1. Sandbox
2. Asmidarl Tieflings

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This is the page for gathering the collaborative lore for the Asmidarl tieflings of Malakath.


The region of the Asmidarl tieflings on Malakath is in the temperate plains, forests, and badlands of the southeast coastline, shielded by the Jagged Teeth mountain ranges.


It is said in the words of an ancient religion that there exists eternal the Two spheres: the Primordial Dark, and the Light Everlasting. Ever does the one strive against the other, and each does the other bound, Light and Dark swirling and dancing in eternity. And along this shifting boundary springs thus the realm Material from the realm Spiritual, and in the Material are worlds made and life fashioned; and the very line between the Primordial Dark and the Light Everlasting runs through every beating heart. No higher freedom is afforded the soul but this: to choose, even against all adversity, in every hour of every day, that Dark or that Light.

And to the Power that exists in the realms Spiritual, shared among the Two, manifested in opposition, a name is given.

The Tief.

A figure shrouded in mystery. Known only as the Ascended King, he lived in the ancient world, during the Age of Uroghosh, and no song tells of the race of his birth, be it truly Man, Elf, Orc, or other. But the race of his birth matters not, only the grand and audacious act which, so far as the world knows, was the first of its kind.

Adherents of the Ascended King claim that he breached the Primordial Dark, and stole the Tief from the Powers Infernal; adherents of the Triune claim that instead he struck a deal with the Powers, and therefore was granted the Tief as a boon; adherents of the Anointed One say rather that he was Cursed with the Tief for his arrogance.

But the Ascended King, whether by his own design or not, came into this great and terrible power, and so did his form change and reflect that of the Powers Infernal. There came to him masses of Men, Elves, races all, many upon many who sought to share in his power, for so could he bestow it upon them, and make them too "Bearers of the Tief" in his own likeness. And as their numbers grew, the race of tieflings was born, and all their children would likewise be Bearers, as were their mothers and fathers, even those of half unions.

Conquest followed, and the Ascended King made war upon the Orcs, who were in that day most preeminent upon Arethil. The tieflings tasted little else save victory. But it was not to last long.

The days of the Ascended King would abruptly come to their end. Adherents of the Ascended King tell that, indeed, so great had his power become that he did ascend from the realm Material, departing from Arethil forever in his apotheosis, and that this made him the true god of all Bearers of the Tief in the mortal world; the Triune, however, teaches that he fought and died valiantly in battle, a warrior unmatched by any before or since, and that his sacrifice saved the Bearers of the Tief from certain annihilation; and the Anointed One says too that he died, not valiantly, but as the culmination of his grievous sin, and that in cruel irony and punishment he serves as a slave in the Primordial Dark, toiling for all eternity to satiate the caprice of pitiless masters.

Yet the people he left behind were then kingless. Their fortune turned on them, and for many years thereafter they were driven before the resurging might of the Orcs.

The Bearers of the Tief faced annihilation.

Many who would call themselves successor to the Ascended King claimed leadership, but either did they fall in battle, or meet with misfortunes of their own making. Infighting brought low many ambitions of the tieflings, and the Orcs suffered not from grievous disunity. The Bearers of the Tief, therefore, were pushed to the very edges of Epressa, and the Great Oceans halted their retreat. The reward of the Ascended King's wrath and conquests seemed now inevitable, and for the Orcs, the peace and balance so desired soon to be wrought by their hands.

But at last there came to prominence the Sisters Three. Among the many battles and tribulations endured by the Bearers of the Tief, the Sisters Three slowly but surely rose in power and stature—this until, at the very last hope there upon the shores of the Great Oceans, their right to rule they asserted as absolute. None opposed them, for many saw in them the only possible deliverance from slaughter. And the Sisters Three, called now the Triune in their ascension to mastery over their kin, indeed had a plan for the salvation of the tieflings. It came to one of the Sisters in a vision, and so would they all endeavor to see the prophecy manifest.

The Bearers of the Tief, the Triune decreed, were to sail into the Unknown East.

Fear and anxiety pervaded. Nothing lay beyond the Great Oceans of the East, save only the edge of the world, and death. But under the Triune's unyielding will did the tieflings labor: fortifications against assault from the Orcs were built, buying time; the Sisters themselves led the defense, each in command of the north, south, and west, as from all these sides were the tieflings assailed; and construction of the fleet began.
Under the Triune's potent leadership, the tieflings prevailed. They held their ground, and their fleet was then ready. Escape from the lands of Epressa and Liadain they now had within their grasp.

