D&D (2024) 5e Aasimar are in the Players Handbook − what should the flavor be?

[Vaalingrade]

what other celestials are still doing well? The NG are just furries who do not even look heavenly in the sense of divine

I think you underestimate the power of furries.

If they reprint Giant Horse Mommy again, they will sell gangbusters.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

rilmani are TN and do not make Aasimar.

2e in Dragon #235 is the first instance I know of where they've suggested Rilmani can be a bloodline of Aasimar. And probably more of a thing now since Rilmani are creature type Celestial.

And it makes for easier classification of Planetouched, only 2 additional types of outer planar planetouched need to added since having a 3rd for exclusively neutral outer planar beings is even more niche than lawful (the Zenythri, Mechantrix and Axani) or chaotic (Chaond and Cansin) planetouched.

The 2e Klingon-like Rilmani designs could easily become a potential appearance for what some Rilmani bloodline Aasimar might look like.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

The Genasi are to the Neutral planes (LN, TN, CN), as Aasimar are to the Good planes, and Tiefling to the Evil planes.

Genasi are of elemental (i.e. inner planar) heritage, which is from the "opposite end" of the cosmology. They have no inherit connection whatsoever to the neutral outer planes.

 

[Yaarel]

we are assuming setting neutral for this discussion out of simple practicality.

Heh, all discussions about gods are the Forgotten Realms setting.

It is an FR god wearing a robe, and FR god in a mustache, an FR god wearing wig, an FR god wearing sunglasses.

 

[Yaarel]

Genasi are of elemental (i.e. inner planar) heritage, which is from the "opposite end" of the cosmology. They have no inherit connection whatsoever to the neutral outer planes.

Look at the 5e cosmology map:

Astral Plane → Elemental Chaos → Ethereal Plane → Material Plane

The Astral thought emanates the Elemental Chaos, out of which the forms of Elements take shape, gaining ethereal force, to become matter.

There is a "Crossing" between the Neutral planes and the Elemental Chaos. Similarly, there is a Crossing between the Good planes and the Feywild, and a Crossing between the Evil planes and the Shadowfell.

The Genasi are in the place of this threshold between Astral thought and Elemental form.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

For the Lawful and Chaotic Planetouched they were covered in 3e MM2, MM3 and an issue Dragon back when they were Paizo was publishing the magazines for WotC.

I certainly have my own ideas for what they should be like under some unified theory and streamlining of the types. I'd feel that Mechantrix is probably visually the strongest one for the Lawful Planetouched over Zenythri and Axani, as they're effectively cyborgs. I'd lean on them being more Modron-like cyborgs, but not necessarily have all Lawful Planetouched as cyborgs, some could be things like batches of clones, or partially insect people or the strangely just purple people the Zenythri were.

For Chaotic Planetouched I much preferred the Cansin over the Chaond. The Cansin sort of had more of a vibe of Delerium of the Endless (a Sandman character who might show up in the 2nd season of the Netflix adaptation), while the Chaond were definitely connected to Slaadi in appearance. They're Chaotic Planetouched and I think it should cover failed-Slaadi mutants, whimsical beings and unintentional minor shapeshifters (as in things like body type, appearance and gender change randomly after every long rest). I'd throw in some possible Far Realms influence as things to cover the more mutated ones.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

Chaotic planes of limbo are just... elementals. Some slaad too, but mainly elementals. so genasi

The modrun are pretty close to warforged that you could use the rule from one for the other

The genasi are based on the inner planes, that is the planes of earth, fire, water, and air. The planes of law and chaos are outer planes, and the equivalent of the upper and lower planes.

Then again reading up on it, it seems that the designers decided to 'squat' limbo in 4e and replace it with the elemental chaos. But then 5e seems to have brought back limbo and the elemental inner planes, without removing the elemental chaos. So we're in this weird situation where limbo is the same as the elemental chaos, which is the same as the elemental planes, which aren't the same thing as limbo.

I suspect that even the actual writers don't know what the 'correct' cosmology is at this point. My preference is for elementals to represent the inner planes, while the slaadi represent the chaotic outer plane.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Anyways I feel that some Shifters could be linked to Aasimar if they have Guardinal ancestry, but that might be something better served now in whatever they have more hybrids now (which still might be what was written about the subject in that UA).

The Vedalken from Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica are very much a common species in Magic the Gathering, as I believe they're tied to Blue Magic. But I could see them as being some sort of offshoot of the Mercane from Spelljammer. Though like others have said, the Mercane are indeed Celestials (from the errata to Spelljammer) so they could be an Aasimar ancestor along with the Reigar, who changed from Prime Material Elder Race (2e) to being a type of Celestial from Ysgard (5e Spelljammer errata).

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I would rather aasimar and tiefling were subclasses of some kind of marital sorcerer type class, where whatever your grandpa or grandma got it on with makes you better at hitting things instead of casting spells.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Look at the 5e cosmology map:

Astral Plane → Elemental Chaos → Ethereal Plane → Material Plane

The Astral thought emanates the Elemental Chaos, out of which the forms of Elements take shape, gaining ethereal force, to become matter.

There is a "Crossing" between the Neutral planes and the Elemental Chaos. Similarly, there is a Crossing between the Good planes and the Feywild, and a Crossing between the Evil planes and the Shadowfell.

The Genasi are in the place of this threshold between Astral thought and Elemental form.

I've seen the 5e cosmology map. It's a diagram representing a conceptual framework, not a literal physical map you can use to navigate walking from one plane to another.

These supposed "crossings" from the Upper Planes to the Feywild and the Lower Planes to the Shadowfell pass through the Elemental Chaos, which completely surrounds the Inner Planes and separates them from the Outer Planes (according to this diagram), so should we just replace tieflings and aasimar with genasi now too? By your argument, they should all be descended from elementals too...

More to the point, those "crossings" are the "borders" between the various elemental planes, which the chart of the Inner Planes in the DMG shows to be very much filled in with what I would describe as the para-elemental planes, where two of the big four elemental planes overlap with one another. That "crossing" linking the Upper Planes to the Feywild is the Frostfell (Para-Elemental Plane of Ice).

Also, if the Feywild and Shadowfell are connected to anything, it's the Positive and Negative Planes, respectively, which are shown on another diagram as domes encasing the Great Wheel from above and below. Not the Outer Planes.

Just because two things are drawn next to one another on a "map" doesn't mean it's actually possible to travel from one to the other - the map is not the territory. This chart was designed to show new players the major planes that exist and their overall groupings (i.e. Outer Planes, Inner Planes, and Material/Echo trio). I would hardly call its arrangement definitive.

Historically, the Inner Planes have been contained within the Ethereal and the Outer Planes within the Astral, with the Material Plane being where the two meet - a giant, cosmological Venn diagram. I do not consider that to have changed.