Dragonlance WotC Officially Confirms Takhisis and Tiamat Are The Same

It's been an issue in dispute for decades, over various editions of D&D, but WotC has officially confirmed that - at least in 5E - Dragonlance's Takhisis is, indeed, currently Tiamat. In previous editions, Tiamat has varied from being a big dragon to a minor goddess, while Takhisis has been a greater god on Krynn. At times they've been the same entity, and at others different entities. Today, WotC is putting its foot down and saying that Takhisis and Tiamat are, indeed, the same being.



Of course, this is not an opinion universally held. Dragonlance co-creator Margaret Weis emphatically stated that "TAKHISIS IS NOT TIAMAT, DAMN IT!"

Fizban's Treasuryof Dragons confirms that the beings echo across various settings.

D&D 5E - Is Paladine Bahamut? Is Takhisis Tiamat? Fizban's Treasury Might Reveal The Answer!

According to WotC's James Wyatt, Fizban's Treasury of Dragons introduces a new cosmology for dragon gods, where the same beings, including Fizban, echo across various D&D campaign settings with alternate versions of themselves (presumably like Paladine/Bahamut, or Takhisis/Tiamat). Also... the...

www.enworld.org

 

[Azzy]

That to me says they are the same being in a grander sense. Just different parts/facets/faces of the whole. I mean it specifically says:

"Paladine and Takhisis are the avatars or incarnations of Bahamut and Tiamat..."

Yep.

 

[EthanSental]

Right, but the poster implied Greenwood was cool with Faerun changes. Which he was not, at all.

I don’t think Ed ever tweeted or posted something defiant since, ya know, he doesn’t own it anymore like Weis never owned DL. And their reason, from checking about the spellplague and interview, had to do with the 100 time gap and their Salvatore’s beloved characters and money tied it their potential novels, not really being alive at that point so it more of who do I write about now type feel in the interview.

I’ve had a long day at work and this isn’t meant to be snarky in response just I did look into it after you mentioned the spellplague and the Ed and RA

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Honestly the only weird thing about this is Ms. Weiss' vehement insistence that Takhisis isn't Tiamat.

Like...for real. The five-headed mother-of-(chromatic-)dragons (whose five heads are the five colors thereof), sister of Paladine (the one and only Platinum Dragon who leads the metallic dragons and sponsors heroes everywhere), champion of tyranny and evil the world over...is TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from the five-headed mother-of-(chromatic-)dragons (whose five heads are the five colors thereof), sister of Bahamut (the one and only Platinum Dragon who leads the metallic dragons and sponsors heroes everywhere), champion of tyranny and evil the world over.

Like, come on. Pull the other one. It's painfully obvious. Paladine and Takhisis are aliases in a new universe. Don't get me wrong, I'm liable to do this myself (and loop in their dad, Io, as well--I even have names picked out for them.) But to make such an all-caps big deal out of them TOTALLY being different things we pinky-swear....it just comes across as silly.

 

[Scribe]

Still official source material.

Excuse me what? I still have not recovered from the 'canon' discussions.

 

[darjr]

I gotta say that people on both side of the debate are taking this much harder and emotionally badly than Margaret actually is.

 

[Azzy]

Honestly the only weird thing about this is Ms. Weiss' vehement insistence that Takhisis isn't Tiamat.

Like...for real. The five-headed mother-of-(chromatic-)dragons (whose five heads are the five colors thereof), sister of Paladine (the one and only Platinum Dragon who leads the metallic dragons and sponsors heroes everywhere), champion of tyranny and evil the world over...is TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from the five-headed mother-of-(chromatic-)dragons (whose five heads are the five colors thereof), sister of Bahamut (the one and only Platinum Dragon who leads the metallic dragons and sponsors heroes everywhere), champion of tyranny and evil the world over.

Like, come on. Pull the other one. It's painfully obvious. Paladine and Takhisis are aliases in a new universe. Don't get me wrong, I'm liable to do this myself (and loop in their dad, Io, as well--I even have names picked out for them.) But to make such an all-caps big deal out of them TOTALLY being different things we pinky-swear....it just comes across as silly.

That's a quaint way of putting things, but... While Takhisis and Paladine are based on Tiamat and Bahamut, respectively, (or at least on their unnamed original incarnations in OD&D), the lore was different (at the time of DL's inception, there was very little lore on Tiamat and Bahamut—a lot of what we have came later) and abilities do differ (different statblocks, greater deity vs. lesser deity, etc.), and effort was made to made them distinct and grander. DL also assumed a different (if minimally explained) cosmology than the Great Wheel.

So, this retoconning (that apparently started with 1e's Manual of the Planes) to them being the same entity probably feels irritating after all the lore and effort the original DL team put into making them distinct.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Takhisis and Tiamat the same!

I haven't been so shocked since Darth Sidious and Palpatine turned out to be the same person.

 

[kerleth]

This Tiamat controversy is just a psyop to distract people from the true divine revelation, Pelor revealed!

 

[the Jester]

So what you're saying is that all of my TiaTak shipping is no good?

....um.... so let's say that someone has a real .... liking .... for hot and heavy dragon loving that might involve multiple necks getting twisted about each other in the throes of passion. How am I is someone supposed to get that?

Asking for a friend.

Post on deviantart.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Still official source material.

No, it's not. TSR was explicit that Dragon magazine was not official material unless specifically called out as such in an article.