Bahamut

Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon, and the Old Man with the Canaries

Bahamut
Dragon Head in Profile or Five-Pointed Star on Night Sky or Platinum Dragon Claw
Aliases	Draco Paladin, Grandfather of Dragons, Justicemaker, King of the Good Dragons, Lord of the North Wind, the Platinum Dragon
Alignment	Lawful Good
Divine Rank	Lesser God
Pantheon	Dawn War, Draconic
Portfolio	Good dragons, Wind, Hope, Justice, Protection
Domains	3E: Air, Good, Luck, Protection 4E: Justice, Strength 5E: Life, Order, War
Home Plane	Bahamut's Palace, Mercuria, Celestia
Worshippers	Good dragons, Dragonborn, anyone seeking protection from evil dragons.
Favoured Weapon	Heavy Pick

Bahamut is a giant fish in Arabic mythology, which may or may not have the head of a hippo or an elephant, that carries the Earth on a series of weird stuff stacked on its back. Allegedly so large that the sight of him (or maybe the bull on his back) was enough to make Jesus pass out from shock! But that's a little too cluttered for modern fantasy's taste, so he's almost always represented as a dragon instead. As far as /tg/ cares, he's one of the Lawful Good deities of D&D, dating back all the way back to basic D&D, but he has also made notable appearances in Final Fantasy. His Dragonlance expy is Paladine.

Genesis

Because there are two different and entirely separate D&D multiverses, Bahamut has two different backstories.

In the Great Wheel, Bahamut and Tiamat were the children of Io, along with a mentally-challenged guy with the mind of a puppy named Vorel, who Tiamat killed out of envy for being Io's favorite. Tiamat fled Io's presence, and Bahamut ran to chase her down. Thus Io lost three children that day, one to Good, one to Evil, and one to death.

In the World Axis, Bahamut is the "son" of Io: the original god of dragons and Dragonborn. During the Dawn War, Io went toe-to-toe with Erek-Hus, the Primordial King of Terror. The dragon-god was curbstomped, and was sliced in half, from head to tail, by the Primordial's massive axe. Instead of going down into history as the god who got killed like a chump, two new dragons arose from the corpse; the platinum Bahamut, having inherited his "father's" noble traits like compassion, sense of justice and love for his creations. The other dragon spawned was Tiamat, the five-headed dragon-god of envy and avarice. After ripping the surprised Erek-Hus into little tiny pieces, the two "siblings" immediately turned on each other, instinctively hating each other; at the end of their titanic clash, Bahamut stood as the victor, sparking a grudge that Tiamat bears to this very day.

Personality

While there are many cultures that venerate Bahamut and he has been known by many guises, the one agreed upon detail among all those who worship and revere him is that he's a pretty chill guy. Unlike pretty much all the other dragons who have an unshakable belief in their own awesomeness and how much better they are than all other mortal races, Bahamut lacks the defining pride and reflection admiring tendencies of all those draconic. He's particularly concerned with the weak and the downtrodden while seeking to help people help themselves to be better people. While he believes there is no excuse for doing evil he also believes that everyone deserves a chance at redemption and to prove they can change their ways provided that they are serious about it. Just think of a peace loving holy figure like Jesus or Buddah then make them into a sick-ass platinum skinned dragon and you've basically got Bahamut.

Domain

Bahamut is a Lawful Good deity of Hope, Justice and Protection. He also is the deity worshipped by many Metallic dragons. (A broad term here; even metallic dragons are egocentric beings that loath to admit that someone is better than them, though many still hold a great deal of respect for Bahamut, and often invoke his name when acting against his enemies.) An obvious choice for any Lawful Good Paladin looking for a patron, given that even in 4e you must share alignment with your god. In previous editions Bahamut's portfolio included Air, Cold, Law, Luck, Nobility, Protection and Storm.

Bahamut is a rather hands-on deity, preferring to walk the mortal lands by himself. His favorite form is that of an old man accompanied by seven trained canaries. He travels from settlement to settlement, often giving borderline prophetic advice and, if needed, protects the people he meets with his powerful magic. Instead of just going balls-out and ripping through enemies all by himself, he prefers to strengthen his allies, mainly to test the "worthiness" of the combatants, though nobody but the Platinum Dragon himself knows the extent of the test.

Dwelling

Bahamut's halls are a sight to behold: atop Mertion, one of the mountains of Mount Celestia, stands a massive palace, plated with platinum on the outside, reflecting the light of Celestia like a massive lighthouse. On the inside you can find many other precious materials: precious metals, ivory and gemstones decorate windows, mithral walls and marble floors. This is not just for vanity: his gigantic palace is both a reminder of Bahamut's status as a god, and on a more basic level, his hoard. Any dragon can have a hoard to sleep on, it takes a god for a hoard to sleep in. Here he holds court, deals with other deities and beings of similar or near power, and passes judgement on the wicked.

Servants

Bahamut's closest servants are a flight of seven gold dragons, an inner circle of Bahamut's most trusted, skilled and dangerous worshippers. Though Bahamut isn't afraid of getting his own claws dirty to enact justice, he sometimes sends one of his servants to enact his will. These dragons are:

• Borkadd the Claw: His tasks are twofold: keep track of the laws of mortal and other lands, and carry out the law on those who can't be stopped by other means.
• Kuria the Eye: She is the law when it needs to be subtle; it seems like a strange combination when you remember that she's of Gargantuan size until you also remember that dragons can polymorph.
• Sonngrad the Wing: She is the messenger of Bahamut, very curious about the world, and loves to explore the places she's visited.
• Gruemar the Voice: He keeps peace through the power of his voice, a master negotiator and mediator.
• Marroshok the Tail: He is a bodyguard of sort for Bahamut, of the "nice in conversation, merciless in combat" kind.
• Troannaxia the Presence: Where Gruemar's words would fail, she intimidates resistance with both words and her sheer presence.
• Urgala the Fang: General for the grand armies of Bahamut, she has a short temper and a keen tactical mind.

Bahamut's best known exarch is Kuyutha, the emissary to the Dragonborn. The last and greatest of Arkhosia's paladins (the lost nation of the Dragonborn), he now trains an order of paladins on Mertion and helps the scattered Dragonborn clans (both in arms and in words)

Bahamut also counts nearly all metallic dragons as his subjects (sort of: in everyday life metallics ask little of Bahamut, and he grants little in return, unless they struggle against Tiamat and her servants). The Dragonborn of all types revere him as the creator of their race (in place of the dead Io), and many other races associate him with protection and justice.

Grand master of Flowers

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Avatar of Bahamut with his seven gold canaries, Grand Master of Flowers

During the release of a magic the gathering set, one of the planeswalkers was the Grand Master of Flowers, suspected as a Avatar of Bahamut because having seven gold canaries flying around him, ... and it says Bahamut as his card type.

why the Bahamut avatar is the head of the Monastery of the Yellow Rose, a place in Damara dedicated to Ilmater and his saint, Sollars the Twice Martyred is anyone's guess.

In Exandria

Drawing on his 4e characterization, the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount describes Bahamut as a god of justice and nobility who lives in a metallic castle in Celestia. It also gives him a poetic title, "the Platinum Dragon," which the unofficial Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting uses as its copyright-safe name for ol' king lizard here.

Gallery

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  Bahamut breaking his own neck while in flight.

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  His symbol from 3e's Deities and Demigods

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