Bahamut

Bahamut (pronounced bah-HAHM-ut) was the dragon god of justice and a subservient deity to Torm, god of law. Before entering the Faerûnian pantheon, he was a member of the Draconic pantheon, as a deity of good dragons, metallic dragons, wisdom, and enlightened justice (justice tempered with mercy and punishment with forgiveness) known by the name of Xymor (pronounced ZIE-more). For some time he was also a member of the Untheric pantheon, under the alias of Marduk.
His natural form was that of a platinum dragon, said by many to be the only one of his kind. He was also the eternal rival of his sister Tiamat, queen of the chromatic dragons.
Description
In his natural form, Bahamut was a massive dragon (approx 180 feet (55m) long) with a tail the same length as his body, with platinum scales tougher than any shield and blue eyes, the exact color of which was hard to specify and may have depended on Bahamut’s mood. As Xymor, he was described as a huge dragon wrapped in a scintillating aura of light so brilliant that it was impossible to tell his color.
When he wished to wander the mortal world, he usually took the appearance of an old human dressed in peasant robes.
Realm
Myths claimed that the great fortified castle that Bahamut called home was somewhere “behind the east wind,” and many scholars believed Bahamut’s castle was located on the Elemental Plane of Air. However, Bahamut’s Palace was actually located on the plane of Celestia. This castle, built entirely from Bahamut’s enormous treasure hoard, with walls made of mithral that reflected the eternal light of Celestia like a beacon on the horizon, and with windows composed of huge gemstones inlaid in silver and gold, was protected by Bahamut’s seven gold great wyrms.
Bahamut was able to move his castle between the first four layers of Celestia at will. For those friendly to the Platinum Dragon, the palace was an alternative method for traveling the first layers of the plane without using the common paths.
Personality
Bahamut was stern and very disapproving of evil, always arguing with Asgorath about his crusade against it. He accepted no excuses for evil acts, and didn’t tolerate even minor offenses offered by evil creatures.
In spite of his stance, he was also considered one of the most compassionate beings in the multiverse. He had limitless empathy for the downtrodden, the dispossessed, and the helpless. He usually preferred to polymorph those who had offended him instead of killing them.
By draconic standards, Bahamut was neither vain or desirous of treasure. He valued wisdom, knowledge, prophecies, and songs instead. However, he also pursued viciously (usually sending his champions and followers) those who tried to steal the hoard from his palace as, after all, he was the god of justice.
Bahamut also liked to prove the strength and worthiness of his followers by battling against them in his dragon form, halting the combat when his followers were injured or when they overcame him. However, he was prone to get carried away by his zeal, and had powerful healers on hand in case he had gravely injured one of his followers in those battles.
Activities: Dragon and human forms.
Bahamut expended half of his time traveling Toril in his guise of an old man. In this form he traveled from one place to another with no apparent purpose and was quick to offer advice, information, or assistance to other travelers he encountered on the road. He always tried to assess the worthiness -viewed through a lens of justice, nobility, and honor- of everyone he met while traveling.
When Bahamut assumed the form of the old man, he was usually accompanied by seven gold great wyrms polymorphed into canaries or some other small animal form, always ready to attack anyone foolish enough to threaten their god. Some claimed these wyrms were reincarnations of dead kings, renowned for their sense of justice and returned to life to serve the Platinum Dragon. They advised Bahamut on matters of honor and acted as a jury when the god was judging evildoers—often apprehended by his champions.
He expended the other half of his time holding court in his shining palace on Celestia. Good-aligned clerics and paladins usually took pilgrimages to his castle, seeking to receive the blessings of the Platinum Dragon.
Bahamut was ever watchful against the machinations of Tiamat, and never interfered in the affairs of mortal creatures unless his actions could also stop her evil schemes. However, when he confronted her, he always took the necessary actions to stop the spread of her influence and to undo whatever damage she had done.
Bahamut was unable to turn his back on any good creatures that were in need, however, even if Tiamat wasn’t involved. But he preferred to help them in indirect ways, such as giving them useful information, needed advice that bordered on prophecy, a safe refuge, or healing and bolstering them with his powerful magic.
Powers
Bahamut disdained combat, and he preferred to talk with his opponents and convince them to surrender using his legendary diplomatic skills. Despite this, he was easily capable of defending himself.
Along with all the standard powers and godly senses of a deity of his rank, those who saw him fight claimed that he had two breath weapons, one a powerful cone of cold, the other a vapor that turned his enemies into gaseous forms. A third special attack was his roar, which was so powerful that could disintegrate creatures or objects within 100 feet (30m). If facing off against more powerful creatures, this roar would still permanently deafen those who weren’t turned to dust. On top of that he was more powerful than any mortal dragon, and was also reputed to know every arcane and divine spell.
