first direction was to make them as prominent as possible. Part of the design of the 4th edition was to integrate the design into being a miniature game so part of the process was to make the character's silhouettes easily recognizable from a distance".[28] O'Connor highlighted a conversation he had with the creative director Stacy Longstreet who described tieflings as a "cursed people" which helped him figure out "their cultural aesthetic".[28] O'Connor stated that:

My immediate touchstone was of course vampires, and I worked to give the tielfing that sexy, dark and gothic appeal despite their "deformity". I carried this idea over into everything about them, their clothes and equipment. I wanted everything to have a twisted aesthetic as if all of their prized heirlooms and weapons, all the relics of a lost past, were also cursed and contorted into horrible but beautiful shapes, imagining that the forms of the weapons should reflect the shapes of their tails. Elegant and deadly like the tielfing themselves.[28]

Fifth edition

The tiefling appears as a player character race in the Player's Handbook for the 5th edition (2014). Variant tiefling options appear in the Sword Coast Adventure Guide (2015) and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (2018). Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes specifically outlines the nine tiefling bloodlines of the Archdevils of the Nine Hells.[29][30]

The One D&D playtest released in August 2022 updates the base tiefling[31] to have "options encompassing all the Lower Planes. Infernal tieflings are tied to lawful evil planes like Acheron or the Nine Hells, abyssal tieflings to chaotic evil planes like the Abyss or Pandemonium, and chthonic tieflings to neutral evil planes like Gehenna or Hades. The options differ in their damage resistances, and in the spells they learn at first, third, and fifth level".[32]

Appearances

Adventures
Novels
Video Games
Card Games

Disclaimer:Any lore presented through the following links does not necessarily adhere to established officially published content, and the views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the editors of this wiki.

References

Notes

Citations

  1. ↑ The Tiefling Race for Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) Fifth Edition (5e) (in en-us). D&D Beyond.
  2. ↑ Planescape Campaign Setting (2e). rpgnow.com , January 6, 2015.
  3. ↑ a b Heinsoo, Rob, Andy Collins, and James Wyatt. Player's Handbook. (Wizards of the Coast, 2008)
  4. ↑ Clements, Philip J. (December 2019). Dungeons & Discourse: Intersectional Identities in Dungeons & Dragons (PhD). pp. 35–36. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
  5. ↑ a b Lord Winfield (September–October 1997). "Planescape – un bon plan". Backstab 5: 46–47.
  6. ↑ a b c Ewalt, David M. (2013) Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and The People Who Play It, Scribner, p. 210 ISBN: 9781451640502.
  7. ↑
  8. ↑ (2008) Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition For Dummies, For Dummies ISBN: 978-0470292907.
  9. ↑ a b Tresca, Michael J. (2010) The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, McFarland, pp. 81–82 ISBN: 9780786458950.
  10. ↑ Races of Faerûn, p.125-126.
  11. ↑ Races of Faerûn, p.127.
  12. ↑ Digital book:Lesser Evils, p.52, 92.
  13. ↑ Ghosts of Saltmarsh (2019).
  14. ↑ The Tiefling Race for Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) Fifth Edition (5e) (in en-us). D&D Beyond.
  15. ↑ Staggs, Matt. A Short History of Tieflings. Unbound Worlds.
  16. ↑ Grabianowski, Ed. Inside The Fantasy Art Of Superstar Artist Tony DiTerlizzi. io9.com, May 28, 2015.
  17. ↑ Cook, Zeb. Planescape Campaign Setting. (TSR, 1994)
  18. ↑ Varney, Allen, ed. Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix (TSR, 1994)
  19. ↑ Cook, Monte. The Planewalker's Handbook. (TSR, 1996)
  20. ↑ Cook, Monte, Jonathan Tweet, and Skip Williams. Monster Manual: Core Rulebook III (Wizards of the Coast, 2000)
  21. ↑ Wyatt, James and Rob Heinsoo. Monstrous Compendium: Monsters of Faerûn (Wizards of the Coast, 2001)
  22. ↑ Greenwood, Ed, Sean K. Reynolds, Skip Williams, and Rob Heinsoo. Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (Wizards of the Coast, 2001)
  23. ↑ Reynolds, Sean K., Forbeck, Matt, Jacobs, James, Boyd, Erik L. Races of Faerûn (Wizards of the Coast, 2003)
  24. ↑ Collins, Andy, Jesse Decker, David Noonan, and Rich Redman. Unearthed Arcana (Wizards of the Coast, 2004)
  25. ↑ Cordell, Bruce, Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel. Planar Handbook (Wizards of the Coast, 2004)
  26. ↑ Noonan, David, Eric Cagle, and Aaron Rosenberg. Races of Destiny. (Wizards of the Coast, 2004
  27. ↑ Mearls, Mike, Bill Slavicsek, and Rodney Thompson. Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. (Wizards of the Coast, 2011)
  28. ↑ a b c Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named :0
  29. ↑ DiSalvo, Paul. Dungeons & Dragons: Guide To Tiefling Bloodlines (in en-US). TheGamer.
  30. ↑ Clark, Morgan. Dungeons & Dragons: What to Know About 5e's Tiefling Subraces (in en-US). CBR.
  31. ↑ Baird, Scott. One D&D: Every Change To The Playable Races (in en-US). ScreenRant.
  32. ↑ Williams, Isaac. One D&D: 10 Biggest Changes To Published Races (in en-US). CBR.
  33. ↑ Die Vecna Die! (2000).
  34. ↑ "Three Faces of Evil". Dungeon #125 (Aug 2005), p.18
  35. ↑ Dungeon #125 (Aug 2005), p.22-25

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Bibliography

This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).


This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Tiefling on the Forgotten Realms Wiki (view authors.

Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index

The Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index (EGI) is based on previous work of Jason Zavoda through '08, continued by numerous other fans. The EGI article has a list of sources, product names, abbreviations, and a link to the full, downloadable index.

Topic Type Description Product Page/Card/Image

Tiefling Monster Monster Manual 1, D&D 3.5e (Premium Edition) 209, 210
Tiefling Monster Monster Manual 1, D&D 4e (Deluxe Edition) 250
Tiefling Monster Oerth Journal #14 13,14
Tiefling Monster Oerth Journal #23 33
Tiefling Monster Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus, D&D 5e 4, 5, 11, 24, 40, 45, 46, 188
Tiefling Monster Dragon magazine #356 67
Tiefling Monster Dungeon magazine #147 52
Tiefling Monster Ghosts of Saltmarsh, D&D 5e 11, 13, 14, 210
Tiefling Monster Monstrous Compendium - Planescape Appendix I 112, 113
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