Deva or Aasimar?

Arashi Ravenblade · Sep 11, 2008

Krensky said:
Except that Devas are godlike, if not actual divinities in both Hinduism and Buddhism. The connotations are all wrong. If you want a real word, Nephilim is a better choice.

Another reason Deva is totally wrong for the new name of the Aasimar.
Like it or not if your going to change the lore of something have some cool reason why. Like maybe some ancient enemy of the Deva killed them all and their divine energies went into all the Aasimar, creating their new status.

radferth · Sep 11, 2008

Put me down for Nephilim as well. I'd prefer the name Deva over Aasimar for any sort of actual celestial, but not for human with celestial ancestry.

Oh, and I must ask, did the name Aasimar/Aasimon come from the fact that the original illustration of a Solar looked a lot like Isaac Aasimov?

heirodule · Sep 11, 2008

Krensky said:
Except that Devas are godlike, if not actual divinities in both Hinduism and Buddhism. The connotations are all wrong. If you want a real word, Nephilim is a better choice.

Gygax said something about "theosophists" when he penned the original Deva article (as a substitute for "angels")

What are devas in Theosophy (of the Blavatsky school, one assumes)

The Little Raven · Sep 11, 2008

Arashi Ravenblade said:
Another reason Deva is totally wrong for the new name of the Aasimar.

Deva's root actually means a lot more than just deity as we understand it. It's most basic meaning is "celestial being" which is wholly appropriate for a race that people say should have just been called Celestials.

love.christine · Sep 11, 2008

I'd rather they continue to be called aasimar. Seriously, what is with all these name changes? Are they really all that necessary?

Umbran · Sep 11, 2008

JeffB said:
Please get off the high horse (again) mourn.

The Little Raven said:
Please get off the "It makes me think of Mariah Carey because people can't be bothered to educate themselves about pronunciation" bandwagon.

Please, both of you, stop being rude. If you see a bad situation/post, your first response should be, "I shouldn't make this situation worse". Please exert the self-control necessary to not blatantly get in another person's face.

Nahat Anoj · Sep 11, 2008

I much prefer "deva." It has a stronger place in D&D lore than aasimar does.

I tend to pronounce it "deh-va". I guess that's not right.

Arnwyn · Sep 11, 2008

Set said:
And it fits that 2e flavor, as well,

Not AFAIC.

CleverNickName · Sep 11, 2008

Green Knight said:
Heh, and someone on another board thought I was crazy for thinking that anybody else would start thinking of divas because of the name. But then I come here and I see several posters making those self-same comments. And yep, first time I saw the name the first thing that sprang to mind was Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin.

Gets even worse if you play a Deva who's a member of a Divine class. Just begging for someone to start singing "Say a Little Prayer for You" whenever you use a power. Maybe I have an overactive imagination, but I suspect we might see scenes similar to this repeat themselves at game tables all over.

DM: So what're you playing?

PLAYER 1: I'm playing a Deva Paladin.

PLAYER 2: Wait, you're playing a Diva?

PLAYER 1: No, Deva. Dey-va.

PLAYER 3: Watch out, Diana Ross just joined the party.

PLAYER 1: Deva, not diva.

PLAYER 2: What's the matter? Not getting enough R-E-S-P-E-C-T?

PLAYER 3: And a Paladin, too! Is your character the son of a preacher, man?

PLAYER 2: I'm a Deva, and honey, I'm DI-VINE!

PLAYER 1: I hate my life...

I can't wait to see what Order of the Stick does to this new development. :devil:

doctorhook · Sep 11, 2008

Set said:
I'm pretty well-edumacated on ancient religion and I still pronounce it 'diva' 'cause that's the way it looks. If I were going to pronounce it the other way, I'd spell it Daeva, which has also been used as a spelling for the term, and would be more intuitive.

And if it conjures the vision of a celestial in a little black dress singing 'Queen of the Night,' so be it. I still like it better than Aasimar, which has one too many 'a's in it for my liking.

Deva, all the way. And it fits that 2e flavor, as well, since they had Astral, Monadic and Movanic Devas back then.

Whoa! They shoulda spelled it like that: DAEVA.

That truly rocks! (And Aasimar is still a bad name, no matter which way things are sliced.)