# Uncommon/Underappreciated Mythical Creatures?



## evolution_rex

What are some uncommon fantasy/mythical creatures that you enjoy using in your worlds or feel are underused? I'm trying to compile a list of them as I want any fantasy worlds I build to be a bit unique. My main problem with a lot of obscure mythical creatures is that they're simply too similar to more well known mythical creatures and thus are a little pointless in my opinion, but my hopes is that you guys have some good creatures and can convince me that some of these lesser known beasts are cool.


----------



## Ireth

I adore stories about the Fae, and to date I've never seen one involving Baobhan Sith. They're vampiric Fae who have hooves instead of feet, dress in green and use their long fingernails to puncture men's throats to drink their blood. The closest thing to them I've seen are stories of the Gaselli, which seem to be very similar, such as in the song "Taglio!" by S.J. Tucker:


----------



## Russ

If I have to convince you that certain creatures are "cool" they probably are not the right thing to use in  your work.


----------



## evolution_rex

I disagree? I just want to see what other people have used. wasn't entirely serious with that last sentence anyway.


----------



## CupofJoe

I've tried couple of stories with Sirens [one where they were pretty much out and out Pirates and another where they were the Landed Gentry controlling a small town] but I don't think I have the tone right on either yet. So anyway... I thin Sirens are underrated and under used.


----------



## Ireth

CupofJoe said:


> I've tried couple of stories with Sirens [one where they were pretty much out and out Pirates and another where they were the Landed Gentry controlling a small town] but I don't think I have the tone right on either yet. So anyway... I thin Sirens are underrated and under used.



I'm writing a story about sirens!  Technically they're a class of merfolk, the ones who lure humans to their deaths via singing. That still counts, right?


----------



## Reaver

I think that  kelpies, satyrs, gnomes, brownies, banshees and many other mythical beings are vastly underused these days.


----------



## Gurkhal

Pretty much every creature from ancient Mesopotamia is not only underused but outright unknown! I'll give a few examples.

The Lilu, who are a kind of night demons that torments humans

Lamashtu, a kind of demon with a bird's body, lion's legs and donkey's teeth, that harassed women in in regards to childbirth

And and so, I could mention several more.


----------



## skip.knox

>Lamashtu, a kind of demon with a bird's body, lion's legs and donkey's teeth, 

You lost me at the donkey teeth. Though, anyone bitten by a donkey likely has a deep fear of same. But this points up one of the problems with a good many mythical creatures: they're a bit silly around the edges. They affect only certain people or under certain conditions. They are just other animals pieced together to make a new one--a Mesopotamian liger. It's just hard for me to take some of them seriously. 

For example, Carrotfinger Man--he's basically a troll-under-the-bridge. I plan to use him somewhere. It's a legend from Brittany, and probably just from one part of Brittany. That's another item about legendary creatures--many of them were highly local. For the writer, he'd have to do so much explaining, he may as well just make up his own and use legend simply for inspiration.


----------



## Gurkhal

skip.knox said:


> >Lamashtu, a kind of demon with a bird's body, lion's legs and donkey's teeth,
> 
> You lost me at the donkey teeth. Though, anyone bitten by a donkey likely has a deep fear of same. But this points up one of the problems with a good many mythical creatures: they're a bit silly around the edges. They affect only certain people or under certain conditions. They are just other animals pieced together to make a new one--a Mesopotamian liger. It's just hard for me to take some of them seriously.
> 
> For example, Carrotfinger Man--he's basically a troll-under-the-bridge. I plan to use him somewhere. It's a legend from Brittany, and probably just from one part of Brittany. That's another item about legendary creatures--many of them were highly local. For the writer, he'd have to do so much explaining, he may as well just make up his own and use legend simply for inspiration.



I agree in that many real world mythological creatures would need to be given a face-lift before they are presented to the modern audience but even so, I think that there is a lot of potential for inspiration and use from an author who writes something inspired by a certain culture. For example if I would write about an, essentially, Mesopotamian culture I am firmly convinced that I could use that culture's creatures, like the Lamashtu, with some artistic liberty, to great effect.

While it may be a bad example, look at how the vampire has been transformed and become a great deal different from the original folklore creature.


----------



## evolution_rex

Reaver said:


> I think that  kelpies, satyrs, gnomes, brownies, banshees and many other mythical beings are vastly underused these days.


