Lesser known varieties of planetouched

Let's face it: despite having five alignment poles of law, chaos, neutral, good and evil, the first three play second fiddle to the last two in traditional D&D. That's generally how it's always been. The most popular planetouched have been the tiefling, aasimar and genasi. Even so, other varieties of planetouched have been published in obscure supplements.

What follows is a list of planetouched I have seen published under the OGL, sorted by plane. I do not expect this list to be remotely exhaustive, but this is the only list I am aware of so far. It took a long time and a lot of effort to put this together for me. I also provide my personal commentary.

Astral Planetouched

• Silvan, Races of Renown: A Guidebook to the Planetouched by Green Ronin
• Deigen, Secrets of the Planes: Planar Races by Lion’s Den Press (reprinted in Monsters of Porphyra 3)

I could only find two published planetouched linked to the astral plane. I suppose this is because the astral plane, like most planes, is very boring and nobody likes to visit (a common problem with the planes in general). As far as I know, there are no astral planetouched in the D&D canon.

The Silvan are a subrace of elves that are native to the astral plane. The Deigenae are humanoids native to the astral plane that originally sprung fully formed from the corpses of gods that float across the plane.

Chaotic Outer Plane

• Doathi, Monsters of Porphyra 3 by Purple Duck Games
• Eirling, Secrets of the Planes: Planar Races by Lion’s Den Press
• Ganzi, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Planar Adventures by Paizo
• Warpling, Dark Roads & Golden Hells by Kobold Press
• Xaoling, Planar Races: Chaos: The Xaolings by Rogue Genius Games
• Xiokin, Children of the Planes by Tangent Games

Although chaotic planetouched are invariably an afterthought like most of the additional planetouched, they seem to be slightly more popular than the others. As far as I know, the only chaotic planetouched in D&D canon are the chaond and cansin.

The different examples demonstrate the diversity of origins that planetouched may have. The doath and xiokin have the bloodlines of specific monsters (ogdoad and chaos beasts, respectively). The eirling are humans that are native to the planes of discord. The ganzi are humans that were mutated by proximity to planar radiation. The warpling and xaoling have no specific origin.

Lawful Outer Plane

• Anzien, Children of the Planes by Tangent Games
• Aphorite, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Planar Adventures by Paizo
• Maxim, Dark Roads & Golden Hells by Kobold Press
• Neirut, Secrets of the Planes: Planar Races by Lion’s Den Press

In D&D canon, I'm only aware of two lawful planetouched: axani, mechantrix, and zenythri.

Like the chaotic planetouched above, the lawful planetouched display a variety of origins. The anzien are descended from formians. The neirut are a caste of the inevitables. The maxim are born naturally on planes of law and sometimes created artificially and deliberately by lawful exemplars; the aphorites share the latter origin.

Material Plane

• Truskin, Secrets of the Planes: Planar Races by Lion’s Den Press

The concept of prime material planetouched seems like an oxymoron, but Lion's Den Press published one. The truskin were essentially an OGL substitute for the thri-kreen, but have the unusual origin of being born from the material plane itself and this makes them a planar race. I give it credit for being creative.

Negative Energy Plane

• Voidling, by Andy Collins

There are no negative energy planetouched in D&D canon as far as I'm aware. The removal of the energy planes as of 5e deprecates this category.

I could only find one example released under the OGL, the generic feeling voidling. These types of planetouched overlap heavily with shadow planetouched and deathtouched (an inexact term for races with vague undead heritage).

Neutral Outer Plane

• Duskwalker, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Planar Adventures by Paizo
• Reaper, Book of Heroic Races: Reapers by Jon Brazer Enterprises
• Terragen, Secrets of the Planes: Planar Races by Lion’s Den Press

As far as I could determine, there are no neutral planetouched in D&D canon.

The terragen are the closest to what I imagine they might be like. The duskwalker and reaper are linked to the psychopomps from the Pathfinder cosmology, which reimagines the neutral plane as a "Purgatory" run by the deity of judging souls. I find this a bit weird (isn't judging souls a lawful thing to do? but that's another tangent) and as I mentioned with the negative energy planetouched above they overlap with any planetouched linked to death.

Positive Energy Plane

• Deva, Dark Roads & Golden Hells by Kobold Press
• Incandent, by Andy Collins
• Luminous, Legends & Lairs: Mythic Races by Fantasy Flight Games

There are no positive energy planetouched in the D&D canon, but I believe the Glimmerfolk from Dragon magazine come close. The removal of the energy planes as of 5e deprecates this category.

The incandent are your generic conception of positive energy planetouched. The luminous are similar, but are characterized as paladin stereotypes. The deva are weird since they can select from racial traits reminiscent of elemental and chaotic planetouched, such as extra limbs or faces, animal features, or elemental affinity. I give them credit for creativity.

Shadow Plane

• Fetchling, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Race Guide by Paizo
• Nysciennes, Secrets of the Planes: Planar Races by Lion’s Den Press

The only shadow planetouched I am aware of in D&D canon are the shadar-kai and the shade race.

As I said earlier, the negative energy planetouched, purgatory planetouched, shadow planetouched, and deathtouched all overlap thematically. This reveals clear thematic weaknesses within the conception of the planes.

The fetchling are fairly generic a la aasimar or planetouched. The nysciennes originate as reflections of people on the material plane, each one reflecting aspects of multiple individuals. I give it credit for trying to world build the Shadowfell, although to be fair it is one of the few planes that is interesting to begin with.

Conclusion

The concept of planetouched is limited by the general thematic incoherence of the planes in D&D. Since the planes will vary by campaign setting, the same applies to the planetouched. 

I've briefly touched on the planetouched in past posts. In a future post I would like to outline some kind of guidelines for devising planetouched, inspired by the generous efforts of other writers over the years.