Dungeons & Dragons: Who Are the Red Wizards?

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves introduced millions of moviegoers to the villainous Red Wizards of Thay, a classic faction of Dungeons & Dragons villains. Over the course of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Edgin (Chris Pine) and Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) learn that their ex-partner Forge Fitzwilliam had risen to power thanks to Sofina, a powerful wizard who had previously hired the trio to break into a Harper’s vault. The pair quickly learned that Sofina was a Red Wizard of Thay, an evil wizard affiliated with the undead necromancer Szass Tam. In fact, the heist that led to Edgin and Holga’s imprisonment was so that Sofina could get her hands on an artifact that would allow her to create an undead army for the Red Wizards to use in their plot to take over Faerun. 

The movie does a good job of explaining the basics of who the Red Wizards are – they’re an organization of powerful magic users who reside in the country of Thay. While most associate the Red Wizards with various evil plots, it’s more accurate to describe the group as amoral, as they simply will use any means to help with their endless pursuit of arcane magic. While the group was originally overseen by a group of Zulkirs, powerful mages who each represented a different school of magic, Szass Tam eventually orchestrated a civil war that led to his rise as the sole leader of the Red Wizards. Tam’s army consisted mostly of various undead creatures, ranging from zombies to vampires to liches like Tam himself.

Of course, the most recognizable symbol of a Red Wizard isn’t the red gowns that they wear, but rather their elaborate tattoos and bald head. Sofina has traditional Red Wizard tattoos, with marks meant to represent red flames. These tattoos hold both cultural and arcane powers, as the Red Wizards often imbued their tattoos with a magic that grant them permanent magical abilities of some kind. 

Interestingly, the Red Wizards haven’t appeared much in recent Dungeons & Dragons adventures. They are featured in Dead in Thay, a dungeon crawl adventure found in the Tales of the Yawning Portal, and can potentially encountered while exploring Chult in Tomb of Annihilation. However, the Red Wizards haven’t really appeared in other adventures recently, despite their general prominence as one of the Forgotten Realms’ most notable foes. 

If you’re looking for more information on the Red Wizards, you may want to read The Haunted Lands, a trilogy of novels that chronicles Szass Tam’s rise to power. You might also want to check out Dreams of the Red Wizards, the original sourcebook that chronicled the country of Thay and explains the history of the Red Wizards.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is out in theaters now.