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Sit down dear readers, for there’s a lot of lore coming your way. Imix himself first appeared in the Fiend Folio for AD&D 1e, along with the other Elemental Princes. His writeup here also melds two classic stories from the 1e era.

The Lore

So, as it’s been mentioned a few times before, the god Tharizdun is probably the biggest asshole in all of 4e’s implied setting. Before even the Dawn War, he came across a shard of cosmic evil, and decided to use that in a bid to conquer the universe. He planted this shard in the Elemental Chaos as if it was a seed, and from this seed sprouted the Abyss. Tharizdun used the Abyss to generate an innumerable host of demons. Some of these were created through corruption (of elementals, of his own servants, and others). Others were formed directly from abyssal energies under Tharizdun’s direction.

A lot of things happened after that but it suffices to say that Tharizdun’s attempt at conquest ultimately failed and the god was imprisoned by his peers in the most secure prison they could conceive. His name was erased from all records of the gods, some say from reality itself. We only know it because we’re the readers and we’re outside the setting.

Fast-forward to the time of the Dawn War. The gods are slowly winning, for they are capable of teamwork and their proud enemies are not. Except, that is, for a group of 5 Primordials who were contacted by a mysterious entity that introduced itself as the Elder Elemental Eye. The contacted Primordials believed they had just lucked into a direct line to the first Primordial, and so they readily accepted its offer of power in exchange for loyalty. They called themselves the Elemental Princes from that point onward.

The alliance between the Elemental Princes was far from ironclad, but it was enough to allow them to get through the War with both their lives and their freedom. They’re still out there, in the Elemental Chaos, plotting to overthrow the gods and free their master.

Spoiler alert: The Elder Elemental Eye is a pseudonym for Tharizdun. Serving and worshiping the Eye funnels power to the Chained God so that he might one day break free of his prison.

This entry concerns Imix, the Evil Elemental Prince of Fire. As the name implies, he represents all the bad things one usually associates with fire. Uncontrolled passions, rage, indiscriminate destruction. Though he is technically free, Imix lives in a state of self-imposed house arrest. He has a stronghold built into the caldera of an active volcano, and he never leaves it. His attempts to influence the world and advance his plan all go through his agents and cultists.

Imix’s cult in the middle world is unusually large and active for a primordial’s. It accepts misanthropes, murderers, and those who are angry at the world and willing to swear any oath for the power to take revenge. Whatever their individual reasons might be, they eventually cease to matter, as advancing in the cult means having pieces of your free will burned away until your only wish is to do Imix’s bidding and help free the Eye.

They usually hide out among sapient communities and sow division and discord, encouraging its inhabitants to rebel and fight among themselves. Their temples tend to be built inside ruins and other scary places. The cultists protect them vigilantly and burn to death anyone who gets too close.

More important temples are usually dedicated to the Elder Elemental Eye and protected by two or more Elemental Prince cults, who spend as much time sabotaging and upstaging one another as they do actually advancing the Eye’s cause. The cult’s greatest seat of power in the middle world is the legendary Temple of Elemental Evil, protected and operated by all the Elemental Prince cults and any mercenaries and servants they manage to recruit.

The Numbers

This entry concerns Imix himself. We’ll take a look at his cultists in the next one.

Imix is a Huge Elemental Humanoid with the Fire and Primordial keywords. I think he’s the first monster to carry that last one, but he won’t be the last. He’s a Level 32 Solo Controller with 1140 HP. He has darkvision, a ground speed of 10, and a flight speed of 8 with Hover. He is immune to disease and fire.

The heat from Imix’s Withering Flames acts as an aura (5) that strips all fire resistance from any enemies inside. His basic attack is a Reach 3 Blazing Blade that deals immediate and ongoing fire damage, and the Blazing Arc maneuver allows him to attack every enemy in reach with a single action.

Imix can call up Servants of Elemental Fire, summoning four Fire Grues, or six if he’s bloodied. Fire Grues are minions with the same defenses as Imix. Grues don’t attack, but any enemy that ends their turn adjacent to one or more grues takes 15 fire damage. Imix can move all of them up to 6 squares with a single minor action, and the summoning power recharges if there are no grues in the field.

He can also use Volcanic Circle to detonate a grue, dealing heavy fire damage in a Close Burst 1 around the minion. This creates a zone that lasts until the end of the encounter and deals 20 fire damage to enemies that enter it or end their turns there. Yes, this is at-will. Once the battle against Imix starts, the entire battlefield will very soon be on fire.

Blinding Flare is a minor action that attacks all enemies adjacent to grues in a Close Burst 10, dealing fire damage and blinding (save ends). A miss deals half damage and imposes a -2 penalty to attack rolls for a turn. This recharges when Imix is first bloodied.

Hungry Flames is another minor action that targets every enemy taking ongoing fire damage within 10 squares. It weakens them (save ends) and deals 10 fire damage to any creature adjacent to them.

If an enemy tries to move away from a grue, Imix can use Demand Focus to attack their Will and daze them for a turn. If an enemy misses him with a melee attack, Formed of Fire deals 10 damage to that enemy and any ally adjacent to them. And if Imix is affected by a save-ends effect, Eternal Resilience allows him to roll a save against that effect immediately in addition to the normal saves everyone gets.

I guess Imix will use grues to surround the party, and the grue-based attacks to blind the PCs and prevent them from getting away. He will detonate enough grues to light the battlefield on fire, and will strive to keep the PCs within his aura as he attacks them with his blazing sword. Once enough PCs are taking ongoing damage, he will use Hungry Flames and keep attacking.

For extra pain, you can set the battle in a Font of Power aligned to Fire. This is a special terrain type listed in the DMG that gives damage bonus to attacks with the appropriate damage type. An epic one gives +15 damage, and it certainly makes sense for Imix’s own seat of power to qualify as a Font.