While the process of making either a tiefling or an aasimar can entail someone in the family tree getting it on with an evil/good outsider respectively, we also know from the fluff text from the "Blood of..." series that tieflings and aasimar can also develop when someone has had another kind if extensive exposure to the outer planes.
I'm wondering if anybody knows of details from APs, Modules, other sources what other examples there are that constitute this "extensive exposure" to the outer planes, or if they've home-brewed such situations.
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Well, there is...
But even ignoring those examples, simple long-term exposure to the Abyssal energies of the Worldwound could certainly affect the bloodlines of people who are crazy enough or evil enough to try and make a living there. The demon-blooded tiefling born there could simply be a "mutant" for lack of a better term.
One of my PFS characters is a follower of Irori that is an aasimar without any outsider parentage. He considers himself to be ascensing from base humanity to an archon through self-perfection and enlightenment over successive reincarnations.
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My Wrath of the Righteous PC is an Aasimar with two human parents, a Linnorm Kings Viking and a Chelaxian. But, as per Fluff in Blood of Angels, Ozil Winterburn was touched by a powerful Angel in the womb and made an Aasimar back in his fetus days. ....(He's simultaneously a Fey Foundling (Feat) because he was conceived in the Nithveil Forest in a First World area.)
Just as tieflings can be born spontaneously by the fetus being exposed to fiendish energies, worldwound being the biggest example, aasimars can result from spending significant time around celestial energies. Examples could include living/working in the central temple of a good faith.
It can also be the result of a boon or curse. A contract with a devil could result in children being born tieflings. As a reward for saving a celestial's life, children of the character might be born innately connected to the good planes.
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Aasimar and Tieflings can also simply be born from a recessive heritage that dates generations back.
Yeah, I already knew that. It kind of easily falls within the category of "Outsider Grandparent".
Looking at the Demons Revisited book gives me some ideas. People who consume water/food that a hezrou tainted, or people who used a Glabrezu's wish to help themselves with fertility issues, or anybody with a Glabrezu's mark seem like fairly legitimate ways to get a tiefling in the family.
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There is also the possibility that a divine or fiendish influence could impact the birth of a child to become an aasimar or tiefling. For example, someone who associated with fiends greatly may find that an offspring has developed fiendish traits. Or a deity may decide to reward a follower with an unusual birth. (This may be appropriate to Lamashtu, as tieflings in Cheliax are not seen as blessing from Asmodeus.) Or someone who has associated with angelic beings may find that his or her lineage has been touched by an angel or a divine blessing. For example, someone cured of infertility by a deity or deity's servants may have a child "blessed" with special gifts.
My advice is to use an explanation that works for your character. In our own world, there are tales of unusual births. So, perhaps an Oracle of the Heavens might claim that her mother was cured of infertility by a visiting angel who foretold part of her destiny and her tiefling companion may be the child of someone who allied with devils and was rewarded with a gifted child.
Here's the real question are you trying to justify a background or look for some kind of Kree projector that says "Zap! you're an aasimar!"?
I want to know what directions other people have taken it, and while I can see some instances of transformation into an aasimar/tiefling post-birth, I was mainly thinking of reasons a demonic/celestial taint/blessing entered the family line got there in the first place, besides resorting to "My mee-ma had odd tastes in men."
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You could also have a parent that has a magic item in the house with shiny goodness radiating from it or insidious horribad seeping forth.
Exposure to it while in the womb or after birth even has brought forth a transformation.
Heck, your parents could even be pathfinders, easily explaining the presence of such magic paraphernalia, idols, books, hieroglyphics, tapestry, gems, etc.
Now what I dont know canon wise for golarion is if you can be transformed later in life. Ie, as an adult go from human to WTF! Maybe you can, maybe not in PFS.
If you are wanting to inject a little humor into the item turned me into this story, you could say an incident at the main lodge during your childhood is the reason bring your daughter to work day was banned in the Society.
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You could also have a parent that has a magic item in the house with shiny goodness radiating from it or insidious horribad seeping forth.
Exposure to it while in the womb or after birth even has brought forth a transformation.
Heck, your parents could even be pathfinders, easily explaining the presence of such magic paraphernalia, idols, books, hieroglyphics, tapestry, gems, etc.
Now what I dont know canon wise for golarion is if you can be transformed later in life. Ie, as an adult go from human to WTF! Maybe you can, maybe not in PFS.If you are wanting to inject a little humor into the item turned me into this story, you could say an incident at the main lodge during your childhood is the reason bring your daughter to work day was banned in the Society.
Race-changing shenanigans can go either way of the dead-serious to greatly humorous.
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Any Chelish wizard specializing in conjuring devils (which is pretty much all Chelish conjurers) would be at serious risk of passing on hellish taint to their children. Any cleric of significant power is likely to be imbued with the otherworldly energies of their deity. There should be lots of ways in which celestial, infernal, or abyssal heritage can be explained.
I have a tiefling character who was born to a mendev crusader who was exposed to demonic energy while in utero.
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Aside from WotR, there is another published way of doing it.
So something like that can definitely create an aasimar or tiefling.
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Any Chelish wizard specializing in conjuring devils (which is pretty much all Chelish conjurers) would be at serious risk of passing on hellish taint to their children. Any cleric of significant power is likely to be imbued with the otherworldly energies of their deity. There should be lots of ways in which celestial, infernal, or abyssal heritage can be explained.
I have a devil-spawn tiefling character in PFS, an expatriate Chelaxian (who hates Cheliax because of how he was treated during childhood), whose usual quip to explain his existence is something like: "I'm living proof that someone was f***ing around with the hired help..." His understanding is that his mother had an extramarital affair with a tiefling, half-fiend, or out-and-out devil, and he's the resulting offspring (who the birth-father was, was never clearly explained-- this being Cheliax, and his mother having the higher family status before marriage, he was raised in his mother's and possibly-adoptive father's household).
You've given me a new idea... since I've generally presumed that his parents were minor nobility or gentry, one or both probably was involved in arcane or divine magic-- so, maybe he's not a bastard son after all, but was "gifted" with his heritage because of his parents' diabolic practices. Now as far as Arik is concerned, he's still a bastard son (after all, that's what he was always told and how he was treated when he was growing up)-- I'm not sure how I'll have him react if it turns out that his parents were lying to him and he actually should be the natural-born/legitimate heir but was twisted by magic (and he finds out about it-- probably not something that will ever have real impact, since he's being played in PFS). For that matter, maybe he's 'legitimate', but one or both of his parents were concealing unexpressed infernal ancestry in their own bloodlines.