"Faster than humans can fill the land... Faster than the humans can destroy the planet... I shall give birth to demons to keep them in check! So long as this land is abundant with seeds, I will birth an endless orchard of demons!"
Tiamat, also known as Ummu-Hubur, is the Babylonian personification of salt water and primordial chaos. In the Babylonian creation myth, Enuma Elish, she is described as the mother of many of the monsters featured in Mesopotamian mythology, including dragons, scorpion men and bull men. There are no known depictions of Tiamat, but it is generally agreed she was envisioned as a monstrous serpent or dragon. She is rarely mentioned in sources other than copies of the Enuma Elish narrative and wasn't an object of religious cult.
Tiamat and her mate Apsu, the personification of the underground freshwater ocean, were described as the ancestors of the entire Babylonian pantheon. However, Apsu wanted to exterminate his children, which lead first to a conflict between him and the god Ea (Babylonian counterpart of Enki), from which the latter emerged victorious, and then to the central event of the myth, Tiamat's battle with Ea's son Marduk.
While Marduk's battle with Tiamat is sometimes incorrectly viewed as the most ancient version of the Chaoskampf narrative (the battle between a god or hero and a chthonic or aquatic monster, usually a serpent), it was most likely only compiled during the reign of the Kassite dynasty of Babylon, and as such was probably influenced by the earlier tales of Hadad's battle with Ym, Set's with Apep or Teshub's with Illuyanka, Hedammu and Ullikummi.
Tiamat is a boss fought in the Hod sphere of the Expanse. Upon defeat, she drops the Ayin key.
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey[]
"The primordial goddess of Babylonian lore. She governs the sea and gave birth to many deities with her consort Apsu, the god of fresh water. When war broke out between her and those gods, she created 11 monsters to fight with her, but they were defeated by Marduk. Her body was ripped apart and used to make the world."
Tiamat's moveset is focused on Ice, with her signature Mother Earth skill doing ice damage to the entire team and healing her based on how hard it hit. Bring demons with ice immunity or resistance to blunt her offenses. Also be aware of her Sunset Melody that inflicts Almighty damage and lowers attack, and Luster Candy that buffs all her stats.
Tiamat's AI is rather responsive regarding her unique skills. She uses Pure Blue, which purges debuffs and restores about 1000 HP to her, if she gets fully debuffed - to avoid seeing this, keep her at -3 debuffs at best. She also uses Diarahan if you throw up any attack reflecting item or skill.
The leader of Team Red in the Challenge Quest, RxW Smacktacular XIII. A god among gods, she tells Flynn she doesn't understand why the humans would participate in these games, as she was summoned and ordered by the Ashura-kai to participate rather than choosing to. Since she can't disobey, she wishes to just get it over with. After her defeat, she is impressed by Flynn and admits that she never thought she would get beaten. Asking if he is Flynn and having it confirmed leads her to tell him the Ashura-kai were wary of having him participate in the games, and that things have gotten interesting before crumbling. She later becomes a common encounter in Infernal Tokyo.
Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse[]
"The primordial goddess of Babylonian lore. She governs the sea and gave birth to many deities with her consort Apsu, the god of fresh water. When war broke out between her and those gods, she created 11 monsters to fight with her, but they were defeated by Marduk. Her body was ripped apart and used to make the world."
—Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse compendium
Tiamat can be found in Tsukiji Hongwanji or she can evolve from Mushussu once it reaches level 52. She can teach Nanashi the Ice Breath, Megidola and Silent Prayer skills through her Demon Whisper. Tiamat benefits from learning Ice and Almighty skills. At level 60, Tiamat will evolve into Ym, provided that Nanashi can control the result.
Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance[]
"Primoridial goddess of Babylonian mythology. Often represented as a dragon with a female torso and a serpentine body, but some accounts describe her with the features of a goat or a camel. A being deified by the sea, she is said to have given birth to numerous gods with her husband Apsu, a giant freshwater god. When war with the gods eventually broke out, she created eleven monsters to fight, but was slain by Marduk, who fought on behalf of the other gods. When she died, her body was torn apart, half of her becoming heaven, and the other half becoming earth. By this, her defeat became the foundation of the mortal world's creation."
—Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance lore
Tiamat is the primordial mother goddess that existed prior to the creation of the Throne of Creation. Under her rule, there was no established "order" in the universe. She was eventually usurped by the horned god Marduk, who created the throne and inflicted a curse onto it. Some of her followers, such as Samael, summoned the Qadištu from another world out of revenge, hoping that they will liberate the world from Marduk's system, resurrect Tiamat and plunge the world back into chaos.
Eighteen years after Armageddon, when Yoko Hiromine is released by the protagonist, the Qadištu reawaken and seek to revive Tiamat by using the deaths and suffering of the people of Tokyo to generate Magatsuhi that they use as sacrifices. Eventually, they managed to revive her by sacrificing the Nahobino to her, alongside themselves. The protagonist himself survives, with only Aogami being consumed by Tiamat. Right after being resurrected, Tiamat awakens beneath the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and destroys a huge portion of the netherworld's Shinjuku and killed Nuwa offscreen, who sacrificed herself to shield Yakumo from one of the dragon's blasts. The protagonist quickly makes up for the loss of Aogami when Hayao Koshimizu willingly merges with the protagonist as a replacement Nahobino, since the bearer of his own Knowledge, Yuzuru Atsuta, was slain by Abdiel.
