Back in the 2e Tales of the Infinite Staircase, I had the idea that the Wind Dukes of Aaqa were behind the Iron Shadow (an infection of law that drains away creativity) that was causing all those problems.
They aren't going to be updated that much from Monsters of the Multiverse which was developed around the same time that the 2024 core books were. They already addressed why Goblin PCs are Humanoids and not Fey when they were discussing the MM, so it definitely is a case of them maintaining that...
You're missing the point, the 2024 PHB is making the point that the Fiendish ancestor or influence is more important than any mortal ancestry a Tiefling might have.
Also reconfirmed it again looking in the 2024 PHB, nowhere in the Tiefling entry is the word "Human" ever used. And Aasimar has the words "any mortal community"
2024 has gone back to Tieflings are Fiend mixed with something else. While not explicitly stated, the Iconic Bard in the art is a Tiefling of Elven ancestry who's possibly related to the Iconic Elven Sorcerer, while the Celestial Warlock art depicts an Aasimar of Dwarven ancestry.
My theory is that Half-Orc was mostly chosen, because players wanted to play Orcs but weren't allowed to play Orcs because they weren't in the PHB. And it's worse because they never really tried to make Half-Orcs look too distinct from Orcs unless they emphasized certain features of Orcs.
I...
3.5e Tome of Magic had some interesting concepts but generally failed mechanically for the Truenamer.
I was thinking more about the 2e Tome of Magic, which had some new spells and I guess what you could say were subclasses in 2e with the introduction of Wild Magic and Elemental schools of magic.
My initial thoughts on these subclasses:
Arcana Domain Cleric
They seem to be all about undoing and countering magic, even more so with the free castings on dispel magic. Though I'll note it it's with Cure Wounds and not Healing Word that it can be used with.
They don't get fireball, but being...
Aleister Crowley, though I don't see him being that villainous, maybe he's someone the PCs would meet and he keeps them guessing on what his intentions are, sometimes helpful and sometimes antagonistic.
Even though a lot of people had problems with crystals and ectoplasm in 3.5e, it did at least have it's own unique flavour for the Psion.
So I think there should be a spell where a Psion throws a crystal around, and it can even be an exploding crystal and do Force or Piercing damage.
For...