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D&D (2024) 5e Aasimar are in the Players Handbook − what should the flavor be?

I wonder if they will mention 4e style Incarnate Devas in the 2024 Aasinar section.

Also wonder if Tieflings and Aasimar tied to the Planes of Eberron will be mentioned, especially since at least one has both Fiends and Celestials.
 

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Yaarel

🇮🇱He-Mage
Every Good alignment is empathy and altruism.

Lawful Good emphasizes justice. It creates institutions to assist underprivileged groups.

Chaotic Good emphasizes compassion, being Good to everyone whether they deserve it or not. Random acts of kindness, encourage individual opportunities in unique circumstances.

True Good emphasizes mercy, understanding the need for justice, but applying it in the most lenient ways possible. True Good repurposes the legal system and social expectations, for the purpose of nourishing personal freedoms and individual growth.
 

Yaarel

🇮🇱He-Mage
I wonder if they will mention 4e style Incarnate Devas in the 2024 Aasinar section.

Also wonder if Tieflings and Aasimar tied to the Planes of Eberron will be mentioned, especially since at least one has both Fiends and Celestials.
5e seems to emphasize that a Good plane can include Evil individuals, and viceversa. So, there should be room for Eberron planes somewhere in the Astral Plane. Some might even be a Dominion floating in the Astral Sea. Aasimar and Tiefling might originate from these as well.
 

Every Good alignment is empathy and altruism.

Lawful Good emphasizes justice. It creates institutions to assist underprivileged groups.

Chaotic Good emphasizes compassion, being Good to everyone whether they deserve it or not. Random acts of kindness, encourage individual opportunities in unique circumstances.

True Good emphasizes mercy, understanding the need for justice, but applying it in the most lenient ways possible. True Good repurposes the legal system and social expectations, for the purpose of nourishing personal freedoms and individual growth.


I like the idea of different Celestial species embodying the alignment differently, like a Lillend explores the good via the arts, but Asuras explores it via impulsive passions and fighting evil on battle, and Celestial Elves do so by embodying the ideals of the Seldarine, etc...
 

Yaarel

🇮🇱He-Mage
I like the idea of different Celestial species embodying the alignment differently, like a Lillend explores the good via the arts, but Asuras explores it via impulsive passions and fighting evil on battle, and Celestial Elves do so by embodying the ideals of the Seldarine, etc...
I guess the Eladrin hierarchies are now Fey nobles in the Feywild. But each of them had a specific focus of Good as well.
 

Laurefindel

Legend
Meh, I like the nondescript, subtle, not-quite-human-but-could-fool-you aasimar. I preferred pre-4e Tieflings too for that matter. 2e AD&D aasimars and Tieflings were best, partially because they were more relatable.

I know a lot of people are like « yawn, another fancy human or elf race ». Personally, the more ´humans’ I can play without having to restrict myself to a single option, the better.
 

My house rule is "chaos" aligment is about the behavior with people of a different allegiance. Have you watched "the walking dead"? The groups to survive serious menaces have to obey some rules. Even the wildest tribes in the nature have to respect some laws and taboos, or the worst criminal groups have to obey certain rules.

I imagine chaotic good as close to minarchy/night-watchman state, and more attuned to Nature than civilitation. "law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient" (fist Timothy) or according Tacitus' quote "The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws". Here chaotic shouldn't mean "lawless" but "only necessary laws acording Natural Law".

Other option could be "artificial" aasimars in the sense they started as ordinary members but from noble house, and thanks some exclusive ritual like reincarnation spell are "reborn" as (new subrace) aasimar. These aasimars could potential antagonists in the sense they believe to be "predestined" and above others, from a higher caste, like the brahim from India. By fault of these "predestined" aasimars the rest suffer a bad reputation about being mercyless zealots and arrogant.

Natural law Cicero.jpg
 

Mind of tempest

(he/him)advocate for 5e psionics
My house rule is "chaos" aligment is about the behavior with people of a different allegiance. Have you watched "the walking dead"? The groups to survive serious menaces have to obey some rules. Even the wildest tribes in the nature have to respect some laws and taboos, or the worst criminal groups have to obey certain rules.

I imagine chaotic good as close to minarchy/night-watchman state, and more attuned to Nature than civilitation. "law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient" (fist Timothy) or according Tacitus' quote "The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws". Here chaotic shouldn't mean "lawless" but "only necessary laws acording Natural Law".

Other option could be "artificial" aasimars in the sense they started as ordinary members but from noble house, and thanks some exclusive ritual like reincarnation spell are "reborn" as (new subrace) aasimar. These aasimars could potential antagonists in the sense they believe to be "predestined" and above others, from a higher caste, like the brahim from India. By fault of these "predestined" aasimars the rest suffer a bad reputation about being mercyless zealots and arrogant.

View attachment 364048
ah so we agree on chaos then or at least chaotic good.

Furries can be any alignment. Think of the animalistic angels of the Bible, and certain deities of the Egyptians that are strongly Lawful. Beastland could easily be True Neutral. It is fine as Good by Chaotic Good (GCG) (Good with Chaotic tendencies), but its humanimals might in any plane.


The "True" planes are: True Good Elysium, True Neutral Outlands, and True Evil Hades. The True planes are where Lawful and Chaotic balance as a kind of dao of the Astral planes.

I feel True Good, Elysium, needs to be humanocentric, a place that emphasizes different kinds of utopian civilizations. These civilizations optimize between group and individual, and have governments that enforce protections for individualism, freedoms, and rights of minorities within the majority. They are utopian in other senses too, such as arts, technologies, ecologically sustainable use of resources that integrate nature and architecture seemlessly with wild farming and gorgeous city parks, and so on.

