#Or at least a tiefling born from an alu-fiend

[sky-kiss]

raphael × aasimar!tav is good and the dynamic is yummy but may i propose:::

raphael × alu-fiend!tav.

ever since i read on the difference between cambions and alu-fiends it was rotting away at my brain. i imagine they both would be wary of each other in an odd way, almost the way step siblings sometimes just Don't Click together despite them being stupidly similar. Raphael calling Tav needy (alu-fiends have like an odd craving for companionship?) and Tav in their turn calling Raphael a stubborn ass(cambions n their ambitions but also ultimate loneliness)

and then they just end up bonding in a silly way........... hkcchkkchhcocohf raphael talking about his dad and alu-fiend!tav talking about their mom like "yeah i feel you"

Bro, I truly wish. I loved alu-fiends. But alas. 5E retconned them out. Alu-fiends are now the same as cambions. :/

We cannot have nice things.

Writing some stuff with his half-sister, Antilia, right now. They have a very similar dynamic. Ant is happy to stick with the status quo and chase their dad's affection, while Raph goes rogue. They have a begrudging respect and understanding of one another.

But lord. I miss alu-fiends.

[y-rhywbeth2]

I think Raphael might be closer to a half-deity than a regular cambion.

Half-fiends are... used to be? Native outsiders. Who knows what the various lore on cambions is because we also used to have alu fiends and other details, I'm just referring to the half-fiend template right now-

Anyway, native outsiders are those with mortal parents, and as such have mortal souls and bodies while also having the supernatural thing of their non-mortal parent. Like their tiefling descendants, half-fiends leave corpses and can be resurrected as usual, and they're not innately tied to an outer plane and won't reform.

And this clicked while I started poking at the Bhaalspawn again, and it all links into Mephistopheles being his dad. The Bhaalspawn are confusing, because they should theoretically be native outsiders due to having mortal parents and being born on the Prime Material plane. But they die like non-native outsiders, and then I remembered that another difference between native and non-native outsiders is that the native outsiders need to sleep and eat. Bhaalspawn were given the outsider typing in 3.5e, which also has this to say on half-deities;

"Creatures that have a mortal and a deity as parents also fall into this category [of quasi-deity/divine rank 0]. [...] All deities (even those of rank 0) are naturally immortal and cannot die from natural causes. Deities do not age, and they do not need to eat, sleep, or breathe."

Meanwhile:

"Outsiders breathe, but do not need to eat or sleep (although they can do so if they wish). Native outsiders breathe, eat, and sleep."

So if your outsider parentage comes from a deity it overrides the mortal heritage and you don't count as native to the Prime, I guess.

Bringing this back to Raphael; Demon Lords and Archdevils tend to start blurring the line between what's not a god and what is. Gargauth, for example, is counted amongst the Faerûnian pantheon despite the fact that he's technically a very powerful devil who got powerful enough to count. Orcus, a god of undeath, is technically a Demon Lord. Lolth was considered a Demon Lord at one point, before returning to deity status. The Archdevils can provide spells to clerics and manifest aspects much like deities manifest avatars. Asmodeus recently elbowed his way into divine status by ripping out a bit of Azuth.

So I guess Raphael is a demigod or close enough, which I'm sure does wonders for his psyche.

I don't think I actually have a point on this post, it's just something that I thought of while poking the Bhaalspawn with a sharp stick for the millionth time. At least it explains why he dies like a full Baatezu in the House of Hope.