Tiamat

Tiamat in her Evil Aspect

Tiamat is the dragon-goddess of chromatic and unusual dragons, and rival of her brother Bahamut. Tiamat was cursed by Bahamut to become the aspect of evil whenever she enters the material plane, though this this had the unintended side effect of also creating Tammy.

## Early Life

In the early days of the gods, Tiamat was still a godling with her siblings Bahamut and Sardior as they were just starting to form a hold of their domains. Tiamat created the chromatic dragons, Bahamut created the metallic dragons, and Sardior created the gemstone dragons. Dragons quickly became a powerful force within the realm and the dragon gods established their place in the world.

Bahamut reveled in their success and power and sought to use it to establish and maintain control. He established control over the metallic dragons, able to magically force them to do his bidding at any time. Tiamat however, despised this, and gave her dragons free will. Bahamut began to grow worried that Tiamat would outstrip him in terms of power.

Tiamat was more interested in creating than she was in controlling her previous creations, and Bahamut saw this as a threat. Tiamat was endlessly creative, and was always pushing the bounds of what she could create. Bahamut saw her as rash, impulsive, emotional, and power hungry. He wanted order, and pleaded to Tiamat to keep the dragons limited to the chromatic, metallic, and gemstone dragons - but Tiamat wanted more. Bahamut grew jealous and resentful, and he began to take matters into his own hands.

## The Curse

Bahamut turned to a dark source and cast a horrible curse on Tiamat. Whenever she enters the material plane, she transforms into an aspect of true evil. Bahamut thought this would teach her a lesson in understanding how her actions affect the world.

What Bahamut did not know was that whenever Tiamat transforms into the aspect of evil, she is split into her core aspects, leaving the good and neutral aspects behind with a fraction of her power in the form of Tammy.

### Breaking the Curse

The ritual to break the curse must follow a very specific process:

1. Bahamut must be on the material plane for the entirety of the curse breaking process
2. The curse breaking ritual must be done in Bahamut’s Palace on Mount Celestia
3. The curse-breaker must be wearing the Platinum Dragon Mask artifact
4. The ritual requires 5 blood-smeared scales from slain chromatic dragons. The scales need to be given to the curse-breaker directly by the creature that slew the dragon, who must contribute their own blood to the scale.
5. The curse-breaker needs to draw a circle and pentagon with magical chalks and candles. The curse must be written in runes along the outside of the circle. (Takes 20 minutes unpracticed)
6. The dragon scales are placed on the corners of the pentagon
7. The curse-breaker must spill their own blood in the middle of the circle, speaking the true name of Tiamat as they do.

When the curse is broken, Tiamat’s evil aspect is consumed by fire and destroyed, restoring Tiamat, who is now free to travel the material plane with no adverse effects.

### Aspect Plane Swapping

To those who don't understand the aspects of Tiamat, anyone swapping the evil aspect onto the material plane might as well be summoning Tiamat from the depth of hell.

One method of swapping Tiamat's aspects is using the Chromatic Dragon Mask artifacts. If the blood of five creatures wearing the masks is spilled in a properly drawn chalk circle during a ritual lead by a creature whose heart is motivated by madness, Tiamat's aspects are swapped.

### Killing Tiamat

Typically, a mortal cannot kill a god without some additional help, but Tiamat in her aspect form has some additional weaknesses:

* If either of her aspects are killed, the other will die as well
* If the evil aspect of Tiamat was swapped to the material plane using the chromatic mask blood ritual, any of the creatures who contributed blood to the swapping ritual has the ability to kill her
* Certain deity slaying magical weapons and artifacts such as Mortal Maker and The Diresword have the ability to kill her

## Reign of Chaos

Tiamat's evil aspect raged across the material plane wreaking havoc and leaving destruction and death in her wake. The powers of the realm joined together to enlist the aid of Bahamut to help banish her from the material plane. The curse had tied an aspect of Tiamat to always be on the material plane, so when the evil aspect was banished from the material plane, Tammy got magically summoned to the material plane.

