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One of my campaign's PCs is an aasimar Magical Child (Vigilante archetype). She's the party's Face, with outstanding diplomacy skill. I've played the reactions of the Tieflings in the Devil's Nursery neighborhood during the Tooth Fairy killings as a mix of aspiration and envy when she talks with them. What do you think of doing that? Are there other options to also explore?
I'm thinking about later on having this reaction arc a bit. The party has a Tiefling Arcanist, but his diplomacy was about 12 less than the Magical Child Aasimar, so he accompanied her and aided another. They successfully solved the murder mystery and have started doing plaques for tiefling victims of violence. He's gradually assuming a position of leadership--I'd love it if he took over the Cloven Hoof Society, for example.
Do you think the tiefling neighborhood reaction to the aasimar would change as both become public heroes?
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Ya know I am rewriting the first paragraph of this post because something dawned on me. Why don't tieflings just leave The Nursery and go off to another civilization? Surely being one of the most despised races in all of Cheliax would make you want to leave Cheliax right? After all, the decision is to choose to be despised under an oppressive monarchy or be despised in a freer culture.
That is, unless Thrune has lied to them through redacted histories and revisionism. It's highly likely that members of the Tiefling culture are under the (possibly correct) impression that they would be killed on site if they left the safety of Kintargo. This has more than likely created a sort of Stockholm Syndrome for the members of the Tiefling race and also granted a scapegoat for the rest of the city. Undoubtedly, tales of these on-site killings are used as propaganda to make the outside world even more terrifying. Lets be honest, these stories probably include aasimar warriors of some mistaken and vengeful god.
I think you've got yourself quite a series of civil rights encounters coming. This could be a lot of fun. I would venture to say that a large faction of The Devil's Nursery would greet the aasimar with a great deal of suspicion. It would probably divide the entire community and I wouldn't hesitate to include a group that is downright in opposition to having an aasimar in The Nursery. It would create quite the moral conundrum for her to serve a people that regard her as an outsider (small 'O') out of fear and it might necessitate the usage of her alternate persona.
As a reflection of reality, it's quite uncommon for the leader of a community of people to not be a member of that group. I couldn't imagine being a member of a suppressed people, purposefully kept destitute, and looked down on as a curse, who then chooses a member of another group to better my interests. That is, I couldn't see it come about out of anything more than necessity.
In the end, it might be a very bitter sweet victory for your PC to be faced with the decision of finally empowering the united Nursery under a tiefling or leading a fractured community to an ultimately more beneficial ending.
BoH - I think the OP was suggesting that the Tiefling Arcanist take over leadership. Your post seems to suggest that you may be reading the opposite.
Also: dot!
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Ya know I am rewriting the first paragraph of this post because something dawned on me. Why don't tieflings just leave The Nursery and go off to another civilization? Surely being one of the most despised races in all of Cheliax would make you want to leave Cheliax right? After all, the decision is to choose to be despised under an oppressive monarchy or be despised in a freer culture.
Same reason that most people living in crappy circumstances don't pick up and move somewhere else, I'd imagine: lack of money/resources. You'd have to travel pretty far from Kintargo to leave Cheliax*; it'd be a really long journey, and one that's probably not possible for your average commoner (doubly so for those who are disadvantaged to begin with). And travel can be especially risky in Golarion...all those bandits and monsters. Many of them probably figure they're better off with the devil they know, if you'll excuse the pun. (And Kintargo is noted as being better for tieflings than other areas of Cheliax, so as far as Cheliax goes, Kintargo is probably the best you can expect.)
* All right, you could get to Nidal fairly easily, but...it's Nidal. You're probably better off in the Nursery.
I'd imagine a lot of tieflings would react to the aasimar with resentment and some suspicion first, maybe less so as they got to know her. Even if aasimars aren't as respected in Cheliax as they would be elsewhere, they're still probably not as poorly regarded as tieflings. Though there would definitely be room for the aasimar to try to emphasize commonality with them, it might take some work on her part. Could provide an interesting roleplay opportunity for her to come across some who are suspicious of her.
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BoH - I think the OP was suggesting that the Tiefling Arcanist take over leadership. Your post seems to suggest that you may be reading the opposite.
Also: dot!
You're right after a reread I was definitely under the wrong impression.
Same reason that most people living in crappy circumstances don't pick up and move somewhere else, I'd imagine: lack of money/resources. You'd have to travel pretty far from Kintargo to leave Cheliax*; it'd be a really long journey, and one that's probably not possible for your average commoner (doubly so for those who are disadvantaged to begin with). And travel can be especially risky in Golarion...all those bandits and monsters. Many of them probably figure they're better off with the devil they know, if you'll excuse the pun.
You're absolutely right, especially if the stories they've heard reinforce the potential threats. This also legitimizes any non-commoner tiefling still in the city. My point was that regardless of what happened before Barziali's rise, he is more than likely using the Tiefling population as a scapegoat. The populace needs someone to blame and as long as it's not him, he doesn't care.
Readdressing the OP, I have found that the games with the most intraparty conflict (read: conflict not PvP) are the most interesting. If some of the tieflings of the Devil's Nursery are just as Xenophobic and bigoted as those who oppress them, the world becomes more three dimensional. It gives the players more than "I am doing this because it is the clearly right choice."