My problem with brownies is that they're basically just like leprechauns or gnomes or any type of hob, and I can't find any characteristics in them that makes them stand out.


skip.knox said:


> But this points up one of the problems with a good many mythical creatures: they're a bit silly around the edges. They affect only certain people or under certain conditions. They are just other animals pieced together to make a new one--a Mesopotamian liger. It's just hard for me to take some of them seriously.


This is a big problem with mythological creatures as well, I generally don't like the animal hybrid stuff.


----------



## skip.knox

Brownies have potential, imo. The color implies earth, for one thing. With a diminutive for a name, it would be difficult to make them fearsome, but one could certainly make them clever. In my mind, leprechauns are very far from gnomes, but that raises a good point. Some creatures, like trolls or ogres, can be represented in many different ways. Others, like leprechauns or unicorns, have to be played very close to type (unless done for laughs). I'm not sure why that is; just an observation.

In the end, though, how they play has far more to do with the writer than with the legend.


----------



## ChasingSuns

There's so many to choose from... the manticore, banshee, black dog, crocotta, satyr, bunyip, harpy, tengu... the list goes on and on. There's definitely a lot of possibilities


----------



## Feo Takahari

Reaver said:


> I think that  kelpies, satyrs, gnomes, brownies, banshees and many other mythical beings are vastly underused these days.



Yay, kelpies! I read a fanfic once where kelpies think they're immortal but aren't. If they get covered in too much inorganic stuff that doesn't rot, they become shellycoats, and they're mortal from that point onwards. Their culture is so fragmented that kelpies who become shellycoats are assumed to have just moved somewhere else, and any shellycoat who claims to be a kelpie is chased off or even murdered as an "impostor."

Banshees get a fair bit of play, and I particularly liked their use in _Roswell Conspiracies_. Gnomes are all over Dungeons and Dragons, especially Dragonlance. Satyrs . . . Well, satyrs might get too _much_ play. (Half-animal men who're constantly lustful are an attractive subject for a certain type of writer.)


----------



## K.S. Crooks

Check out these two website for ideas about beings and creatures you can use. I like that they show artist images of the creatures and provide a brief description of their cultural origin. It is nice to fuse the features of different creatures to come up with your own unique mix to fit your story.

Mythical Archive 
Mythical Creatures, read about and see your favorite mystic creature.


----------



## Gurkhal

K.S. Crooks said:


> Check out these two website for ideas about beings and creatures you can use. I like that they show artist images of the creatures and provide a brief description of their cultural origin. It is nice to fuse the features of different creatures to come up with your own unique mix to fit your story.
> 
> Mythical Archive
> Mythical Creatures, read about and see your favorite mystic creature.



Nice links although they were a bit short for my taste.


----------



## evolution_rex

I like the format of the first one, but I agree with Gurkhal, it needs more creatures.

I guess I'd like to mention one of my favorite underrated creatures, the Lou Carcolh. Basically a snail/mollusk dragon creature. I like the idea of mixing the slimy and the lizard-like qualities into a big beast. My only criticism with the creature is that the name is obviously very French-esque and may not fit into one's world.


----------



## The_Murky_Night

The Scolopendra. Claudius Aelianus described it as the largest sea monster, and he basically describes the creature as being some sort of giant crustacean- perhaps reminiscent of a giant shrimp or crayfish. "Scolopendra", in modern use, is a genus of cenitpede.


----------



## AkamaruGames

The game I am writing for uses a lot of germanic folklore creatures (albeit in a somewhat tongue in cheek tone). Some of the creatures used include:

-mosspeople - sort of like a dwarf with fairy wings whose life is connected to trees. sort of implike and mischievous but anything they steal they always leave compensation for 

-nachtkrapp - a giant raven-like humanoid that steals children at night and eats them

-the Wild Hunt - a group of spirit like huntsmen and dogs who roam the forests hunting various things (often mosspeople)

-weisse frauen - literally a white woman. The spirit of a woman in white that can only be seen in the noon sunlight

-rubezahl - a giant that lives in the mountains and has magical powers over lightning and avalanches. supposedly really loves sour dough bread and creates fog whenever it cooks up a local soup called kyselo


----------



## The Stranger

one of my favorite most obscure mythological creatures i found was a giant plant called the Borometz that instead of bearing fruit from its vines, bore entire sheep... like you could just reach up and grab a sheep off a tree. it might be a little silly for some, but i always though it was unique and fun.


