What is known about the Red Mages?

We know little about this group, except that they are evil, likely allies of the Egg of Coot. Some maps show them in the Northwest corner of the map. This has led me to speculate that they operate out of the Duchy of the Peaks and are the descendants of the Vandelay Clan from the Mage Wars. We know that Starport, the capital of the Peaks was founded by a group of mages. Their exact status in Year 1030+ is uncertain. might have further weakened them, since the former ruler, Lord Whitehead (See FFC) was likely the last in the line of the Vandelay Clan.

Full disclosure: The above is pieced together of information from the 3E Wizards Cabal, the DA modules and the FFC. Connections between the Vadelay Clan, Whitehead and Shokala are my own interpretations.

The Red Mages bear a name similar to the Scarlet Brotherhood of the Greyhawk setting. Could the two have a shared origin? Also, the Red Wizards of Thay in the Forgotten Realms, but that is probably a later creation.

Anyone know more about this group?

-Havard

Interesting info. Thanks for sharing.

One of my main villains in my Nentir Vale campaign happens to be a mysterious spellcaster known as the Red Mage, who came from another dimension. Originally, I was thinking to relate him to the Red Wizards of FR lore, but I guess I'm going to use this as an excuse to connect him to Blackmoor and dropping him in my current campaign.

My players will hate this topic for that, lol

In an older document by Dave Arneson supplied to the Blackmoor documentary crew by Bill Hoyt, this group is described as the Red Mages Coven and are said to rule in the North West in unholy lands. This works well with my theory about linking them to the wizards that founded the Duchy of the Peaks, although other interpretations are possible. The text does confirm that they are mages, which Supplement II does not.

-Havard

Red Coven dates to the original map of spring '72 and that map has mostly ocean where DoP came to be. I still think it most likely refers to the area that became controlled by the EGG of Coot. So IMC the red coven is one of the four factions during the stalemate period of the Mage Wars. I posit that the Red Mages were responsible for the coot in the first place.

I share Aldarron's opinion. "Red Wizards"/"Red Mages"/"Red Coven" is likely a vague Robert E. Howard reference to denominate "the evil guys". I think the role of those red wizards might have changed over time, especially through the additions made to the Blackmoor game in the post-"Arneson at TSR" phase, when most original players had already left. IIRC, there are red mages in Tekumel, too, and since the Afridhi seem to basically have been created through a Tekumel-BM crossover, I think the concepts might have simply merged, both at the actual gaming table, as well as in retrospect, for David Ritchie.

Because so much of my own writing is scattered over this forum, I should perhaps clarify: My own constant, and more or less subtle references to the color red (like the avatar I'm presently using) don't have anything to with Blackmoor's "Red Wizards". Rather than that, since time immemorial, it's a convention in my home games that the color red is invisible to fey, and that people who wear red clothing or gear can hide from them, that way. So, that's why I'm usually referring to my post-LFC PBPs as the "Redcloak" games. :)