Tiefling Questions

[gilescorey]

[Mithreas]

As Peppermint points out, there are plenty of contradictory sources out there that conflate half-demon fey'ri/daemonfey and Elven tieflings. I'm not going to get on the case of a player who calls their Elven tiefling a fey'ri, so long as the traits they are RPing are within the bounds of tieflings, and not those of half-demons.

What matters is the story people are telling. Arelith is, at its heart, a co-operative story telling environment. So long as the story you are telling is one that stays within the bounds of what we allow (in the interests of preserving the sanity of the shared environment) then you're okay. Whether you spell the Drow goddess Lloth or Lolth, or whether you refer to your Elven tiefling as a fey'ri, are not things we care about. Calling your male Drow priest a yath'tallar of Menzo or referring to your succubus mother, these are things we care about.

Very few PCs on Arelith know what a fey'ri is, and the "suspension of disbelief" problem of one PC thinking fey'ri means something different from another is -literally zero-; if one PC thinks it means "half demon" and the other doesn't, so long as both react in character (and the player of the character in question is clear that their character isn't an actual half demon and doesn't exhibit half demon traits) then great. If anything, that particular IC misconception could be the seeds of a story all to itself.

Hence my ruling the fey'ri vs tiefling thing does not need to be precisely resolved in order for people to play in a shared environment.

[The Guy everyone thinks is Memelord]

-pray the lore away

[susitsu]

I -pray lore away.

[Kuma]

I don't have enough massive-aggressive thinking emojis to respond to this adequately, and my collection is sizeable.

[Dr_Hazard89]

massive-aggressive

[Liareth]

What everyone is saying:

Fey'ri and Tieflings are two different races! Gosh Mithreas you big dumbie!

What Mithreas is trying to say:

I know Fey'ri and Tieflings are two different races, but from the perspective of the common character who isn't a scholar, they could be mistaken as the same race. So you're welcome to call your Tiefling a Fey'ri if you'd like. It doesn't actually make them a Fey'ri mechanically or lore-wise but as far as the common person is concerned, they might be indistinguishable. This is a reasonable mistake that might be made by your character or other characters, after all. That won't make your character a Fey'ri but they can call themselves one if they want.

It's not like an Aasimar calling themselves an angel. It's more like an Aasimar calling themselves a half-angel, which, I mean, sure they aren't one mechanically - but is anybody (except for a particular scholar) really going to know or care about the distinction? And hey, if your character is that scholar, feel free to call them out for lacking the required Fey'ri traits, because after all, they aren't really a Fey'ri!

What I think is a reasonable policy:

Your character can call themselves whatever they want but as a player you should always keep the setting and lore in mind and remember what your character -actually- is mechanically, and expect DM action (in the form of an RPR adjustment or something more severe) if your character negatively impacts the atmosphere of the server.

[The GrumpyCat]

Three points reguarding lore, some of which have been covered.

1) As Scholar just pointed out:

Your character can call themselves whatever they want but as a player you should always keep the setting and lore in mind and remember what your character -actually- is mechanically, and expect DM action (in the form of an RPR adjustment or something more severe) if your character negatively impacts the atmosphere of the server.

If, to use this example, Hazard wants their character to go around calling themselves a Fey'ri, because for one reason or another their character truly believes it, that's fine by us. So long as the player understand oocly that it is not in fact the case. Likewise, remember your character does not have the same lore knowledge as you, and is perfectly capable of being wrong. In fact, -characters- being wrong about lore can make for some really good roleplay.

2) This server cannot and does not pay full attention to all the FR Lore. For example -if you look up information on most deities you'll see that their clerics prey for spells at certain points in the day. In Arelith you can rest, and ergo prey, at any time for your spells. We do not enforce this, thus - technicaly, we are not following lore. There will be cases when lore is not, and cannot be followed for mechanical reasons, rating reasons, or just sheer 'common sense and fun' reasons.

