In D&D 2024 everybody acts like they forgot about Tiamat

It's not a contest. But before Vecna and Venger, before Strahd and Lord Soth, Tiamat was the #1 big bad in Dungeons & Dragons. What could be more dragon than a dragon made up of five dragons? Tiamat is the Queen of Evil Dragons. She makes a gory comeback in "The Queen's Cradle," the D&D episode of the Secret Level animated series now on Amazon Prime.

Tiamat's got five heads. They're the (evil) chromatic dragons, colored:

• Red
• Blue
• Green
• Black
• White

Along with those five heads, she's got five brains—and five breath weapons, which will stomp a mudhole into any party you throw at her. Designer Chris Perkins doesn't even settle on whether she's a god or not. She's simply so powerful that she is, for all practical intents and purposes, a god.

Tiamat has been around since the D&D 1st Edition Monster Manual. She's been in every edition of the game since. She was also a prime villain in the 1980s D&D cartoon (back when cartoons were only on Saturday mornings, can you imagine?) She would always just show up, wreck things, maybe chase Venger or the heroes for a while, and then go stomping off.

In D&D 5th Edition, she is central to the Tyranny of Dragons campaign which was used to launch D&D 5e in 2014. They had to confine her to the Nine Hells in the Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus campaign. Evil dragons and evil cultists, however, are always trying to unleash Tiamat on the multiverse once more. 

Chromatic dragons are one of three primary foes in the D&D 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide Greyhawk campaign setting. So naturally Tiamat rules that roost. Most people ask who is Tiamat. But what they forget to ask is how is Tiamat. And that's probably why she's so mad all the time.