Dire Imp
"Ah, the Dire Imp. A worthless waste for the souls, I assure you. Then again, I rather not give the forces of hell any great ideas. I might hate this damned society, though I rather have haughy priests and selfrighteous nobles over a great horned fiend that whips me every morning before coffee." -An old and bitter warlock
General appearance
Like the Imp , the dire version is similarly structured in limbs, bones and bodyhair. The difference is that the Dire Imp is nearly twice as high and five times as wide, standing like a hulked down and very primitive demonic version of a human. Their unatural spines often stick out of their backs in small spikes of bone, with tall and slender arms that have a creepy long reach. If the imp's eyes were hollow, the dire one's is even emptier and rest above it's skulls thick jaw with protuding teeth that often pierce through their own lips. Their horns are often missmatched both in size and curves, or completely lacking due to falling off, while other extra bones grow out of their fleshy arms or backs in a display that makes them look grotesque even in compare to most other demons. Furthermore, their kneecaps and elbows have grown plates of bone, which works as a bad protection, yet protection non the less. Perhaps the most horrible evolution from the common Imp though, is how the claws are about thrice as long and sharp within a Dire Imp, making it easy for them to slice any unprotected individual up to ribbons if they get too close. These claws are however near worthless on plated figures and sometimes Dire Imps are capable of killing themselves by bashing their hands up too bad on shields and plate, while barely even denting the armour of mortal soldiers.Background
As the Imp was found near worthless to the armies of the demonic hordes, it soon dawned on them that their destructive force of fire and numbers could be very efficent and versatile to use, as long as they were fearless and fully obedient. The Dire Imp was born as an experiment on magical ways to alter the essence of the imps. Thus, with the help of mortal souls and essence they were created in laboratories by corrupting and/or tormenting the souls of the passed, which they use to warp the Imps into a more humanoid shape, thus getting the best of two worlds while in the process performing a lobotomy on them to ensure they are loyal like dogs. A single Dire Imp is still by no means capable enough to hold itself toe to toe in a melee situation against a valiant mortal fighter, unless their unintelligent gamble end up with a lucky fireball. Due to this they are mostly used either in great numbers before an invasion, as normal Imps would only scatter and run away, or within traps and bottlenecks as they can still be commanded to line up on a ridge and hurl away firebolt after firebolt on the enemy forces. The Dire imp is also generally used as a meat shield, since they don't take long to create and the realms of hell have no shortage of damned souls.
Genetic Descendants
Comments