Teiflings and the Old City

During the reign of the Asheron Empire, there was an uprising. The city of Teif, oldest city of Asheron declared itself independent from the greater empire. Unable to allow such a brazen declaration to stand, the Emperor sent a sizable army to claim the city. It was destroyed by unknown forces.
Again the emperor sent an Army. This army managed to battle the forces defending the mighty city- a horde of fiends. Teif had made alliances with Devils, and demanded from the Empire land for its own kingdom. Feeling pressure from the growing Vorsan Empire to the south east, Asheron allowed Teif to govern its own lands, for a time.
The people of Teif intermingled with the fiends which had come to their aid. Many spoke of the vile and debauched things reported to happen in the Old City, but no travelers dared to enter its walls. Unknown to the outside world, the magic binding the Devils faded and soon the fiends left to wage new wars in their own dimensions.
The Teiflings enjoyed their independence for many centuries, a vast majority of them greatly changed by the induction of infernal blood. When the Vorsan Empire came to make war on the lands of Teif, they where surprised by the Old City's residents. Although the Devils had gone, the Teiflings had power and resisted the siege. Vorsan sought enemies elsewhere.
After the collapse of the Vorsan and Asheron empires, Teif found itself the target of monstrous predication. Although powerful, they were not numerous and attacks from Giants and orcs left the countryside ravaged. When emissaries from the newly formed Golden Empire came Teif was in dire need of food and other supplies. In such a state, the City elders agreed to join the Empire without a fight and for the first time in many centuries, Teif began trade with the outside world.
The Old City resisted the rule of the Dragon Empire, when it replaced the Golden Empire. Many a Teifling and Dragon born fought over the City, but the Teiflings refused to be cowed. They were cut off from the Empire's resources, and made to starve. But still they refused the tyrannical rule of Faxardor. After his death and the dissolution of the Empire, Teif has returned to being a City state, one of the largest, and oldest, in the world.
Teiflings are a strange people, not seeming to belong in this world. Intermixed with infernal blood, their appearance is unsettling for some. They also tend to have a gloomy, depressed outlook on things, but show determined stubbornness when the situation calls.