So I'm running a 4e campaign which features chromatic dragons, leading up to Her Majesty. But I'm finding now that I'm having trouble putting together a picture of what it means to worship Tiamat.
• Tiamat, historically, was on the Lawful side of Evil. She was aligned with devils, not demons, the side that took things by tricking you into it, or by establishing rules that favored her. In 4e, she's Evil, not Chaotic Evil. (I tend to think of this in modern terms as LE = bad corporations, while CE = home invaders.)
• In the Dragon 370 article "Agents of Tiamat," there's a character who leads a mercenary band known for its rapaciousness. But the band follows a hierarchy within, only looting heavily from its enemies. It doesn't turn on its employers; any mercenary band that did so would find itself out of contracts pretty quick. It appears to follow a vicious form of LE.
• And yet, Tiamat is the goddess of greed. She teaches her followers that taking from the weak is acceptable. This doesn't follow the LE model at all; bullying is more CE. And yet having bullying, brutish-stealing followers of hers is handy; it's a good way to signal to the players that Something is Rotten.
Is there a way to reconcile the "might makes right makes it mine" and the "take what is ours and only what's ours" philosophies? Or should I ditch one aspect in order to make a more useful deity?
• Tiamat, historically, was on the Lawful side of Evil. She was aligned with devils, not demons, the side that took things by tricking you into it, or by establishing rules that favored her. In 4e, she's Evil, not Chaotic Evil. (I tend to think of this in modern terms as LE = bad corporations, while CE = home invaders.)
• In the Dragon 370 article "Agents of Tiamat," there's a character who leads a mercenary band known for its rapaciousness. But the band follows a hierarchy within, only looting heavily from its enemies. It doesn't turn on its employers; any mercenary band that did so would find itself out of contracts pretty quick. It appears to follow a vicious form of LE.
• And yet, Tiamat is the goddess of greed. She teaches her followers that taking from the weak is acceptable. This doesn't follow the LE model at all; bullying is more CE. And yet having bullying, brutish-stealing followers of hers is handy; it's a good way to signal to the players that Something is Rotten.
Is there a way to reconcile the "might makes right makes it mine" and the "take what is ours and only what's ours" philosophies? Or should I ditch one aspect in order to make a more useful deity?