3) As a DM I have better things to do with my time than read every single interaction and description of every single PC for the slightest of Lore discrepencies. I don't feel any great need to charge down upon a pc screaming 'OMG YOUR WOOD ELF HAS BLUE EYES! NO! NO! NO! LORE DESOCRATOR!!!!!! WOOD ELVES HAVE BROWN, HAZEL OR GREEN EYES! CHANGE IMMEDATLY OR BE BANNED!'
That's not fun for me. It's not fun for most players. It doesn't even add much to the game. Yes, as DMs we do watch out for larger scale lore discrepencies, but sweating the small stuff just isn't worth it.

[Seven Sons of Sin]

Good God I'm so confused.

Can you, or can you not, play a fey'ri as a tiefling elf? Straight up answer. This isn't to be found in ambiguity.

[OverTheSeaToSkye]

You can say they are, IC, but a fey'ri IN ACTUALITY requires a 5%

[One Two Three Five]

I think the gist of it is: Mithreas is saying he doesn't care do what you want

Scholar Midnight has corrected that to "You can play a tiefling that says they're a fey'ri, as long as you as a player knows they aren't."

And DM Grumpycat reiterated it, and also added that the dms don't care about lore discrepancies.

I'd go ahead and go with the scholar midnight statement: Your character can say whatever they want but you can't play your race as anything but your race, as a player, and this includes tieflings as any type of half-fiend. (Fey'ri, tanurruks, cambions.)

[Romeo and Jubilex]

what about when they literally put fey'ri in their description?? that's ooc knowledge right??

[susitsu]

It's not really a small lore discrepancy.

[Rwby]

I'm sure if there's a specific question you need answered concisely, you can just PM the DM team for a clear cut answer.

[Romeo and Jubilex]

3) As a DM I have better things to do with my time

sweating the small stuff just isn't worth it.

sure rwby

[Rwby]

Always worth noting that, misrepresenting Grumpy-Cat aside, the DM team has several other DMs who could get back to people as well.

[Romeo and Jubilex]

"misrepresenting" is the wrong word for what i did, though thanks for trying

[I Don~t Feel Like Dancing]

We have multiple clear answers that all pretty much boil down to: Play a deluded tiefling that thinks they're fey'ri, a tiefling that is related to the house that produced fey'ri and claims that title (illegitimately) by association to the house, or get a 5% to play a real half-demon fey'ri.

If people are still confused, I don't know what further explanation or clarification could help. The conversation is just going in circles, and it seems less an issue of real confusion and more about people being upset over a lore term being used too loosely.

[Romeo and Jubilex]

i asked a simple question of 'what about descriptions', i think further explanation or clarification could help that issue

[I Don~t Feel Like Dancing]

Pretty sure that calling yourself a fey'ri in the description for your character when you're not playing a real fey'ri falls into the "Don't do it" category. Same as how it's not really looked upon well for sorcerers to list themselves as half-dragons despite having the freedom to IC'ly believe that's what they are.

[The GrumpyCat]

I'm unsure what the exchange between Romeo and Jubilex and Rwby is entirely about, but yes - I'll happily attempt to answer any questions sent to me via PMs.

[Seven Sons of Sin]

You can say they are, IC, but a fey'ri IN ACTUALITY requires a 5%

Roger.

Still don't know why we can't play as genasi. You avoid all this lore nonsense but just saying your ancestor was a stone. Or a lake. Or a tornado.

[Cortex]

my ancestor was a glass of chocolate milk

[OverTheSeaToSkye]

Mine was an apache helicopter. Or so I'm told.

[MissEvelyn]

what about when they literally put fey'ri in their description?? that's ooc knowledge right??

The problem with that is the same problem with people who put something like "Spot 30: You see [insert some family heirloom, tattoo, scars, pet lizard, etc. here]"

What if my character doesn't have 30 points in Spot? I still know it, because I read it. That's OOC knowledge as well. And who are you to do decide that it takes 30 Spot or 20 Lore to recognize something?

Thus, OOC knowledge in a character's description, to me, is utterly useless. I literally can't do anything with it. I could metagame it, but that certainly doesn't further any roleplay.

Update: And since we've before been told that What You See Is What You Get is a thing here on Arelith, I think it's safe to say that it's just that. WYSIWYG. You can have a cow for a portrait and even have "Moo, i'm a cow" in your description. It still doesn't make your character a cow.