----------



## Feith

I recently discovered the Peryton, and I wish that more people would use it - I've never come across a single story that has even a remotely similar creature. Just look how beautiful it is!


----------



## Mythopoet

Ah yes, the Peryton is described in Jorge Luis Borges' _Book of Imaginary Beings_. It has a nice collection with some creatures you don't really see anywhere else. Highly recommended.


----------



## pmmg

I recently learned Maryland has a legend of a snallygaster. Which is kind of a loch ness type of critter (ummm apparently with wings...). Thought it might be cool if we had a local legends type of contest somewhere along the way. But we need some more contestants first I think.


----------



## Night Gardener

I think true shape-shifting spirits/demons/entities (not humans that transform into assorted 'were'-creatures, but entities that can appear as anything they please for whatever purpose they want)... and paranormal 'Shadow People' are underutilized.

Also, "swarming" sentient beings... one entity/spirit that _manifests _or exists as hundreds or thousands of creatures. I admit it's a newer concept because researchers are just now understanding "hive minds" in certain species, but that to me has some potential. 

Most swarms, etc. written on screen or in fiction are just under temporary control of some force, and return to being their 'not-posessed' normal state after their task is done. For a swarm to *be* the entity itself is kind of terrifying lol.


----------



## Night Gardener

Feith said:


> I recently discovered the Peryton, and I wish that more people would use it - I've never come across a single story that has even a remotely similar creature. Just look how beautiful it is!



That's kind of neat!  I was thinking about certain people riding giant deer/stag instead of horses in some regions.... never thought about it having wings...


----------



## DragonOfTheAerie

All the Inuit creatures. There's one that's a shape shifter which can transform from wolf to orca to move on land or sea. Also giant wolves. And dog people.


----------



## JBryden88

Giants.

I feel like most fantasy settings that use them tend to use them as monsters/villains and nothing else. I've always been a fan of the barbarian archetype but I was inspired to write a story about giants as a people, as a culture, and to show their clash with humans in a way that... humanizes them. Also I gave them something most settings fail to give them... intelligence. 

I always hated that Orcs were always the mindless monsters, but The Elder Scrolls and Warcraft video game settings delighted me. Time for giants to get their due dammit >.>


----------



## TheCrystallineEntity

Ooh, tengu! I really like Japanese creatures--kitsune, nekomatta, and yuki-onna in particular. One of my first writing attempts featured a tengu. It...wasn't very good at all.


----------



## ArenRax

Is there a website or book that has a list of mythological creatures from all cultures/ time periods? And not just the popular ones.


----------



## Mythopoet

ArenRax said:


> Is there a website or book that has a list of mythological creatures from all cultures/ time periods? And not just the popular ones.



Wikipedia's Lists of legendary creatures is pretty extensive and a good springboard for further research.


----------



## TheCrystallineEntity

I have an encyclopedia of mythology in my room.


----------



## Mythopoet

TheCrystallineEntity said:


> I have an encyclopedia of mythology in my room.



Yeah, I have an Encyclopedia of Mythology and one more specifically for mythical creatures, but the wikipedia list has WAY more than you will find in any general mythology book.


----------



## Jorunn

Unicorns that aren't exactly unicorns. 

For instance, the karkadann. Sure it's essentially a rhinoceros but the idea of a foul tempered lumpy gray unicorn has potential for humor and fun! I also quite like the Qilin, and I have them in human form in my current WiP. 

I haven't seen many fantasy world's utilising the English folklore worm either. Big slimy eel-type thing that crawls up out of a river or well and takes over a local hill from whence it terrorizes the peasantry until it's killed by a stalwart noble or a farm boy. Elements of them show up in dragons obviously, but they're always very traditionally dragonly. They always seemed like a pretty serious wildlife management problem to me.


----------



## skip.knox

Mythopoet said:


> Yeah, I have an Encyclopedia of Mythology and one more specifically for mythical creatures, but the wikipedia list has WAY more than you will find in any general mythology book.


One of several reasons why online resources are leaving printed resources in the dust. Not wholly, not quite yet, but the dust cloud gets more dense every year.


----------



## Ouberos

I've drawn a lot of inspiration from the Basque myths of the Basa Juan who inhabit the mountains tops and yodel to each other in bad weather. I like wild man myths in general and someone mentioned Babylonian mythology, but the very first fantasy story, Gilgamesh and Enkidu features a wild man brought out of the wilderness and "civilised" with a hair cut and a prostitute. 