Yet a lasting division cleaved through the Bearers of the Tief, even as boarding began. In the final hour, though most remained loyal to the Triune's decree, some tieflings then chose otherwise. Many were the reasons among those who elected to the stay in the West, but all who so elected trusted in their own fortunes, and wished to make their own destinies. Those preparing to sail cried out for deaths of those who defied the will of the Triune; but the Triune, whether by fondness of kin persuaded to mercy or for reasons kept forever secret, granted the defectors their wish, and commanded that they be hindered not. Thus were those who wished to stay allowed to do so, and the rest, the greater whole of the Ascended King's heritage, began their unprecedented voyage into the Unknown East.

And to those who did sail, a name is given: the Asmidarl. And to those who did not sail, a name is also given: the Dreth. Yet of the Dreth, this tale tells no more, for they as they wished went forth, and to each was accorded his or her own fortune; and even is there rumor and proof of tieflings who live upon Liadain, upon Epressa, who are not of the Dreth—that is, not of the Ascended King's heritage—at all, but came to bear the Tief by some other means. And of the Dreth and of these others, their own histories are written.

In the absence of the Asmidarl, the Orcs declared the natural order restored, and enjoyed their peace and their ways for the rest of the Age.

And the Asmidarl themselves found their deliverance, as the Triune had promised. Before them, after a long and hard voyage, whose sight brought new vigor to despondent hearts, lay the untamed land.

Malakath.

To greater Arethil the Asmidarl had vanished, and so would it be until the coming of the Great Ones, Drakormir and Neha, and the reveal of Malakath to the world in the Age of Chronicles. Hidden were the Asmidarl now behind the selfsame veil of mystery which concealed Malakath herself.

Landfall, then, as the fleet of the Asmidarl came ashore. Many of the Asmidarl knelt and bowed their heads and kissed the earth, for despair enshadowed hope for much of the voyage. But now, delivered as promised, it seemed to nigh all of the Asmidarl that the Triune, the mighty Triune, had rent life from cruel fate where death had been decreed, a feat surpassed only by the Ascended King himself; the rule of the Sisters Three was now, truly, absolute.

And the Asmidarl followed them into the wastelands. And they followed them into the deserts. And they followed them into the mountains and into the forests and everywhere the Triune led. All who opposed the Asmidarl, be they beast or denizen of the land, were slain. The Triune treated with those who would treat with the Bearers of the Tief, but quick were the Sisters Three to let their wrath be known, if wrath they deemed fit.

Having surveyed far and wide, the Triune thus brought the journeying of the Asmidarl to its end; and there was founded Darkspire, capital of the First Potentate, and home, home, long sought for, by a beleaguered people.

The Sisters Three ruled for centuries. Indeed, by their mastery of the Tief and by their secret arts did they live well beyond the span of their kin. But here do histories diverge momentarily, just as it had been with the Ascended King; for while adherents of the Triune assert that they, the Sisters Three, all transcended the Material and each became goddesses, adherents of the Ascended King teach that indeed the Sisters Three reigned long and well, but the Thread of Mortality claimed them too, and they died.

Beyond the departure of the Triune, the First Potentate would endure, and would be the longest lasting of the Asmidarl's efforts. But as the Primordial Dark and the Light Everlasting shift and swirl, so too do all things in the Material wax and wane. Great at first was the legacy left behind by the Triune, and slow was the First Potentate to rust, to wither, to break from the stresses of strife and poisoning of excess. Slow. And then all at once.

Her true name is lost to history, but she calls herself the Eternal Empress. Many of the Asmidarl instead call her the Mad Empress.

She was once a Sovereign Three, one of the Potentate's ruling body that mirrored the model of the Triune. But obsessed was she with control, with power, and so bitterly did she loathe defiance and gainsaying of her will, and envious was her heart for the absolute rule enjoyed by, and the loyalty shown to, the Triune of old. She saw in the slow dissolution of the Potentate naught but sedition, rebelliousness, impertinence. Small had the First Potentate's reach become in her day, and her ambition to regain it all consumed her.

She murdered the two others of the Sovereign Three. In fear of her growing power the Asmidarl of Darkspire called her the Sovereign One, but she cast this paltry name off, and declared herself the Eternal Empress, the Bride of the Ascended King, and the Mistress of the Asmidarl. Terror did she bring to foe and follower alike, and tiefling blood fed the earth of Malakath. So great did her terror become that many of her subjects could bear it no more, and they fled. Finally her madness knew no bounds, and her fear of ambition unrealized became supreme; her mastery of the Tief lent to her the horrid art of Enthrallment, that she might dominate the minds of those who still loved her, and let her in. All who remained in Darkspire became then her slaves, bound in Enthrallment to love and serve her forever.

