Deva or Aasimar?

[Warrior147]

I like the name "Deva", but I don't like the pronounciation. "Deva" is apparently pronounced "Day-va", but I prefer to proncounce it "De-va" or "Dee-va".

 

[Krensky]

Wrong tab. Please delete.

 

[Zinovia]

Neither word has any particular association with D&D for me. The only thing I think of when hearing the word "Deva" is the aforementioned Bazaar of Deva from the Myth Adventures books.

Aasimar was one of those silly made-up words that they stuck throughout 2E in order to avoid the devil-worshiping accusations that were prevalent at the time among a few outspoken members of the general public, and strip all real-world religion out of D&D. I never played 2E, so never encountered aasimar or tenaari (or whatever it was that they called the demons or devils). In AD&D we just called them angels, demons, or devils. No history there.

Then we played 3.0/3.5 for many years, but it was always the same campaign. Our group never changed out characters, and so didn't incorporate races or classes from the new books. We had the core set and the psionics book, and that was it. The psionic races were ignored (we had our own house-ruled race that used psionics). I mention this because in my opinion it was after the introduction of the book that let you play monster races that the aasimar and tieflings came into the forefront. People could, and did, play them as characters now. That increased their interest and visibility, and hence the general awareness of those racial names. It never happened in our group. I bet most of our players would have no idea what an aasimar was if I asked them.

So despite playing D&D for many years since aasimar were introduced, it has practically zero meaning to me. I like deva better than aasimar as a name, but I think it might have been better yet to just call them celestials. As for nephilium, wasn't that a strange transparent metal in D&D? I had a sword made out of it - but it could just be the DM making stuff up. He does that a lot.

 

[Starglim]

Aasimar doesn't mean anything. Deva means something different than the way WotC uses the word. Thus, if we have to have either one, I prefer aasimar. It's not up to me, though, and doesn't greatly matter, if the made-up terms describe a useful game concept.

 

[Brennin Magalus]

I am not particularly fond of deva but it is better than a lame, made up word like aasimar.

(The Lord of the Flies reference was great, by the way. "Sucks to your aasimar!")

 

[Hjorimir]

In my homebrew I call them Malakhim (singular Malakh), which I yoinked right from Hebrew for messenger angel. Within my game, when a Malakhim appears he or she has no clearly defined direction they can decipher as to their purpose, but their purpose is certainly divine. The Malakhim is on a journey of discovery and - it is believed - whatever they do is somehow a message from the gods.

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

Have to say Aasimar, which I have always said "Asz-I-Mar" myself

 

[Agamon]

I prefer Deva. And I've always pronouced the word correctly, and figured the American poparazzi bastarized the word, as the Yanks so often do.