Quartz 5

Hochling

Properties2
tagsrace, half-blood
aliasesAasimar

4 min read

Hochling

“Many of you dream of being touched by the gods, of walking in their gaze. Few understand the burden of living under such pressure.”

  • Dimbaal Noretso Grim, Old Storyteller

The gods rarely walk among mortals - their power is too great, their concerns too vast, their existence too distant from the world they safeguard. Yet from time to time a fragment of divine essence finds its way into a mortal bloodline, and a Hochling is born. Once called Aasimar, the Hochlings are the celestial counterweight the gods set against the tieflings.

Description

Most Hochlings appear largely human, though subtle signs reveal their divine ancestry. Their eyes often possess unusual qualities: pupils shaped like stars, irises of solid gold or silver, or a faint glow in darkness. Their hair may display impossible colors or shine with an otherworldly luster.

Many Hochlings unconsciously manifest signs of divine favor when feeling strong emotion - their eyes glow, faint music accompanies their presence, flowers bloom in their footsteps, or shadows bend away from them. A Hochling descended from a beast-headed deity may inherit more obvious traits: a child of a Horus god might possess golden eyes and feathers growing among their hair, while descendants of Sekhmet may show feline ears, elongated canines, or tawny fur. Such traits vary widely, and may even become pronounced enough to produce Hochlings who appear as their gods do - half beast and half man.

Personality

The common folk treat Hochlings very differently from tieflings: it is widely assumed that a Hochling must be wise, virtuous, and favored by the gods. They are often treated as messengers of the divine, expected to work miracles at every step, their every word taken as gospel.

Yet a Hochling is no more virtuous than any other mortal. Some embrace the expectations placed upon them and strive to become living examples of their deity’s ideals; others reject the burden entirely. Many spend their lives trying to determine whether their divine ancestry grants them a purpose - or merely a reputation. Every mistake becomes a scandal; every failure, proof that they have lost their god’s favor.

Society

Culture

Language

Hochlings speak, read, and write Common and Celestial, the tongue of the gods and their servants.

Interracial Relations

Where a tiefling is met with suspicion, a Hochling is met with expectation - admiration that can be as heavy a burden as hatred. Reverence, envy, and awe follow them, and the weight of others’ assumptions shapes much of their lives.

History

Origins

When the gods spared the newly-created tieflings rather than destroy them, they resolved to balance the scales: just as there were races cursed by evil, there would be races blessed by good. So the gods gave the world the Aasimar - now called Hochlings - half-celestials counted among the Half Bloods.

A Hochling’s specific origin varies. Some descend from ancient unions between gods and mortals; others from saints, prophets, kings, or heroes who earned divine favor. In rare cases a child is born a Hochling after generations of apparently mundane ancestry, the divine spark lying dormant until it suddenly reawakens.

Appendix

See Also

Notes

  • Player note (from the original Aasimar page): in Thelemar, some Hochlings are quite literally the daughters and sons of the gods themselves - players interested in this should discuss it with the DM.
  • The “Hochling” name supersedes “Aasimar”; the old name is preserved as an alias.

Sources & Attribution

  • Primary lore: editions/5e-2014/species/hochling.md (Traveler’s Guide), author TrueMichato.
  • Origin myth: editions/5e-2014/world/bloodlines-of-thelemar.md (The Half Bloods).
  • Superseded original: content/General/Aasimar.md (backed up at content/private/_originals/General/Aasimar.md); the player note above is preserved from it.

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