Defiler
Beneath the burning crimson light of the Dark Sun, the savage world of Athas turns. Here, magic operates differently from the magic of other worlds.
Energy for spells and magical effects are drawn directly from living things, from plants to animals, to the very vitality of the land itself.
Decimated by centuries of irresponsible magical manipulation associated with this over-consumption of living energy, Athas struggles to survive. Some few—the druids and those who call themselves preserver wizards—still fight to restore the land, to save it before all is lost.
Theirs is an uphill battle. Ranged against them are most of the remaining Sorcerer Kings and the various defiler wizards who operate below them; those who leech the life from the plants and the very soil to power their spells , without giving anything in return. Defilers have turned the once verdant forests and plains of Athas into a barren wasteland. Their predations have left tracts of barren ground and desiccated fields, lifeless and scarred.
The gray and black ash, all that remains of the plants that once grew in the defiled areas, intermingles with the dry dust and blows across the shattered remains of the world. As more land is defiled, fewer plants are left to anchor the soil or to return water to the atmosphere.
More and more land becomes barren every day, and the deserts grow larger with each passing year as more defiling
Defilers absorb every bit of life energy they can hold, with the result that the land they tap into is leeched and left barren of nutrients, incapable of supporting plant life. Plants in the defiled area die and turn to ash when the life spark is removed. Unlike with natural death, however, the decaying process occurs in an instant, and nothing remains within the dead ash to continue the life cycle—plants killed by defiling magic return nothing to the soil and don’t revert to life-giving fertilizer when they die. Defilers, therefore, are vampiric, stealing life energy not only because they need it to utilize magic, but for the rush of power it gives them. Basically, defilers take the quick and easy road to power, caring little that they leave devastation in their wake.
When defilers advance and gain more power they can even absorb life force from living creatures to power their defiling magic.