Despite being a mother goddess, Tiamat cannot act without a vessel controlling her. In the Vengeance-Law route, Yoko Hiromine, now in her Panagia form, will control the goddess-serpent and try to stop the protagonist from reaching the throne. However, in the Vengeance-Chaos route, Mastema will wrest control of the goddess away from Yoko to prevent the world from being returned to chaos.
Tiamat is a unique boss that consists of four parts: the main body, a camel head, a dragon head and a goat head. The main body is extremely resilient, but if one of its heads are destroyed, the main body will sacrifice a portion of her HP to revive the latter instantly. At very low HP, all of the body parts bar the head will self-destruct and the main head will remain at low HP, forcing the party to whittle down whatever is left of her health pool. She will predominantly use -barion magic skills if the main body is above half health, but at half HP, she will use an extremely powerful Physical attack known as Annihilation Ray and enter phase 2. During phase 2, Tiamat will consistently heal herself with Mediarama, and her heads will use Impaler's Animus to make their attacks pierce. If Tiamat gets another chance to act in her turn, she will unleash Boundless Sea, a powerful piercing Ice skill that removes all buffs. At phase 3, where only the main body remains, Tiamat will continuously use Boundless Sea.
After Tiamat is defeated, she completely regenerates and unleashes an Annihilation Ray that fatally injures the Panagia the Nahobino aligns himself with and Koshimizu. However, Tiamat's regeneration allows Aogami's essence to separate from her, letting him reclaim his own identity. Taking advantage of Tiamat's draconic divinity and Aogami's identity as a dragonslayer (due to Susano-o's slaying of Yamata-no-Orochi), he and the protagonist merge together once more and finally slay the mother goddess with one swing of Murakumo, allowing Koshimizu the opportunity to sacrifice himself to save the Nahobino's chosen Panagia. After the fight, Yoko sacrifices herself to summon Tehom, the very embodiment of primordial chaos, in the Vengeance-Law route; conversely, in the Vengeance-Chaos route, Mastema personally challenges the protagonist and Yoko.
Tiamat's design in Vengeance resembles her Soul Hackers form but clad in black and gold armor with the draconic features being more pronounced. She is also not a summonable demon.
Majin Tensei II: Spiral Nemesis[]
Tiamat is a boss in Paranoia's Tebel on the Dark-Law/Chaos routes.
Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers[]
"...WHY DOST THOU AWAKEN ME? I HAVE LONG FORGOTTEN BATTLE... FOOLISH ONE... THE POWER OF MAN IS NOT ENOUGH TO DEFEAT ME..."
—Tiamat, Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
Tiamat is one of the two ancient demons inhabiting the ruins beneath Nikamimon, the other being Apsu. Their presence interfered with the Phantom Society's plans of installing Manitou at the site, so Vice-Minister Nishi hired Naomi to eliminate one of the demons to make room.
During the associated Vision Quest, the player must choose whether Naomi eliminates Tiamat or Apsu. If Tiamat is confronted, upon its defeat she curses Naomi and kills her as it dies. The goddess's power is later absorbed by Manitou, which gives it strong magical attacks but a vulnerability to physical attacks.
DemiKids Light & Dark[]
"A cruel, short-tempered demon who can send the mightiest demon to its knees."
+15% to Dark damage. +15% chance to inflict status ailments.
Innate
Tempestuous Malice
Auto
Adds Dark Pierce. While the one with this skill is alive, all enemies with status ailments will receive +30% damage.
At start of battle or own turn: First, Decreases the Dark Attribute Affinity of all enemies by 1 level (1 turn). Then, 50% chance to inflict Poison/Charm to all enemies.
When an enemy is inflicted with a status ailment: First, decreases the ATK, DEF, and EV/AC of all enemies by 20% (1 turn). Then, deals Dark damage (Physical, Power: 100) to all enemies, and decreases enemy MP by 2. Activates up to 1 times per turn.
Innate
Fangs of Vengeance
6 MP
Inflicts Dark damage (Physical, Power: 100) with a 50% critical hit rate 3 times on a single enemy (Total Power: 300), and has a 50% chance to inflict Poison/Charm. This skill will gain 1 Boost level after being used.
If attack is successful: Activates the following Chain Effect if the attack is successful: Receive 1 additional Press Turn Icon. This Chain Effect activates once per turn.
Level 1: Increases critical hit rate to 100%. Level 2: Increases number of hits to 4 (New Total Power: 400).
Innate
Rending Black
6 MP
Inflicts Dark (Physical) damage (Power: 90) with 30% crit rate on all enemies.
Aragami (Awaken)
Dark Amp
Auto
+25% to Dark damage
Aragami (Gacha)
Null Charm-Poison
Auto
Adds Null Charm and Null Poison.
Protector (Awaken)
Sadistic Blow
Auto
+15% to critical hit damage. +10% damage when attacking the enemy's weak point.
Protector (Gacha)
Chaos Incarnate
Auto
+20% to hit rate. +20% to Dark damage.
Psychic (Awaken)
Epitome of Wisdom
Auto
+15% to Phys hit rate. +15% chance to inflict status ailments.
Psychic (Gacha)
Drain Elec
Auto
Adds Elec Drain.
Elementalist (Awaken)
Dark Survivor
Auto
+15% to Dark damage and HP stops at 1 HP upon receiving the first killing blow.
Elementalist (Gacha)
Gallery[]
Tiamat as she appears in Megami Tensei II
Tiamat as she appears in Shin Megami Tensei (Sega CD)
Tiamat's portrait sprite as it appears in Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
