Aasimars are humans with a significant amount of celestial blood in their ancestry. Aasimars gravitate toward faiths or organizations associated with celestials. Their heritage can lie dormant for generations, only to appear suddenly in the child of two apparently human parents. Most societies interpret aasimar births as good omens, though it must be acknowledged that some aasimars have been known to take advantage of the reputation of their kind, brutally subverting the expectations of others with acts of terrifying cruelty or abject venality. “It’s always the one you least suspect” is the axiom these individuals live by, and they often lead double lives as upstanding citizens or false heroes, keeping their corruption well hidden. Others embrace the stereotypes of their heritage and live as upstanding, kindly citizens.
Physical Description: Aasimars look mostly human except for some minor physical trait that reveals their unusual heritage. Typical aasimar features include hair that shines like metal, jewel-toned eyes, lustrous skin color, or even glowing, golden halos.
While aasimars live a similar life span to humans, many mature a few years later. They reach adulthood around 20, with middle age at 35 and old age around 53. The most venerable of this ancestry live into their 70s.
Aasimars are sexual dimorphic, with the average height of males around six feet and females a couple inches shorter. Their body mass is similar, making most females weigh slightly less than males.
Society: Aasimars cannot truly be said to have an independent society of their own. As an offshoot of humanity, they adopt the societal norms around them, though it is thought that they find themselves drawn to those elements of society that work for the redress of injustice and the assuagement of suffering. This sometimes puts them on the wrong side of the law in more tyrannical societies, but aasimars can be careful and cunning when necessary, able to put on a dissembling guise to divert the attention of oppressors elsewhere. While corrupt aasimars may be loners or may establish secret societies to conceal their involvement in crime, righteous aasimars are often found congregating in numbers as part of good-aligned organizations, especially (though not always) churches and religious orders.
Relations: Aasimars are most common and most comfortable in human communities. This is especially true of those whose lineage is more distant and who bear only faint marks of their heavenly ancestry. It is unclear why the touch of the celestial is felt so much more strongly in humans than other ancestries, though it may be that humans inherent adaptability and affinity for change is responsible for the evolution of aasimars as a distinct ancestry. Perhaps the endemic racial traits of other ancestries are too deeply bred, too strongly present, and too resistant to change – though this does not prevent the occasional aasimar born to parents of other ancestries. Whatever dalliances other ancestries have had with the denizens of the other planes, the progeny of such couplings are vanishingly rare and have never bred true.
However, even if they generally tend toward human societies, aasimars can become comfortable in virtually any environment. They often have an easy social grace and are disarmingly personable. They get on well with half ancestries, particularly those who share a similar not-quite-human marginal status. Elven courtiers sometimes dismiss aasimars as unsophisticated, and criticize them for relying on natural charm to overcome faux pas. Perhaps of all the known ancestries, gnomes find aasimars most fascinating, and have an intense appreciation for their varied appearances as well as the mystique surrounding their celestial heritage.
Alignment and Religion: For the most part, aasimars favor deities of honor, valor, protection, healing, and refuge, or simple and prosaic faiths of home, community, and family. Some also follow the paths of art, music, and lore, finding truth and wisdom in beauty and learning.
Adventurers: Aasimars frequently become adventurers, driven to the lifestyle by not quite feeling at home in human society or by a feeling of some greater destiny. Religious figures are most plentiful in their ranks. In lands with magic or mystical arts, there are many aasimars who are drawn to these skills. Aasimar warriors are rare, but when born into more tribal communities they often rise to leadership through strength of arms and encourage their clans to embrace celestial influences.
Names: Aritian, Arken, Arsinoe, Beltin, Cernan, Cronwier, Davina, Drinma, Eran, Ilamin, Imesah, Masozi, Maudril, Nijena, Niramour, Okrin, Ondrea, Parant, Rhialla, Tural, Valtyra, Wyran, Zaigan