#fizban's treasury of dragons
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Day 5: Dragon
I love deep dragons and thought it was about time they got their own dragonborn variant.
#subclasseptember#subclasseptember_2023#deep dragonborn#dragonborn#underdark#5e homebrew#dnd homebrew#homebrew species#dungeons and dragons#fizban's treasury of dragons
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Fizban's Treasury of Dragons - Mimic Hoard by Sam Keiser
#Dungeons & Dragons#D&D#Fifth Edition#Fizban's Treasury of Dragons#Mimic Hoard#Mimic#Fantasy#Art#Sam Keiser#Wizards of the Coast
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Adventure Ideas from Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons
I’m rereading it recently, it’s definitely one of my favourite D&D books I’ve ever bought. And the Adventure Hooks & Connected Creatures sections of each dragon’s entry in this book’s Draconomicon are so good for adventures/adventure elements involving dragons. Some of my favourites, arranged according to vague categories:
Dragon Dungeons
“Ruins rumored to hold the treasury of a lost empire are guarded by an elaborate network of ooze-based traps designed by a restless adult black dragon.”
“An adult black dragon has hidden a cache of gems in a dismal topiary maze filled with shambling mounds, traps, and noxious plant life, all for the amusement of testing adventurers.”
(Black dragons, because of their association with fallen cultures and propensity for traps, make for great dungeon builders. Also, acid is just a nasty environmental hazard to build around, and they’re exactly the sorts of sadists who’ll make full use of it)
“A deep dragon wyrmling with an experimental bent has created a "garden" of gray oozes.”
“An adult green dragon and an adult gold dragon skirmish over control of the vine-choked ruins of a floating mausoleum and its library of talking skulls.”
(I have many, many questions about this one. Starting with the floating mausoleum (floating on water? In the air?), the library of talking skulls (though there’s one of those in Sigil as well, necromantic libraries of trapped spirits are apparently a thing), and finishing with why this particular pair of dragons are skirmishing over it. Are they each looking for information? The same information or different information? Is one of them, likely the gold, trying to destroy the library? I just. I have so many questions about this set of circumstances, and it’d be a fascinating thing to have a party stumble across, especially if they have something THEY might want from the library as well)
“A topaz dragon is building a tableau of desiccated creatures and has grown obsessed with catching one treasure hunter who escaped the dragon's clutches.”
NPCs with Draconic Friends
This is just a fantastic collection of NPCs to scatter around and have parties meet. Starting from NPCs with wyrmling companions, ranging from the fun to the rather tragic:
“A gnome relic hunter looting a long-abandoned city strikes up an unlikely partnership with a black dragon wyrmling to plunder an archaeological dig.”
“A knight rescued a bronze dragon wyrmling from sacrifice at the hands of a cult, and the two now travel together in search of wrongs to right.”
“A tiefling child has secretly hidden and raised a red dragon wyrmling from an egg. The wyrmling is bonded to the child, but dangerous to anyone else.”
“A family of deep gnomes adopts a shadow dragon wyrmling, hoping to show the dragon a noble path through gloom and despair.”
“A pirate crew keeps a curmudgeonly topaz dragon wyrmling as a beloved mascot.”
To NPCs with young dragon companions:
“A child's imaginary friend is a very real young copper dragon who can cast invisibility.”
“A young crystal dragon uses dancing lights and hypnotic pattern to give an air of authenticity to a charlatan fortuneteller's act, in exchange for a portion of the take from the charlatan's clients.”
“An assassin and a young emerald dragon train together to master the art of stealth.”
To more dangerous NPCs/enemies with adult or older draconic protection:
“An adult shadow dragon and a death knight are both hunted by adventurers. In their previous lives, the two were sworn enemies, but now they join together against their common foes.”
(There’s a real romance to this, two sworn enemies who fell to separate evils who come together now for pure survival. I would TOTALLY play this for undying loyalty, have the two of them be undoubtedly evil but also genuinely, death-defyingly loyal to each other, the only ones who know fully what each other has been through.)
“A death knight and an ancient white dragon swap tales of old foes and unanswered grievances, nursing the hunger for vengeance that sustains them.”
