"...the ancient empire of the tieflings..." and Sword & Sorcery gaming

[Irda Ranger]

tiefling just happens to be one of the lame names they KEPT, rather than making them from scratch.

You Nazi!

 

[Henry]

I like "Teufeling" better myself!

 

[Nahat Anoj]

It's meant to be a German term, and I find it sounds better if I pronounce it with a (fake) German accent.

That tells me what the language of the Tiefling Empire was. Or rather, the Thousand-Year Tiefling Reich!

Now I know what symbol the Tiefling Paladins wore...

lol!

To be honest, I think giving the tieflings a Germanic flair would be kind of cool.

 

[LostSoul]

Since it was apparently based on Teufel or "Devil", does Teufeling sound any better in German?

Teufeling sounds better in English!

 

[Imp]

That bit in the dungeoncraft article about the "the ancient empire of the tieflings" just changed my mind entirely about the inclusion of Tieflings in the PHB.

I try to base my D&D campaign on classic swords & sorcery fiction tropes. RE Howard, CA Smith, Lin Carter, etc.

One of the cliches is the ancient, pre-human civilizations evil sorcerous race. Melniboneans, pre-Stygians, Serpent Men, Lemurians, Smygorians, what have you.

If the mechanics of the Tiefling race work with that flavor, I can just reimage and rename them and use them as Nephilium, Serpent Men, Valusians, Atlanteans, etc.

Yeah, as long as they aren't doing anything mechanical with their horns, it's a pretty useful concept. I just hope they have some kind of qualities that fit in with the ancient-sorcerous-empire theme, and are attractive mechanically to players. Then they'll become very very useful once I divest them of their horns, give them a translucent pallor, sideways cat-eyes and six fingers to a hand.

 

[Wormwood]

The problem is that if they had come up with an infernal bloodline race and given them a new name, there would have been a loud hue and cry from the "traditionalists" complaining . . .

But they always complain.

Or was I the only one who saw sentiments to the effect of "4e Tieflings aren't Planescape Tielflings? Boo!"

 

[hong]

I like "Teufeling" better myself!

I'll teach you to teufle with me, wabbit.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

Since it was apparently based on Teufel or "Devil", does Teufeling sound any better in German?

It´s ok, though i would prefer Teufling in German. IMHO, Teufling sounds a little more S&S, while Teufeling sounds more fake-medieval. Both words are, of course, abominations in "proper" German, but hey, thats only fitting for the children of evil outsiders.

Anyway, i like the original Tiefling best, because it is not too near to the original German "Teufel" - that word summons specific expectations which would render the race too inflexible for me. Tiefling sounds like something any Outsider of chaotic to evil alignment could "produce". Teufling sounds, well, like a minor devil, or the son of a devil.


EDIT:

And to the "but they are not proper Planescape Tieflings!" complaint: We endured 1000 flavours of elves, we can accept two different interpretations of Tieflings. And i love Planescape. IMHO, lets keep Di´Terlizzi Tieflings in Planescape, and 4e Tieflings in, well, 4e.

 

[Moon_Goddess]

I've just now while reading this thread decided that teifling was the name giving as insult to weak and inferior "teiflings" during the ancient empire...

Now humans call them that and they hate it, but they are no longer in any position to do anything about it.

 

[FourthBear]

The word tiefling doesn't annoy me half as much as "aasimar". At least tiefling rolls off the tongue reasonably well. To me, aasimar looks goofy, sounds worse and opens the entire race to no end of jokes at their expense. And, no, I don't think referring to them as the "Awesome-er" is going to help. I actually liked the idea of using the word Eladrin for the former Aasimar, but it doesn't look like that will be the case.