Pantheon: Tiamat

The Dragon Queen; Queen of the Evil Dragons; The Chromatic Dragon; Nemesis of the Gods; the Dark Lady; the Avaricious; Queen of Chaos; the Undying Queen; Bane of Bahamut

Tiamat is the queen and mother of evil dragons. She is a greedy, vain, and arrogant goddess who embodies all the strengths of her chromatic progeny but few of their weaknesses. Tiamat holds a vicious hatred of Bahamut, the God-King of Dragons, and all that he stands for. She embodies the ideal of supremacy, and therefore believes that the weak of the world are deserving of eradication, finding that only those who fight and dominate in order to survive as worthy of such a privilege. She is entirely focused on the acquisition of personal power and wealth and views mortals as hapless pawns in her struggles with other deities.

Tiamat can be charming when necessary, but her self-serving, evil, reptilian nature is readily apparent to those who look. She enjoys the company of male dragons, and has many great wyrm consorts of the chromatic varieties. She has an insatiable greed for treasures, but prefers that her followers bring it to her in the form of gifts instead of searching for riches on her own.

Clerical details

Domains: Chaos, Desire, Destruction, Dragon, Trickery

Weapon:

Worshipers, Clergy & Temples

Most chromatic dragons worship and acknowledge Tiamat's sovereignty (blue and green dragons obey her most readily). About 95% of them serve their goddess in some way. Those who prefer a different deity have a grim fate waiting for them: in the depths of her lair behind a pair of 100' adamantine doors Tiamat has a collection of the souls of those chromatics sworn to other deities, locked up for eternity. Naturally, the grotesque reptilian creatures known as the Spawn of Tiamat (see below) worship her as their mother.

Aside from the chromatics dragons and spawn, Tiamat counts a notable number of humanoids amongst her servants, mainly Dragonborn and other part-dragons, such as spellscales, dragon-kin and half-dragons, and some humans. Most kobolds worship individual dragons as gods, but the smarter ones who know about Tiamat might turn a tribe to her worship instead. Kobolds may also revere her as their progenitor.

The Queen of Chromatic Dragons demands reverence, homage, supplication, and tribute from her subjects. As a divine dragon, her hoard is believed to be worth trillions.

Clerics of Tiamat are primarily occupied by the twin tasks of acquiring an ever-increasing hoard of wealth for the faith and sabotaging the faiths of other deities. As a result, they occupy most of their waking hours with an unending series of thefts, assassinations, acts of vandalism, and arson. In Unther and Chessenta they are primarily concerned with seizing as much power as possible, while in western Faerûn, the cult's agents are focused on infiltrating and subverting the Cult of the Dragon.

The clergy within the temple are often training acolytes mercilessly, before subjecting them to battles against one another, to the death, in the name of their god. It is not uncommon for these acolytes to even kill their masters before fleeing the temple, unleashing this same evil upon the world. More generally speaking, however, Tiamat prefers to hand-pick those who come into her service, usually by sending them visions of her demands and instructing them to either accomplish great feats in her name, or to attend the temple, and succeed her trials.

Vestments

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.

Hierarchy

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 (somewhat ironically) is regimented by a strict hierarchy of ranks and titles, 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.

Many clerics of Tiamat multiclass as fighters or sorcerers.

Temples

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.

Rituals

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.

Clerics of Tiamat pray for their spells at dusk, in hopes she will return the sun the following morning, as part of a ritual known as Tithing. The Tithing requires 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 sometimes (10% of the time) simply vanish.

Tiamat's clergy also perform numerous other daily ceremonies in homage to their mistress. The Rite of Respect is a complicated ritual of abasement and appeasement which is performed by non-dragons. It must be performed while approaching any spawn of the Dragon Queen. This ceremony does not provide any ritualistic protection from the dragon's fury, but failure to perform the ceremony with rigorous perfection is sure to draw the great reptile's ire.

Festivals

In certain parts of Dradehalia, the Dark Scaly Ones have proclaimed the day of the first full moon after Midsummer a holy day dedicated to the Dark lady. Known as the Festival of Vengeance, this day marks the defeat of Gilgeam, Tiamat's First Consort, who dared assert his authority over Hers.

In Ulm the same day (day of the first full moon after Midsummer), the Day of Retribution, is marked by general anarchy, rioting, and widespread mayhem, incited by the clergy and the faithful, and punctuated by the consummation of long-simmering acts of revenge against any who have wronged the faithful (individually or collectively).

Orders

The Cult of the Wyrm, also known as the Cult of the Dragon, the Keepers of the Secret Hoard, or Wearers of Purple, is a factionalized collection of cultists, many of whom are trying to break the Goddess out of her divine imprisonment to allow her to roam the realm again.

A faction of the cult encourages evil dragons to become dracoliches. Their belief is that dracoliches are destined to one day rule Azgaarnoth and beyond. This faction acts as an information network for their draconian "masters" and bring gems and riches as offerings.

The Spawn of Tiamat: Tiamat has recently begun to create the Spawn of Tiamat in notable numbers, who are born from the eggs of dragons instead of the regular wyrmlings, or from two Spawn of the same kind mating. Dragons who sire the Spawn of Tiamat consider it a good omen and a sign of Tiamat's favor to have part-dragon monsters born instead of their own children born from their eggs. These are divided into five groups, based on their color: the Blackspawn who consist of strong raiders (and one type looking like spiders for some reason), the Bluespawn who are mostly unintelligent beasts of war, the Greenspawn who are small(ish) ambushers who work best in forest and swamp environments, the Redspawn who are the Spawn's primary source of magic (fire magic of course), and the Whitespawn who gather in large numbers and excel at fighting in cold environments and clan warfare.

Dogma

Rival deities of all creeds and from every pantheon are inherently tyrannical. They seek only power, at any cost, despite their honeyed words. The Dragon Queen is the only being powerful enough to defy the gods and overthrow their despotic rule, as demonstrated by her overthrow of the other Untheric deities. Work tirelessly toward the day when Tiamat will banish the gods from Faerûn and unite the world under her rule. Toward this goal, follow her commands unquestioningly and be willing to sacrifice yourself in her service. To overthrow the gods requires power, and power is acquired through the accumulation of wealth and magic. Power demands respect. Chromatic dragons everywhere are to be venerated as the spawn of the Dragon Queen and paid homage. When Tiamat assumes her throne, her draconic children shall serve her as dukes, and her clergy as their mortal vassals.