Priesthood of Tiamat

A letter from Alain Thropscotter, halfling merchant of herbs to his husband Jasper back in Waterdeep about his time in Kundar:

“Hello love,
Kundar continues to be such a wildly different place than I imagined. I’ve just about gotten used to being surrounded by kobolds in fancy suits, and the streets are similar enough to Calimport that I at least have a frame of reference. Business seems good and I think I’ll have finished making the right contacts here to set up longer-term deals - they don’t have thyme here at all! Hopefully I’ll be back home by the end of the month.
What is really weirding me out though is all the Tiamat stuff around here. There’s a huge temple to Bahamut here (that’s the good dragon-god, all about law and justice and stuff), and that’s where the main courthouses are, from what I understand. So why there are so many temples of Tiamat around (I’ve seen at least 3! (Tiamat’s the evil dragon-god, or so I was always taught, didn’t Haivale have some problems with a cult last year, I thought that was Tiamat?)) ?
Here’s a bunch of odd things about it:

1. There’s more Tiamat temples than Bahamut ones
2. No one has a problem with this
3. All the Tiamat places seem to hold regular markets - so everyone goes there to do shopping and so on - I’ve met several people there!
4. All the Tiamat priests I’ve seen (black robes, rainbow coloured stripes (which is nice)) have been really nice and friendly! Well, at least friendly in a business sense. Polite and all, you know? But not like, sacrificing people. They have some cunning negotiators amongst them, that’s for sure - they know their way around business, but they’re not like… you know, evil. I think?
5. Again, Bahamut is the law god but I’ve seen more Tiamat culti priests dealing with issues of thievery and cheating than I realllllly think they have jurisdiction over, right? Like I don’t think they actually have any formal law-enforcing station, but I saw someone get pick-pocketed yesterday, and when they cried out for help, it was a black-robed Tiamat kobold who rushed off after the thief and came back later with the money. Didn’t see what happened to the thief, but no one asked any questions about it. It’s like they’re their own law here.

Well, the city works, unequal though it is (only one of the merchants I’m working with is a Dragonborn in a city where they’re at least a third of the population). I’m not going to question their entire religious/legal system after a few weeks here. Miss you and see you soon.
With love, Alain”

Type

Religious, Organised Religion