(Not going to lie, I’m really fond of this pairing, and not just because it’s a fantastic picture of two bitter, hateful, disgruntled old fogies sitting in the bitter cold grumbling together about ancient grudges, but instead of two grumpy old men at a bar, one of them is undead, and the other is a DRAGON. If the party is good at stealth, it’d be a fantastic picture to throw at them, you’re just hiding there holding your breath while these two incredibly lethal foes just *grumble* and commiserate with each other)
Dragons Loyal Beyond Death
Somewhat of a continuation of the above, more draconic loyalty, even after the death/corruption of the one they’re loyal to:
“An adult gold dragon feels responsible for a paladin's fall from grace and sends minions across the world in search of the paladin—now a death knight—so they both might be redeemed.”
(Fizban’s firmly believes that dragons and death knights make the best thematic companions, and I will grant them this point, because it’s got some fantastic warped chivalric imagery and I love it. A nice quest to entangle the party in if they’re the sort to enjoy moral quandries and redemption)
“A renowned gnome trickster, now deceased, so impressed an ancient copper dragon that the dragon assumes the gnome's form from time to time to help keep their legend alive.”
(This is just the … the best, most loving use of a dragon’s lifespan and shapeshifting abilities. That theme from The Last Unicorn of immortality through the memory of an immortal being. And of *course* it’s a gnome and a copper dragon, of course it’s the admiration of two tricksters. I’m not sure how well it’d fit into an adventure, but having a party learn this secret and decide what to do with it, to reveal the deception or let it continue, could be an interesting angle)
“Despite repeated mind flayer attacks, a young deep dragon refuses to leave the cave where the dragon's best friend—an adventurer who won the dragon's respect and affection—lingers as a ghost.”
(… I’m crying. What’s the solution here? Convince the ghost to move on or otherwise lay the ghost to rest so that the dragon can leave, knowing that this will mean the dragon loses their friend for good? Try to convince the dragon to leave their friend even if they still exist? Try to destroy the mindflayer colony? Try to somehow hide the cave from the mindflayers, so that the two can stay together? Try to distract the mindflayers with a different conflict so they’ll focus their efforts in that direction instead (at the risk of other nearby inhabitants)? What a fantastic and heartbreaking little situation to stumble across)
Dragon Communities
Whole communities that have incorporated or built up around a dragon, for when you want dragons as an acknowledged part of daily life somewhere, and have parties decide how to deal with that:
“An adult copper dragon serves as the patron of a community of gnome tinkerers, who present their best ideas to the dragon in hopes of being funded.”
(Sidenote: gnomes and dragons seem to get on great)
“A community of seal hunters reveres an ancient crystal dragon as the spirit of their glacier home. Such worship amuses and flatters the dragon, who keeps the hunters safe and leads them to locations where seals are plentiful.”
“A clan of gnomes pays a young dragon turtle to serve as a mobile refueling platform for their fleet of steamboats.”
(I love this one SO MUCH. Starting from the gnome steamboat flotilla itself, however you want to play this, from just a great lakes inspiring shipping business to an after-the-end Waterworld type scenario, to them then having a goddamn dragon turtle cooperating with them. Fantastic from all angles)
“An emerald dragon is the headmaster in absentia of a bardic college and must be convinced to defend the school in a contest against a rival college.”
Other Cool Dragon Plots
And then just some assorted draconic plots, which was *almost* just ancient dragons causing problems, but there was also one miscellaneous shadow dragon prompt that was just fantastic as well:
“An ancient green dragon is the guardian of a lich's phylactery and extorts favors from the lich.”
(Now *there’s* a power struggle to get embroiled in. A lich attempting to use the parties as agents to unknowingly retrieve their phylactery for them from an *undoubtedly* evil dragon’s hoard, and a subtle, sneaky green dragon who is literally *holding the lich’s life hostage against it* and who could potentially just reveal that to get the party to back off. If they didn’t feel like be subtle and using their own shapeshifting to turn the party back on the lich some other way. I fucking love green dragons. They’re such fantastic bastards and I adore them)
“An ancient crystal dragon follows a pod of whales from one sea to another, having grown fond of the valuable ambergris they leave in their wake. Now whalers are scheming to kill the dragon.”
