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I am am having problems finding aasimars mentioned in any other way outside of dungeons and dragons. Did Wizards of the Coast (or TSR whatever) invent them, or are they based on any mythological creatures or other works.

An aasimar is creature between an angel and a human. In D&D they are something above just a planar touched human someone with a celestial in their ancestry, and a a half celestial, someone with an celestial parent.

The creature does not have have anything to do with the Christian idea of an angel, just some association with the force of good in the universe.

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  • Do you mean "a creature named "aasimar" or "a human-like winged creature"?
    – enkryptor
    Commented Nov 20, 2017 at 12:37
  • @enkryptor i mean a creature associated with the force of good, or god in the sense of a true god, or at least a good god. A word that would also mean an offspring of Hades or Nural would not fit
    – Andrey
    Commented Nov 20, 2017 at 15:17

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The term "aasimar" was invented solely by TSR. The Oxford English Dictionary does not list it, and I also recall Usenet discussions with some Planescape designers and/or play testers where it was confirmed that the name was invented.

The other things I recall from such discussions include that tieflings, the evil equivalent, were developed first, and the aasimar came were devised to keep parity. There had been half-demon and half-devil creatures (alu-demon and vorlarren) since the first edition rules, but the upper planes cross-breeds were new for Planescape.

The notion of beings born half of angelic parentage and half human is not really new though. It's basically the way many epic heroes were conceived in polytheistic religions. With a large pantheon of gods, there may not be a clear dividing line between divinities and their immortal servitors.

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    The Judeo Christian tradition would have called these "nephilim" which are in Genesis as the offspring of humans and angels, including the fallen, evil angels. Real life myths probably carry too much baggage along to use easily, although the Diablo game series did a good job with it.
    – Zan Lynx
    Commented Nov 20, 2017 at 9:38
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    @ZanLynx Funny enough, Genesis 6:4 is probably the only biblical passage to provide the name of a regular feature in Dragon magazine. "Giants in the Earth," following the King James translation, gave AD&D stats for characters from fantasy literature and legend..
    – Buzz
    Commented Nov 20, 2017 at 11:42
  • @ZanLynx does Nephilim imply good? That would make a good answer. I have considered demigod, but that has no implication of good
    – Andrey
    Commented Nov 20, 2017 at 15:15

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