Thus ended the First Potentate, the Potentate of the Triune, and then would come an age of anarchy.

To this very day does Darkspire stand. Black clouds circle ceaselessly overhead, and lightning crackles at the whim of the Mad Empress, who yet lives by her awesome arts. She sits on her throne, and beside her are two other thrones, forever empty, the shadow of murder upon them. Her Thralls go at her command, either to worship or to toil, or at times to sortie beyond the fortified walls for the designs of their Mistress. Some of the Asmidarl speak of kin who have treated with her, and emerged from Darkspire unscathed; but more common is tell of tieflings, desperate and battered by misfortune, who forsake the world and seek the comfort of Enthrallment, trekking to Darkspire and into the Mad Empress's embrace, perhaps never to be seen again.

But return now to the ruin of the First Potentate, to the age of anarchy, for this would set the stage for the Anointed One.


From great heights had the Asmidarl fallen with the collapse of the First Potentate. Cities and towns came to ruin as the ravages of Malakath took their toll, and many tieflings flocked to various despots and masters; some clinging to the bygone glory of the Potentate, some audaciously pursuing new power, all making war. The Asmidarl were fractured.

But amidst the strife came a new figure, with a new message.

The Anointed One he is now called, though this was not his name in his own day. He condemned the Ascended King, claiming that the Tief was not a gift, but rather a Curse, and that all the Asmidarl were afflicted with it; and though he held respect for the Triune for having saved their people, he pointed to the madness of the Eternal Empress as the true reward for bearing the Tief for too long. And thus he taught that tieflings ought to reject their "wicked blood", and that atonement for the First Sin of the Ascended King was possible, if only one sought out the Light Everlasting.

His message resonated greatly with the dispossessed, with the downtrodden, and with the unfortunate. Indeed, even in the time of the Ascended King himself, not all Bearers of the Tief had equal mastery of it, and even if one was powerful with the Tief, others were too—and forget not the ravages of Malakath herself, ravenous beasts and harsh lands, which could sweep away the weak and the strong alike. The Anointed One, like the despots and masters that were his peers, provided safety and assurance by means of community and structure.

Mostly did followers of the Anointed One seek to keep to themselves; but though some took oaths against war, and were the most reclusive, many did not, and with daring did they endeavor to noble acts. Often would these bands of the Anointed One venture out, to help those in need, to free those bound in slavery, and to act as beacons of light in the darkness of ruin and anarchy. This was the height of the Anointed One's influence.

But destiny demanded the end of the age of anarchy, and the coming of the Second Potentate.

Of all the regional powers, the Anointed One was becoming greatest. The despots and the masters saw this, and they came together to conspire for the Anointed One's downfall. Bitterly did they argue over how it should be done, and over the division of spoils, this until at last a consensus was reached: they ought to bring their armies, yes, but select from among them the strongest Asmidarl to be their champion. They aimed to challenge the Anointed One to a duel.

A tiefling known only to history as "the Inheritor" was chosen. Powerful in the Tief he must have been, yet, curiously, with great reluctance did he accept the bidding of the despots and masters. If it is the place of historians to speculate, could it be that the Inheritor was secretly in the Anointed One's allegiance?

Regardless, there upon the field of battle did the two armies meet, that of the despots and masters, and that of the Anointed One. The challenge of the duel was put forth. The Anointed One accepted. In single combat would the fate of the Asmidarl and the resolution of the age of anarchy be decided. So stood then the Anointed One and the Inheritor before the armies, blades in hand. All Malakath stood still. Yet the duel would be ended in a single stroke. For as the Inheritor drew close, and raised his sword, and delivered his thrust, in the last moment did the Anointed One forsake his guard, and readily, with arms wide open, did he receive the deathblow of the Inheritor.

Perhaps no more contentious an act among the adherents of the Anointed One was that willingness to receive death. Many say that it was necessary, the true fulfillment of his teachings, and that in so doing he achieved godhood in the Light Everlasting, and dwells there now, a beacon for all tieflings who reject the Curse of the Tief. Other interpretations abound. But among those who worship the Ascended King or the Triune, they see only that the Anointed One died in ignominy.

The despots and masters, the victory theirs, triumphed over the followers of the Anointed One, enslaving them in droves, slaying those who resisted, and casting down their settlements into ruin. Such was the devastation that, to this day, adherents of the Anointed One prefer to dwell in secret places, or hide their faith, or to enact raids against wickedness from corners unseen.

But now would come the dawn of the Second Potentate, as the Inheritor, his reluctance be damned, had in him the prestige and power to which the despots and masters, craving to bask in the shadow of that glory, would swear fealty. He would become the Master of Masters.