(Okay. This is just such great *imagery* to start with, the whales and the whalers and the vast draconic protector, the greed and the livelihoods and the protection of nature, the looming mercantile interests of the perfume industry that uses the product … Ambergris is such a fascinating RL substance and history. Also, great quest if you’ve got druids or other characters interested in the protection of nature, balanced against more ‘civilised’ interests and risking’s the party’s relationship with some likely quite powerful players)
“An ancient deep dragon has put the folk of a city to work building the dragon a metropolis to rule in the center of a vast underground salt lake.”
(Again, this is just such a great, eerie image for a party to stumble across. The vast white lake under the black ceiling, the salt-scarred slaves (or are they slaves? could they be working willingly, and why?) toiling to raise labyrinthine white walls, the strange, fungal, nightmarish dragon at the centre of it. Given the deep dragon attraction to knowledge and writings, there could be an underdark library involved, strange writings embedded in carved salt granting the entire edifice unnatural durability as the deep dragon’s regional effect, that physical forms of writing cannot be damaged by nonmagical means within 6 miles of the lair, mean that these white, bloodstained walls *will not fall easily*. It’s just … such an image)
“A shadow dragon hunts the descendants of the miners who, centuries ago, uncovered the Shadowfell portal that caused the dragon's corruption.”
(And for a finisher, I just really like this. This miner’s curse, this vengeance from beneath the earth, this black shadow that follows a family line for not even a crime but a centuries-old *accident*. Possibly the Miner Forty Niner from Scooby Doo stuck a little too hard for me, but cursed miners is still just a great image. Is it worth attempting to convince the dragon that the sins of the fathers should not be borne by the sons? Or do we just have to slay the dragon?)
Conclusion
I do love this book. A lot. The Draconomicon section on its own is well worth reading. But, well. I also just really like dragons. So there’s that. Heh.
#d&d#fizban's treasury of dragons#dragons#dragon adventures#whoever was writing these sections#i love you and also wish to pick your brains
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We drew this idea on a whim after reading through some of Fizban’s and seeing the new design for the deep dragon 😂 definitely a fun look!
#dungeons and dragons#fizban's treasury of dragons#deep dragon#dnd meme#dnd memes#dungeons and dragons meme#dungeons and dragons memes#procreate#illustration#fantasy art#doodle
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D&D prompt/thoughts/theory (this is copied from a comment)
its really hard to come with why there are not more dragons of other types (asides from the creators/writers of DND just not coming up with them; i would not say they're lazy for not trying but truth is it's hard to think/write/create this stuff) especially with all the expanded and obscure and inconsistent/never explained writings of the lore of dungeons and dragons; that it is probably indescribably hard to make any of it "canon". (sorry if this typing come off inconsistently or ranting.)
but so far in my attempt to take a crack at this, i've been coming up with some different ideas just using what i know/have discovered or have come up with so far, though we call tiamat chromatic but maybe what she actually is; is prismatic. when it comes to tiamat lore; we only get so much information about her, we know her as the imprisoned in hell five-headed terror and we mostly assume she's always had five heads but what if she didn't; the ROT book classifies her as a gargantuan Fiend; Fiend? why not a dragon? or a dragon fiend? FTD gives us aspect of tiamat and she's classed as dragon but aspect, aspect is the word they use for defining her, meaning this is not the real tiamat. when it comes to bahamut he's described as the creator of the metallic dragons and is platinum scaled; meaning one, one color for him and he has no extra heads, tiamat is described as having five-heads with the body of a red dragon; since one idea is that bahamut is tiamats BROTHER why are they not very similar to each other?! since another idea is that dnd is a MAGICAL world that creatures/gods/monsters are born/created/shaped by the different worlds and environments; i think tiamat looks the way she does is because she has been changed by the environment of hell for living there for so long that she lost her true form!
