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Worldbuilding Assumptions: On the Origin of Species
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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9199358" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>If I could have voted for two, it would have been "divine or magical means" <em>and</em> "I prefer to keep it mysterious."</p><p></p><p>That is, I prefer things where it's generally agreed that divine or magical shenanigans were involved, but nobody agrees on what <em>specific</em> divine and/or magical means were employed.</p><p></p><p>So some groups claim tieflings were directly "corrupted" by fiends through the blood-pacts between Turathi noble houses and their devilish "servants." Others claim that WAS the blood-pact--that the nobles gave up their own children, who then went on to sire tiefling children. Still others claim it only happened near the end of Bael Turath, when their society was becoming desperate to find some advantage, <em>any</em> advantage to finally defeat Arkhosia. And a few claim Bael Turath was <em>always</em> part-devilish, having had a large population of worshipers of He Who Was, who were instantly struck with a lesser version of the same curse that transformed Asmodeus when they accepted his usurpation of his former master's divine mantle.</p><p></p><p>That's the kind of thing I like. Everyone agrees that devilish power flowing into them is responsible. Nobody quite agrees on <em>when</em> or <em>how</em> or <em>why</em>, and some of the possibilities are much juicier than others.</p><p></p><p>For comparison, this was in fact actually done with 4e Dragonborn. Everyone agrees they were, directly or indirectly, created by the dragon-gods in the wake of Io's death, but there are several competing theories. One (promulgated by dragons) is that they were created by dragons at Io's command, to be helpers (read: servants) to his draconic children. Another says that they were created by Bahamut and Tiamat, perhaps enacting some last plan of Io's, and have fought over their shared creation ever since. One, near and dear to some proud scions of Arkhosia, claims that when Io was sundered into Bahamut and Tiamat, the blood that fell from his cloven halves did not disappear, but instead formed the first Dragonborn--meaning, all of them carry a tiny spark of Io's lost divinity, and are (in a certain sense) actually <em>closer</em> to the gods than the dragons themselves.</p><p></p><p>Because this sort of thing, even if there IS one true story of it, is EXACTLY the kind of thing that accretes alternate takes and state-sponsored myths and stories that take on a life of their own, until nobody truly knows anymore, particularly given that it happened thousands and thousands of years ago.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 9199358, member: 6790260"] If I could have voted for two, it would have been "divine or magical means" [I]and[/I] "I prefer to keep it mysterious." That is, I prefer things where it's generally agreed that divine or magical shenanigans were involved, but nobody agrees on what [I]specific[/I] divine and/or magical means were employed. So some groups claim tieflings were directly "corrupted" by fiends through the blood-pacts between Turathi noble houses and their devilish "servants." Others claim that WAS the blood-pact--that the nobles gave up their own children, who then went on to sire tiefling children. Still others claim it only happened near the end of Bael Turath, when their society was becoming desperate to find some advantage, [I]any[/I] advantage to finally defeat Arkhosia. And a few claim Bael Turath was [I]always[/I] part-devilish, having had a large population of worshipers of He Who Was, who were instantly struck with a lesser version of the same curse that transformed Asmodeus when they accepted his usurpation of his former master's divine mantle. That's the kind of thing I like. Everyone agrees that devilish power flowing into them is responsible. Nobody quite agrees on [I]when[/I] or [I]how[/I] or [I]why[/I], and some of the possibilities are much juicier than others. For comparison, this was in fact actually done with 4e Dragonborn. Everyone agrees they were, directly or indirectly, created by the dragon-gods in the wake of Io's death, but there are several competing theories. One (promulgated by dragons) is that they were created by dragons at Io's command, to be helpers (read: servants) to his draconic children. Another says that they were created by Bahamut and Tiamat, perhaps enacting some last plan of Io's, and have fought over their shared creation ever since. One, near and dear to some proud scions of Arkhosia, claims that when Io was sundered into Bahamut and Tiamat, the blood that fell from his cloven halves did not disappear, but instead formed the first Dragonborn--meaning, all of them carry a tiny spark of Io's lost divinity, and are (in a certain sense) actually [I]closer[/I] to the gods than the dragons themselves. Because this sort of thing, even if there IS one true story of it, is EXACTLY the kind of thing that accretes alternate takes and state-sponsored myths and stories that take on a life of their own, until nobody truly knows anymore, particularly given that it happened thousands and thousands of years ago. [/QUOTE]
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