# Fantastic Creatures of Fantasy



## Androxine Vortex (Jan 7, 2013)

I just realized that in all of my projects I don't have any mythical creatures whether they be something like dragons or even something I invented. The only thing close to mythical creatures in my stories are the deities in my fictional pantheons.

So what about you? Do you include creatures into your worlds? I'm not really sure why I never even thought of adding creatures into my works. I guess I was so focused on what the people were doing I hadn't even thought of it. I might decide to include some in my stories because it can't really hurt the story and might add some more color to the world.


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## CupofJoe (Jan 7, 2013)

Dragons have cropped up before now but mainly because I needed a Big-Bad [or more accurately a Big-Weapon] for the MC to be able to wield...
Once I did try a more Tolkienesque world and got uttterly lost in the layers of Ogres vs Trolls vs Dwarves vs Elves vs Humans vs Goblins vs...


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## Alcatas (Jan 7, 2013)

Like CupofJoe, I used to be caught up in the whole Tolkienesque elf, dwarf, orc racial conflict. Now I prefer primarily human vs human conflicts with a smattering of fantastical beasts wandering the wilderness (think dinosaur like dragons rather than evil, cunning, sentient dragon guarding a treasure trove). Like you mentioned, I think it makes the world a little more interesting


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## wordwalker (Jan 7, 2013)

I'm another who thinks of beasts as savage things to complicate the wilderness while humans are most of the action. I started out in gaming doing charts of which kingdom had basilisks, minotaurs, and so on, but decided that was more a distraction from just how much you can do humans and their magic.

That is, unless you start getting into an idea of just what a creature is. They can be more than something to chase people back into town, if the story's worth splitting its focus that way.


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## Androxine Vortex (Jan 7, 2013)

Now that I think about it there was a time where a demonic spirit visited my MC in his nightmare. The demon didn't have a comprehensible shape to huumans so he assumed a horrifying shape of a monster with the body of a centipede with human arms for legs and the head of a goat. It's so creepy!!

I agree with what everyone said that I wanted to focus more on humans. And I didn't mean different races but more like mythical beats and animals.


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## Addison (Jan 7, 2013)

Mythical creatures, in my world, serve as one of two purposes: an aid or an obstacle. They don't have to be fantastic like a troll or anything, they can be a bear or a snake. But other than that I use them when describing a setting if they're actually there and if they will either make an appearance. Heck sometimes I use familiar mythic creatures, ie; dragons, unicorns, golem fish and such. Other times I use creatures that made up.


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## RedAndy (Jan 7, 2013)

In the world where my stories are set, mythical creatures are just that - mythical. There are legends and folklore about them, but they don't really exist. Nonetheless lots of them are widely believed in, even in civilised society (e.g. nautical maps often display warnings about kraken). It reflects the society where my stories are set, which is undergoing industrialisation but where large areas of the world are still unexplored. It also reflects the competing values of belief and scepticism, which are significant themes in some of my stories.

The mythical creatures that form the basis of these legends are usually taken from real-world cryptozoology; that is, the study of animals known only from folklore and other anecdotal evidence. So some of the forests are said to contain the ahool (apparently some kind of giant bat), and deserts are supposedly home to giant carnivorous worms. But they don't really. Or do they?


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## mbartelsm (Jan 7, 2013)

Like others mentioned, my fantastic creatures are only there as an obstacle or an aid, they are part of the context of the storyrather than part of the story itself. For example, there are human tribes of dragonriders in some areas, in this sense, dragons are not more important to the story than horses.

Regarding fantasy races, I like them, but I don't really like to create much conflict between races. Elves live and protect their forests, dwarves expand their mines and dig minerals, humans build cities and fight wars, gnomes do whatever gnomes like to do, etc. They don't really like to interact with one another and that's fine by me, if they get in contact then their respective personalities will decide how the meeting goes, not their racial "attributes".


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## Saigonnus (Jan 7, 2013)

My principal WIP is people by humans of three different cultures, dark ones that were originally humans and other races corrupted by "magic" and capable of breeding and their Psion masters (those capable of using "magic"). I also have creatures in many ways like half-orcs that live on the fringes of human society as outcasts and bandits (for the most part) and of course the magical cats that serve the deity; though only one named Violet makes an appearance in the story thus far. I also have a sort of gnome-like creature that live in burrows beneath the roots of trees, but they are only a mention and not really part of the story at all.