so let's just try to go back way before tiamat was in hell, to a different time and place during and before the dawn of the "First World" and theorize this idea; that when tiamat was born her True form was that her scales were so indescribably colorful, bright etc. that when one sees her, her scales seemed as though you could see all the colors of the world through the reflections of the scales or that the scales had such a shine to them that if you walked around tiamat you could see her body in any/all the colors maybe even mixed, so what if the reason why we have only red, blue, black, white and green for her colors/form and the chromatic dragons is because after the first world was destroyed and tiamat was probably badly defeated/injured; that there was only a handful of her and bahamut creations that survived while the rest of them were destroyed! (and also maybe they didn't get that far with making orange, purple, pink, mercury, steel and Titanium dragons cause they were creating a world full of things and when the outsider gods came there was only what they made so far so maybe the 'First World" was an incomplete project so to speak)
so now that tiamat is in hell, her first work of creation is gone, Sardior is fucking dead, possibly has feelings like her brother betrayed her (i mean something had to have happened there and somewhere in between that made the Dragonfall Wars happen), she fought against impossible odds but lost and had the crap beaten out of her, hates the "gods" and their followers, wants revenge and now seeks to become more powerful than ever so she can destroy the world and the gods! hell hath no fury like the wrathful vengeance that this "woman" now seeks upon the universe; she is DONE with all of this! no wonder why she has been changed into what she is now as a reflection of the events that have changed/shaped her life; for as we know, to paraphrase: ONE BAD DAY can CHANGE YOUR LIFE. . .forever. damn that was a lot of text to type i did not expect this to be this long, sorry about that. but if anyone enjoyed this, glad you like it and hit me up, take care now.
#dnd#D&D#Dungeons and Dragons#Tiamat#rise of tiamat#fizban's treasury of dragons#dragons#fantasy prompt#dnd prompt#theory#my post#first world#sardior#dnd theory#dungeon and dragons theory#chromatic dragons#bahamut#metallic dragons#elegy of the first world
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I just want to be held by the Amethyst Dragonborn. They look like they'd be an excellent cuddler.
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Okay so I don’t normally post things I’ve done online because of my crippling insecurity and lack of self-confidence, but I recently 3D printed and painted some of the dragons from Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons and I wanted to share. These are the five gem dragons (crystal, topaz, emerald, sapphire and amethyst).
Credit to MZ4250 on patreon for these designs, he’s a fantastic creator of 3D models for dungeons and dragons and he’s released thousands of models for free, definitely go check out his work!
His link: https://www.patreon.com/mz4250
Also shoutout to alcohol inks for existing and allowing me to make these guys look translucent and epic when there’s a light behind them.
#DnD#D&D#Dungeons and Dragons#Dungeons & Dragons#Fizban's Treasury of Dragons#Dragons#Gem Dragons#3D printing#mz4250#art things
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Luke Sleeping - Jul 27 2023
Hims got all tuckered out reading about dragons.
#cat#cats#cats of tumblr#cute cats#my cat#cats sleeping#kitty#pictures of luke sleeping#striped cat#dungeons and dragons#fizban’s treasury of cute
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My dnd character ChunYu. Half-orc Way of the Ascendant Dragon monk. She’s so fun to play especially now at higher levels, hitting everything in sight with flaming punches and insane movement speed.
#dnd#dnd 5e#fizbans treasury of dragons#dnd monk#half orc#tabletop rpg#drawing#my art#my portfolio#pen and ink
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2 straight days of working in InDesign…. 2 years of writing and playtesting....the time is nigh…. free dragon slaying mini 5e campaign is ON THE WAY
#slaying adatok#dungeons and dragons#asharts#I DID THE FIRST DRAFT OF THE PDF TODAY!!!!#ITS DONE!! IT LOOKS REAL!!!#IM OVER THE FUCKING MOON ABOUT IT!!!!!!!#going to let it sit around for a bit and have some friends look at it for errors etc but its looking so nice!!!#i cannot overstate how exciting it was to see 2 years of work materialize into something that looks.... dare i say.... almost official#its worth noting that this module will assume you own Fizbans Treasury of Dragons#if you dont.... there are ways to get those stat blocks etc etc#or you can substitute with another system like pathfinder!!!#i want people to do wahtever!!#anyway im excited can you tell????#yall will finally get to meet Adatok and the Gemstone Alliance!!
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do I take all of my dnd books with me tonight?
I only have 4 but they are heavy
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The page for the Elder Brain Dragon, from Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons. Couldn’t find the statblock easily online, so this is for reference.
