Let's Talk About The Red Wizards Of Thay In Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
"Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" is a triumph for fantasy movies. This is a film that embraces the absurdity, the playfulness, and the chaos of playing arguably the most popular tabletop fantasy RPG of all time, or at least the best-known one. It is a hilarious film that avoids snarky, meta and campy humor, but instead has humor that's fully about characters being earnest in funny and extraordinary situations.
The "Dungeons & Dragons" movies is also full of wonderful fantasy creatures, including plenty of great practical effects creatures that feel out of the "Dark Crystal" TV show. What's more, the movie even includes some of the more esoteric creatures we can only see in a "Dungeons & Dragons" movie, like the intellect devourers, the mimics, and the gelatinous cube (though this one did make it to the mainstream in recent years, thanks to the Pixar movie "Onward").
Perhaps the area where the movie feels the nerdiest and most faithful to the lore and the particular style of fantasy of "D&D" is in its use of magic, especially with how it impacts the story, the world, and its characters. The villains of this movie aren't just evil wizards who want to gain some ancient artifact to become powerful. Instead, the villains are the Red Wizards of Thay, powerful adversaries who are rather unique to the world of Faerûn.
We've seen plenty of evil wizards in things like "Harry Potter," "Game of Thrones" or "Lord of the Rings." More often than not, however, they are singular bad guys who strayed from their order. But in "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, we're talking about a massive organization in charge of an entire nation whose sole goal is to make the whole world (or at least a country) made of the undead.
More than just evil wizards
The first thing to know about the Red Wizards of Thay is that they are rather easy to spot, with their bright red robes and shaved heads with arcane tattoos, as well as their general evil vibe. They are the magocratic (meaning magic users) ruling class of the nation of Thay, a densely populated yet inhospitable country that became powerful due to slavery.
The Red Wizards were governed by a council comprised of a master of each of the schools of magic — not all of them bad, mind you. Things took a turn for the worse when the council that ruled Thay was overturned by Szass Tam, a powerful necromancer who turned himself into a lich — an undead spellcaster. Szass now leads the Red Wizards, and he seeks to build a large nation full of undead. Szass does appear in the film, albeit briefly, using his powers to turn hundreds of innocent people into undead he can control.
This is why Szass looks so much like the equally hideous Vecna, though they are not the same person. Both are liches, but where Vecna wants to become a god, Szass just wants to lead a nation full of undead people, so he feels less lonely. So, in a way, the Red Wizards aren't villains, they are visionaries who think about the welfare of their immortal people. Though one could argue that every villain sees themselves as revolutionary visionaries.
Now, one of the coolest parts of "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" is its use of magic. There are no pointing wands at people that shoot laser beams of different colors. Instead, there are intricate components that require much more effort, and there's also unpredictability. You can easily stop a sorcerer just by covering their mouth before casting a spell, and spells are at times stupidly specific to the point that they become annoying and unhelpful.
Why this rules
The inclusion of the Red Wizards is very cool because it gives "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" potential for adventures set in Thay and against a whole group of them, rather than a single evil wizard.
This idea of a whole nation led by wizards is something that the "Dragon Age" video games (themselves created by BioWare, a game studio that started out making "D&D" video games like "Baldur's Gate") have begun teasing in their recent animated show, "Dragon Age: Absolution," which is set in the oppressive magocratic Tevinter Imperium.
Unlike something like the Ministry of Magic in the "Harry Potter" movies, which is made of wizards but acts as a governing body, the nation of Thay is comprised of all kinds of people. But it's magic users who govern the land, making for a fascinating setting that could result in another exciting adventure for a potential sequel.
Whle "Dungeons & Dragons" introduces us to the Red Wizards of Thay, we're hoping to see their presence taken to the next level with a legendary and hard-to-beat villain that will require some hefty dice rolls to take down. Hopefully, we'll get to see Szass return soon enough.
"Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" arrives in theaters everywhere on March 31, 2023.