Part of me wants these very ancient references of wild men to be memories of our early adventures with our Neanderthal cousins. What's interesting for me at least, is that across different cultures these outsiders are deemed to have a closer relationship with the natural order than we do. Beasts aren't afraid of Enkidu until he loses his innocence. The Basa Juan know how to grow wheat and a Basque hero tricks the secret out of them. There's a garden of Eden quality to the Wild man myth I like.

Basque folklore is worth a look, lots of witches and restless spirits.


----------



## Mythopoet

Ouberos said:


> I've drawn a lot of inspiration from the Basque myths of the Basa Juan who inhabit the mountains tops and yodel to each other in bad weather. I like wild man myths in general and someone mentioned Babylonian mythology, but the very first fantasy story, Gilgamesh and Enkidu features a wild man brought out of the wilderness and "civilised" with a hair cut and a prostitute.
> 
> Part of me wants these very ancient references of wild men to be memories of our early adventures with our Neanderthal cousins. What's interesting for me at least, is that across different cultures these outsiders are deemed to have a closer relationship with the natural order than we do. Beasts aren't afraid of Enkidu until he loses his innocence. The Basa Juan know how to grow wheat and a Basque hero tricks the secret out of them. There's a garden of Eden quality to the Wild man myth I like.
> 
> Basque folklore is worth a look, lots of witches and restless spirits.



Yes, I love Basque mythology. Years ago I came across a list of Basque names and loved the sound of them so much I started researching Basque culture and mythology and fell in love. Basque culture definitely has a large role in my worldbuilding.


----------



## A. E. Lowan

A great resource is _The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures_, https://www.amazon.com/Element-Encyclopedia-Magical-Creatures-Fantastic-ebook/dp/B003IDMUMW/ which is just full of critters and beings from all around the world. It's where we found the nuckalevee which appears in _Faerie Rising_. I won't share a picture because it's a bit of a horror show, but I will share my description of it.

_“Summer’s Get!” The voices were thick with mucus and gave Etienne a terrible urge to clear his throat. “My dread lord, Midir, desires your presence.”_

_Fuck. Etienne raised his head to look. He couldn’t not._

_Tall enough to brush the ceiling with its head—the humanoid one—a nuckalevee advanced toward them. An unholy, skinless nightmare of horse and rider fused together at the rider’s naked, legless hips, the veins across its crimson, glistening shoulders were open to view and pulsing with effort. Exposed muscles flexed and contracted over white bone and tendon and each skeletal, eyeless face spoke in unison. Drying seaweed and slime dropped from its haunches to leave a trail behind it. What the hell was it doing here? Waiting to be turned loose in the Pacific?_


----------



## skip.knox

Some timely references here, as I happen to be on a monster hunt. I am looking for a variant on "and then a bear jumped out" only I want it to be some sort of fantasy monster. The chief constraint is it has to be rather pedestrian.

That is, no flying creatures. No creatures that kill instantly--I need it to be something my fledgling hero can overcome. No vampires or zombies or any of that ilk. Also no unique creatures and certainly no gods. Also not an "intelligent being" which is to say no dryads or centaurs or other humanoids with some modicum of intelligence or speech.

Turns out, most of the "monsters" in various monster manuals fall into one of the above categories. A great many are one-offs. Various man-beast combinations are commonplace. Many other entries in such lists are gods or demons. But plain, ordinary dangerous monsters? Surprisingly few. Of course there are the combo monsters, the ones that combine goat, lion, bull, horse, etc. in various sets of two or three. I call them the Napoleon Dynamite monsters (liger). 

My short list came down to mainly to giant versions of ordinary animals--giant spider, giant wolf, etc. I confess I'm rather disappointed in humankind on this point. I expected to find an easy dozen to choose from.


----------



## Dark Squiggle

skip.knox said:


> One of several reasons why online resources are leaving printed resources in the dust. Not wholly, not quite yet, but the dust cloud gets more dense every year.


