The Origins of Tieflings [Dungeons & Dragons]

This week we talk about anything and everything related to the devil-like race of Tieflings. From their creation as a race to how they are viewed in society- everything is in this episode.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 2:15 What is a Tiefling?
• 4:45 Outcasts by Birth
• 6:12 Tieflings at Birth
• 10:08 Are Tieflings Good or Evil?
• 10:47 Tiefling Lineage
• 13:27 The Blood War and the Creation of Tieflings
• 16:54 Infernal Urges
• 19:29 Tieflings in Combat
• 22:50 Outro & Closing Thoughts

Transcript

Tieflings, the horned devil-like creatures from Dungeons and Dragons, are not all as chipper as our friend Karlach Cliffgate. These folks have a deeply troubled past and have faced isolation as a result– but how did that come to be? Join me in this episode where we’re going to talk about all things related to Tieflings. 

intro music

Hey there, welcome to the Lore’d to Death podcast– a deep dive into the lore of your favourite games, movies, shows, and more! My name is Brett, and today I wanted to do another origin story of a race in Dungeons & Dragons so this time we’re going to be diving into the origins of the infernal tricksters, the Tieflings, at the request of a listener. I talked about them a little bit in my earlier episode on the Blood War, covering all of the happenings in Avernus, but we barely scratched the surface there, so we’re going to get the full story here.

Before we started I just wanted to ask that you rate this podcast 5 stars wherever you’re listening to it, or like and subscribe if you’re on Youtube. The only way I know that you’re enjoying the content I’m making is if you let me know! So rate the show, leave a comment, or send an email to loredtodeath@gmail.com to suggest an episode, or just say hi! So with that out of the way, let’s get on with the episode.

And I’m sure everyone will be happy about the news that this episode will be entirely spoiler-free and I feel the need to say this, after the last couple episodes having caught some flak, that all of the sources I use are going to be using the most up-to-date information. That means that if something was mentioned back in 2e, but was overwritten or retconned in 5e, we’re going to be using 5e as the right answer. I will do my best to cover any overwritten information if it seems like it could be pertinent to other information, but if it’s a straight retcon then I’m sorry to all of the people who have been playing for their entire lives- sometimes things change.

So let’s get right into this. What exactly are Tieflings? They are described as a human-based planetouched, which is a very confusing statement if you’re not familiar with it. Planetouched is a general term used to describe a creature whose lineage can be traced back to an outsider of sorts that left their genetic mark. This meant that a planetouched creature was a hybrid breed of sorts. This includes a whole host of creatures, the most well known of them are races like the Aasimar, Genasi, and Tieflings. Being planetouched meant that the Tieflings carried the mark of their infernal lineage with them, which included solid-coloured eyes (which could be black, gold, red, silver or just pure white), horns, tails, and potentially any skin colour under the rainbow.

And, this is where I’m going to say that there are some times when I disagree with the most recent source, or think that it deserves the flavour that previous sources give. And that’s in the skin colour. If you’ve played a Tiefling, you know that you can have pretty well any skin colour that you want. The 5e player handbook states that “...their skin tones cover the full range of human colouration, but also include various shades of red” while underneath a picture of a Tielfling who has purple skin. I’m not sure what shade of red purple is, but I’m certain that someone was doing magic mushrooms at Wizards. But they can be anything from any range of human skin tones, as mentioned before, to shades of red, blue, and even green. And this is all dependent on their direct lineage, which we’ll talk more about a little later. When I said that Tieflings can be any colour under the rainbow, I wasn’t exaggerating too much.

But, it was these differences– the skin colour, horns, tails, and other traits, that left most people uncomfortable at the sight of Tieflings. So they were, for the most part, outcasts by nature. Most people saw the horns and saw it as a mark of the devils, and assumed that an innocent Tiefling was in this plane to do harm to people or do the devils’ work when, in reality, the Tieflings were just as innocent as anyone else was.