Bahamut established himself as the god of justice and good dragons, and slandered Tiamat as the goddess of greed and evil dragons. Knowledge of Tiamat as anything other than an evil rampaging dragon goddess became nothing more than a rare conspiracy theory.

## Summoned in Skollenhaug

Shortly after The Assassination of Kamash Shadeak II, disgraced former imperial agent Volhaut Maxiroth was pursuing a group of escaped fugitives known as The P&J Adventuring Co, hoping their capture would regain him some honour and recognition within the empire. He capitalized on the confusion and turmoil that came from the fallout of the assassination, and broke into a secret imperial vault to acquire the chromatic dragon masks. He had learned of their existence and purpose while working for the imperial secret service, his friend and fellow agent Darius Lockjaw had recovered them from a cult attempting to summon Tiamat many years prior.

Volhaut was joined by the ring spirit Ahura Mazda, who was possessing Terrence Finder while they made their plans. They had hired a ranger to help them track down the party, and managed to captured Dar'Saava, one of their members who had split off along the away. When they caught up with the party, Ahura removed Terrence's finger and Volhaut put on the ring. He snuck on the party immediately grappled Katrina, then Volhaut/Ahura removed their own finger to force Ahura on Katrina and posses her so Volhaut could distract the rest of the party and keep Vessel and the counterpart ring Angra Mainyu away while Ahura got to work. Ahura/Katrina drew a chalk circle and spilled blood into a jewel encrusted bowl to summon a white dracolich, beginning the ritual. The ranger was killed, but once the dracolich engaged the party, Volhaut killed Phil and Jed, and began putting the chromatic masks on himself, the ranger, Phil, Jed, and Dar'Saava. He spilled blood from the 5 of them into the chalk circle, completing the ritual and plane swapping Tiamat. Tiamat immediately consumed Volhaut and summoned a green and blue dragon to deal with the party before flying off towards Sharn. The party survived the dragon encounter and was reunited with Saava, but Tiamat was free on the material plane once again.

> *Volhaut laughs with glee and approaches the dragon queen. “I welcome thee, nemesis of the gods, bane of Bahamut, the dragon QUEEN! I SPEAK THY NAME AND THUS I CONTROL YOU! TIAMAT, HEAR ME AND OBEY!"*
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> *Instantly, all five of her chromatic heads snap towards him as if pulled by a string. They dip down to meet his eyes. The blue head menacingly closes within inches of his face “So young.”*
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> *The black head matches its movement and continues in the same voice “So foolish.”*
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> *The white head finishes “So human”*
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>
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> *In a flash, the black head snaps and bites down. It whips back and tosses his body into the air. He screams in horror before the red head catches and consumes him, sharply cutting off his scream.*
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## The Quest for The Doors of Death

Tiamat arrived at Sharn and caused a taste of destruction and mayhem, staying just long enough to learn where the largest city was, then flew off towards Wesjard. Once there, she established herself as the new head of the empire to begin her reign of tyranny. Many were surprised she didn't burn down the entire city, but she was pleased with the power the empire had access to and many of the regimes it had set in place to keep its people in line.

When the party arrived in Sharn, the met with some of the city officials at Morgrave University. There they learned that to kill Tiamat, they needed the person who had summoned her. This lead them to the conclusion that they had to quest to bring back Volhaut from the underworld by finding The Doors of Death. An eladrin professor named Viat claimed he knew a dwarf author named Dae-Innik Thorn from Rivvik-Thun who knew where the doors were. The party prepped and left for Rivvik-Thun to find Dae-Innik.

Upon arriving in Rivvik-Thun, they learned Dae-Innik Thorn was a pen name for Reedus Ptolemariusantollistorican, and he had been captured 15 years prior in a drow raid. The party prepared themselves once more, and delved into the underdark to find the missing dwarf.

