High fantasy.
I mean, I love it most of the time but sometimes books, DnD campaigns, and games get so far-flung things are just alien.
How so?
Just personal preference and unfamiliarity. Once we stray out of your stock dwarves, elves and halfling, I am honestly out of my depth. I find it hard to remember wtf a Genasi or Tiefling is or why I should care. Or the eagle guys. Arcocri? Yeah. I am down for exotic races but most of the time they seem to be played/written as either shrieking banshees or just humans that can fly or whatever else without any special vibe other than skillset. Maybe Arm bas spoiled me by the racial differences being harped on and enforced but so well-realized.
You just remined me how cool dark sun tieflings are...
The people of the desert settlements have much to fear from the wastes. Predators snatch livestock and children, sandstorms destroy homes, and the punishing heat and scarce water make life miserable. However, all these dangers pale before the merciless desert devils that emerge from the night, bent on murder and mayhem. They are remorseless raiders, taking no slaves and leaving no survivors. They are the tieflings, and they are death incarnate.
Tieflings are descended from humans who bargained with dark powers for the strength to survive on Athas and destroy their enemies. Most tieflings lurk on civilization’s fringes in nomadic bands, drifting through the wastes in search of victims to rob and kill or hiring themselves out as vicious mercenaries. Small bands sometimes settle in the city-states, where they find work as enforcers, overseers, gladiators, and assassins. In cities where status is determined by personal merit, tieflings can become templars or rise to the nobility.
Many tieflings believe that they carry a blood debt – the price to be paid for their ancestors’ bargain – and face an eternity of torment unless the debt is paid in their lifetime. Some assume that the debt can’t be paid and live in debauchery while they can, whereas others lead lives of virtue in the hope of breaking their patron’s hold. The most dangerous tieflings are those who believe that their debt must be paid in blood, and that each soul they send into death reduces their own burden.
