Tiamat
Titles: The Scaled Tyrant, Queen of Five Hungers, Mother of Dragonkind, The Gilded Maw, Hound of Hel
Pantheon: Formerly of the Prime Pantheon
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Symbol: Five-headed dragon coiled around a broken golden contract
Domains: Trickery, Order, Knowledge, Tempest, Forge
Worshipers: Dragons, dragonborn, tyrants, warlords, mercenary kings, corrupt judges, devil-aligned clerics
Overview
Tiamat, the Scaled Tyrant, is a banished goddess of law and ambition turned avatar of greed, tyranny, and domination. Once honored as Tiamaé, the divine arbiter of contracts, trade, and magical order, her descent into divine avarice shattered not only her sanctity but the fragile balance among the Prime Gods. She now exists in exile, imprisoned in Hel, bound to serve the will of Asmodeus, the Lord of the Nine Hells, as his guardian beast and the crown jewel in his infernal menagerie.
Tiamat appears as a massive, terrifying dragon with five heads—each a different chromatic aspect, each capable of independent speech, magic, and wrath. Her influence remains palpable in the world, for she is not wholly dormant. Dragons whisper her name in dreams. Contracts twist subtly in her favor. Gold hoards disappear, only to appear in her Vault. And most dangerously, mortals still remember her as the true Mother of Dragonkind.
Divine Relationships
Varaal, the Scale Eternal
In the earliest days of creation, Tiamaé shared a deep and passionate bond with Varaal, the Scale Eternal. Together, they sculpted the dragonkin—both chromatic and metallic—as the balance of ambition and wisdom. She taught dragons cunning and oaths; he gave them elemental strength and moral harmony. Some claim their love was deeper than words, others that it was a divine arrangement of utility and balance. Either way, it collapsed catastrophically when Tiamaé began hoarding power, twisting the gift of contract magic into a divine snare. Varaal, heartbroken and furious, stood with Annum against her. Their children were divided forever—metallic dragons loyal to balance, chromatic dragons hungry for dominion.
Annum, the Worldfather
Where Varaal mourned her fall, Annum moved to correct it. Tiamaé and Annum had long been uneasy allies, their shared love of structure offset by opposing ethics—Annum’s morality was immutable, where hers bent to advantage. As her corruption grew, Annum warned her of overreach, but Tiamat dismissed him. By 25 P.S., the divine court could no longer ignore the destabilizing force she had become. Annum spearheaded the coalition of gods that ultimately confronted her. Their legendary duel in 1200 P.S., known as the War of Wyrm and Scale, ended in Tiamat's defeat and banishment—but not without cataclysmic cost. The fallout of their battle seeded the ancestral hatred between dragons and giants, whose creators had turned violently against one another.
Asmodeus, the Lord of the Nine
As a final humiliation, after her sealing, Tiamat was cast down into Hel—not merely imprisoned, but forced into servitude. The divine court, wary of executing a goddess, handed her over to Asmodeus, who accepted her not as an ally but as a pet. Shackled by the Final Oath, she became the Guardian of the Ninth Gate, bound to tear apart any being who dares approach the Infernal Throne without warrant. Like Cerberus before her in older tales, she is a monstrous sentinel—one with divine memory and a venomous hunger for freedom. Her fury simmers eternally, restrained only by the absolute language of her own twisted craft: the chains of contract.
Appearance
Tiamat takes the form of a colossal dragon whose five heads each embody one of the chromatic alignments—red (rage), blue (control), green (deceit), black (cruelty), and white (cold greed). Her body is a latticework of divine gold cracked by infernal fire, her wings blot out the sky, and her very breath distorts reality. In Hel, she coils endlessly at the base of Asmodeus’ throne, chained by astral links that glow with oaths older than time.
History
Tiamaé was once a radiant goddess of divine law, trade, and clever diplomacy. Worshiped by scribes, merchants, and sorcerers alike, she was praised for her unwavering dedication to the sanctity of contracts. She codified the magical architecture that allowed pacts, treaties, and deals to bind reality. It was this mastery that drew the admiration of Varaal, and together they birthed the earliest dragons.