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## myfuzzyscarf (Jan 8, 2013)

I haven't inserted any mythical beasts into my world...but I did add a whole freaking plethora of what I call Spirits. They're really more like gods, though. I also created a race of "Polifers"--humanoid animals. While I did keep regular animals in the world as well, the Polifers add a fun little bit of culture to the novel. They also make battle scenes a whole lot more interesting.


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## Jess A (Jan 8, 2013)

My story involves a lot of 'faeries'. I created my own types, although I have used a kelpie/water-horse and slightly modified it. It's a Renaissance-era-type setting. Other creatures are based on myths from around the world. The story mostly focuses on humans and a couple of 'faerie' people (I have yet to come up with a better name to describe them). However, they do encounter some other sentient species in the story. Some are very humanoid, some are very different. Not all non-humans are classed as faeries, though. Some other races are non-faerie, non-human (I only mention two of those races in the books so far, and they are plot-specific). I have a rich biodiversity and there are some small dinosaurs and dragons, plus a whole lot of spirits (again, spirits are very plot-specific). Faeries encompass a range of races which have certain traits in common. Two MCs are faeries and one is half-human, half-faerie. The rest are human.

I have to constantly watch that I don't fall into the trap of too much description of the setting. I love describing creatures and ecosystems, though I tend to mostly use real-world animals with a couple of invented/modified ones.


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## Wanara009 (Jan 8, 2013)

I had experience with Speculative Evolution and I'm a big fan of prehistoric animals, so I never had trouble creating fantastical creatures or simply ripping-off real-life prehistoric ones and creating an explanation why they exist along with human. Because of it however, most of my creatures is actually quite mundane when compared to the creatures found in other works of fiction. For example: when people's work has dragons with six limbs and with magical 'inner' fire, mine are basically glorified living blimps that fly and breathe fire thanks to hydrogen and methane pouches in their body. When Harry Potter have the magical Phoenix, I have the four-winged Skyterror Eagle (a fusion of the Javan Hawk-Eagle and Microraptor with the size turned way up).

I'm also rather reptile-centric with my creatures. For example: other people's character rode giant wolf to war while my character did so on the back of long-legged terrestrial crocodile.


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## Ireth (Jan 8, 2013)

The main fantasy creatures I use are vampires, and Fae of many different types -- Daoine Sidhe, Fomorians, Leannan Sidhe, Kelpies, Pooka, Redcaps, et al. I'm considering putting a half-human, half-goblin into one of my books, as well s a couple of humans who have stayed so long in Faerie that they have become part-Fae themselves.

EDIT: Oh, and unicorns. They're awesome.


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## ThinkerX (Jan 8, 2013)

Hmmm...

Do Lovecraftian monstrosities count as 'mythical creatures'?


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## Jess A (Jan 8, 2013)

Wanara009 said:


> I had experience with Speculative Evolution and I'm a big fan of prehistoric animals, so I never had trouble creating fantastical creatures or simply ripping-off real-life prehistoric ones and creating an explanation why they exist along with human. Because of it however, most of my creatures is actually quite mundane when compared to the creatures found in other works of fiction. For example: when people's work has dragons with six limbs and with magical 'inner' fire, mine are basically glorified living blimps that fly and breathe fire thanks to hydrogen and methane pouches in their body. When Harry Potter have the magical Phoenix, I have the four-winged Skyterror Eagle (a fusion of the Javan Hawk-Eagle and Microraptor with the size turned way up).
> 
> I'm also rather reptile-centric with my creatures. For example: other people's character rode giant wolf to war while my character did so on the back of long-legged terrestrial crocodile.



I do this a lot too. I've got quite a few prehistoric mammals and flying reptiles.

Check this out: http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image0121.jpg Helicoprion.


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## Snowpoint (Jan 9, 2013)

My WiP is an Urban Fantasy. I feel obligated to include a bunch a mythical creatures, but am having a huge problem deciding what to include - if anything.

In my regular Fantasy Ideas, mythical creatures don't factor in so much. Sometimes the regular animals are larger, or have magic powers.


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## Addison (Jan 11, 2013)

Snowpoint, no matter what sub-genre you're writing in you don't want to give a person magic or mythical animals stuff just for the sake of the genre. You really need to look not so much as what you're writing but WHERE your story is taking place. Which creatures, or races, can best adapt to the city? I can't really see a Selkie or Mermaid surviving in Nebraska. Not enough water, freezing temperatures and tornadoes. These elements should be looked at the same as side characters. Do you really need them? Can another creature or magic do the same thing as another that's possibly taking up space? Is it foundation supporting the story or fluff obscuring it?


