A quick look into the Villains of the new Dungeons and Dragons Movie.
The Red Wizards of Thay are an elite group of Mages who rule over the nation of Thay in the Forgotten Realms DnD campaign setting. The Wizards are named as such because of the striking red and black robes that they wear, though they have other signifiers such as shaven heads and elaborate facial tattoos.
Thay is an imperialistic Magocracy, meaning that the nations ruling class is made up of those who can perform magic and that the nation seeks to gain resources and land from other nations. One of the most sought after resources in Thay is corpses, as their culture highly values necromancy, and their imperialistic tendencies just one of the ways in which they obtain this commodity.
The leader of the Thayens is the lich Szass Tam, the most practiced and powerful necromancer in the country. Szass Tam is not only already an immortal lich living in a culture that venerates the practice of necromancy, but he himself has also shown a great distaste towards the concept of life itself, having once stated that “Living defiles the world”.
The Thayen mages are popular villains within the Forgotten Realms setting as the Red Wizards frequently send out agents and spies to neighboring kingdoms. This allows for the Red Wizards to act as useful story mechanics as they can be present and active threats to adventuring parties, and can even have their plots foiled, while the actual nation of Thay remains safe and scheming far from the events of the campaign. A possible greater evil to call upon should the Dungeon Master ever need a new villain.
