Tiamat
When the world was young, only two beings truly existed, Athe, and Deyis, two primordial forces respectively representing all that is, and all that is not. They were floating out there doing creation myth stuff, yknow, fighting, reconciling, having children, blah blah blah, all of that stuff, while all the while, something is taking shape that is not of their design. The thing is Tiamat, the Crucible, Mother of All Monsters, the Eldest Evil, who is less of a god and more of a roiling mass of psychic energy, id, desire, instinct, and teeth, absent greater will and intention. Tiamat, much like the other great primordial beings can sort of be thought of as her own realm, a plane of chaos, turmoil, and again, teeth. By the time the other two notice her she'd grown colossal and hungry, wreaking havoc across the nascent universe, before she is imprisoned by Athe, Deyis, and their new children, the Primordials.
The Crucible
According to some, Tiamat is the origin of life. Within her chaos, the first living beings were formed and through Struggle, began to proliferate. Some of these creations were deemed useful by the Primordials and kept, others were purged. Some of those who were kept were bestowed with Spirit, making them dualistic creatures of flesh and mind, both of the gods and of Tiamat. Mortals are considered among this group, along with a scant few animals (really, it's mostly dogs). Since flesh is an inherent chaos, it may warp unexpectedly, as seen through the Horned Folk, those among mortalkind who sprout horns and other beastly instruments*. The kingdom of beasts is much more in keeping with Tiamat's nature, representing desire and directionless will.
Mother of All Monsters
All can agree that Tiamat is the origin of monsters, or at least all of the ones made of meat. Her greatest children are the dragons, monstrous reptilian beasts with hearts full of want. Dragonkind is fierce, covetous, and deeply venomous. The first dragons were the Elder Serpents, birthed during her great battle with the Primordials, who recognized their strength and potential usefulness. Each one was imprisoned, then gifted with an understanding of the First Tongue, the tool which shaped the universe. This turned them into what you and I typically think of as D&D dragons, they are intelligent, six limbed, reptilian monsters. They were smart and powerful, but still intensely covetous, which is said to have been the reason the Primordials did not favor them over their other creations. Some Elder Serpents rejected the knowledge of the First Tongue, their offspring are said to be the unintelligent members of dragonkind, the wyverns, basilisks, hydras, and sea serpents of the world. These dragons do not have the arcane knowledge of their peers, and thus don't get the flashy breath attacks that their cousins do.
Digression: "True" Dragons are born with a limited understanding of the First Tongue, meaning they do not have any substantial sorcerous power beyond their "breath weapon," which is something of a brute force manifestation of a single word. Typically, that word is "Flame," but dragons are a diverse group, so sometimes they will command power over lightning, or ice, or frosting or whatever.
Tiamat has a big role in non-dragon related monsters as well, her invocation is common amongst those who transmute flesh. The construction of monsters is really a whole other thing, but followers of Tiamat welcome many strange creatures into their cults, as a result of her role in their creation.
The Eldest Evil
During her battle with Athe and Deyis, in addition to the Elder Serpents, Tiamat created five entities pretty much by accident, from the coalescence of the humors which ebbed out of her grievous wounds. These beings became known as the Elder Evils, strange and alien entities who were more godlike, harder to contain, and unlike their mother or the Elder Serpents, had wills of their own. These entities are:
Saathi, formed from Tiamat and Athe's blood, she is pain and bloodshed incarnate. Being formed of Athe, she is said to be the most knowing of the Elder Evils, and is always plotting.
Molash, (formerly known as Urus, this name may change again) who rose from Tiamat's coalesced yellow bile, is a ravenous spirit of hunger, no amount of flesh or spirit can sate his hunger.
Bhaal, composed of Tiamat's black bile, the most melancholy of the humors. Bhaal is said to be strange and sullen, and is typically more dormant than the other Evils.
