Tiamat (Dungeons & Dragons)

Tiamat is the name of a powerful draconic goddess in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. The name is taken from Tiamat, a goddess in ancient Mesopotamian mythology who is substantially different (and does not have multiple heads).

Tiamat is a queen and mother of evil dragons and a member of the default pantheon of D&D gods. Her symbol is a five-headed dragon. Tiamat was also named as one of the greatest villains in D&D history by the final issue of Dragon.

Description

In most Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings, Tiamat is the five-headed queen of the evil chromatic dragons. She has one head for each customary color of chromatic dragon (black, blue, green, red, white), and each head has the powers of a member of the respective race of dragonkind. Her body is a blending of various chromatic dragon forms with an appropriately multicolored hide. Her body also has traits in common with a wyvern, including a long tail tipped with a poisionous stinger.

Tiamat has also been known to manifest as a dark-haired human sorceress.

Tiamat was also one of the first deities to have aspects, or lesser avatars. These Aspects may appear as powerful versions of her chromatic children or as versions of her own five-headed form. One such multiheaded Aspect was released in the Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures expansion set War of the Dragon Queen. A smaller Aspect of Tiamat appears in the Miniatures Handbook.

Relationships

Like most other draconic deities, she is the offspring of the dragon creator deity Io. She is the eternal rival of her brother Bahamut, the ruler of the good metallic dragons. It is hinted that her overt hatred toward Bahamut has developed, over a vast period of time, into a twisted lust for her brother as well. She dwells in Avernus, the first layer of the Outer Plane of Baator (also known as the Nine Hells). The first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons named her as the ruler of Avernus; later editions reserved the rulership of the layers of Baator for powerful baatezu (devils).

In many campaign settings, the draconic pantheon of gods consists of Io, Aasterinian, Bahamut, Chronepsis, Faluzure, and Tiamat.

Three Baatezu nobles (granted to her by Bel) serve Tiamat and command her armies on Avernus. Malphas leads 40 companies of abishai, Amduscias leads 29 companies of abishai, and Goap leads three companies of erinyes. With Pearza of the Dark Eight, Tiamat created the first abishai.

Tiamat presently has five consorts, who are great wyrms of each chromatic dragon species. Previous consorts include Apsu, Kingsu, Ephelomon, the red dragon Etiol, and the now-undead dragon Dragotha. Three of Tiamat's children were detailed in Dragon #260. An-Ur, the Wandering Death, wanders the Ethereal Plane, devouring whole demiplanes. It supposedly sprang into being from Tiamat's "first breath", which may have been the name of one of her consorts, though An-Ur resembles no draconic species, except perhaps the ethereal moonstone dragons. Dhakoth the Corruptor was born on the Negative Energy Plane; its father is unknown. Mordukhavar the Reaver is the offspring of Tiamat and Cantrum of the Dark Eight. Kurtulmak is also her son, at least according to some myths.

Periodically Tiamat has battles with the Babylonian god Marduk, who dwells in Arcadia. She also battles Bahamut, her lawful good counterpart. Heironeous and Moradin also consider themselves her enemies. Tiamat claims not to need allies, although she has many pacts with Bel and with lawful evil deities such as Hextor.

Realm

Tiamat's realm, known as the Dragonspawn Pits of Azharul or simply as Tiamat's lair, sprawls in a cluster of tall hills and mountains near a pillar made from the tormented heads of liars and a pit of maggots from which lemures emerge. One must fly (or, heavens forbid, swim) across the maggot pit to reach Tiamat's caves. Tiamat's lair contains the main gate to the second of the Nine Hells, Dis. To reach it, one must pass a chamber known as the Cave of Greed, which is filled with cursed treasure that compels the weak-willed to try to steal it. Tiamat has her own chamber within the complex, as do each of her five consorts, but it is possible to travel to Dis without disturbing her.

Dogma

Tiamat is a greedy, vain, and arrogant goddess who embodies all the strengths of evil dragonkind, and few of their weaknesses. Tiamat is most concerned with spreading evil, defeating good, and propagating chromatic dragons. She never forgives a slight. Although she is not averse to razing the occasional village, her true schemes are subtle and hard to detect. She has been compared to a puppeteer manipulating her creations from within shadows.

The Queen of Evil Dragons demands reverence, homage, supplication, and tribute from her subjects. She is sometimes called "Her Dark Majesty" or simply "Dark Queen".

Worshippers

Few humans or other humanoids worship Tiamat, but her children, the chromatic dragons, all acknowledge her sovereignty. Blue and green dragons obey her most readily. The grotesque reptilian creatures known as the spawn of Tiamat worship her as their mother. Kobolds may also revere her as their progenitor.

Clergy

Although she claims dominance over all evil dragons (and despite her misleading title, Queen of Chaos), Tiamat's priests, who are known as Wyrmlairds or Wyrmkeepers, are either neutral evil or lawful evil. Tiamat's church has a rigid hierarchy, beginning with the lowly Custodians of the Copper Chalice and continuing with, in ascending rank, the Defenders of the Silver Shield, Wardens of the Electrum Mail, Guardians of the Gold Scepter, Keepers of the Platinum Crown, Scales of the White Wyrm, Horns of the Black Beast, Wings of the Green Gargantua, Talons of the Blue Baatoran, Breaths of the Red Ravager, and the Dark Scaly Ones leading them all.

Priests of Tiamat are preoccupied with gathering treasure and undermining other faiths.