Yes, but you are forgetting the most mythical being of all - the bound book.


skip.knox said:


> Some timely references here, as I happen to be on a monster hunt. I am looking for a variant on "and then a bear jumped out" only I want it to be some sort of fantasy monster. The chief constraint is it has to be rather pedestrian.
> 
> That is, no flying creatures. No creatures that kill instantly--I need it to be something my fledgling hero can overcome. No vampires or zombies or any of that ilk. Also no unique creatures and certainly no gods. Also not an "intelligent being" which is to say no dryads or centaurs or other humanoids with some modicum of intelligence or speech.
> 
> Turns out, most of the "monsters" in various monster manuals fall into one of the above categories. A great many are one-offs. Various man-beast combinations are commonplace. Many other entries in such lists are gods or demons. But plain, ordinary dangerous monsters? Surprisingly few. Of course there are the combo monsters, the ones that combine goat, lion, bull, horse, etc. in various sets of two or three. I call them the Napoleon Dynamite monsters (liger).
> 
> My short list came down to mainly to giant versions of ordinary animals--giant spider, giant wolf, etc. I confess I'm rather disappointed in humankind on this point. I expected to find an easy dozen to choose from.


There is also the Cerebrus, a three headed dog; the fictional version of the sandshark, that swims through sand and ambushes its prey from below; the mazik, a harmful, and sometimes invisible, or at least transparent little non sapient humanoid; akhlut, orcas with legs (I think one may be able to kill with a single bite, so it doesn't count.) I am sure there are others, but that is all I can come up with off the top of my head.


----------



## skip.knox

Thanks for the reply, DS. Here are my thoughts.

Cerebrus: no unique creatures. This monster needs to be one of a type (afterward, a character will observe that this type of monster has never been seen in these parts; it comes from elsewhere). This is pretty much my MC's first kill, so I don't want her slaying a unique monster.

Sandshark strikes out because it's not medieval, but mostly because we are in rocky, hilly country.

I can't find any reference to mazik.

The akhlut will do nicely, but in some other circumstance. It's Inuit, so those legends don't directly fit in Altearth, but I can see using the concept and coming up with my own name for it. Filing that one away; thx.


----------



## Dark Squiggle

Mazik is a Jewish thing. A mazik is the most insignificant type of shed, which is roughly equivalent to a demon.
Here is an article that discusses it. The article is only an accurate representation of the idea of sheddim (singular,  shed) if you happen to be its author. I grew up with occasional references to these things, and can tell you the article leaves you knowing less then before you read it.
YIVO | Demons


----------



## TheCrystallineEntity

Sphinxes aren't used in books much except as replications of the Greek myth. I'd like to write a story that features Sphinxes as a culture and species.


----------



## skip.knox

TheCrystallineEntity said:


> Sphinxes aren't used in books much except as replications of the Greek myth. I'd like to write a story that features Sphinxes as a culture and species.



Not a bad idea. Sphinxes don't really belong in southern France, but then neither does a warg, which is what I ended up going with. That let me raise the point of why such a northern creature turns up in Languedoc. I could have done the same with a sphinx, I reckon, but the warg's there now.

Thanks for the responses. </threadHijack>


----------



## Yora

I don't really recall anyone doing anything interesting with nixes in heroic fantasy stories. There are plenty in fairy tale style works and probably some in urban fantasy, but for such a major mythological creature here in northern Europe they seem very much underused.


----------



## ImaginationGoneWild

Creatures that aren't from the western cultures like dragons, elves, etc...
and old-fashioned faerie-folk like satyrs, pixies, and seelies.
I only discovered seelies from a roleplay i did a couple years ago. it was really well done and made me curious about the race more.


----------



## Ireth

ImaginationGoneWild said:


> Creatures that aren't from the western cultures like dragons, elves, etc...
> and old-fashioned faerie-folk like satyrs, pixies, and seelies.
> I only discovered seelies from a roleplay i did a couple years ago. it was really well done and made me curious about the race more.



I've never seen Seelie used a a race; technically it's a Court, the mostly-benevolent counter to the usually-wicked Unseelie. Almost any sort of Fae can belong to either Court. Or perhaps you're thinking of Selkies, which are shapeshifters who turn into seals?


----------



## ImaginationGoneWild

oh, no. The guy I roleplayed with used seelies as a race where they appeared as skinny elves but who needed to shrink to an insect size every now and then to prevent injuries and exhaustion. And I think it was also to get access to their magic? I can't remember it that well. But i do remember the good vs evil courts. Kind of like light elves and dark elves with a pixie twist I suppose.


----------



## Tom

No one uses the púca. Unfortunate, because they're one of my favorite trickster creatures.


----------