Being outcasts, Tieflings tended to stick to their own since they had no other choice. This only made matters worse because, what’s worse than one devil in your town? Groups of them. This meant that Tieflings weren’t typically able to have a normal upbringing and adult life like other humanoid races were, and were forcibly kept in the shadows, forced to do shady work like swindling and thieving and often ended up as crime lords or some other criminal job by virtue of not being given any other option. This further perpetuated the stereotype that Tieflings were  evil-doers, and caused a deep mistrust on both sides. Eventually Tieflings would grow to distrust anyone but their own kind in turn, since they were never given a reason not to. This mutual distrust meant that typically Tieflings weren’t friends amongst other races, but if one could break through the generational hatred it’s said that a Tiefling is a strong ally, and a friend for life.

Even further on the outcast train, there is a pretty disturbing passage from 2003’s “Races of Faerun” that states;

“[Tieflings] with gross physical alterations are often killed at birth, and even those with less noticeable physical traits are sometimes killed by their own horrified parents. Occasionally a Tiefling is born to someone indifferent to its appearance, determined to redeem it, willing to exploit it, or evil enough not to care about its nature, and these Tieflings are most likely to survive to adulthood.” 

This brings up two interesting points. One, that according to this source most Tieflings don’t make it to adulthood. Whether or not that means into their 20s or not is maybe up for debate depending if you consider that they have a total lifespan of about 50 years over humans (being able to live from 90-150 years of age) means that they don’t mature until later in their life or not. The other point is that this source seems to imply that Tieflings can be born to a non-Tiefling couple, which is very interesting. And this is backed up by Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. According to this source, there are four different outcomes with which a Tiefling can be born, plus one extra that isn’t accounted for:

1. One parent was a human, and the other was a devil.
2. One parent was a Tiefling, and the other was a devil.
3. One parent was a Tiefling, and the other was a human.
4. Both parents were humans, and their infernal heritage was dormant until the child came along.

And then the extra, which is that both parents were Tieflings. There was a source that stated Tieflings were sterile, as they were a mixed race, but that no longer seems to be the case and there’s nothing else in the other sources I’ve read that would suggest otherwise. The fact that Xanathar’s didn’t have anything about both parents being Tieflings is a bit odd, but I guess you can do with that information what you will. I think that this is all particularly interesting that a Tiefling can be born of so many different circumstances– especially the fourth point. The idea that a Tiefling can be born of two human parents who might have had some dormant infernal genes is really neat, and it gives some interesting context to the prior quote about how some Tieflings are killed at birth out of fear. Imagine if you didn’t know you had infernal genes, and then all of a sudden you give birth with your perfectly human partner and the baby comes out with horns and a tail. You might think you were cursed, and since most people were already prejudiced against Tieflings, I think that most of these people wouldn’t accept their child like that. It’s an unfortunate truth, and it’s the truth that Tieflings are cursed to bear for the most part.

Because of all of the animosity and mistreatment from other races, and given their forced lifestyles, you might assume that all Tieflings would fall under evil alignment, but that’s no longer the case. In 2e, they covered all neutral and evil categories and for 3e they were just evil. But in recent editions they’re more on the chaotic side of the alignment table, ranging from good to evil. They are known as tricksters, after all.

Other than the horns, tails, and skin colour, Tieflings are fairly similar in appearance to humans. They stand about just as tall and weigh just as much on average. But aside from the obvious differences, there are differences even amongst Tieflings depending on their lineage. Tieflings descended from Rakshasa (which are essentially cat people, like the Khajit of the Elder Scrolls universe) might have furry skin or feline-slit eyes. On the other hand, ones that were descended from Night Hags might have small horns, glowing eyes, and blue skin. The traits that they carried over would all depend on both parents, which feels redundant to even say. The human-like features would come from their human parent, while other physical traits like goat-like legs or smelling like brimstone would come from the demon or devil side of the family. So, really, Tieflings are very unique from one another, and there are plenty of different ways they can appear (some more devilish than others).

But, some Tiieflings were not born of devils at all, but gods, and these Tieflings would have their own distinct appearances as well. For instance, those born of Beshaba, the Maid of Misfortune, sometimes had something more akin to antlers than horns, and would sport snow white hair. Those who descended from Mask, the Lord of Shadows, on the other hand, were known to cast  no reflection like a vampire. However, most Tieflings come from Mulhorand and Thay and were created from a union with Set or Sebek. The ones from Mulhurand would often leave their homeland in search of their own destinies, while those from Thay seemed to stay for they were spawned by wizards who were looking for indentured servants, and served most if not all of their life as slaves to either of their parents.