## The Razing of Sharn and Direlands Campaign

After establishing herself as the new monarch of Skollenhaug, Tiamat assessed the surrounding areas for the biggest threat to the empire. She appointed generals, called Dark Fangs, then set her focus to the Direlands. With the army mustered, the true expansion of Skollenhaug began. Sharn had remained a choke point between the empire and the Direlands for many years and stopped an all out war for many years, but with the dragon queen leading the charge, the city didn't stand a chance. Tiamat descended upon Sharn quickly and without warning, in what would become known as The Razing of Sharn. The entire city was destroyed in a matter of hours.

The only resistance she encountered was from the time lord Furrante Shadeak, who had been hiding away under the moniker David Del-Furrante. Furrante revealed himself and ultimately gave himself up to let his wife Anna'alda escape. Tiamat understood who it was she had captured and the value a time lord could add to her arsenal. She went to great lengths to acquire an incredibly rare Lenkos parasite to put in Furrante. The Lenkos enters the brain of the host and pilots the body, operating it with amnesia. If the parasite is dominated before entering the host, it can be given very basic commands, but with a limited intelligence. It retains the abilities of the host, acting with amnesia and a deep desire to accomplish the tasks given to by the creature that dominated it. Tiamat assigned one of her Dark Fangs, an imperial knight named Gwilm, to accompany Furrante. She gave him one simple task - to hunt down and kill his wife, Anna'alda.

Tiamat continued her campaign into the Direlands, and began to go from city to city destroying the towns and burning villages, leaving none alive. Azoriandas, the giant king of the Direlands, understood that in his current state he did not have what it took to challenge Tiamat. His blade, The Diresword, was capable of killing Tiamat, but it had been shattered by Volhaut in an attempted assassination attempt in the very event that got him demoted. Volhaut had taken The Pommel of Azoriandas from the sword as a prize before escaping. Azoriandas made the difficult decision to leave his home while it was being invaded to quest for the piece of his broken blade so he could reforge his sword and challenge The Queen of Chaos.

## The Giant King's Vendetta

Volhaut had been wielding The Pommel of Azoriandas as a massive maul before being killed by Tiamat, after which it was taken by Duncan. Azoriandas tracked Duncan and The P&J Adventuring Co, now known as The Wanderers of the Expanse. After several narrow escapes and close encounters, they trapped Azoriandas in the Echo Bubble. It took Azoriandas a long time to escape, and by the time he did the Wanderers had reforged the pommel into Forgefreed, making it untrackable.

Azoriandas returned to The Direlands to find Tiamat and her army had completed destroyed the majority of his people and their cities, showing no signs of stopping. Furious, He swore a blood oath he wouldn't rest until he found a way to destroy Tiamat. To his surprise, he found he was still able to track his pommel - due to a time anomaly, the Wanderers of the Expanse had been magically duplicated, along with his Pommel. He tracked down the anomaly group, known as The Assholes of Skollenhaug. Things were looking dire for the Assholes, when Kamash succumbed to Sonen's dark temptation, accessing immense power and allowing them to narrowly escape. They took immediate action to get rid of the pommel somewhere Azoriandas couldn't track it, and talked to Ragabash to have it hidden away in the private collection in The Ragabash Study Trove.

Driven by anger, grief, fury, and his oath, Azoriandas sought new methods to track the party so he could learn where they hid the pommel. He reached out to anyone who had any leads on finding The Wanderers of the Expanse, willing to pay any price. He was answered by the time lord Silva, who had acquired the blood of Duncan at The Battle of Godkiller Storm. Using hemomancy, he began to track Duncan. What he did not realize was that this was leading him to the original Duncan from The Wanderers, and not the Duncan time clone that knew the location of the pommel.

Tiamat learned of the giant king's oath and quest to reforge his sword, and worry began to creep into her mind. If he were to achieve his goal, he would be more than capable of defeating her. She leaves her army to continue the direlands campaign without her, and reaches out to her many contacts to try and find the party herself. She learns of The Divine Reckoning on Mount Celestia and The Wanderer's involvement, and promptly makes her way there to find the party.

Bahamut immediately felt Tiamat enter Celestia, and summoned his champion Áron to track her and learn of her intentions there.