====== Lore ====== ==== Celestial Blood ==== All Aasimar have celestial blood and are sometimes created by a Celestial being in order for them to serve a purpose on the Material Plane. From an early age, aasimars often receive visions and guidance from celestial entities via dreams. These dreams help shape them and attempt to give them a sense of destiny and desire for righteousness. Usually there is a single celestial agent as a guide in these dreams. This entity is typically a deva. Not all aasimar receive these visions and callings, but those more purposefully created by one of these celestial powers typically do. Some Aasimar embrace this purpose, becoming champions of justice, fulfilling prophecies and protecting the weak. Others resent their lineage and chosen destinies, feeling that they were born to be nothing more than a tool or railroaded onto a life they do not want to live. Those without these visions or callings can feel resentment or abandonment or feel they have done something to cause this lack of divine support. In truth, there are many celestials and many reasons aasimar come into being, some are due to an ancestor being an aasimar or a parent passing through a divine plane or near some sort of great magic. Aasimar have physical traits that reflect their celestial heritage, including multiple eyes, glowing white skin, a halo or other ornament and symbols floating above their head, multiple arms, wings, shining white eyes, pale colored skin, etc. The more inhuman have no faces, odd shapes instead of heads, multiple heads, strangely formed bodies or other inhumanly terrifying appearances. ==== A Higher Calling ==== Aasimar are chosen for and sometimes drawn to higher callings, this calling is often associated with what classification of celestial being birthed them. Note that not all births are biological, as sometimes "virgin" births are created by the aasimar. These "callings" are related to the source of their celstial blood and affects them even if they never have any contact with the divine themselves. These higher callings drive even those aasimar who reject their heritage. The virtue that drives their celestial heritage becomes an inexorable part of their personality and those who try to fight it may find themselves very conflicted and will resent that aspect of their personality. Those who embrace this heritage will find themselves helped along their journey by the heavens and are made fit for the mission they are on.
“I knew he was trouble, never trust an Aasimar I say!" Sure, some of them are good cutters. Regular folk like you and me, will go out tryin' the taps with any ol' one. Those're practically Time Mephits though! Most of them are runnin' around trumpetin' the archons! They're always traipsin' about the upper planes lookin' down on all us normal folk. Doin' "holy" callin's and meetin' with all the angels and the outsiders, I wish they'd just stay down in the faith mines and leave us common folk to our good, honest thievin' — not that I was doing any of the thievin' I was accused of today. I'm not sayin' I've never taken anything, I am a yugoloth after all, but I know the rules when I'm in the cage. I follow them, and everything he just said was a bunch of flam! You know his type, they all got their celestial fingerpaints, he just made it look like me. He just fingered me because I'm from a lower plane! This is discrimination! I'm not from Carceri! I'm from Gehenna! We're mostly lawful! — Lin Jo, Fence for the Bloody Cogs, Court transcript after the testimony of Ashia, an Aasimar member of the Fraternity of Order.
==== Conflicted Souls ==== Despite having celestial blood, an aasimar is still mortal and possesses full free will. Many will follow their ordained path, but some grow to see their abilities as a curse. These aasimar tend to become disaffected, but live normal lives. Others become evil, others find their heritage a form of brainwashing and seek revenge. As they do have full free will, they feel this forced calling. Even aasimar wholly dedicated to good sometimes are torn between two worlds. The celestials who guide them see the world in a much larger view than they do, an aasimar who wishes to help a town recover from a deadly draught might be told by their guide that they must move onward in their quest. To a distant angel, saving a few commoners might pale in comparison to quickly defeating a deadly cult. An aasimar's guide is wise, but not infallible and has the greater good in mind. ==== Aasimar Names ==== Most aasimar are born from human parents, and they use the same naming conventions as their native culture. Those born within the planes or recognized at birth as Aasimar are often given more divine names, such as those of Saints or virtues such as Charity.