Imugi

Imugi (ee-moo-ghee) are dragon-like serpents with great mystic potential, including that of ascension into another form. While some imperial dragons are born to their birthright, many that currently roam Tian Xia are ascended imugi—though they would strike down anyone who claimed such.

To become an imperial dragon, imugi must care for a koi egg for a thousand years. The power from the nurtured egg hatching is enough to power a draconic ascension ritual, and whatever power lingers transforms the koi into an imugi to continue the cycle. The kind of imperial dragon that the imugi becomes depends on where it chooses to nurture the koi egg. Imugi strongly prefer long-finned koi, and Tian koi farmers have learned to keep a separate pool of these butterfly koi away from the others they tend, as imugi tend to displace quite a bit of water—and koi—when swooping down to snatch an egg they want.

Though imugi have some power over rain and storms, most aren't powerful enough to exact a true sense of weather control. Many are known for their benevolence, and some villages even rely on imugi's forays out of streams or lakes, bringing rains during the growing season. Imugi have as wide a range of temperaments as the dragons they become, and some are notorious for how their impatience twists into a foul temper or an arrogance that flicks people aside as if they were bugs. While some might consider mean-spirited imugi corrupted and claim they can be purified somehow, imugi simply hold themselves higher than the average creature and see no reason to conceal their true nature from someone they see as beneath them.