The authors study imaginary representations of the Khovanov-Lauda-Rouquier algebras of affine Lie type. Irreducible modules for such algebras arise as simple heads of standard modules. In order to define standard modules one needs to have a cuspidal system for a fixed convex preorder. A cuspidal system consists of irreducible cuspidal modules—one for each real positive root for the corresponding affine root system \({\tt X}_l^{(1)}\), as well as irreducible imaginary modules—one for each \(l\)-multiplication. The authors study imaginary modules by means of “imaginary Schur-Weyl duality” and introduce an imaginary analogue of tensor space and the imaginary Schur algebra. They construct a projective generator for the imaginary Schur algebra, which yields a Morita equivalence between the imaginary and the classical Schur algebra, and construct imaginary analogues of Gelfand-Graev representations, Ringel duality and the Jacobi-Trudy formula.