Planetouched races in Dragon Magazine

[Desdichado]

To the person who asked which Dragon magazine, I'm not sure what you're question is. Which Dragon Magazine has what? The new planetouched races? It's the current issue, the one dedicated to Epic (with the notable exception of this article.)

And as a side note, as interesting as the German description is, is it relevant? Is tiefling based on a German word, and why should I use a German word in a Planescape or FR campaign setting anyway?

 

[Benben]

And as a side note, as interesting as the German description is, is it relevant? Is tiefling based on a German word, and why should I use a German word in a Planescape or FR campaign setting anyway?

Well if it is FR, then you should rename Tyr (Old Norse), the Mulhorandi pantheon (not a bad idea), Mielikki (Finnish), Oghma (Old Celtic Language), Silvanus (Latin-ish).

And Tiefling is a neologism, made up of a German base and an English suffix, so much like FR itself it's an analgam of cultures.

 

[Desdichado]

I don't think -ling is an English only suffix. I think it was common to all the Germanic languages, although I don't know if it still is used.

Even then, it's a relatively archaic English suffix. Don't see it applied to all that much except in fantasy literature anymore.

 

[Benben]

I don't think -ling is an English only suffix. I think it was common to all the Germanic languages, although I don't know if it still is used.

Even then, it's a relatively archaic English suffix. Don't see it applied to all that much except in fantasy literature anymore.

I totally spaced the German word for Spring: Fruhling. So the suffix is around..

I don't know about you, but I'm constantly using foreign words and phrases in my campaign, whenever I need to establish as something foreign or different.

 

[Desdichado]

Oh, I do that too. But it's a two-edged sword. If you use words that are recognizably from some real-world language that people are familiar with, it's probably better not to do it at all. When my planetouched start calling everyone amigo then I think I've gone too far (probably way too far.) Tiefling, while it looks vaguely Germanic, isn't really obviously German, so it could work (it could also be an Old English or Middle English word, from the look of it, which is a good thing, IMO.) But I'm curious now as to whether or not it really is based on the German word for deep or not.

 

[Benben]

But I'm curious now as to whether or not it really is based on the German word for deep or not.

Think we can track down the invetor of the race? Personally I like to know the origin of Aasimar.

Also I found this online:

-ling suffix


1 denoting a person or thing: a connected with (hireling). b having the property of being (weakling) or undergoing (starveling). 2 denoting a diminutive (duckling), often derogatory (lordling). [[Old English]]

 

[Darkness]

...thank you for associating the pronunciation of tiefling with that of wiener, that makes a lot of sense to me...

What! Just because I am a hellspawn doesn't mean that all of my fellow Viennese are, too!

Also I found this online:

-ling suffix


1 denoting a person or thing: a connected with (hireling). b having the property of being (weakling) or undergoing (starveling). 2 denoting a diminutive (duckling), often derogatory (lordling). [[Old English]]

Yeah, that exists in German too - only with a slightly different usage (usually) and it's also not quite as common...

For example, the exact translation of weakling (Schwächling) has the same suffix - but the translations of the other examples don't...

 

[Jack Haggerty]

Although, the German suffix -chen... ...like Madchen, Brotchen... ...could also be used as a substitute for -ling.

Tiefchen... The little deep ones.

 

[drnuncheon]

Regarding the para-genasi:

We got 6 of them because of the way they decided they were going to handle them. If you notice, each of the para-genasi are made of two of the elements combined. If I remember right, the old quasi-elementals were formed by the junctions of elemental planes with the positive and negative material planes.

The reason there are two 'extra' para-genasi is that they allowed the 'opposing' elements to mix as well as the normal ones:

Magma = Earth + Fire
Smoke = Fire + Air
Ice = Air + Water
Ooze = Water + Earth
Dust = Earth + Air
Steam = Fire + Water

All the possible combinations of the classic elements.

J

 

[Darkness]

Although, the German suffix -chen... ...like Madchen, Brotchen... ...could also be used as a substitute for -ling.

Tiefchen... The little deep ones.

-chen is a diminutive, though (which -ling isn't necessarily, in German).