I do not bear in mind if the “imps” on this difficulty become mephits (I used to be too distracted by the few items of artwork within the houri article), but when so, then 100% of this difficulty’s Fiend Manufacturing unit made it into the Fiend Folio, though I believe the doombat misplaced its undead nature alongside the best way. The shadow demon, in fact, additionally made the bounce to the cartoon and has been a staple of D&D ever since.
As famous, the White Dwarf #13 imps, or “Imps of the Flame” (Martin Stollery, 1979), had been “of the Imp class” as per the (lawful evil) imp within the Monster Guide (1977) and, maybe extra so, The Dungeoneer #3 (1976) and, later, All of the Worlds’ Monsters Quantity Two (1977, Mark Norton in every case). The latter had been “(finest described as) demons”, and due to this fact chaotic evil, although Stollery’s imps could possibly be “both Chaotic Evil or Lawful Evil, relying on whether or not they serve Demons or Devils.”
The “mephits” within the Fiend Folio are additionally by Martin Stollery and they’re nearly an identical to his imps, although the molten imp has develop into the “lava imp” for some cause. The FF makes “the varied mephits (…) the evil messengers and errand-runners of the highly effective creatures of the Decrease Planes (…) frequent inhabitants (…) from the 9 Hells to the Abyss. Their alignment varies, relying on their aircraft of origin, however they’re at all times evil.” Maybe they grew to become “mephits” as an alternative of “imps” due to the alignment difficulty?
Later additions to the Stollery mephits had been the ice mephit and the mist mephit (UK5, 1984; Graeme Morris), which additionally carried out “missions for his or her highly effective masters on the decrease planes.”
All the Stollery/Morris imps had been printed collectively in WGR1 and MC14, which each nonetheless have them as “messengers created by highly effective decrease planes creatures”.
Issues began to go pear-shaped with MC16, which said that each one “16 recognized forms of mephit draw their substance from the Elemental, Paraelemental, and Quasielemental Planes: hearth, radiance, water, ice, magma, ash, mineral, steam, air, smoke, earth, ooze, mud, salt, lightning, and mist. (The Quasielemental Airplane of Steam offers each steam and mist mephits. Alone among the many Elemental Planes, the aircraft of Vacuum holds no life, not even mephits.)” -shudders-
Apparently, the entire “imps alignment” factor type of comes full circle in MC1, which has the “quasit” (CE) categorized as an “imp”.
Supply: Mark Norton, in: The Dungeoneer, The Adventuresome Compendium of Points 1-6 (Judges Guild, 1979)
