The world is filled with many wondrous animals, but myths and legends have created more than what we see today. The world of fantasy has its own set of creatures that live only in drawings and dreams. While it’s fun to create your own creatures, there’s also the option of using some tried and true myths to make your fantasy even more thrilling. Using mythical creatures allows the canons to support your world and make it more familiar to a reader while providing an opportunity to give your interpretation of the canon.
This assorted list is coming from Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction, Andrew P. Miller and Daniel Clark the authors of this particular chapter. These creatures come from legends all across the globe and are as familiar as unicorns to unfamiliar as incubi. Origins vary as well, so the highlights are below with more info in the book.
Mythical Creatures
- Banshee: Irish origin; female spirit that wails when someone is about to die. Streaming hair and bloodshot eyes, banshees can be connected to a specific family.
- Bunyips: Australia; swamp creature with crocodile tail, body of bandicoot/emu/man, and backwards feet. Devours people, preferring women or children (yikes).
- Chimera: Creature with head of lion, body of goat, and tail of snake that breathes fire.
- Dragon: Western; great flying reptile (easy enough). They’re known for stealing young women and hoarding gold.
- Oriental Dragons: China; forms vary based on the element (normally water) that they represent. In all cases, they’re a hodge-podge of multiple creatures like camels, deer, fish, hares, etc. They’re also considered benevolent, unlike the western hoarders.
- Fantastic Horses
- Papillon: Fiery steed belonging to Morgana
- Winged-horses of the Valkyrie
- Man-eating horses in Greek mythology
- Sleipnir: Eight-legged horse of Odin (Norse)
- Feng Huang: China; oriental phoenix. A colorful bird with a curling tail and long claws, myths say that it comes during prosperity and that its departure brings calamity.
- Golem: Jewish; a creature made of clay that was meant to protect the Jews. A rabbi would bring it to life by inserting a paper with the word “shem” (name) into its mouth and writing “emet” (truth) on its forehead. Just like Frankenstein, the Golem was feared and destroyed by changing the word on its forehead to “met” (death).
- Gorgons: Greek; women with wings, claws, and snakes for hair. Their gaze would turn people to stone. In mythology, there were three: Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa.
- Harpies: Greek; creature with head and chest of woman and body of bird. Known for their foul smell that ruined anything.
- Hell Hounds: different variations across myths
- Cerberus: Greek; three-headed, snake-tailed guard dog of the underworld. Can be subdued with brute strength or a soft melody.
- Hippocampus: Front half horse with a fin for a mane and webbed-fins for hooves and a fish tail in the back. Name literally means “sea horse” and they are known for travelling great distances quickly.
- Hippogriff (hippogriffin): Mix of gryphon and horse – body of horse, forelegs, claws, wings, and beak of gryphon (eagle). Considered nonmagical.
- Hoop Snake: Snake that holds end of tail in its mouth and rolls along the ground. Can’t be outrun. May be related to Uroboros which si the symbol for eternity in Greek and Egyptian myth.
- Hydra: Poisonous, nine-headed swamp creature that would grow two more heads when one was cut.
- Incubi & Succubi: Demons that come after people at night for intercourse (yuck).
- Jabberwock: Lewis Carroll creation; “eyes of flame,” jaws, claws, and “burbles” when it walks.
- Jersey Devil (this is an odd one): its birth has multiple variations, but it escaped into the woods just after. With the head of a horse, wings of a bat, and serpentine body, the Jersey Devil is basically BigFoot; a hundred eyewitnesses but no real proof.
- Kappa: Japan; water demon with skinny body, bowl-shaped head that holds water, tortoise shell, and smells of rotting fish. It likes drowning and eating victims, but is polite and not very bright. Bowing or gifting a cucumber will ward it off.
- Kelpie: Scotland; mischievous or deadly water spirit (depends on preference). The horse form Kelpie will lure people to take a ride and either dunks or drowns the rider. Backwards hoofprints are their tell and if a bridle is used, they can be controlled for a short time. The man form Kelpie lure women into the water and can be identified by shells and seaweed in their hair.