Aboleth, a great serpent which formed from Tiamat's phlegm**, a spirit of terror, animal fear***, guile, and everything that lurks in the depths.
and Kyuss, formed from a mixture of imbalanced humors, the primordial source of all disease and filth.
The Elder Evils are typically thought of as plagues upon all living things, representing pain, hunger, death, fear, and disease respectively, maladies of which we can never truly rid ourselves. The Elder Evils have a lot more going on, of course, but, to most, the easiest way to understand them is as incarnations of their respective maladies. They have a strange relationship with Tiamat's mortal worshippers (more on that in a second), and with dragons (more on that now).
The Elder Evils are separate from their creator, Tiamat, though they bear a great amount of her essence, since they were made from her most fundamental parts. Therefore, they have something of a spiritual connection with dragons, one that can be strengthened through worship. A dragon that devotes themself to an Elder Evil will begin to mutate, their magic and their flesh changing in accordance with their new master. Pain Dragons who worship Saathi command blood and suffering, their breath is purest agony, Hunger Dragons stomachs fill with boiling poison and bile, so on and so forth.
The Apocalypse Serpent
Tiamat worship is something seen in various places throughout the world in various different contexts. There are those that wish to draw power from Tiamat, those who see her as a sort of figure to be emulated philosophically, those who believe their worship keeps her sleeping, so on and so forth. When I talk about Tiamat Cultists in this section, I mean those who are specifically attempting to wake her in some way. Among these groups, there is a consensus that Tiamat's will, should she ever be set free, will manifest in the form of the Apocalypse Serpent, a giant, fiveheaded snake that represents her pure essence. The Serpent would then do...something. Depends on who you ask, but popular answers include serving (insert cult here)'s prophet, wiping out all enemies of the faith, eating the sun and moon, ushering in 1000 years of chaos and/or a worldly paradise for her faithful, etc. It depends a lot on the specific cult, because there are essentially six different types of Tiamat cultist.
The Elder Evils are thought to be manifestations of Tiamat's will by some of these cults, and so, some of them worship the Elder Evils as beings that embody something of Tiamat's true will, in which case they are typically described as being the five heads of the Apocalypse Serpent. Which head is the central, dominant head is also a matter of debate, and will color a lot of the cult's beliefs, and leads to these cults worshipping specific aspects of Tiamat, ie, there are cults dedicated to Tiamat-Aboleth, Tiamat-Bhaal, etc. These cults are in fact different from cults where only Aboleth or Bhaal are venerated, most of these groups won't care much about Tiamat, ascribing her little to no will. It's important to note all of these groups really hate each other and care very much that you know and understand the difference between their murder-cults, sometimes the best way to deal with them is to foment infighting between two sects that have been living in near proximity to one another and let them stab each other to death. The local lord probably doesn't give a shit what happens to them, he just wants them gone.
Tiamat cultists are either beloved or despised by dragons because while they can be very willing to serve something that they see as a pure representation of their god's form, some Tiamat cultists have a bit more of a murderous relationship with dragons. The Children of Yan Tiamat, for example, embrace the aspect of Hunger, and cannibalize dragonflesh for its' mutagenic properties. They love to kill dragons, because it brings them closer to their god, the only dragons they tolerate are those who embrace their doctrine of consumption and hunt dragons alongside the cult. Other cults might have similar murderous compulsions, so dragons are pretty inclined to torch the lot of them with extreme prejudice.
That's All She Wrote
No more Tiamat nonsense for now, but next month (or sooner) I'll be back with more lore about monster mages and their creations. Riveting Stuff!
*Phlegm, in the context of the four humors, meant any sort of light colored bodily fluids, if Wikipedia is to be believed. Learning is Fun!
** Animal Fear is an esoteric/old-timey way of saying "instinctual or animal intelligence," within Esemeir. The term comes from a sage who argued that the driver of intellect was fear, there was "man fear" which was associated with existential ponderings and guessing at the beyond, and "animal fear" which drove instinctual behavior and guile.
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