#elder brain dragon#fizban’s treasury of dragons#fizbans treasury of dragons#d&d#reference#i don’t know if I’ll remember which tag I used so I’m using all of them. sorry lol#anyway this thing fucking rules I love it
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Spring 2023 Behind the Scenes
This spring I read a wide range of genres, such as xianxia and Western fantasy, classic and classic-feeling literature, post-apocalyptic ttrpgs and more.
Soooo…… I have some big, exciting stuff coming up in the next few months. Patrons are aware, but it’s going to be impacting my reading habits pretty significantly, likely starting with the Summer 2023 quarterly reading post, which will cover June-August. I should also be able to announce it by then!
In more relevant notes, I’m thinking I’m going to start having the substacks take a back seat, I…
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#andrzej sapkowski#apocalypse keys#arthur conan doyle#avery alder#benjamin rosenbaum#blades in the dark#dream askew dream apart#fizban&039;s treasury of dragons#grandmaster of demonic cultivation#john harper#l. frank baum#mo xiang tong xiu#sealed with honey#sherlock holmes#the sword of destiny#the wonderful wizard of oz
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Today I proudly celebrate 10 years of 3D modeling free 3D printable minis!
Today I proudly celebrate 10 years of 3D modeling, printing & painting D&D minis, all for free and all for the world to enjoy! It all started 10 years ago when I posted on reddit a simple black dragon I put together on Tinkercad that the local library 3D printed for me. It blew up on reddit so I made another dragon. Then I learned Blender and decided to 3D model the entire Monster Manual. From there this went from a simple hobby to now my full time profession and I'm loving it!
Thank you all for your kind words and support over the years. I was able to set up a successful Patreon, grow a small community, and model over 5000 minis! If you ever need a mini 3D printed for your games chances are I've made it. Just google "name of creature mz4250" and you'll see the free link, be it on Shapeways, Printables, Thingiverse or on Patreon directly.
Here are a few of my favorite galleries of my works that I think would set up anyone for their D&D campaign. The free file links are below each image:
Monster Manual - https://imgur.com/gallery/1R9Rt8G
Monsters of the Multiverse - https://imgur.com/gallery/KBiK1Yp
Fizbans Treasury of Dragons - https://imgur.com/gallery/xrvhfIf
I've actually made a variety of other D&D books ready for 3D printing but these are the must haves I feel :)
Anyway thanks again friends! And as always all my models are free and posted daily here: https://www.patreon.com/mz4250
Oh and if you're curious about about my Patreon I offer my patrons access to all my 5000+ pre-supported TTRPG models in one place, along with commercial options, a discord, and requests board. The drives have all the same models that are already out there for free in the internet. Its more for convenience rather than exclusivity.
Stay awesome friends!
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Despite how WOTC/Hasbro have sworn off using AI several times (and then got caught using it, like here or here), and then casually firing +1000 employees this year (many of them being artists), their CEO is predictably musing about how to incorporate it, and readily making use of the technology for some other products, and testing how it may be of use for DnD/MtG.
I had mentioned it was just a matter of time, and even when some people were very eager that WOTC would never, well. Who would've thought. It's the same company that showed again and again no respect for its audience, their creators or even the biggest fans. (The OGL mess was about a year ago. They sent the Pinkertons to a fan less than a year ago). Because delivering a quality product isn't really their goal, nor is it to actually compensate artists fairly.
I don't think this is breaking news, but I'm mostly bringing it up in case people wonder where they stand. They also have a poll where you can tell what you think about them (no actual written feedback, only "pick from these 5 options"). And as a final note Margaret Weiss (creator of the Dragonlance, who had some big disputes with them- Including a lawsuit towards WOTC) has come forward to tell how little WOTC has respected her series. Not long ago a book set in the setting (Fizban's Treasury of Dragons) got released, and it cared very little about being respectful towards the world or her work. Which tracks with their usual behaviour, because Eberron was also mangled quite badly.
Just, as a reminder, there's many wonderful TTRPGs that are far more worth to support monetarily, or even available to play for free. (Recently all of the PF2e remaster has been posted on Archives of Nethys- A page that has all the mechanics from all the books for free, which is endorsed by the company itself.)
But yeah. As a small creator and artist, it's surely lovely to see how much the biggest TTRPG company out there respects us.
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Bahamut and Tiamat were aspects of Io/Asgorath in early 2nd edition of AD&D lore?
