TIAMAT, THE LORD OF AVERNUS (1977)

Way back in 1977, the original Monster Manual said that “Tiamat rules the first plane of the Nine
Hells where she spawns all evil dragonkind.”
In the Manual of the Planes (1987), we are told that, “The watchdog of the Hells’ front parlor is
Tiamat.”
In Monster Mythology (1992), Tiamat “infests the uppermost of the Nine Hells with her consorts,
each a Great Wyrm of a different color — one red, one white, one green, one blue, and one black.”
(These consorts are an evolution of Tiamat’s “guard” in Supplement I: Greyhawk (1975), when she
was merely the Dragon Queen and her “major abode is in a stupendous cavern far beneath the
earth.”)

We’re also told in Monster Mythology that Tiamat’s “relations with the baatezu
[devils] that populate the Hells and stray into her realm at times is the subject of
considerable speculation by sages.” (Which is basically the author, the esteemed
Carl Sargent, saying, “I’m really trying to figure out why the evil Dragon Queen is in
charge of Avernus.”) These “sages” have traditionally said that she’s been at war
with the devils, but now it seems that the devils may be seeking to make some sort of
pact with her to aid them in the Blood War.