There was even a time when a ritual performed by a warlock coven known as the Thoril Thirteen cursed all Tieflings by changing their lineage, whether they came from another God or devil, to having the blood of the Archdevil Asmodeus. This was basically done as a plot to give Asmodeus additional power by making him a racial God, meaning that all Tieflings would be lumped into worshipping him as he was now the proprietor of all Tieflings. After the Spellplague of 1385DR, this extended to most Tieflings across Toril which meant that most Tieflings ended up looking the same, as they were now all cut from the same cloth. That’s the canon reason why most Tieflings look the same, or have red-tinted skin and no other discernible features like the goat legs or fur.

But we can trace pretty much all Tieflings back to Avernus and the Blood War. I have an entire episode on this subject, but the important thing to know is that this was an endless war happening in the nine hells with devils against demons. And by endless, I really mean that. It’s been going on since before time was recorded, and it still rages on to this day. And so, as you can imagine, with an endless war you would need endless recruits. Not that either side particularly wanted to end the war, but they were always looking for ways to get an advantage over the other. That’s where we come to a point in the war when the devils and demons started hiring out the help of either deities, whom they used and abused with fiendish contracts to their own ends. After this point, someone had the great idea of starting to pluck recruits from the Prime Material Plane. But you can’t just put out a flyer hoping that mortals will willingly come to the nine hells on a permanent vacation and fight your wars for you. So they devils and demons alike started to venture up to the prime and seduce or coerce the people on the surface to work with them in one way or another, and often ended up capturing or setting this person up with a binding contract that made them the fiends’ plaything. And of course, who better to fight in wars than your own children? Devils and demons alike started to crossbreed with the humans that they captured and sired their own children who took on both traits of their infernal and human parents… and that’s how we ended up with Tieflings, cambions, and alu-fiends. This is also likely where all of the wizards that were mentioned before ended up with their own Tiefling children.

However, nowadays, Tieflings are seen to have three different lineages that they are typically descended from: Abyssal, Chthonic, or Infernal.

Abyssal Tieflings are called by their demonic lineage, the despair of Carceri, and the abyss, and tend to be more evil as a result. These Tieflings would have fur, tusks, or other demonic features that set them apart from others.

Chthonic Tieflings also feel the pull of Carceri, but also have the greed of Gehenna and the gloom of Hades. These Tieflings can look awful and cadaverous or have the beauty of a succubus and would have the features of a Tiefling born of a Night Hag or a Yugoloth.

Infernal Tieflings are connected not only to Gehenna, but the nine hells itself. These Tieflings would have spiny backs or golden eyes, and would mostly trace their lineage back to devils.

So with all of that knowledge going right back to the beginning of their race, you can start to see the bigger picture painted of Tiefling history. They have always been subjugated to the worst circumstances, and have pretty well always been the pawn in someone else’s plot for power. That, along with their natural guile given to them by their heritage, it’s easy to understand why Tieflings would end up on the wrong side of the fence doing shady work. That, and it’s known that having infernal lineage gave way to strange urges to hurt and use people, and if a Tiefling were particularly attuned to their lineage or didn’t know how to contain those impulses, they would end up using their skills to hurt people.

It’s like the call to the void that we all experience, like when you’re cooking a meal and you have the sudden urge to put your hand on the hot element. Or when you’re driving and you think for just a split second about turning your car into oncoming traffic. These are all impulses that I don’t think most people give a second thought, and it’s something that we’re almost all able to just laugh off and disregard… but Tieflings have that multiplied to infinity from the sounds of it. It’s less of a discarded thought and more of an OCD impulse that compels them to do awful things. That may be a bit of an extreme exaggeration of the effect of their impulses, but everything I’ve read leads me to believe that it’s usually not something that they’re able to easily shake off. Hence; so many chaotic Tieflings.

But this impulse can have very different effects on every Tiefling. They could give in to this impulse and follow a path towards evil– using their lineage as an excuse for their heinous deeds. Or they could accept that these impulses are out of their control and channel that energy into doing good despite their condition and make it their goal to do as much good in the world as they can in an effort to remove the stigma around Tieflings. However, it’s said that Tieflings usually fall into either extreme and there’s not a lot of room for middle ground. I’m sure that there are those who exist in the middle of hero or villain, but typically you either fight the urge or give into it.