The ceremonial garb of a humanoid priest of Tiamat is a form-fitting suit of scales. Dragons or those whose scales naturally cover their bodies do not require this. Adventuring garb typically includes scale mail.

Temples

Temples to Tiamat are often built within the lairs of long-dead dragons. They are filled with piles of wealth to be sacrificed to the Chromatic Dragon, as well as traps to keep out heretics and the unfaithful. Few dragons keep shrines to her in their own lairs, because they fear that she might notice their hoards and demand a portion thereof.

Rituals

Evil dragons celebrate great victories by torturing prisoners and committing other atrocities in Tiamat's name. Prayers to the Dragon Queen focus on the promise of filling the world with evil dragons and either destroying it or dominating it utterly.

Holy Days

The two most important daily ceremonies are the Tithing and the Rite of Respect. The former is an offering of a small amount of treasure to the goddess; the tithe is cupped in the priest's hands or talons, and when a prayer is completed, the valuables have sometimes (10% of the time) simply vanished. The Rite of Respect is performed by non-dragons; it is a complicated ceremony of kow-towing in the presence of a dragon or other spawn of Tiamat.

Myths and legends

Vorel

Tiamat's enmity with Bahamut dates back to their creation, when Io made them; they were made with the intention of becoming complements and mates, but their personalities were too much at odds. Tiamat murdered Vorel, her eldest brother, and tried to frame Bahamut for the deed. Io realized who was truly to blame and banished Tiamat from his presence.

The Violation of Tiamat's Lair

In one kobold creation myth, Kurtulmak owes his existence to an assault launched on Tiamat by an army of thieves shortly after she had laid a clutch of eggs. Badly injured and with her lair heavily damaged, she caused one of her eggs to hatch, thus creating Kurtulmak. The newly-hatched godling quickly began creating a defensive perimeter of traps and restoring the caverns. During the process, Kurtulmak found an egg of Tiamat's that had fallen away from the nest and, deeming it had been away for too long to ever hatch naturally, used his magic to cause it to hatch, thus producing miniature versions of himself: the first kobolds.

The Banishment of Tiamat

Many myths claim that Tiamat lived for a long time on the Prime Material Plane, seeding it with evil dragons and dark magic. Eventually she was banished to the Nine Hells by Bahamut and a sky/sun god (perhaps Pelor or Heironeous).

Creative Origins

Tiamat first appeared in Supplement I: Greyhawk by Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz (1976) as "the Dragon Queen" and "the Chromatic Dragon." She was described as she is now, but she did not yet have a personal name. She was given the name Tiamat in the Monster Manual (1977), after the dragonlike Babylonian goddess of the salt waters.

Tiamat in various campaign settings

It was the original intention of Gary Gygax, Ed Greenwood, and others that the various Tiamat incarnations were aspects of a single entity that happened to be active on more than one plane of existence, despite the apparent differences between the mythological Tiamat and her various campaign setting incarnations.

Dragonlance

In the Dragonlance campaign setting, Tiamat's equivalent is Takhisis, the Dark Queen. In most settings, Tiamat is somewhat minor; in Dragonlance, she is a major figure in the mythology and history of the world.

Forgotten Realms

In the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, Tiamat is one of the few surviving gods of the Untheric pantheon (based on Sumerian and Babylonian mythology), battled Marduk in ages past, and is also a member of the draconic pantheon, daughter of Io, the slayer of Gilgeam the God-king of Unther, '"Nemesis of the Gods".

Tiamat in other games and media

Various monsters called Tiamat, patterned after the Dungeons & Dragons character, have appeared in other fantasy games, particularly computer role-playing games. A five-headed dragon, intended by Takhisis herself to become her physical incarnation, appears near the end of Dark Queen of Krynn. Takhisis is also the final boss of the Nintendo version of Dragon Strike.

In the Dungeons & Dragons TV series, Tiamat is the arch enemy of Venger.

Tiamat has appeared in many Final Fantasy games, usually taking the shape of a multi-headed dragon. In The Final Fantasy Legend, Tiamat is the most powerful dragon available as a playable character; a monster in a party may transform into Tiamat by eating the meat from certain boss characters. In Final Fantasy Tactics, Tiamat is a powerful Monster class that can be tamed by the player. Every other Final Fantasy incarnation of Tiamat has been a major boss. Keeping with her relationship with Bahamut, Bahamut also appears frequently, usually as a benevolent potential ally that the player's characters can learn to Summon for aid.

In Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen, and Ogre Battle 64, Tiamat is the evolved form of the Black Dragon. This Tiamat is non-unique and may appear as both a playable character and an enemy.

In Diablo 2 Tiamat's Rebuke is a unique dragon shield which has fire, ice, and lightning properties.

In Arcana for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Tiamat appears as a recolored version of the game's hydra who distracts two of the main character's party members.

In NetHack, Caveman characters must defeat the Chromatic Dragon to complete their Quests. Asking the game to describe this monster produces the answer "Tiamat is said to be the mother of evil dragonkind. She is extremely vain." She has the properties of all of the game's nine colors of dragon.

Tiamat also appears as a summonable creature in Golden Sun for the Game Boy Advance. She descends in a storm of flames and then breathes a stream of flame on her foes.

In the video game (Brigandine), Tiamat is the evolution of the Hydra, which are monster we can summon and control.

In the MMORPG Everquest, the Plane of Time dragon Quarm has a similar appearance to Tiamat.

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