Aasimar

Aasimar, derived from the Mulhorandi word aasimon, were human-based planetouched, native outsiders that had in their blood some good, otherworldly characteristics. They were often, but not always, descended from angels and other creatures of pure good alignment, but while predisposed to good alignments, aasimar were by no means always good.

Description
Aasimar bore the mark of their celestial touch through many different physical features that often varied from individual to individual. Most commonly, aasimar were very similar to humans, like tieflings and other planetouched. Nearly all aasimar were uncommonly beautiful and still, and they were often significantly taller than humans as well.

While several aasimar were immediately identifiable as such, others were even less distinguishable than tieflings from their human ancestors, commonly standing out with only one unusual feature. Most aasimar had pupil-less pale white, gray, or golden eyes and silver hair, but those descended from planetars could also have emerald skin, while those descended from avoral celestials might have feathers mixed in with their hair. Those descended from ghaeles often had pearly opalescent eyes. Solar-descended aasimars often had brilliant topaz eyes instead or silvery or golden skin and those with couatl or lillend lineage most commonly had small, iridescent scales. Many aasimar also had a light covering of feathers on their shoulders, where an angel's wings might sprout. As in tieflings, aasimar bloodlines could sometimes run dormant for generations, reemerging after being hidden for some time.

Abilities
As a general rule, aasimar were a wise and charismatic race, possessed of strong insights and a powerful allure with which most races could not compare. Aasimar were also quite perceptive, noticing things that others did not, and many could see largely unimpeded in perfect darkness, while also possessing the ability to cast magical light to aid those who could not see. Aasimar were also, like many of their celestial forebears, resistant to the effects of acidic elements, extreme cold, or electrical charges.

Psychology
Most aasimar grew up cautious around others and, like tieflings, were sometimes misunderstood, though never to the hateful extent many of the fiendish bloodlines were. Even those raised by understanding parents could not escape their strangeness, or the curiosity (or even fear) that their unique nature sometimes provoked. Many aasimar even suffered prejudice, something that deeply hurt the soul of the aasimar in question since most had an inherent bent towards empathy for others.

Though many aasimar were good in nature, thanks in a large part to their celestial ancestors, not all were, just as not all tieflings or fey'ri were evil. Some aasimar fell into the trap of evil, corrupted perhaps by experience or the counsel and aid of an evil god. Shar and Sseth in particular took pleasure in corrupting aasimar and turning them from the ways of their celestial forebears, nursing grudges fueled by the prejudice of others. Most aasimar avoided this path, however, and a few even received direct counsel from their celestial ancestor or a creature in its service. These individuals were the aasimar most likely to manifest the stereotypical virtues of a celestial.

Society
Aasimar were exceptionally rare throughout Toril and, as such, had no true cities or societies of their own, much like other planetouched. Aasimar could live for the whole of their life without ever meeting another of their kind and, as such, were resigned to living amongst other races.

Very few aasimar had siblings who were also aasimar, in large part due to the rarity of a celestial or god mating with a human but also due to the fact that aasimar who sprang from ancient bloodlines long left dormant were even rarer. As a result, not many aasimar met others of their kind, though such meetings were more common in Mulhorand, owing to the relatively larger number of aasimar there. On the rare occasions where two aasimar did meet, they often felt a kind of kinship and unspoken understanding with one another. Most aasimar were likely to take the side of another instinctively, regardless of personal feeling and there was a strong bond between aasimar of all stripes.

Religion and magic
Because of their ties to the goodly gods and celestial beings, many aasimar were drawn to a religious path and most aasimar spellcasters called on divine magic as opposed to arcane magic. A great many become paladins, most in the service of good, and the philosophy of lawful good paladins often resonated strongly with aasimar. Those descended from non-lawful outsiders, on the other hand, most often became clerics, though a few also became paladins.

Like other half-breeds, aasimar did not feel, as a whole, beholden to any one god or pantheon, but many aasimar worshiped the Mulhorandi pantheon and a large proportion of the race was descended from the goodly gods of Mulhorand. Many of these aasimar in particular often felt a strange bond to the animals whom their divine ancestor was a patron of. Others, particularly those born outside of Mulhorand or its neighbors, often took on gods appropriate for the nation in which they lived.

On the Outer Planes, aasimar were the servants of many of the dwarven and elven gods, including Aerdrie Faenya, Berronar Truesilver, Corellon Larethian, Dugmaren Brightmantle, Eilistraee, Erevan Ilesere, Haela Brightaxe, Hanali Celanil, Labelas Enoreth, Moradin, Shevarash, and Solonor Thelandira&mdash; despite not having dwarven or elven blood. The human gods Lliira and Milil also had aasimar as servants.

Relations
Aasimar, despite their human ancestry, did not typically feel a strong draw to their kin but instead felt a stronger bond with other half-breeds. Many aasimar enjoyed the company of races as varied as half-elves or half-orcs, though very few aasimar got along well with tieflings, whom the celestial-descended race was instinctively wary of. Genasi were likewise alien to aasimar, who found the elemental race strange even by their own standards. Of the other common races, aasimar had little overall opinion, since dwarves, elves, and the like had little history of persecuting aasimar but neither did they have a history of befriending them.

History
Though mortal aasimar were the result of breeding between humans and celestials, devas were unheard of in the local multiverse prior to the arrival of the Mulani from a forgotten plane. Drawn to Imaskar by powerful wizards, the Mulani slaves called upon their gods for aid. Just as the gods could initially appear only as avatars so did their celestial servitors initially require mortal bodies, resulting in the first devas. Since then, devas, also commonly called aasimar in Mulhorand, (a term then adopted for the mortal progeny of celestials and mortals by others), were created through other means, but all of the race shared certain qualities with these first individuals.

Homelands
Aasimar were most commonly found in the eastern lands of Unther and Mulhorand, where they were the descendants of the good deities who once walked among the mortals. Since the Spellplague, however, and the devastation of both lands, aasimar became wandering nomads bound to no land or god and spread widely over the face of Faerûn, as well as other parts of Toril. Those from outside of Faerûn were often drawn to it, perhaps by the ancestral lure of Unther and Mulhorand, and so many aasimar could be found in borderlands such as Durpar, Murghôm, Thesk, or Waterdeep, though none of these places were considered traditional homelands.

Notable Aasimar

 * Xale of the Starry Glen, a Knight of the Blue Moon.

Appearances

 * Computer Games
 * Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear
 * Neverwinter Nights 2
 * Dungeons & Dragons Online