Bahamut
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| Bahamut | |
|---|---|
| Titles | The Dragon King The Platinum Dragon The Dragon God The Father of Dragons The Grandfather of Dragons The Rising Sun |
| Aliases | Raha Behemoth Marduk Balhut Lutiya Paladine Xymor |
| Alignment | Lawful Good |
| Divine Rank | 10 (lesser power) Peak: 16-20 (greater power) Lowest: - |
In Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, the Nentir Vale, Exandria, and many other D&D settings, Bahamut (I say "BAH-hah-moot," but if you want to say "buh-HAH-mit," be my guest) is a god of justice and the dragon god of good. He is a patriarchal dragon god, often called the Father of Dragons or simply the Dragon God. Many also know him as the Platinum Dragon.
Bahamut is one of the best known gods in D&D. He was made by Gary Gygax himself, who envisioned him as the antithesis of Tiamat. He's appeared in basically every setting since the beginning of the game.
Bahamut is one of the more proactive powers in Marillia, where he's known mainly as Raha. He is worshiped by Dracaryns (as a sun god) and Phoenics (as a storm deity), among others.
Mythology
In Arabia
In pre-Islamic Arabian mythology, Bahamut is a gigantic sea monster—a fish, serpent, or perhaps a whale, not totally unlike Leviathan. His name is derived from Hebrew Behemoth—as in the monster from the Bible. Also, apparently the name Bahamut is a nickname, with Lutiya being his real name. In addition, his byname is Balhut.
In the Forgotten Realms
Bahamut is known to the peoples of both Abeir and Toril. He's generally not worshiped by dragonborn, since they hail from Abeir, where they were enslaved for eons by dragons.
Here's something interesting. When the Imaskari abducted a group of Mesopotamian slaves from Terra, an act which introduced the Mesopotamian gods to Faerûn, this elevated Bahamut to the status of a greater power (albeit temporarily). Sages in Faerûn explain this by postulating that Bahamut is none other than the Mesopotamian storm god Marduk.
In other words, they believe that when the Imaskari brought over a bunch of Mesopotamians, Bahamut's power level skyrocketed, because it dumped a ton of Marduk-worshipers into Realmspace.
In Mesopotamia
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| Marduk |
|---|
Main article: Marduk
Marduk was the chief god of the ancient Mesopotamians and the son of Enki/Ea. He was the patron god of Babylon, who eventually rose to become head of the pantheon. He is famous for, among other things, slaying the goddess Tiamat.
In Marillia
Raha has a long history in Marillia. He was worshiped at least as far back as the time of Men Like Gods. In Teresis nowadays, he is one of the principal gods of the Dracarys; he's associated with the sun, law, justice, and the sky.
According to the mythology of the Himralda (and by extension many kobolds, lizardfolk, dragonborn, and other scaly folk), Raha was born when his father/progenitor, Genshi, was cut in half by the Great Titan Rhamdais. Genshi was the sun, and thus when he was cut in half, his two halves became suns themselves: these were Raha and Nyssa. The two then worked together to defeat Rhamdais.
According to traditional Saphorist mythology, Shahra is the son of Ra, and the god of storms, the sky, the air, male vitality, and divine judgment. He slew his mother, Nyssa/Tiamat, after he and his siblings accidentally killed their father, Ebzu.
However, Raha himself tells the story differently. He explained to Empire Sigh Wing that he is the identity of the Mesopotamian god Marduk, the Greek god Zeus, and the Saphorist god Shahra. He claims it was he, not Ra, who discovered the earth. There he found humans, and he gifted them with knowledge and guidance. Nyssa predated his arrival to Moray, and was definitely not his mother or his sister; she was an ancient goddess dwelling beneath the waves of Moray's primordial seas. As man developed spiritually and technologically, Nyssa grew angry with the "light that now burned within man" and started a war against humanity. Nyssa created the chromatic dragons as engines of war, and Raha responded by creating the metallic dragons. The war raged with no end in sight, until Raha intervened directly by descending to the earth in avatar form, slew Nyssa, and hurled her into Avernus. Then he returned to his divine throne in Celestia.
In Dragonlance
Paladine is probably Bahamut.
Mandate
| Edicts[1] |
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|---|---|
| Anathema |
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Power Ranking
| CR | Aspect: 30[2] |
|---|---|
| DR | Currently: 10 (lesser power) |
| At peak: 16-20 (greater power) | |
| Lowest: -/demigod |
In Faerûn, Bahamut was briefly relegated to paragon status after Marduk was killed. At that low point, he'd be considered a demigod by Pathfinder standards; by D&D standards, he'd have a DR of null.