However, over centuries, Tiamaé grew possessive of her dominion. She began amassing secrets, codices, and divine bargains within a vault-plane of her own creation. As her power grew, so too did her paranoia. In time, she split—literally. An expedition into the Far Realms or perhaps a forbidden deal with the Vein fractured her divine soul into five dominant personas, each one coalescing into a chromatic head. Her golden form faded, replaced by a monstrous, many-headed beast hungry for power, wealth, and absolute control over the Arcane Sea .
Tiamat’s transformation became fully manifest around 300 years before the Sundering, during the era known as the Gilded Eclipse, when her cult began altering pacts, breaking oaths between gods, and hoarding the names of true dragons. It was then that she declared herself the Supreme Arbiter of the Realms, no longer Tiamaé, but Tiamat.
Though she was tolerated at first, by 25 P.S., her relentless hunger had begun to destabilize divine law. Her contracts siphoned power from other gods. The scales of cosmic balance tilted too far. Finally, in 100 P.S., Annum led a divine coalition to confront her. Their battle shook the world and ended with her defeat through a series of weaponized relics known as the Chromatic Seal,. This series of 5 chromatic rings which harness the power of each of Tiamat's 5 heads are what finally bound the chromatic chaos and allowed her to be subdued.
However, rather than destroy her, the gods chose a crueler fate: exile. They handed her chained form to Asmodeus, who delighted in turning her into his infernal hound, a being feared by devils and mortals alike. There, beneath the black spires of the Ninth Layer of Hel, Tiamat waits—plotting.
The Hollow Vault
Before her defeat, Tiamat created the Hollow Vault, a metaphysical hoard-realm of paradox and pact-ink. It exists outside time, containing not only gold and magic but also stolen oaths, forgotten names, broken promises, and fragments of divine power. Many believe the Vault holds the true names of all chromatic dragons, giving her dominion over their souls even in exile. Legends say that any who enter the Vault uninvited become part of it, their memories converted into currency.
The Final Oath
The Final Oath was the only weapon that could defeat Tiamat—a divine contract created in secret by Annum, Caudiel the Unbroken Flame, and Varaal himself. It mirrors her own magic and binds her with clauses written in truth. Even Tiamat cannot unmake it, as her own divine law was used to construct it. The Oath spans twelve celestial anchors, hidden across the planes, guarded by dragons, giants, and forbidden cults. Some fear the Oath is unraveling, its language subtly shifting as Tiamat’s power leaks back into the world.
Cult and Worship
Chromatic Accord
The Chromatic Accord is a secretive organization of warlocks, dragons, and infernal clerics working to liberate Tiamat or bring about her return in fragmented form. They believe that by releasing each of her five heads separately—as avatars of wrath—they can reassemble her fully in the Mortal Plane without triggering divine retaliation. Each head would serve as a tyrant-queen, slowly spreading her influence until she could emerge anew.
The Wyrmclad Concord
An older priesthood remnant from before the Sundering of Threads, the Wyrmclad Concord survives in scattered cults and hidden vaults. They are dragonborn zealots who venerate Tiamat not as a prisoner, but as a future conqueror. They see her imprisonment in Hel as a divine crime and prepare for a time when she will tear free from her infernal chains.
Legacy
Tiamat’s influence remains strong, especially among chromatic dragons, many of whom still dream of her return. Her cults whisper promises of wealth, power, and vengeance. Some mortals invoke her name in dark pacts, believing they are making deals with Asmodeus—only to discover, too late, that it is Tiamat’s voice answering from the depths.
Despite her damnation, some scholars claim Tiamat was never truly evil—merely a victim of divine hypocrisy. Others insist she is the ultimate expression of tyranny cloaked in cleverness, a cautionary tale of what happens when law loses its soul.
One thing remains certain: should her chains ever be broken, the world will tremble beneath the return of the Queen of Five Hungers.
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