The ones who try to fight these urges and do good instead typically end up being looked up to in the Tiefling community. These people will eventually take on younger Tieflings and try to teach them how to fight these base instincts. I’ve seen this referred to as a “school” of Tieflings, and it’s one of the rare times that you’ll actually see Tieflings getting along with one another. The prejudice that is cast upon them is typically mirrored by themselves, and even if a Tiefling craves companionship, they tend to assume the worst in everyone- other Tieflings included. So it’s important to have these heroes amongst Tieflings to act as someone that others feel comfortable around since most Tieflings were on their own. Otherwise, they tended to fight with each other and everyone else around them.

Speaking of fighting, Tieflings had several advantages over other humanoid races when it came to combat. I’ve mentioned several times now how they are rather nimble creatures, and this comes in handy when they are engaged in a fight. Most Tieflings are ambidextrous, and therefore prefer a two-handed fighting style using light weapons such as daggers, shortswords, or scimitars so that they can land as many attacks as possible in a short period of time. In conjunction with this fighting style, you would typically see one wearing light armour so that they can facilitate quick movement. It’s not often you would see a Tiefling in heavy armour or wearing a shield. They also have an innate resistance to heat and touted darkvision, which could give them another edge in battle if the circumstances were right. 

There were also those who chose the path of magic instead. Typically, if you see a Tiefling wielding magic, they will have chosen the path of the Warlock and would have a patron deity of the nine hells to compliment their infernal heritage. However, there was nothing stopping them from being anything they wanted to be except for their lineage, which could give them bonuses ranging from being more intelligent to having more willpower, allowing them to easily choose a path to specialize in. Furthermore, depending on their ancestry, whether it was Abyssal, Chthonic, or Infernal, they might specialize in a certain spell. For instance, they might have access to Ray of Sickness and Hold Person as an Abyssal, or False Light and Ray of Enfeeblement as a Chthonic and Hellish Rebuke and Darkness as an Infernal among other benefits. 

Tieflings are a very diverse race and they have access to plenty of boons as a result of their fiendish bloodline. They really are a well-rounded people, and it’s a shame that there’s such a stigma around them that stops them from taking part in society as a whole.

And that pretty much marks the end of what I have to say about Tieflings. Everything that they experience is a direct cause and effect from their bloodline, and it’s hard to blame people for hating demons and devils, but there really needs to be a line drawn in the sand and the recognition that the sins of the father should not impact on the innocence of the son. I would hazard to say that most Tieflings are innocent enough, and if they end up in a shady line of work or end up hurting people, it’s likely because of their surroundings and growing up with everyone sneering at you can’t be something that facilitates a good upbringing. It’s nature vs. nurture and writing about this made me realize that, even though it is a high-fantasy setting, there are allegories to real people within the texts, and it’s not even that subtle. It makes me feel for anyone, Tieflings or otherwise, that are dealt a short hand at birth. It can be hard to get ahead in life when you’re born two feet in the ground. But, that’s another conversation for another time, and something that I don’t have the spoons to get into.

So that brings me to my favourite question; what do you think? Do you think that the Tieflings deserve the hate that they get? Or how about, what is your favourite race in DnD? Tieflings are definitely up there for me, but I have a soft spot for the Aasimar and Kenku.

You can find us online @loredtodeath on your favourite social media apps, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We’re also on Youtube, so if you head over there and hit subscribe I would really appreciate it. If you have any questions or suggestions for topics, please send me a message wherever you can find me or at loredtodeath@gmail.com. If you’re using the Spotify app, there’s a comment section attached to the episode where you can submit any questions or topics. If you’re on Youtube… you know what to do. I would love to hear from you!

And remember, treat everyone around you with respect and the understanding that you don’t know everything it took for one person to be standing in front of you. What you see on the surface is rarely the whole story, so don’t read a book by its cover or a Tiefling by their horns. Make a new friend– you might be glad you did. And I’ll lore you to death in the next one. C’ya.