I have to say that your regular animals with magic powers idea sounds cool.


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## Fakefaux (Jan 12, 2013)

The way I look at it, there are two simple approaches.

One is to go with made up mundane animals, some of who might be riffs on traditional mythical creatures. For example, the old tabletop game "7th Sea" had griffons, but they were just quadrepedal birds, a fluke of evolution as opposed to a fantastical hybrid of eagle an lion. The other option is to go full bore, with your fantastical creatures being truly magical and somewhat otherworldly. 

It all depends on what sort of story you want to tell. Is this just a parallel universe, without magic? Then the first option adds some strange animals that flavor the setting and help establish it's another world. Or is this a story where magic plays a prominent role? Then maybe the second option is best. And regardless of which one you use, ask yourself if they'll ever actually show up _in the story_. If they don't then you really don't need to worry about it. You can still have dragons painted on people's shields, or superstitious commoners claiming such creatures exist in distant lands, without ever getting into whether dragons are actually real or not.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Jan 13, 2013)

My current novel (and sequels) have no fantastical creatures. This particular world is entirely realistic, with one element of magic added in as a giant, heinous monkey wrench to turn things upside down.

My _next_ book after these, I'm planning to make more "obvious" fantasy, in terms of having wizards and dragons and so forth. (Although, hopefully, distinctive rather than generic.)


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## camradio (Jan 15, 2013)

Whenever I have included them I tried to make ones that don't seem too far fetched. To me a troll, like in LOTR, seems too farfetched or unrealistic. However a Kraken in reality is just a huge squid so it seems more possible.

I know its an odd thing to say considering we are talking about magic and fantasy.


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## Zero Angel (Jan 15, 2013)

I fall pretty firmly on the world building side of things, and I have hundreds of creatures. Most populate my world in the background or are waiting to make appearances in side stories, horror shorts or future novels. 

I actually have so many that I am considering a new serial of horror shorts where each short is basically just another horrific species in action. I'm growing tired of scaring myself with my ideas 

Many of my creatures are derivative, but the internal logic and physics of the world makes even derivative creations have a consistency and uniqueness to them and also makes creating new things a mathematical exercise for me that rarely slows down. Undead alone are EXTREMELY easy to make and outnumber living species (since each species has a few undead versions hanging around).


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## Sherman (Jan 17, 2013)

I create my own fantastic creatures.  There are dragons and trolls--but I have adapted the concepts to the fantasy world.  Trolls are not the same thing as the nordic trolls.  They are an entirely different race that does not turn to stone in the sun.  The females are called something else altogether since male and female look radically different.


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## Lillia Jane Marshes (Jan 19, 2013)

I use a lot of mythical creatures, and usually incorporate some legends about un-seen creatures as well. It adds to the mistique of the world, I think. Like once I used the Kogohpuk (which was an actual mythic creature in ancient times in the Bering Strait) as a legend that terrified the locals, but didn't actually exist.


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## Hate (Jan 19, 2013)

I prefer Human vs human.


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## Nihal (Jan 30, 2013)

I like it when the mythical creatures are inserted in the ecossystem in a way or another. I like to mix up things too.

I have a whole "draco" family that is composed of four legged winged creatures, with many species. Their avarage look is of a animal of the approximated size of a horse, lean and strong, feathered. They live in small colonies near cliffs and high places and are really territorial. They prey on avarage sized animals, often mountain rams and big-sized lizards, but they're really the opportunistic type of predator.

They fill the role of the looming winged menace and often populate big ruined of towers of the old. They don't fire or ice breath, but some species are poisonous. You've got also smaller and bigger species, with different habits and everything.

Those kind of creatures achieve the status of mythical on the popular imaginarium, people create stories based on then but otherwise they're integrant part of my world, not just "magical weird creatures".


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## Stinnpack (Jan 30, 2013)

Recently I've been writing a story set in the nine circles of hell (each circle is different than what would be in The Divine Comedy but I used it as more of a skeleton design to work ideas off of ) and all of my characters are some kind of devil or monstrosity. I've been having a lot of fun with the new options it presents for decisions a character can make. It's also lead to some of the best action sequences I've ever written.


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