Drive Imp

Cryptologic Name: Deminium ageto
Planar Origin: Gigas
Habitat: They live in a variety of habitats and build villages with others of their kind
Diet: Omnivorous; like humanoid cultures, they cook and eat a great a great variety of foods

Appearance & Morphology
Drive imps are small creatures with somewhat unusual morphology. Their bodies are generally egg-shaped, without a distinct separation between their head and torso. To most, they would appear to be all head, as their large faces do take up a good portion of the front of their bodies, however their vital organs are simply arranged in such a way to accommodate this body shape. Drive imps have red fur covering most of their bodies, with the exception of their faces which show their black skin, large eyes, and blue, triangular noses. They have very short, but strong legs, similar to a bird’s, with three clawed toes, two extending forward and one extending back. They also possess blue, leathery wings similar to a bat’s, and a pair of blue curved horns protruding from their heads. Drive imps are not particularly aerodynamic, nor are their wings very large in comparison to their bodies; as such, while they are able to lift off and hover for periods of time, they are not exactly built for sustained flight, and more often use their magical abilities for travel.

Magical Abilities
Drive imps are much like humanoid races in their capacity for magic. While they do have some intrinsic magical abilities, they also have a talent for magecraft (learned magic).

Among their innate talents is a unique teleportation ability that they refer to as “implosion,” or at least that is the closest translation. When a drive imp implodes, he leaves behind a bright explosion of light in their wake, resembling a firework. We have come to understand that the variety of hues seen in an imp’s implosion is unique to the individual, much like a human fingerprint.

In addition to their teleportation abilities, they also all possess some manner of telepathic abilities, that seem to be related to their eyes. We’ll talk more about this when we discuss drive imp language.

Culture
While drive imp history, society and culture is far more vast than I can easily address here, there are a few points I want to touch on.

As previously stated, drive imps have a talent for magecraft, and while each individual develops this differently, they do generally have a particular knack for enchanting (imbuing objects with magical powers). It may in part be due to their unusual morphology, but most drive imps tend to sport enchanted accessories that are imbued with spells that they might need, most activated by particular power words, such that they can cast certain spells with relative ease, and without having to expend much of their own internal mana. Because of this widespread tradition among them, drive imps tend to be a bit magpie-ish in that they tend to collect jewelry, baubles, and other trinkets for the purpose of decorating themselves with the items after enchanting them as they so desire.

Secondly, I believe it is worth discussing drive imp communication. Their language is rather unique in that it can, generally speaking, be interpreted by anyone without needing and training in the subject. Drive imp speech has two components to it, an audible component, which consists of a variety of both staccato and lyrica sounds of different pitches (rather reiniscent of birdsong), and a telepathic component. The telepathic component is still not entirely understood from a functional standpoint, but the best way the drive imps have been able to explain it to us is that the telepathic relay translates the sounds for you as the imp is speaking.

If you are interested in learning more about drive imp history, I would recommend the writings of Ki’arok, a well-respected historian, who has written a number of books on the development of their history and society.

Field Notes

• First of all allow me to qualify my use of the word “creature” in the above descriptions, as drive imps are a race of people by all standards and I do not with to disparage them in any sense. In the magical community there is a great deal of debate and discussion surrounding the use of the terms “beast” and “being.” According to the magical community at large, “beast” is a word used to describe creatures with animalistic traits, behavior patterns, and intelligence where as “being” is a term used for those of higher intelligence, generally using humans as a reference point. Frankly I find this whole argument tiresome for a variety of reasons, not only because it limits us in our understanding of magical life on the whole by putting creatures into unnecessary (and frankly, unhelpful) boxes, but also greatly polarizes people and stigmatizes a category of living creatures as innately “lesser than” based on a set of criteria that can’t even be widely agreed upon in the magical community. As such, you will rarely hear me use either of these words in such a context, and should generally assume that when I do use them, I am doing so not based on the communities current definition of such things, but to convey meaning through more useful context of language. And generally speaking, I default to “creature” as the qualifying term for all magical and non-magical life (and occasionally non-life, in the case of things such as spirits and their ilk), to include the myriad peoples of our world and others.

• On a personal note, my cryptozoological research partner is a drive imp named Tsu’mat, who has a similar interest in the myriad of unique creatures that inhabit our multiverse. He has been an absolute joy to work with and always brings fresh ideas and a great deal of enthusiasm to our collective research.