History
For ages, sages debated whether if Bahamut actually was a deity or not. Many believed he was the archetype of good dragonkind, the avatar of another deity or even a mortal dragon so powerful that other dragons revered him like a god. Whatever he was, sages knew for certainly that he was powerful, was venerated by many good dragons as their king, and was even respected by evil ones.
The fact is that Bahamut was actually a god. He came into existence alongside the rest of the draconic pantheon when the first dragons born, although in those ancient times he was known as Xymor by his dragon followers. His origins were highly conflicting, however, as there were many accounts about how he came into being.
In the more commonly accepted traditions, he was the son of Asgorath and brother of Tiamat and Null; while in the traditions of gold dragon society he was believed to be the son of Lendys and Tamara. Myths from the dragonborn of Abeir claimed instead that Bahamut and Tiamat were born from the sundered corpse of Io (the name by which dragonborn knew Asgorath) when he was killed in the Dawn War.
Whatever the truth, his cult grew rapidly in the communities of metallic dragons, especially among young gold dragons.
Once dragons as a race had established themselves during the Time of Dragons, the various religious factions of dragons began to battle one another over their different ideologies. Among those conflicts, there was one related to Bahamut that divided the usually monolithic gold dragon culture. As the precepts of Bahamut became more popular, the younger golds began to forsake the worship of Lendys and Tamara, that they regarded as old fashioned and inconsistent, to embrace the faith of the Platinum Dragon, an attitude that put them at odds with older gold dragons, who worshiped those two dragons gods with fanatical devotion. Although this conflict never degenerated into outright violence, religious intolerance became quite widespread among gold dragons, something that had no precedent until that time and never happened ever since.
Over time, religious fervor waned and draconic philosophers came to the conclusion that gods who allowed such behavior were not worthy of their worship. This started the draconic apathy towards their gods which lasted for thousands of years. The followers of Bahamut and Tiamat didn’t lose their faith toward their gods, however, and continued fighting in what was known as the Dragonfall War.
To combat Tiamat’s aberrant creations, Bahamut created powerful draconic humanoids known as the dragonborn of Bahamut, who served as his emissaries in the mortal realm during the first years of the war. The dragonborn of Bahamut were somehow related to those dragonborn native of Abeir, however how were related was a secret known only by a few older dragons.
The war waxed and waned in intensity, with the last era of intense fighting occurring between -2087 and -1071 DR. It was during this time that the Untheric empire began and with it, their pantheon became prominent. Bahamut became part of that pantheon by taking the alias of Marduk, one of the Untheric greater deities. A second front in the Dragonfall War opened and the two dragon gods fought each other personally, with neither being able to gain the upper hand.
In -1071 DR, in a fight of the Orcgate Wars known as the Battle of the Gods, while Gilgeam fought with Ilneval, Tiamat saw her chance to strike, but before she could kill the God-king, Marduk intervened and killed her, saving Gilgeam’s life at the expense of his own. With both of their Untheric aspects dead, Tiamat and Bahamut were both stripped of their divine power. Marduk’s church was eradicated and Bahamut was reduced to the status of Celestial paragon.
He was forced to stay like this, without enough followers to worship him as a god, living in the Upper planes or wandering the Material plane, doing whatever good he could until 1359 DR, when Gareth Dragonsbane and his companions returned from the Abyss after destroying the Wand of Orcus. They brought with them the Tree-Gem which Bahamut gave back to them as a sign of his covenant to protect Damara from demons. The Tree-Gem brought renewed interest of non-dragons in the worship of Bahamut as a god, and as he gained new followers, he was able to restore his deific status as a lesser deity once again. However, at some point before 1373 DR, Bahamut was trapped in an ancient prison somehow related with the Dracorage mythal.
In 1373 DR, after the destruction of Sammaster and the end of the High Magic that sustained the Dracorage mythal, Bahamut was able to free himself from his prison and reappeared in Celestia, and soon after launched an invasion to Tiamat’s demesne in Dragon Eyrie.
With the renewed faith in him, Bahamut began preparing for the resurrection of the Dragonfall War as Tiamat had regained her status as lesser deity thirteen years prior. He gifted his most devout followers with the ability to turn themselves into dragonborn, so that the war could continue between mortals again. The destruction of the Dracorage mythal also heralded the prophesied “Turning of the Great Cycle” which sparked off the religious fervor lacking in dragons since the beginning of the Dragonfall War.
In 1374 DR, lightning and meteor showers pounded Faerûn, and Bahamut and Tiamat instructed their respective followers to seek out such sites as they would each contain some form of dragon egg. Unfortunately for Bahamut, Tiamat’s followers were much more effective in retrieving the eggs than his own.
