Tiamat (Dungeons & Dragons)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dungeons & Dragons Deity

Tiamat in the background with her human form in the foreground
Tiamat
Title(s)	The Chromatic Dragon, Creator of Evil Dragonkind, the Avaricious, the Dragon Queen
Home Plane	Nine Hells of Baator
Power Level	Lesser
Alignment	Lawful Evil
Portfolio	Evil dragons
Domains	Destruction, Dragon, Evil, Greed, Hatred, Law, Scalykind, Trickery, Tyranny
Alias(es)	Takhisis (Dragonlance, debated)
Superior	none

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

Tiamat is a queen of evil dragons and a member of the default pantheon of D&D gods.

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 also 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.

1 Description
2 Tiamat in various campaign settings
- 2.1 Dragonlance
- 2.2 Forgotten Realms
3 Tiamat in other games and media
4 Footnotes
5 References

[edit] 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 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.

Three Baatezu nobles 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.^[1]

[edit] 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. ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Dragonlance

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

[edit] Forgotten Realms

In the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, Tiamat is one of the few surviving gods of the Untheric pantheon (based on Sumerian 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".

[edit] 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.

Tiamat depicted in the animated series Dungeons & Dragons

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

Tiamat has appeared in many Final Fantasy games,^[2] usually taking the shape of a multiheaded 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.

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, wich are monster we can summon and control.