Tiamat

Tiamat (TEE-ah-maht) is the queen and mother of evil dragons. Her symbol is a five-headed dragon. Tiamat is the five-headed queen of the evil chromatic dragons. She has one head for each of the most common colors of chromatic dragon (black, blue, green, red, white), and each head has the powers of a member of the respective race of dragonkind. Each head's color continues down her back and sides, eventually blending into three stripes of gray, blue-green, and purple along her hindquarters, becoming muddy brown on her tail. Her underbelly and stubby legs are greenish white blending into the colors on her sides and back. Her fat, bloated body is a blending of various chromatic dragon forms with an appropriately multicolored hide. Her tail is tipped with a poisionous stinger like that of a wyvern. Tiamat has also been known to manifest as a dark-haired human sorceress. Tiamat was one of the first deities to have aspects, or lesser avatars, printed. 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. 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. 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). The draconic pantheon of gods consists of the leader Io, as well as Aasterinian, Bahamut, Chronepsis, Astilabor, Hlal, Lendys, Faluzure, Garyx, Tamara and Tiamat. Three Dukes of Hell (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, 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. Maybe she had a consort named First Breath, but 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, and Stratis was an enemy of Tiamat when he was alive. Tiamat claims not to need allies, although she has many pacts with Bel and with lawful evil deities such as Hextor. 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 lake of maggots from which new 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. 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. From the shadows she moves her puppets' strings. The Queen of Evil Dragons demands reverence, homage, supplication, and tribute from her subjects. 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. Naturally, the grotesque reptilian creatures known as the spawn of Tiamat worship her as their mother. Kobolds may also revere her as their progenitor. Tiamat was the patron of the ancient Flan kingdom of Caerdiralor. 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 ceremony garb of a humanoid priest of Tiamat is a form-fitting suit of scales. Dragons or those whose scales naturally cover their bodies don't require this, of course. Adventuring garb typically includes scale mail. 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 don't wish the goddess to know exactly how much treasure they have, for fear she will demand a greater cut of it. 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. 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. Vorel Tiamat's emnity 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, though, 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.

Kurtulmak is raised by Tiamat

Kurtulmak

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Tiamat

100

Kurtulmak is often linked to the draconic pantheon. Some myths hold that he is a son of Tiamat, queen of evil dragons, while others claim he was raised to divinity by Io, the draconic god of creation.