Mistic Pets

Welcome to Issue 38
Created by The Mistic Pets Team

Character Spotlight: King Mephitic
Written By gemajgall

Every denizen of Mistica knows the name of King Mephitic, and most of them shudder when they hear it. He is considered the most powerful and cunning imp king in recent history, and his exploits against the sprites of Darkwood Hollow and the humans of Mistic Kingdom give credit to that label. He commands absolute fear and loyalty from his followers, and they readily give it to him.

It is uncertain how long King Mephitic has been on his throne or even the circumstances of the prior ruler's demise. Being secretive creatures, the imps never spread news of their own beyond their species. Therefore, it was years before anyone heard the name of the new tyrant—not that there was anything that they could do about it anyway.

King Mephitic's reign conformed perfectly to the imps' mindset. His strength and cruelty only served to attract more imps under his command, and his strategies brought them great wealth and power. Those who study the Darkwood have noticed an increase in the imps' territory—the expanse of dark, dead trees has definitely grown and so have the rumors of hikers who vanished into the shadows.

If anything, shadows are the only love of King Mephitic. Like all imps, he has no use for compassion or love or friendship—and despise those even more than most of his kind. He actively seeks out to destroy any benevolence, joy, cheer, color, merriment, and light from his kingdom. This brings him in particular conflict with his nearest neighbors, the sprites. It is doubtless that he would drive them into exile or worse to stop even one flower from blooming.

In addition, as a result of his nature, King Mephitic despises Mistmas. He has strictly forbidden it among his followers, and they closely barricade off the heart of their domain against the season. Even saying the word “Mistmas” can get an imp publicly flogged. And as a result of the winter isolation, King Mephitic has not even heard of Queen Boreal. Many are glad for that—it is the fuel of nightmares to imagine those two ever plotting.

However, there is another whom Mephitic distantly admires—Jasper the Jinx. Lanturnacht is both their favorite holidays, and although Mephitic thrives on the dark and cruel aspect of it, Jasper's wild and thrilling antics hold a type of fascination for the imp king. He enjoys the concept of bringing terror into the hearts of the multitude—but not for laughs.

Further comparisons have been made between these two, including the lore that surrounds them. Both have had their share of dark rumors, which are usually used to scare small children from wandering into the woods at night. People have claimed Mephitic has resorted to cannabilism, uses necromancy to control dead Misticpets under his own command, has explored the dream plane to enter people's subconsciouses and give them nightmares, has contacted the Seht himself, and has used his imps to replace babies in the cribs of unsuspecting parents among other things. Many would like to think of those as rumors, but knowing the true nature of Mephitic...

However, despite all his cunning and despite all the strength of his armies, King Mephitic has yet to gain a significant upper hand over Prince Arman and Princess Aisling of the sprites. For every victory Mephitic has had, he has also experienced even more defeat. Perhaps this serves to highlight the polarity of the two—light and darkness. Some even say that this is the result of Pandoria's subtle hand; thus, King Mephitic will never be able to overcome the sprite rulers nor they him, not permanently. This, however, is the one rumor Mephitic vehemently discounts.

The truth behind the king shrouded in shadows is just that—shadows. The darkness encourages his strength as he rises with unknown numbers against those who dwell in the light. The shade of the dead Darkwood hides his actions and schemes, and his nearest neighbors can only watch and wonder and pray to Pandoria.

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