After the Spellplague, Bahamut became part of the Faerûnian pantheon as a subservient deity to Torm. He also gained a few followers among the dragonborn of Tymanther.
Relationships
Bahamut allies included good dragons, half-dragons, dragonborn (both, abeiran and ancient ones), and good draconic creatures. Bahamut was also a comrade of arms of Torm, and both deities had battled side by side against evil gods and devils on many occasions.
Bahamut’s antithesis was Tiamat, as both of them represented opposing values, and this enmity was reflected in the attitude of each deity’s worshipers as well. He was also at odds with his brother Null.
Worshipers
The majority of Bahamut’s worshipers prior to the Spellplague were mostly metallic dragons. While he was revered by all good dragons, gold, silver, and brass dragons hold him in particularly high regard.
His worship grew in the decades following the Time of Troubles, when he regained his divine status, as non-dragons began to take interest in his teachings. When he became a subservient deity to Torm, after the Spellplague, many Tormites also paid homage to Bahamut as well, and wasn’t uncommon that both gods lend their strength to worshipers of either deity at the same time.
Followers of Bahamut often took quest to oppose the schemes of Tiamat and to stop or destroy her followers. They were allies of worshipers of Torm, Moradin, Yondalla, and other lawful good deities.
Clergy
Bahamut accepted only clerics of good alignments. Whether they were dragons, dragonborn, half-dragons, or other beings attracted to his philosophy, clerics of the Platinum Dragon always had to strive to take constant but subtle actions on behalf of good while trying to do as little harm in the process as possible.
Non-draconic clerics of Bahamut typically learned his teachings at the foot of a wyrm, usually a gold or silver dragon in humanoid form. Teacher and student often traveled to see the effects of injustice and cruelty firsthand.
However, the Platinum Dragon’s compassion has been known to extend to all seeking grace or redemption. As such, his standing as an independent deity has since seen a steady rise.
Orders
The Talons of Justice was an order of dragon paladins dedicated to Bahamut that followed the Ptarian Code. No one knew exactly how many Talons there were, but the group probably numbered in the scores. Group members were spread throughout Faerûn, many living in human and demihuman form in cities and towns of other races.
The Platinum Cadre was an order of dragonborn knights from Tymanther who believed that not all dragons were evil, and that dragonborn were the ancient children of Bahamut. They worked actively to change tymantheran prejudices about dragons, and although they were ridiculed by tymantheran society, they were also acknowledged as some of the best warriors Tymanther had to offer, even if grudgingly.
Temples
Temples to Bahamut were extremely rare, as the Platinum Dragon didn’t appreciated of being honored by objects, taking into account deeds instead. Many gold, silver, and brass dragons maintained small shrines to Bahamut in their lairs, usually nothing more than Bahamut’s holy symbol engraved on a wall.
The few temples that were made to honor him were beautiful and elegant buildings with simple furniture and no embellishment or adornment. Those temples had meeting rooms where followers could gather to plan their next campaign against Tiamat, and few smaller rooms where individuals could pray, meditate, or rest in privacy.
Dogma
Bahamut’s dogma was based on justice, nobility, protection and honor. He taught his followers to always uphold the highest ideals of honor and justice, to be constantly vigilant against evil and to oppose it from all fronts, and to protect the weak, liberate the oppressed and defend just order. Bahamut advocated a “greater justice” that included fighting against evil and toppling oppressive regimes. He also liked to reward strength of purpose and character in his followers.
His dragon adepts followed the Ptarian Code, a draconic code of honor created by the gold dragon Ptaris in the ancient past. Originally intended as a guide to conduct for the lords who attended the King of Justice, the Ptarian Code eventually was adopted by many gold and silver dragons.
The Ptarian Code was similar to the codes of chivalry adopted by knightly orders of humanity. It included paying homage to Bahamut, as well to the draconic deities Lendys and Tamara. The major precepts were:
Justice and Good above all.
Honor and Fealty to the King.
Honor and Respect to Righteous Innocence.
Honor and Duty to the Balancer (Lendys), to Her Mercy (Tamara), and to the Justicemaker (Bahamut).
Honor and Protection to the Lesser Races.
Honor and Correction to the Enemies of Justice and Good.
Honor and Forbearance for oneself.
Rites
Bahamut’s worshipers and clergy had no formal rituals or ceremonies. Those who followed the Platinum Dragon believed on the philosophy of “praying through their deeds”. The only activity that was considered as something like a ritual was the Rite of Rebirth, the magical process by which non-dragon humanoids transformed themselves into dragonborn.