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

[rounser]

Whatever happened to cambion?

Wikipedia says "In medieval legend, a cambion is the half-human offspring of the union between a human male and a succubus, or of an incubus and a human female."

Not an exact match, but a perfect term for something or someone who's a demon-blooded for D&D purposes.

Was it simply a victim of the Angry Mothers From Heck? Or 3E's half-breed template system? Come back cambion, all is forgiven...

 

[Aloïsius]

And I'll note that the suffix -ling is very annoying to me, because there's no parallel in Portuguese, so it's hard to explain to non-English speakers. I wouldn't shed a single tear if all -lings were replaced with something else.

Don't you have some suffixes for "small" or "like" in portuguese ? -ling in english is can be translated with -lin in french (thanks to the frankish roots of this "word"), but -let or -lette could be used.

 

[The Ubbergeek]

-inho/a, if I remember well.

Gatinho, gatinha.

 

[JoeGKushner]

In terms of 'ancient empire', I can see the appeal of it to a point.

But not the way tieflings look or the traditional role.

In some of the examples used in the OP, Melniboneans were mentioned. Not a bad comaprission as they have a direct link to Chaos via the pact with Arioch but they're all essentially humans in terms of appearance. Even Elric, an albino, isn't that far out of the reach of appearching to be human.

In many of the 'ancient empires', it's some type of serpent or lizard ruler when an inhuman ruler is mentioned.

So I guess I'm not seeing it.

What really annoys me though is the effort of making the 'bastard' races, half orc, half elf, etc..., into actual races. They're there for player's options. Making them more than the rarity goes against the whole concept of them being rare half-=breeds that don't fit in one world or the other. If there are hundreds or thousands of half-elves/orcs/etc..., then they don't NEED to fit in with humanity or their other parent race because they have plenty of companionship among their OWN race.

 

[Klaus]

Don't you have some suffixes for "small" or "like" in portuguese ? -ling in english is can be translated with -lin in french (thanks to the frankish roots of this "word"), but -let or -lette could be used.

As Ubbergeek mentioned, -inho (male) and -inha (female) are suffixes used to denote small/puny things. For instance, "azul" (blue) becomes "azulzinho" (suggesting baby blue). But "meio" (half) + "inho" becomes "meinho" (little middle). In no circumstance does these suffixes denote a lineage. In the translated works of Tolkien, words like "Eorlings" simply become "Eorlingas", which has no meaning/implication at all.

 

[The Little Raven]

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!

Thank you, Razz 2.0.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

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

What, exactly, does LotR have to do with Sword and Sorcery?

Oh, that's right - nothing. It not only comes later than Howard, it's in an entirely separate subgenre and one whose tropes and stylings are often antithetical.

Calling Melnioneans elves hardly seems fair; they are not called such, and they have much more in common with pre-human evil alien races like Howard's serpent folk.

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!

Bully for you.

I, on the other hand, see LOTS of 'martial powers' in Howard's work, including - why, in one case, actual eastern/Oriental martial artists! Martial powers fit just fine in sword and sorcery; within the context of the D&D system, they make it possible for swords to match up with sorcery and prevail, which is, after all, what is generally supposed to happen.

On the other hand, gnomes and the Tolkienesque races call to mind LotR and its derivatives, and the different - sometimes antithetical - subgenre they represent.

 

[Zamkaizer]

I think "Ay-simm-arr" sounds better than "Ass-simm-marr."

I personally prefer "a-zi-mar."

 

[Hairfoot]

For a start, look here and scroll down a bit (i.e. way down. Or hit Ctrl+F and seach for "pronounciation").

It also omits the H sound from "herb", which only applies in one English-speaking country on the planet, so it's hardly authoritative.

However, internet sources indicate that the word derives from "trow", in turn from "draugr", both of which rhyme with "cow". So I must concede that "drow" does, too. It's a shame, because dro sounds evil, but drow sounds like a euphemism for erectile dysfunction.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Calling Melnioneans elves hardly seems fair; they are not called such, and they have much more in common with pre-human evil alien races like Howard's serpent folk.

Depends on how much of Moorcock you've read. Unless I'm misremembering, the Melniboneans are actually the same peopeas Corum's folk who've taken a different path thanks to some dragon summonning and what not via the Dragon in the Sword. Moorcock plays with their origins on several occassions.

I, on the other hand, see LOTS of 'martial powers' in Howard's work, including - why, in one case, actual eastern/Oriental martial artists! Martial powers fit just fine in sword and sorcery; within the context of the D&D system, they make it possible for swords to match up with sorcery and prevail, which is, after all, what is generally supposed to happen.

Let's hear it for Skull Face. Good stuff and defintely an "Asian" themed ancient evil by the old Robert E. Howard.