- Kraken: Massive sea monster with tentacles that can be mistaken for an island.
- Leviathan: huge sea animal, many different accounts including in the Bible.
- Lorelei: German; similar to Greek Sirens, sing in order to lure men to crushing rocks.
- Manticore: India; creature with head of man, body of lion, and tail of scorpion. Known as a savage beast, it attacks people with three rows of teeth and projectile spikes.
- Minotaur: Half-man, half-bull creature that is commonly known as the Greek monster of the Labyrinth. There’s no specific combination for the Minotaur, but normally it’s a bull’s head with a man’s torso.
- Nymphs: Spirit personifications of nature (could be considered a fantasy race). Depicted as women and live as long as their natural counterpart.
- Dryads – trees
- Oreads – mountains
- Naiads – water
- Phoenix: According to some legends, the Phoenix started as a large bird with a scarlet head, breast, and back, sea-blue eyes, purple feet, and iridescent wings. It traveled around the globe but was reborn in a fiery blaze when the sun set and burned its nest (very peculiar). There’s lots of stories on the Phoenix, but the most common is a fire bird; the original is similar to the chinese Feng Huang.
- Puca: English woodland fairies. Depicted as smaller humans and known for being tricksters. The form varies based on region, from satyr to goat-bodied.
- Satyrs and Fauns: Greek/Roman; half goat, half man woodland creature (could be considered a fantasy race). Fauns might be half-deer, but either way are gentler than Satyrs.
- Ruhk: Middle East; giant bird that never lands except on mountain or secluded island.
- Sasquatch: Synonymous to Bigfoot, it describes a large humanoid creature with dark fur that’s shy of humans.
- Sea Lion: Half lion, half fish. Basically an underwater lion, but with a silvery fish tail.
- Selkies & Roanes: English & Scottish; sea fairies. They have a seal form that can be shed to reveal a human form, letting them walk and dance on land. They can’t go back into the water without their seal skin (easy capture), but will always desire the water.
- Shark Man: Hawaiian; same concept as werewolf, but with a shark.
- Sirens: The song of a Siren reveals to the listener their greatest desire and drives them to jump toward the singing creature. No description is given because no one survives an encounter.
- Sphinx: Egypt; creature with body of a lion, wings of eagle, face and chest of a human, and a fetish for riddles.
- Stymphalian Birds: Greek; birds the size of cranes with beaks and talons of bronze. Their bronze feathers could be shot like projectiles.
- Tengu: Japanese Shinto; half man, half bird spirit known for being mischievous and also providing great strength when possessing a human. Their actual form varies.
- Unicorns: White horse with a flowing mane and a spiral horn (easy enough). The horn can detect and cure poisons, along with a few other magic tricks.
- Wendigo: North American Indians; man-eating woodland spirit that scares its prey with small sounds and whispers. In terror, victims come running toward their doom.
- Werewolves: The actual concept of a Werewolf was a person who completely transformed into a wolf at night and back to a human in the day. The hybrid look was Hollywood interpretation.
- Vampires: This well-thought creature (perhaps fantasy race) began as a bloodthirsty spirit or a corpse that rises in search of blood (zombie-combo). Bram Stoker and his Dracula began the attractive, well-kept style. In all cases, they spend the night looking for victims and a bite from one will turn you into a vampire. Other abilities vary.
- Yeti: Descriptions vary (especially height) but the consensus is that it’s a Bigfoot who lives in the Himalayan mountains and eats only plants.
There’s More…
While this list is pretty long and extensive, there’s actually a lot more included in the chapter. Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction breaks down a LOT of myths and legends, most specific to Greek mythology and a few spirits that are related to natural creatures. My hope in providing this list and directing you to the book is that you’ll see how important it is to do deep background on your own creations. Most of these are odd combos or “well duh” names, but the stories they appear in give depth and purpose to the creature to where they become well-known names and have myths of their own. Try some of these out and mimic the details and history for your own creations.