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

[WhatGravitas]

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.

Yeah, in German many things sound... ridiculous. And Teufeling sounds... like an imp. Teufling sounds like a lesser devil. Tiefling... well, it's strange as well, but I guess I've got used to it. And it sounds a bit obscure, because (as deepling), it's somewhat nonsensical word - and isn't directly associated with something.

But the new spin on tieflings *is* somewhat interesting. Ahh, I guess I'll toss the name in my campaign and replace it with something more pretentious, like Melnibonéan or something similarly ominous sounding!

Cheers, LT.

 

[Tharen the Damned]

I like "Teufeling" better myself!

Please not! That sounds awful for Germans. Literally means "Devilling".

 

[Wolfspider]

Demonbloods would be a good name (in the tradition of Shadowfell and Feywild), if a bit pedestrian.

I have no problems with tiefling, really, so it won't bother me much, even if I do think that they should come up with a new name if they're going to create essentially a new race. (I have the same opinion about eladrin, even if I think the name fits a race of fey better than it does a race of extraplanar angels).

I hate to admit it, but I'm starting to groove on this 4e thing. Bah!

 

[Andor]

I shall love them and hug them and call them George.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Which is why I think that this type of scorched earth policy towards existing cannon and tradition is not such a bad idea after all. I'm not one for traditional depictions just for tradition sake.

Darn you chaotic aligned scum.

To OP: very cool ideas.

 

[Gwathlas]

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. The same way I can rebrand Warforged and use them as androids for dying earth/sword & planet genre flavor. Shoot, I could repaint Drow as unseelie elves.

My game is set in the Wilderlands, and it' possible that I could use 4E Tieflings as a fast way of making Demonbred, True Viridian or True Orichalan NPCS.

The Melniboneans are a distinctly evil elven race and I must concede I missed the Tiefling references in Conan. Not to mention Valusians and Atlanteans are very human in RE Howards S&S. And I'll bet you read LOTR which really kick started the Fantasy genere and The Silmarillion do make a few references to elves

I wonder why your not protesting the martial powers which are rather jedi or eastern oriental and not part of Howard, Carter or Moorcocks. I'd rather deal with Gnomes Half Elves and Half Orcs then damned powers!

 

[Aust Diamondew]

I wonder why your not protesting the martial powers which are rather jedi or eastern oriental and not part of Howard, Carter or Moorcocks. I'd rather deal with Gnomes Half Elves and Half Orcs then damned powers!

I don't think we know enough about the class features of martial classes in 4e to decide if they are one way or the other as far as flavor or mechanics.

 

[bringerofbroom]

Tiefling = Nightcrawler from the X-Men?

the german accent makes sense then eh?

 

[Aaron L]

The D&D team really needs to take the stuff of the Magic creative team, both for art direction and naming conventions.

I'd quite rather that they didn't, thank you. "Gleemax" is about all of the naming genius I want from the Magic creative team, I think.

 

[Hairfoot]

I'd quite rather that they didn't, thank you. "Gleemax" is about all of the naming genius I want from the Magic creative team, I think.

Hear, hear!

All this talk of tieflings seems to presage another pronunciation war. As someone who pronounces "drow" to rhyme with "toe" and "paladin" "pal-ah-din", I can easily see myself coming to blows with players who say "tie-fling".