Warning: This article contains spoilers for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
The huge dragon in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is part of one of the funniest (and most formidable) action sequences in the movie, particularly because it can’t breathe fire. Edgin (Chris Pine) and the rest of his band of thieves encounter the mighty beast when they follow famed paladin Xenk Yendar (Regé-Jean Page) into the Underdark hoping to find the Helmet of Disjunction, an ancient artifact that will help them save Edgin’s daughter Kira from Forge Fitzwilliam and liberate Neverwinter from his tyranny. Once they make it past the creatures that dwell in its subterranean catacombs like the intellect devourers, the giant red dragon is their final opponent.
Unlike the sleek, slim dragons of other D&D lore, or even other fantasy IPs, this red dragon is large, wide, and can’t fly very well. His appearance not only makes engaging him humorous given his physical limitations, but it also makes him an unpredictable foe whose maneuvers cannot be anticipated easily by the group. As it turns out, the red dragon has a long, somewhat tragic history in D&D and the reasons why he can’t breathe fire or fly very well add to the complexity of a villain who is unique even among other Dungeons & Dragons species turned into live-action for the movie.
Honor Among Thieves’ Red Dragon Is Themberchaud
The impressive Honor Among Thieves’ red dragon is Themberchaud, whose D&D lore is as massive as his body. Introduced in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition, Themberchaud was a Wyrmsmith for Gracklstugh, a city used by gray dwarves in the Underdark, a massive subterranean world from one of the most popular D&D campaign settings of all time, the Forgotten Realms. Themberchaud helped the gray dwarves light their forges and temper their steel, and he was taken care of by the Keepers of the Flame. By the popular 5th edition, and Escape the Underdark gamebook, his appearance was given far more girth than in previous iterations, thanks to artist Richard Whitters.
In Honor Among Thieves, Themberchaud doesn’t reside in the duergar city but in Dolblunde, another settlement in the Underdark controlled by gnomes, long since abandoned. It’s not clear why the change of environment, and unlike in D&D lore, where all dragons can talk, this Themberchaud merely roars and blows fire, unable to explain to visitors why he left his home for a place once inhabited by Daurgothoth, a greatwyrm dracolich even more powerful than a red dragon. Unlike other fantasy properties like The Lord of the Rings, D&D has long been associated with the “Rule of Cool,” which could be the simplest explanation for Themberchaud’s change of scenery.
Why Themberchaud Is So Big & Struggles To Breathe Fire
Back home in Gracklstugh, the Keepers of the Flame fed Themberchaud unruly slaves, fattening him up with the express purpose of eventually killing him, since red dragons tend to veer towards tyranny in their older age. While Themberchaud can breathe fire, he eventually struggles with this ability as Edgin and the rest of the thieves evade him. In order to escape, Simon has to use a Dungeons & Dragons spell to light a flame on his finger while Themberchaud breathes flammable gas to destroy the cave they’re stuck in and escape.
Given that Themberchaud was force-fed to never leave the city, and the fact that in Escape the Underdark, he states, “And now I am far too large to ever leave. Even if I tore the entire place down around me, I could not claw my way to the surface from here,” it’s heavily implied that even if he wanted to, he couldn’t be very physical at this stage of his life. He even struggles to fly when trying to catch his victims in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, making him too out of breath to use his fire-breathing abilities to full capacity, emblematic of the greed and manipulation of others.