This makes his actions on the Night of Ashes and the Murders in The Devil's Nursery all the more understandable. If you want to justify Martial Law and get a population behind you then you need a bad guy. What better bad guy than the minority the population has been predisposed to hate?
In the game I am running, I have hinted that the Tiefling population is clearly being politically abused and they obviously have no champion. As written, their voice, Strea, was arrested late on the night of ashes but was also accused of orchestrating the burnings. Since then, the Red Jills have donned the mantle of protectors and vigilantes willing to rob and murder those standing against them. In fact, the cult of Scarplume is posing as an Erinyes who has hollow promises of the rise of a powerful tiefling community taken by force.
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BoH - I think the OP was suggesting that the Tiefling Arcanist take over leadership. Your post seems to suggest that you may be reading the opposite.
Also: dot!
You're right after a reread I was definitely under the wrong impression.
Same reason that most people living in crappy circumstances don't pick up and move somewhere else, I'd imagine: lack of money/resources. You'd have to travel pretty far from Kintargo to leave Cheliax*; it'd be a really long journey, and one that's probably not possible for your average commoner (doubly so for those who are disadvantaged to begin with). And travel can be especially risky in Golarion...all those bandits and monsters. Many of them probably figure they're better off with the devil they know, if you'll excuse the pun.You're absolutely right, especially if the stories they've heard reinforce the potential threats. This also legitimizes any non-commoner tiefling still in the city. My point was that regardless of what happened before Barziali's rise, he is more than likely using the Tiefling population as a scapegoat. The populace needs someone to blame and as long as it's not him, he doesn't care.
Readdressing the OP, I have found that the games with the most intraparty conflict (read: conflict not PvP) are the most interesting. If some of the tieflings of the Devil's Nursery are just as Xenophobic and bigoted as those who oppress them, the world becomes more three dimensional. It gives the players more than "I am doing this because it is the clearly right choice."
** spoiler omitted **...
In addition to the factions laid out above - broadly speaking nationalists and criminal syndicates - I'd posit a third faction to whom the more prosperous, risk-averse tieflings, in Devil's Nursery and in Cheliax more broadly might owe some loyalty; the Church of Asmodeus. This for two reasons. First, it's dramatically interesting in the context of Hell's Rebels. It sets up a further conflict within the community that has to be resolved. But it's also plausible that the Church is legitimately popular. After all, the human-supremacist line is Thrune's, not the Church's, and while the latter values the Thrune alliance over any of its adherents or clients, and wouldn't challenge Thrune, it could also have earned tiefling loyalty in a thousand subtle ways.
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"My dear cursed boy, you were born with the taint of the Hells visible upon your skin. Don't hide them! You must brandish these marks as a sign of our Queen's unrelenting desire to see her people prosper and thrive. Only in The Master of Contract's embrace can you seek refuge. Only through the unparalleled power of Asmodeous himself can you seek to ensure your soul is anything but a dying ember of a raging conflagration. By dedicating your life to Asmodeous, you are guaranteeing an eternity that no other deity would provide."
Service at 6 and 8PM. We have donuts and coffee!
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BoH - I think the OP was suggesting that the Tiefling Arcanist take over leadership. Your post seems to suggest that you may be reading the opposite.
Also: dot!
Yes, it's the Tiefling PC. The Aasimar Magical Girl will have an Impossibly Powerful Student Council, Parental Issues, and a Mysterious Androgynous Love Interest to deal with.
Besides, the Tielfing PC is the one who came up with and executed the actual action of the political funerals.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
BoH - I think the OP was suggesting that the Tiefling Arcanist take over leadership. Your post seems to suggest that you may be reading the opposite.
Also: dot!
You're right after a reread I was definitely under the wrong impression.
Same reason that most people living in crappy circumstances don't pick up and move somewhere else, I'd imagine: lack of money/resources. You'd have to travel pretty far from Kintargo to leave Cheliax*; it'd be a really long journey, and one that's probably not possible for your average commoner (doubly so for those who are disadvantaged to begin with). And travel can be especially risky in Golarion...all those bandits and monsters. Many of them probably figure they're better off with the devil they know, if you'll excuse the pun.You're absolutely right, especially if the stories they've heard reinforce the potential threats. This also legitimizes any non-commoner tiefling still in the city. My point was that regardless of what happened before Barziali's rise, he is more than likely using the Tiefling population as a scapegoat. The populace needs someone to blame and as long as it's not him, he doesn't care.
Readdressing the OP, I have found that the games with the most intraparty conflict (read: conflict not PvP) are the most interesting. If some of the tieflings of the Devil's Nursery are just as Xenophobic and bigoted as those who oppress them, the world becomes more three dimensional. It gives the players more than "I am doing this because it is the clearly right choice."
** spoiler omitted **...
Re: spoiler - it's noted that tieflings are less oppressed in Kintargo than elsewhere in Cheliax (viewed more as curiosities than hated), though it's still not great by any means.
I like the idea of using them as a scapegoat, though; even though they aren't as mistreated in Kntargo, it would probably be a relatively easy matter to fan the flames. That's pretty much what I did with