Hi all!

I am working on a character concept for an upcoming campaign, and I want to make sure my tiefling is faithful to their appearance in current canon.

My tiefling will be a Zariel tiefling, and I understand that tiefling appearances can differ if the source of their fiendish appearance does not originate from Asmodeus (as is discussed in SCAG). Zariel does not have horns or a tail, and I imagine that tieflings that originate from her would be so flavored (see her image from Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus: here ). I imagine they would probably have the glowing eyes, pale skin, and oh-so-edgy eye shadow situation.

Does this seem like a fair interpretation to y'all? Or does this read too much into the flexibility of appearance for tieflings for 5e? I know that in the Player's handbook it says that tieflings have horns and a tail, but this was written at a time when the only canon tiefling was the Asmodeus tiefling, and this was retconned (at least somewhat) in SCAG and MToF as mentioned above.

Thanks for all of your thoughts!

Quote from classl3ss >>

Hi all!

I am working on a character concept for an upcoming campaign, and I want to make sure my tiefling is faithful to their appearance in current canon.

My tiefling will be a Zariel tiefling, and I understand that tiefling appearances can differ if the source of their fiendish appearance does not originate from Asmodeus (as is discussed in SCAG). Zariel does not have horns or a tail, and I imagine that tieflings that originate from her would be so flavored (see her image from Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus: here ). I imagine they would probably have the glowing eyes, pale skin, and oh-so-edgy eye shadow situation.

Does this seem like a fair interpretation to y'all? Or does this read too much into the flexibility of appearance for tieflings for 5e? I know that in the Player's handbook it says that tieflings have horns and a tail, but this was written at a time when the only canon tiefling was the Asmodeus tiefling, and this was retconned (at least somewhat) in SCAG and MToF as mentioned above.

Thanks for all of your thoughts!

 This is hard to answer as a question of RAW as appearance is not really part of the rules but are just fluffy story and suggestions. However, one of the things you will find to be quite common at the table, is that Tieflings come in all shapes, sizes and colors.  If you say, "I am a Zariel Tiefling and look like..." very few people would really question your choice as long as you stick to the crunchy bits of the rules for Tieflings.

Yeah, that is fair. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't making a character that was decidedly not a tiefling, really.

I appreciate your help!

Zariel is the angel who fell, right?  So why not use a Fallen Aasimar instead?  Same concept as a Tiefling, but from the Celestial side of the argument rather than the Fiendish side.

Quote from drag0n_77 >>

Zariel is the angel who fell, right?  So why not use a Fallen Aasimar instead?  Same concept as a Tiefling, but from the Celestial side of the argument rather than the Fiendish side.

 there are some huge lore,roll play and stat differences between the two. Thats like asking "Why are you useing a half orc? If you want to be half human,then just be a half elf."

Quote from DnDNewper >>

Quote from drag0n_77 >>

Zariel is the angel who fell, right?  So why not use a Fallen Aasimar instead?  Same concept as a Tiefling, but from the Celestial side of the argument rather than the Fiendish side.

 there are some huge lore,roll play and stat differences between the two. Thats like asking "Why are you useing a half orc? If you want to be half human,then just be a half elf."

 I guess I'll ask first....  do you know what a Fallen Aasimar is?

An aasimar who was touched by dark powers as a youth or who turns to evil in early adulthood can become one of the fallen — a group of aasimar whose inner light has been replaced by shadow.

That sounds an awful lot like what happened to Zariel.  So perhaps such it's possible for such an Aasimar to be formed from the get-go, rather than a shift happening later, if the original angel that sired the Aasimar had already fallen.  Which it kinda sounds like OP's concept for the character.

The very fact is that in DnD the Heavens and the Hells are interrelated in a huge number of ways, and quite a few beings created from either are just opposite sides of the same coin.  Your argument about half-human races, on the other hand, is irrelevant to this.

drag0n_77, thanks for the input but I think I agree with DndNewper on this one. That is, the reason why I chose tiefling in the first place is because I am interested in pursuing a particular roleplaying story arc that has to do with being an outcast because of appearance, prejudice, and birth. Tieflings in almost every DnD setting are relative outcasts because of their fiendish appearance, and I want this an obstacle for my character to try to overcome, as well as be a motivation toward political influence/power.

I suspect you are recommending the Fallen Aasimar because you are not aware of the tiefling subraces in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. There is specifically a Zariel tiefling in there with special subrace abilities that I plan to use. The only thing I am trying to figure out is how that devilish heritage manifests itself physically, in terms of appearance.

That being said, I do have Aasimar characters in mind as well. I will likely eventually getting around to playing a Fallen Aasimar as well.

Zariel does have horns, three in fact. The curl back cleanly across her skull from the sides and one from the center of her hairline. The Avernus Zariel is completely bald with a fire-aura around her head like her halo is in Kylo Ren, lightsaber mode.

This article from Forgotten Realms has all three of her appearances. I played with the variations as she is continually being corrupted and, IMO, continues the battle within herself between her angelic nature and the forces of Avernus that feast on its corruption. I designed my character to have the ivory angelic skin and otherworldly appearance common to an assimar, but with the three horns and long demonic ears singed with fire representing the corruption of Avernus. I also gave the character angel eyes, one iris is light blue with flecks of gold, the other red with flecks of purple just to finish the look.

@theHumanChris, oh hey I am from Seattle! Thanks for contributing to the discussion.

My interpretation of Zariel's appearance is a bit less generous toward the designers than yours I suppose. For one, the picture of her from Descent seems to come later than the horned depiction if we are to interpret them chronologically. In the Descent version she is missing a hand which has been replaced by a mounted morning star. In the horned one you mention she has both hands, and lacks the magical weapons she has captured in Descent. The bald version is also apparently the one you encounter in Descent. This picture resides in the chapter where characters can return her sword to her at the end of the adventure.

All this is to say that I think that the designers retconned her appearance after releasing Tome of Foes for the sake of Descent. Given this, I have tended to use the Descent version of her as canon.

Well, hello from Seattle.

Yep, they definitely reinterpreted her appearance, and I think the new look is way better. More of a fallen angel than another cloven-hoof devil. I took my character look as a mixing of the old version and new.