...as well being the two key archetypes influencing all dragons, and in 1st edition of AD&D, the only gods of dragons?
2014/2015 "Rage of Dragons" miniatures of Tiamat and Bahamut
Wile changes to Bahamut and Tiamat (and deific dragon lore in general) in 5th edition (were Bahamut and Tiamat are the supreme, and only real draconic gods), and to a degree 4th edition (were Bahamut and Tiamat were 2 halves of Io), were controversial; these changes are actually based on far older lore, that was changed mid 2nd edition, with 1992's Monster Mythology and further on.
In 1st edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Bahamut and Tiamat were the only dragon gods, with worship by dragons being split between them, as seen in 1984 article "Dragons and their deities" in Dragon #86:
"Evil dragons worship Tiamat, and good dragons worship Bahamut. That is, for all practical purposes, the extent of common knowledge about the way dragons worship their deities."
The divinity of of two was first outright affirmed in 1980 in "Leomund's Tiny Hut: Rearranging and Redefining the Mighty Dragon" in Dragon #38; with Tiamat kinda earlier in the original 1978's Monster Manual, were she was presented among the Lords of Nine.
Miniatures of Bahamut (or as named in the catalog the Platinum Dragon) and Tiamat (or as named in the catalog the Spectral Dragon), from Grenadier Models 1990 catalogue, originally from the 1989 Dragon of the Month II line from 1989. Special thanks @oldschoolfrp, thanks to who I know of this lines existence. Their original post here. I recommend checking them out.
Paladine and Takhisis from Dragonlance, also debuting in 1984, were often identified with Bahamut (Paladine) and Tiamat (Takhisis). It's rather ambiguous though - the creator of both, Jeff Grubb believing this, but writers of Dragonlance novels, and main architects of the setting, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (who basically gave them personality and story), believing them as similar, but separate characters/deities.
Official publications either suggested a connection, or stated them to be the same (as well as Bahamut and Tiamat gaining traits of Paladine and Takhisis, like being siblings, and in past, lovers), with 5th edition (with 2021's Fizban's Treasury of Dragons), stating them to be the same.
Constellations of Krynn, in the center Takhisis (left) and Paladine (right) opposing each other, the Gilean' constellation between them. From 1984's "DL5: Dragons of Mystery".
Still, Paladine on Krynn (the world Dragonlance is set in) is/was the leader of the Gods of Good, and Takhisis is/was the leader of the Gods of Evil, and were among the most powerful deities of the setting, equaled only by their brother Gilean and second only to the High God and Chaos.
According to 1989's "Player's Guide to Dragonlance, the two together created the first dragons:
"Paladine is Father of Good and Master of Law. During the
Age of Dreams, Paladine led the gods in creation. Paladine
and Takhisis, Queen of Darkness, infused the raw fury of chaos
with form and purpose, creating the first material beings—
dragons. Takhisis, jealous the first creations were not entirely
hers, corrupted the chromatic dragons to evil. Paladine replaced
his fallen children with the good, metallic dragons,
but Takhisis’s act began the rift between good and evil."
This origin of dragons on Krynn evolved overtime though, with some changes, but I won't elaborate on this here.
1990's Draconomicon
The draconic pantheon was first expanded with 1990's Draconomicon, though oddly, Bahamat and Tiamat are not among the list of Draconic deities, at least seemingly.
The book instead presents Bahamut and Tiamat instead as seemingly archetypal forms of all dragons (even indeed, the twin Platonic forms of all dragons), even their gods, all of whom (with one exception) are their "pale reflections":
" And here the conversation must turn to dragons, for in these species the diffusion theory seems to be the only suitable explanation for their wide-spread existence. Dragons are the only creatures for which there exist archetypal forms. In dragonkind, these forms are Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon, and Tiamat, the Chromatic Dragon. All of the core species of dragonkind the good aligned metallic dragons and the evil-aligned chromatic dragons (ignoring for a moment those fringe species like crystal dragons) seem to be pale reflections of their archetypal forms, displaying some but not all of that archetypes characteristics.
