Tiamat has been known to manifest as a dark-haired human sorceress. In most
Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings, however, 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 poisonous stinger. 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, with detailed role-playing game statistics in
Dragon Magic. A smaller aspect of Tiamat first appeared in the
Miniatures Handbook.
Relationships Like most other draconic deities, Tiamat is the offspring of the dragon creator deity
Io. 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. In 4th Edition, Tiamat is at war with
Zehir ever since she first invaded his realm of Tytherion. While the two gods are not openly fighting right now, they are far from allies; the current situation can mainly be regarded as a temporary cease-fire.
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 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. In the 4th edition cosmology, Tiamat shares the Astral Dominion of Tytherion, the Endless Night, with
Zehir. Zehir was the original ruler, but Tiamat invaded intending to take the entire realm for herself. She successfully drove Zehir and his forces out of the caverns they loved, but she misjudged the strength and determination of the Midnight Serpent. The result is the bizarre allocation of Tytherion today: Tiamat rules the caves of Tytherion far beneath the skies and mountains she prefers, while Zehir rules the mountains above, far above the caverns and trenches his followers prefer. Although both would prefer to exchange their realms, they are too proud to actually do anything about it. In the Forgotten Realms, Tiamat's realm is still located in the Nine Hells. She later grew in power to claim a realm of her own, but it was later destroyed. After a series of defeats and setbacks and seeing Bahamut rise in power, she pledged her allegiance to
Bane and now resides in the Black Hand's realm of Banehold.
Cult Tiamat is a greedy, vain, and arrogant goddess who embodies all the strengths of evil dragonkind, and few of their weaknesses. 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". 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.
Worship 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. 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, and priests are preoccupied with gathering
treasure and undermining other faiths. 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. Prayers to the Dragon Queen focus on the promise of filling the world with evil dragons and either destroying it or dominating it utterly.
Rituals 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. 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. Evil dragons celebrate great victories by torturing prisoners and committing other atrocities in Tiamat's name.
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, their elder sibling, 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). == Reception ==