Fianyarr: Origins of the Touched

Not all of the races of the land are purely descended from the First (main collection of articles here). Some have ancestry that holds an otherworldly entity or an escape from death itself within the past seven generations. Those who are share a lineage in such a way are not sterile as some might have hoped and instead can reproduce as easily as any other. Even dhampyr have no greater issue with falling pregnant nor impregnating another. With each passing generation, the connection grows weaker until, by the seventh, there are only superficial similarities to the otherworldly ancestor.

While some might think that two members of different races might produce tainted children, in truth, the children born are either predominately one race or the other with only superficial similarities to the parent from the other race. In this way an elf may mate with a beastfolk and have two children where one appears to be an elflike beastfolk (with beastfolk traits) and one appears to be a furry elf (with elflike traits). When such a child reproduces, the signs of the parent whose racial traits they don't share dwindles with each passing generation. Of course, more rarely you get a true mixture between the two races (if the Storyteller so desires) and the child takes half the blessings from one race and one from the other.

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Tiefling Origins

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Possible tiefling mother
(Picture from the Witcher)



Tieflings have the blood of the demonics pulsing in their veins. These demonics are not necessary malicious or cruel (though many of them are) but they are dangerous and often ambiguous in their dealings with the descendents of the First.  Sometimes these entities are only corporeal at particular times of the day or night, or in particular locations, and seduce a person or even spirit them away to another location and leave a child in their stead.  Some less humanoid predatory entities are known to be able to cause a pregnancy with a kiss or a lick or can alter the nature of the young fetus growing within a newly pregnant woman.  Some even settle an agreement with a person with the sudden appearance of a child that nonetheless shares blood from both parents (perhaps due to the mingling of blood during a blood oath).

One would think that tieflings would be less common than aasimar but this isn't particularly true.  It is strange how many men and women fall into the arms of such creatures willingly and without recourse to magical persuasion.  Is it the power demonics undoubtedly possess they cause certain people to seek them out?  Is it a desire to placate such predatory beings?  In certain areas there is honor and glory to be had in successfully wooing a demonic.

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Dhampyr Origins

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Possible Dhampyr mother
(Picture from the Witcher)

The curse of mortality was a shocking sensation for the First People as they fractured into the many races and even through the generations there has been terror and dismay at the thought of the Final Passage into an unknown world (or perhaps into dissolution itself).  Some mortals have managed to renounce their own deaths, whether on battlefields or deathbeds, and so have scoured their hearts and souls of anything but the desire to survive and to overcome.  So were the undead created and so did they pass on to their progeny (born to a mortal parent) some aspect of their curse.

Of course, not all dhampyr are children of the undead.  Sometimes a parent's love and need can transcend death itself and pluck the child from an unknown fate.  Such a child is marred by the journey back from death itself though they are still innocent enough to return alive.  Their parents are not so lucky as the psychic force factures their mind and sends them irrevocably mad. Such parents often find it a small price to pay for the life of their child.

Sometimes, too, a very young child is assaulted by a wight or other undead that drains the child's vitality yet the child somehow survives the experience.  This assault must occur while they are still a babe in arms or, perhaps, a toddler to truly infect their essence.  Such encounters are rare but they do happen and can turn any child of any race into a dhampyr.

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Aasimar Origins

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Some benevolent entities are humanoid...
(Picture from Final Fantasy X)

Aasimar are born to entities just as tieflings are but the creatures who share some of their essence are benevolent toward the First People's descendents by their very nature.  These angelics may be guides, protectors, oracles or even religious authorities.  One way or another they are important to the Seven Races and feel a great deal of compassion toward them.  It is only natural that sometimes there might be passionate embraces between them and members of the Seven Races.


....others are not so much due to their size.
(Picture from Final Fantasy X)  



Of course, not all angelics are particularly humanoid which does boggle the mind sometimes when one meets the otherworldly parent.  While some members of the Seven Races are obviously not too discerning and are happy to mate with something that looks more animal than humanoid, there are other methods that are also employed.  A person might swim with an angelic only to have a baby wash up ashore a few moments later despite the chastity of the encounter.  A couple might pray to an angelic to be the third parent and thus create an angelic.  A woman or man might be blessed with a lick, stroke or gentle bite to ensure that the next child born will be as much their offspring as that of the couple.