For example, a red dragon possesses some but not all of the characteristics attributed to Tiamat, while a gold dragon possesses some but not all of the characteristics attributed to Bahamut. Indulging in mathematical language for a moment, each species of dragon seems to be a subset of properties belonging to one or
other of the archetypes. Or, conversely, each archetype seems to possess a superset of the properties possessed by the appropriate class of dragonkind.
Some sages truly believe this observation to be representative of the truth of the matter. According to this theory, the very existence of the two archetypal forms Bahamut and Tiamat is responsible for the existence of dragons throughout the multiverse. In metaphorical language, dragons are the shadows that the archetypes cast across the planes. As shadows are, in a sense, subsets of the creatures casting them as they must be, since shadows are two-dimensional so are the shadows of the dragon archetypes subsets of those archetypes characteristics and powers."
Two of the dragon gods, Lendys and Tamara, as Platinum Dragons, seem to be even closer to the archetype of Bahamut, both being platinum dragons themselves, but still lesser than him.
In the same book, there is also mentioned the oldest and highest draconic god, Asgorath the World-Shaper, later identified with Io. Asgorath is stated to to be creator of dragons, and the universe (in the sense of seemingly all existence), at least according to dragons.
But, the myth in the same sourcebook (as found in-universe in the Book of the World, a written down red dragon myth, suggests Asgorath is Tiamat:
"It is easy to speculate, based on this myth. The plural inflection of the word breath might be taken as implying multiple heads; the Thorass word for renegade is bahmat. It seems almost too close a correlation can Asgorath be Tiamat and the Renegade be Bahamut?"
This is further alluded in Asgorath's description:
"Thus, reds believe that Asgorath is Chaotic Evil as implied in the Book of the World mentioned at the beginning of the chapter while bronzes believe Asgorath is Lawful Good."
Suggesting that like red dragons see/perceive Asgorath as Tiamat, Bronze (and other good dragons) would see the World-Shaper as Bahamut. And that the two "archetypal dragons" are themselves seemingly aspects/parts/avatars of Asgorath. Which is further suggested together with Bahamut's description in Draconomicon:
"Sages continue to debate the true nature of Bahamut. Is he the archetype of all good dragonkind, the ideal of which all other dragons are merely shadows? Is he an avatar of a greater deity?"
This is quite obviously an inspiration for Io being split in ancient times into Bahamut and Tiamat in 4th edition/Nerath lore.
As well as in "Fizban's Treasury of Dragons", presenting Bahamut and Tiamat as the origin of all dragons, and their forms, it even also using allusions to platonic forms, and shadows of higher reality. As well as Bahamut and Tiamat creating the original universe (that split into the multiverse), like Asgorath was stated to.
Io was first introduced in 1992's Monster Mythology, if very probably taking inspiration from Asgorath (with whom he is directly identified in the book), as well as perhaps Krynn's High God. Io is also stated there to be believed by dragons to be their creator, and of all of existence. As well repeating Platonic and Gnostic ideas from Draconomicon about the world being a shadow of a higher, truer reality:
"We Dragon-sages make a distinction between the Two Voids; the First Void, wherein only Io had existence, and the Shadow Void, where Io's willingly shed blood created the potential for existence and creation to come into being. Most non-dragon races only know of the Shadow Void, and they do not know of the earlier time outside time when only the Ninefold Dragon existed."
Monster Mythology though, makes Bahamut and Tiamat somewhat lesser in status, making them Lesser Gods, though only Io (as a Greater God) and Chronepsis (an Intermediate God) are above them, the other two gods (Faluzure and Aesterinian), being on the same level of power. Still though, it is a visible downgrade from their grand role in Draconomicon, and of their counterparts (Paladine and Takhisis) on Krynn.
Monster Mythology is also the the first to make Bahamut and Tiamat explicitly siblings and "intended mates".
1998's "Cult of the Dragon" sourcebook, combined the draconic pantheons mentioned described in Draconomicon and Monster Mythology, often identifying/conflating some deities between the two (notably Asgorath and Io, though that was done before). Though this also resulted in a seeming further downgrade in status of Bahamut and Tiamat, them being still Lesser Gods (and Bahamut identified with Xymor, made as possible child of Lendys and Tamara), while including multiple Intermediate Gods (Astilabor, Garyx, Kereska, Lendys, Null as the Guardian of the Lost/Chronepsis, Tamara and Zorquan).
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