(GLG Bitopia is gnomecentric, and emphasizes the joy of hard work, with resources and utilization. GCG Beastlands is the joy of vacationing, like a safari.)

The Outlands are also called the Concordant Opposition, 5e Planescape details it.

For the True Evil plane, the name "Hades" should discontinue, since Shadowfell and Hades are synonymous. Likewise, the term "Chthonic" means "soil", and is a modernism to refer to the "underworld", again synonymous with Shadowfell. The alternate terms, the Gray Waste or the Wastes are more appropriate, and the adjective "Wasting", the sense of Evil laying waste to anything. This plane is pure Evil, optimizing between predatory group behavior and predatory individual behavior, whichever achieves the most selfish benefit at the expense of other groups or other individuals. The Wastes have a psychopathic vibe.

I feel the True Evil Wastes and the Far Realms are the same thing. Then the Aberration is a kind of Fiend. The "Loth" is a kind of Aberration. The Aberrations are popular, and as part of the Lower Planes, make all the Lower Planes more flavorful, and help disambiguate the Shadowfell which is something separate.


The LLG Arcadia has a strong shopping, mercantilism, consumerism, economy vibe. What if heaven is a shopping mall?

The CCG Ysgard is mildly offensive, as if reallife Scandinavians would be lawless. Overall, Ásgarðr is True Neutral, with Óðinn balancing and self-preserving the current world order. His son Thórr is Lawful (maybe with Good tendencies) and his blood brother Loki is Chaotic (maybe with Evil tendencies). For the Norse, oaths are sacred and individually binding. All of the Norse stuff should be Feywild, namely the Fey Border overlapping the Material Plane and emphasizing animistic themes.

The Greek Olympus belong in the Astral Plane as a spiritual ideal, in a Platonic dichotomy of spirit versus matter, but makes less sense as CG. Zeus personifies the world order, including law and patriarchy. He would be Lawful Neutral. Since the Greek Olympian gods are each others rivals, there is a strong Chaotic influence, and together may be True Neutral over all. It might make more sense if the Spire of the Outlands would be Mount Olympus itself.

Generally speaking, assigning an entire reallife ethnicity, such as Norse or Greek, to a specific alignment, is highly problematic.

Regarding the Elves. The Norse Elves seem True Good, or maybe True Neutral with Good tendencies, in the sense of being beneficial fates. They are Good but in the sense of karma can be vicious. Oppositely, the Norse Dwarves tend to be the unsuccessful fates, but can be helpful, whence True Evil, or maybe True Neutral with Evil tendencies.

The D&D Elves are awkward, where Elves are Fey who are inherently any alignment, and yet the heavenly realm is Arvandor in specifically Chaotic Good Arborea. It might be that the parent Corellon is themself personally CG. But still, awkward.

Chaotic Good achieves Good in strictly voluntary ways, without coercion, while encouraging individuals to become the best version of oneself. CG individuals are loyal and keep promises to personal friends, but societal obligations and expectations are anathema.

Mount Celestia with its seven heavens as Lawful Good is sensical enough. I find it confusing to refer to all the Upper Planes as "Celestial" which should be Lawful Good Mount Celestia only.

Maybe Angels (Solar, Planetar, etcetera) should be any Good alignment, appearing in plane, thus the Upper Planes be "Angelic". Then LG Mount Celestia specifically is "Celestial". In the meantime I refer to LG as Celestine. It makes sense to contrast Angels and Fiends.


Any Upper Plane can inspire an Aasimar character concept.
aberrations are supposed to fundamentally not be part of the known natural order, the afterlife is part of the natural order thus the NE fiend should not be an aberration although they should clearly be dissimilar to both the other types.

aberrations probably need more variety beyond evil diet Cthulhu one day I need to put fingers to keyboard and write up my vision for them.
 

Meh, I like the nondescript, subtle, not-quite-human-but-could-fool-you aasimar. I preferred pre-4e Tieflings too for that matter. 2e AD&D aasimars and Tieflings were best, partially because they were more relatable.

I know a lot of people are like « yawn, another fancy human or elf race ». Personally, the more ´humans’ I can play without having to restrict myself to a single option, the better.
This is why I like both as an option. Some aasimar could pass as a human, with their story being based around uncovering and accepting this hidden link in their ancestry.

While some aasimar could look more like eldritch horrors (be not afraid), being some sentient construct created from the energies of the upper planes to do good in the world.

I use the same logic for genasi. They range from 'regular human with powers' all the way to 'sapient elementals'.
 

Yaarel

🇮🇱He-Mage
aberrations are supposed to fundamentally not be part of the known natural order, the afterlife is part of the natural order thus the NE fiend should not be an aberration although they should clearly be dissimilar to both the other types.

aberrations probably need more variety beyond evil diet Cthulhu one day I need to put fingers to keyboard and write up my vision for them.
I know.

Even in the Lovecraft novels, the aberrations are defacto demons. The twist is the scientific wordview observing it, and the dissolution of that rational science. Relatedly there is a Lovecraftian movie where a scientist observes a demonic possession, and scientifically traps the demon by getting it to possess an inanimate object, a chair.

Meanwhile, the assault against reality itself has a True Evil vibe.

The "Far Realms" can be deeper levels of the "Gray Waste". The whole alignment plane, the "Wastes".

Meanwhile, the creatures of the Yugoloth creature type look interchangeable with the creatures of the Aberration creature type.

Yugoloths are eminently boring, yet Aberrations are popular. Making the Aberrations the True Neutral Fiend seems useful for marketing.
 

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