Ashes provide fertile ground for that which rises anew.

So it was that after many years of the age of anarchy, the fractured Asmidarl began to coalesce again into an empire. The defeat of the Anointed One provided the sought-after impetus, but—it must be noted—not all the regional powers submitted to this emerging Potentate. Blood is the currency of empire, and though for millennia we have dwelt on Malakath, surely this is true of Liadain, of Epressa, of all Arethil too. War, then—swift though it was—brought the age of anarchy to a close. And now would rise the Second Potentate: the Potentate of the Ascended King, as it is also called.

A word on this. Indeed, where the First Potentate venerated the Triune above all, the despots and masters who held the highest positions within the Second Potentate largely venerated the Ascended King, and thus would this shape the character of their new empire. The Inheritor—the champion who slew the Anointed One—was named so only many years into the Potentate, for it was seen that he had been especially favored by the Ascended King, and so had inherited a portion of his great power. This title, "Inheritor" (informally, "Master of Masters" was also used), would become the title of the Second Potentate's rulers, as had the "Sovereign Three" been the title of the rulers of the First. Some confusion in the historical record is therefore to be expected, as it is oft times unclear when one Inheritor has passed and another ascends.

What is without doubt, however, is that all the Inheritors of the Second Potentate were strong in the Tief—the strongest of their respective days. Mighty tournaments decided who would become the next Master of Masters. And this was the prevailing theme of the Second Potentate: power. Such was fit for adherents of the Ascended King. From anarchy to hierarchy, all became ordered. Many who were weak in the Tief, if they lacked other value, were enslaved. And with this large source of labor did much rebuilding, and much more new construction, take place. Warriors trained hard with the sword, and grew stronger in the Tief, and went out to slay monsters and pacify wild lands. The glory of the Second Potentate came to reach far; and while to the First Potentate goes the accolade of being the longest lasting, the Second claims being the most powerful.

But arrogance would fell the ambitions of the Asmidarl.

The last Inheritor of the Second Potentate was known as "the Dragonslayer". Indeed, he was fond of Malakath's dragons as foes, finding challenge in hunting and slaying them. What began as sport quickly turned into an eye for conquering, however, as the Dragonslayer greedily looked north, to Thagretis and to Thanasis, both with their dragons, and lusted in his heart for war. And why would he not think destiny to be with him, being the Master of Masters at the height of the Second Potentate's power, commander of the strongest armies ever fielded by the Asmidarl? Yet often does prosperity deceive.

The Dragonslayer first attempted to goad Thanasis—whom he had chosen for his foe—into war with deliberate provocations. This failed, as Thanasis steadfastly attended to her own wars. So the Dragonslayer, with affirmations and encouragement from his vassal masters, openly invaded Thanasis's territory. Victories flowed easily, great advances made, and this bred haughty assurance and underestimation of one's foe among the Dragonslayer's armies: the doom of many who clutch at greatness too swiftly. For it was that Thanasis, caught off-guard at first, had now been awakened in her full might, and redirected her true forces to the Asmidarl threat.

In what became known as the Day of Defeat, Thanasis struck, everywhere, and the dispersed forces of the Dragonslayer were slaughtered or routed. Arrogance dashed in that single day with a single brilliant military stroke, the Dragonslayer with what remained of his armies went into full retreat from the northern lands back to Thronepeak, the capital of the Second Potentate. But here the Second Potentate would be broken, as Thanasis sought unquestionable victory. The Dragonslayer would fall in the siege, and all of Thronepeak cast down with him, and terms imposed by Thanasis: that none of the Asmidarl should come to inhabit Thronepeak again, leaving the ruins as a monument attesting to the folly of all who thought to challenge the might of Thanasis. The few masters who survived could do naught but accept.

And with Thronepeak, so too did the Second Potentate fall.

Now we come to our time. Some call our days the second age of anarchy, and there is, of course, truth to this claim: the Second Potentate has been gone for over a hundred years, we live among the many ruins of what was, and scattered regional powers testify to a fractured Asmidarl once again. But ours is a time of unprecedented change, for Malakath has been unveiled to the world in recent years, and so have we. Strangers from afar, never before seen, walk—if rarely—among our towns and cities, those that yet stand. What may come of it? Who is to say. Might we see something forged anew in our ancient homeland, or might history yet rhyme again, as it is wont to do?

This only we know for certain: that we bear the Tief, as we always have, and so does it shape our destinies like no other race upon Arethil.

Farewell, good student of history, and bear too this knowledge of our past.