Under-used supernatural creatures

Black dogs? Trolls of the classic under-bridge sense?

Shinigan (Naruto fanfic)

There's a lot of good ideas, keep it up. I don't think that I'd be able to use all of them given that some things don't 'travel' well and I have a policy of not writing about countries and/or cultures I'm unfamilar with, which is a shame since a lot of the more 'exotic' stuff seems really interesting.

Wendi-a-go-go, baby! So many primal fears rolled up into one neat little package! So little use.

Also, I have to give props to the nuckelavee.

"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~Madrugada

I have a fascination for the Heinzelmännchen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinzelm%C3%A4nnchen

personally i think the Japanese Oni deserves some love, i know Japan creatures tend to stay in japan, but even then i don't see much, and usually depicted as villains and male.

yes there is Lum, but she is from space. Ok she is one of the few exceptions

but can't we see some more oni's? heck it is even a small amount on deviant art

http://ralanr.deviantart.com/ My Deviant art profile, A plea for attention, cause I am bored

Ligers.

Ligers are real but.

hashtagsarestupid

^^ Unless you mean the magical kind...

I'm not actually sure which creatures are under-used in fantasy since I haven't read enough of the genre to judge, but there are plenty of creatures outside the obvious (dragons, werewolves, zombies, vampires) that I'd like to see more often.

Old fairy legends and ghost stories are a good source of inspiration. On the fairy front, the Dullahan and the Nuckelavee are both pretty awesome/scary. On the ghost front, I like the baykok and the Kuchisake-onna (the latter is quite well-known in Asia but AFAIK not so much in Western pop culture).

Although Lovecraft seems to be in vogue at the moment not all of his creations see as much use as others; moon-beasts, for instance, are pretty cool and not, to my knowledge, overused.

I'm quite fond of modern cryptids as well; a couple of my favourites are the ahool and the Mongolian death worm, but both of those have obvious parallels in fantasy fiction. There are a lot of others that don't, though. Older alien lore, in particular, has a lot of weird and wacky creatures that would be much more interesting to see than another retread of the greys, such as the Hopkinsville goblins and the Flatwoods monster.

I think the ahuizotl, the kamaitachi, the argopelter, the crocotta and the gulon are all interesting legendary creatures with relatively little fictional exposure.

edited 23rd Mar '12 3:11:06 PM by BobbyG

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Yeah, the magical kind. You know, the liger that lay eggs and form packs around a single, giant female:

...what.

I feel compelled to say Popo Bawa or Orang Minyak...

...but this is supposed to be a serious thread.

So to be serious, I was thinking if creatures of less-known mythologies could be dealt with the way Tolkien dealt with elves and dwarves. Or the way post-Tolkien fantasy did, turned into a stock race.

"Atheism is the religion whose followers are easiest to troll"

Well, the next World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria, is basically running wild with all manner of Asian mythology based creatures - they are even making a playable Panda-men race. So its not like it can't be done, just that it is very rare.

I might suggest the tokoloshe - a short, unpleasant entity (and sometimes described as having a penis long enough to carry over its shoulder) from Southern African lore. There's also the myling (which is Scandinavian, I believe), the spirit of a child attempting to get someone to bury them properly - which is no small feat, as the spirit when carried grows heavier the closer they get to the graveyard, to the extent of driving its bearer into the ground by weight alone, and kills those who fail to carry it all the way.

(I'm afraid that I haven't read the first) has a rather interesting - and sad - take on the Kappa, and indeed treats a few entities of myth interestingly, I feel, including huldra, manticores and djinn.

edited 23rd Mar '12 8:09:03 PM by ArsThaumaturgis

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As far as draconic beasts go, there is the Peluda, a snake threaded through a tortoise with hair-like tentacles that turn into poisonous porcupine quills. The Tarasque is a bit more well known, but still rather underused. And then there's the water-spouting Gargouille, the creature that inspired the gargoyle.

French beasts seem to be rather underused in general, methinks.

Icon by Civvi the Civilian!

For some reason the tarasque almost always ends up being like a mechanical bull robot in the various media it appears in. People just don't go the whole "turtle-dragon" route.

The moon-beasts are among my favourite Lovecraft creations, next to the fungi from Yuggoth, gugs and flying polyps, mainly because they are genuinely odd. But then again, most of the man's work is pretty odd when one really considers it, and most people really don't.

I must thank Kaxen for bringing up the valravn. Creepy little buggers, and great fun.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

Talking 'bout Lovecraft: races of intelligent housecats (cats, not catpeople) have appeared several times, and this idea I find even quite interesting, but cats don't really count as supernatural.

"Atheism is the religion whose followers are easiest to troll"

I really love the unconventional undead— which is exactly why I'm pitting liches and revenants against each other in one story.

Gryphons/griffins (as someone mentioned earlier) rock, and I don't understand why they're less popular than other critters. They could easily be used in a fantasy setting as transportation for ruling classes.

And I totally agree with the intelligent housecats. Then again, I really adore Lovecraft. His not-so-Cthulhoid creatures need more love.

Cat-demons exist in Japanese lore, such as the nekomata. It was believed that if you didn't dock a cat's long tail or if it somehow lived for a number of years, it would grow a second long tail, stand on two legs, and be able to speak like a human.

Yeah.

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

You gotta love Japan

I actually imagine myself reading a manga when I write

http://ralanr.deviantart.com/ My Deviant art profile, A plea for attention, cause I am bored

If you want to introduce any traditional monster into modern pop-culture, you need to give it sex appeal. That's why vampires and werewolves and wizards are so popular.

Who cares about bringing something to modern pop culture? That wasn't the OP's intent.

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

Modern pop culture is overrated anyway.

Wizards have sex appeal? Harry Potter was big before they cast actors, you do realize that right?

Nous restons ici.

True, but I'm sure the series' popularity only skyrocketed once the actors of the child characters hit puberty.