When the first trailer for Dungeons & Dragons: honor among thieves fell at the end of July last year, a friend of mine almost immediately DMed me to ask “Is there any knowledge about the fat dragon?” Dragons whose body types differ from those slim, serpentine models in the D&D Monster manual are quite rare, which made this chonky boy stand out.
I had a theory, but it wasn’t confirmed until the toys for the movie were requested – the red dragon in it Honor among thieves is Themberchaud, which has quite an important history in the Dungeons & Dragons game. That made me feel pretty good about the chances of the movie actually digging into the D&D lore. If writer-directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein were willing to go all in on a deep-seated character like Themberchaud, what else could I expect the sourcebooks to explore?
The film itself doesn’t delve into the dragon’s backstory, but here’s what we know about the Underdark’s grave threat.
Who is the fat dragon in the Dungeons & Dragons movie?
Image: Paramount Pictures
Themberchaud is a red dragon who lives in Gracklstug, a city of duergar in the Underdark of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. If that’s too many fantasy words for you in one sentence, we can split that up. The Forgotten Realms is the most popular campaign world for the Dungeons & Dragons RPG, and the Underdark is a vast subterranean cave system beneath the surface that is home to all kinds of monsters and subterranean species, including the ever-popular drow or dark elves. The duergar, also called gray dwarfs, are like the drow of dwarves: cold, grim, and work-obsessed, they have all the crafting skills of the more familiar fantasy dwarf archetype, without the boisterous fun.
Themberchaud the dragon first appeared in Drizzt Do’Urden’s guide to the Underdark, an accessory for the 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, published in 1999 by TSR. In this early source, the dragon takes on a fascinating role in the city of Gracklstugh. As a young dragon just under the age of 100, he is described as the Wyrmsmith of Gracklstugh, and a descendant of earlier dragons in the same role. His fiery breath lights the forges and tempers the steel produced by the city, and his every whim is attended to by the monastic Keepers of the Flame.
The following mentions of the dragon were in a few accessories for the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons from Wizards of the Coast: Dark in 2003, and Dragons of Faerun in 2006. These sources largely repeated the information from the 2nd edition, updating Themberchaud’s age to over 100 and explaining that he is kept happy not only by the duergar increasing his treasure trove, but also by having a steady diet from unruly slaves.
A monstrous backstory that stretches back decades
Themberchaud’s story was significantly enlarged, pun intended, for the Wizards of the Coast’s Rage of Demons storyline for the 5th edition of D&D. He appeared in the tabletop adventure From the abyss and the computer RPG Sword Coast Legends in 2015, and the Endless Quest gamebook Escape the Underdark in 2018. In this storyline, the dragon’s appearance, personality, and backstory all received a lot more attention.
Concept artist Richard Whitters designed Themberchaud’s new appearance and gave him the unique characteristic of being overweight. The extensive backstory for Themberchaud in Rage of Demons drew on the lore of previous editions, as well as a online lore article from the 3rd edition about incorporating psionics into the Forgotten Realms, posted by Wizards in 2007.
Each Wyrmsmith of Gracklstugh is hatched from an egg by the Keepers of the Flame and raised to keep the town’s forges running. These dragons get very spoiled, to the point where Themberchaud often doesn’t have to leave his chambers, adding to his bulky size. Themberchaud was born and raised completely underground in the city and has never been outside. He barely flies and has known no existence other than serving the duergar. Escape the Underdark even makes it clear that he’s grown too big to ever leave Gracklstugh:
“And now I’m way too big to ever leave. Even if I were to tear down the whole place around me, I wouldn’t be able to claw my way to the surface from here. Instead, I stay buried in a prison my parents made, far under a sky I’ve never seen.”
What the dragon doesn’t know is that the Keepers of the Flame ultimately intend to kill it before it becomes too powerful to control and attempt to dominate the city, as red dragons naturally tend toward tyranny as they age. The Keepers have always followed that pattern of killing a Wyrmsmith once it reaches a certain age and then replacing it with a newly hatched wyrmling. But the red dragon egg that was meant to be Themberchaud’s successor was stolen by the Gray Ghosts, Gracklstugh’s guild of thieves. That sparked a war between the psionicists and the thieves, and made Themberchaud increasingly paranoid and suspicious of his lifelong guards.
From the abyss players can travel to Gracklstugh while exploring the Underdark, where they can be persuaded to become agents of the Keepers of the Flame, the Gray Ghosts, or Themberchaud themselves, as the three factions of power vie for control of the fate of the Wyrmsmith. Meanwhile, the king of Gracklstugh has lost his mind, a storyline that ties into Sword Coast Legends.
Now featured in the 5th Edition D&D catalog as a notable piece of abandoned software, this poorly-appreciated CRPG sees players journey to Gracklstugh in the source of the Moontear, the magical McGuffin of the game’s single-player campaign. They discover that the town has been taken over by a brain-cracker, who has been taking advantage of the King’s mental illness. The same mindflayer has also entered Themberchaud’s brain. The players must defeat the mindflayer to save the king and the dragon, who kindly rewards the heroes by not eating them.
The storyline of Themberchaud of the Rage of Demons is vain and proud, like most red dragons. He is described as spoiled and restless. In Sword Coast Legends, he has the deep and booming voice you would expect from such a huge monster. Like all dragons in D&D, he can speak and is a character to interact with, rather than just a monster to fight and kill.
While the size of the dragon makes it memorable, it also makes it tragic. He is a victim of manipulation and abuse by his evil gray dwarf keepers. Unfortunately, he himself is evil, and the consequence of freeing Themberchaud from the Keepers of the Flame, or saving him from being replaced by a new Wyrmsmith, would likely be the subjugation of the entire city under the dragon’s sway. But those are the choice dilemmas that TTRPG players face.
Why was the Underdark abandoned?
Image: Paramount Pictures
Once it was confirmed that Themberchaud would be featured Honor among thieves, many elements from the trailers began to fall into line. The bare statues, the caves, the Underdark, the relics covered in runes – the movie must go to Gracklstugh! So it was a big surprise to find out that the movie removes the dragon from his old home, which has always defined him and his story.
Instead, the heroes of the film find Themberchaud mad blunder, another Underdark settlement. This was once the home of gnomes, who left it centuries ago. In the lore of previous editions of D&D, Dolblunde was home to Daurgothoth, a black greatwyrm dracolich with immense power. But “the Creeping Doom” hasn’t been mentioned in any official product since the 4th Edition appendix Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons. Perhaps the filmmakers felt the dracolich was too much of a challenge for the film’s heroes?
But while I love seeing Themberchaud come to life, his presence raises questions. How could he finally free himself from Gracklstugh, and why – assuming any of the existing lore in the film relates – is he loitering in the lair of another much more powerful dragon? Unfortunately, the dragon itself doesn’t reveal any clues – like many Hollywood dragons, Themberchaud only roars and makes other animal noises in the film, depriving the audience of its unique character and personality.
During the film, the heroes note that Themberchaud seems to have found a new lair, suggesting that his arrival in Dolblunde is recent. And the movie seems to be set several years after the Rage of Demons storyline. So perhaps Wizards of the Coast – which arguably experiments with new rules and adds elements to the game’s canon based on the film – will eventually tell the story of how Gracklstugh’s Wyrmsmith finally escaped his prison. It certainly sounds like a great idea for an epic campaign.