Imps

Imps is a hybrid dice and card battle game. Each player controls a team of mischievous Imps. An Imp is a small creature that exists just outside of the ken of man. They move too fast for us to see and pass between realms as easily as blinking. Most Imps fall into one of four elemental classes, but all Imps are united by their love of trouble.

Every culture has its stories, tales of mischievous creatures inhabiting the world around us. Sometimes they are benign and friendly, such as Scottish Brownies. Others, like the Japanese Kappa, are far more malevolent. Humans have told stories of Imps for generations. Now for most of us that’s just what they are; stories for children. Of course, this doesn’t mean the Imps have gone away, it just means we’ve stopped looking for them.

It’s hard to describe Imps, because no two ever look alike. For the most part, they appear as childish humanoids, rarely growing taller than a man’s knee. They appear to have male and female genders, but no one knows whether or not they reproduce, and frankly no one wants find out. There are said to be as many different types of Imp as there are leaves in a forest, but they all share some distinct features: they can somehow hide themselves from the human eye, they are generally attached to something of this world, and they love to cause as much mischief as impishly possible. And that’s a lot more than is humanly possible.

While there are many types of Imps, elementals are perhaps the most common.

Earth Imps
Dryads, Kodama, Shamble Men, Boggarts, Nang Ta-Khian
Usually found in the most inaccessible parts of forests, these sylvan Imps are distinguishable by their mottled green and brown skin, leaf like hair and curling ram horns. These Imps love luring travellers away from forest paths, leading them on with strange sounds and flickering lights before getting bored and leaving them stranded in the deepest part of the woods. If the traveller is lucky, this will happen before they’ve led them over a handy cliff edge.

Fire Imps
Satyrs, Salamanders, Will-o-the-Wisp, Kitsunebi, Djinn
At first glance, Fire Imps look like the popular image of the Christian devil and daemons, with red skin, pointed horns and tail. This is something they have no end of amusement with, and in medieval times would often leap from monastery fire places to terrify the monks. While they’re native habitat in this world isn’t immediately apparent, they are nonetheless attracted to house fires and even to thunderstorms, where they’re bright flames are often mistaken for ball lightning.

Water Imps
Merrow, Mermaids, Kappa, Naiads, Undine
Water Imps can sometimes be spotted dancing amid the cresting waves of violent storms. Making their homes in rivers, ponds and oceans, the Water Imps generally appear to have webbed hands and feet slick scaled skin. It’s from these Imps that stories like Sirens luring sailors onto the rocks or Jenny Green-Teeth drowning disobedient children come from. They also like to play in the bow waves of ships, where most passengers believe them to be dolphins. Right up until the dolphin waves and disappears.

Air Imps
Sylphs, Sluagh, Boreads, Vila, Grey
Air Imps are notable as being the only group of Imps which can fly, thanks to the feathery wings on their back. In the past, they were often mistaken for angels, which, as with the devil-like Fire Imps, they subsequently used to mess with Christians. These days, their slender bodies and large eyes mean they are more often taken to be alien Greys. A favourite trick of theirs is to wait for a human to sleep before landing on their chest, pressing down on their hapless victim, before flying out of an open window as they wake in a panic.

It should be noted that these categories are not tribal in nature and elemental Imps are just as likely to team up with other Imp species to cause mischief as they are their own. One notable occasion is that of a Franciscan acolyte, who came to morning worship one day unaware that a Fire Imp and an Air Imp were each sitting on his shoulders. He was subsequently made a bishop and later a saint.