On Tieflings & Cambions
From the private notes of Diotima Erthrea, written in tiny print, somewhat difficult to read in places where her left-handedness has smeared the ink:
How to reconcile the existence of both tieflings and cambions? Literature no help; either wild speculation, poorly reasoned, or outright racist. Asked professors and they’re no help. Would say clueless but that would be rude. So this is me not saying clueless. You’re welcome.
So I have a theory. Hypothesis, actually. Background first though.
Cambions and tieflings both have fiendish blood. Tieflings are often attenuated in ancestry; can have fiend in distant past and bc we ‘breed true’ (ugh phrasing, but whatever) we express ancestry regardless. But some tieflings are not attenuated; we can be the result of a union between a fiend and a mortal. Direct ancestry, but we still end up as tieflings. Cambions almost always immediate parentage so clearly proximity matters; is a necessary but not sufficient condition to being a cambion
So, what IS the determining factor if not strength of blood?
Hypothesis:
Tieflings are the result a mortal and a fiend, but the resultant person has a ‘new’ soul or a pure soul; in essence a soul that was born into that person, creating a whole person. A mortal with the blood of a fiend.
Cambions, on the other hand, do not have a new / pure / whatever soul. By whatever mechanism, the soul that inhabits a cambion is the soul of one of the legions of the damned from the hells; they are ‘born’ as fiends, with all that being a fiend entails.
Reasoning:
Strength of bloodline does not seem to determine how ‘evil leaning’ a tiefling is; those of us with stronger infernal blood are not more prone to evil; we may express more fiendish powers but we do not have to resist an evil nature. Dys is almost certainly a direct descendant of a fiendish parent, Runar too. They have their own talents but neither is prone to evil. Me, I suppose too. Makes me sick to my stomach to act cruel, would be terrible at fiending.
Anyway, point is, blood not controlling.
Why souls? Souls are the mechanism of ‘self” so all mortals have souls. Devils do not HAVE souls, they ARE souls. Souls of the damned, serving the Hells in whatever their hierarchical role is. So if a union of a fiend and a mortal resulted in a child whose soul came from the Hells v. wherever other souls come from, could that not be the mechanism for, like, cambions? I think it makes sense. Raises questions of how the universe decides who gets what soul, though; what mechanism is at work there if this is true. Maybe Jen knows? Will ask when I am home, maybe.
More questions I cannot answer.
Some alt ideas? Some believe cambions are tieflings who ‘chose’ to pursue evil. Convenient way to vilify us; oh maybe we will become evil if tempted, tieflings are dangerous, all that. But this does not make sense. When do we choose? Who offers the choice? What of tieflings who are evil who are clearly not cambion? And cambions lie but the few I have spoken to were born into it. No ‘and now you are a cambion bc you chose it.’ Nonsense.
Other think being cambion is like a warlock pact for tieflings, but again, who is offering the choice? What happens if pact broken? And would we not see fewer? And have heard this from actual cambions? I do not believe this either.
Ugh. Enough.