The Platinum Dragon, King of the Good Dragons, Master of the North Wind
Lesser Deity
Symbol: Star above a milky nebula
Home Plane: Celestia
Alignment: Lawful Good
Portfolio: Good dragons, wind
Worshippers: Good dragons, anyone seeking protection from evil dragons
Cleric Alignments: LG, NG
Domains: Air, Cold, Good, Luck, Protection
Favoured Weapon: Heavy Pick (Bite)
Relics: Gauntlet of the talon, platinum helm
Bahamut (bah-hahm-ut) is revered in many locales. Though all good dragons pay homage to Bahamut, gold, silver and brass dragons hold him in particularly high regard. Other dragons, even evil ones (except perhaps his archrival Tiamat), respect Bahamut for his wisdom and power.
In his natural form, Bahamut is a long, sinuous dragon covered in silver-white scales that sparkle and gleam even in the dimmest light. Bahamut’s catlike eyes are deep blue, as azure as a midsummer sky, some say. Others insist that Bahamut’s eyes are a frosty indigo, like the heart of a glacier. Perhaps the two accounts merely reflect the Platinum Dragon’s shifting moods.
Bahamut is stern and very disapproving of evil. He brooks no excuses for evil acts. In spite of this, he is among the most compassionate beings in the multiverse. He has limitless empathy for the downtrodden, the dispossessed and the helpless. He urges his followers to promote the cause of good, but prefers to let beings fight their own battles when they can. To Bahamut, it is better to offer information, healing or a (temporary) safe refuge rather than to take others’ burdens upon oneself. Bahamut is served by seven great gold wyrms that often accompany him or one of his avatars.
Bahamut has few clerics and even fewer temples. He accepts only good clerics. Clerics of Bahamut, be they dragons, half-dragons or other beings attracted to Bahamut’s philosophy, strive to take constant, but subtle action on behalf of good, intervening wherever they are needed but striving to do as little harm in the process as possible. Many gold, silver and brass dragons maintain simple shrines to Bahamut in their lairs, usually nothing more elaborate than Bahamut’s symbol scribed on a wall.
Bahamut’s few non-dragon clerics learn the Platinum Dragon’s teachings at the foot of a dragon, usually an older gold or silver dragon in humanoid form. The relationship is one of teacher and student, with the duo typically travelling to see the effects of injustice and cruelty first-hand.
Wherever honest folk struggle under the yoke of oppression, Bahamut’s followers are found, striving to protect the righteous from evil. Sometimes worshippers of Bahamut wear their affiliation proudly, charging into battle with the Platinum Dragon as their standard. Just as often, however, the worshippers work undercover and behind the scenes. Common missions include rescuing a village from a rapacious warlord, breaking up a cabal of foul necromancers or riding at the vanguard of an army that assaults the gates of Hell itself.
Many of Bahamut’s proverbs take the form “To [action] is [assessment]”. For example, “To oversleep is folly”, or “To smite evil is laudable”.
Temples to Bahamut are almost all shrines within the current or former lairs of dragons. They’re good places to go to ask about ancient lore or get something translated from Draconic — but they’re often in remote, forbidding places. When your fellow worshippers are all dragons, you needn’t bother with elaborate temple defences.
Bahamut’s worshippers often celebrate believers who enter some new stage in their life: starting a business venture, becoming a soldier, getting married, and so forth.
Bahamut generally sends an old or older gold dragon as his herald. Allies are hound archons, trumpet archons and planetars.
Source: Deities and Demigods (Page 58), Complete Divine (Page 108)