Fantasy Creatures You Don't Hear Enough About

    The first thing you want to do before you write your novel is to do research, but you want to be a little different from other fantasy novels. Here's a list of creatures that you've probably never heard of.

1. The Three Legged Bird

      You've watched or read Game of Thrones so you're familiar with the Three-Eyed Raven. Well this bird of Asian mythology didn't have future sight but he was interesting. The Three Legged Bird was a solar symbol in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean folklore. In China the Celestial Cock or Bird of Dawn is a three legged rooster with golden feathers. Ancestor of all the cocks on Earth, its morning crow shakes the sky and awakens humankind. The Three Legged Bird is a raven called Yatagarasu in Japanese Legend. It is the emblem of Amaterasu, the sun goddess. In Korea, the Three-Legged Bird is called Samjogo. It was the highest symbol of power, superior to both the dragon and the phoenix.  

2. Catoblepas

    A legendary bull-like creature of Ethiopia the size of a bull with a heavy mane that falls over the forehead, covering the blood-shot eyes, a scaly back, and shaggy eye brows. The beast's head is so heavy that it can only look downward, which is fortunate  because the beast's look is poisonous as is its breath, since it only eats poisonous vegetation. Yikes! When enemies approach, the beast shudders, glares, bares its teeth, and emits from its throat a blast of foul-smelling breath that causes its enemies to lose their voices and experience fatal convulsions. 

3. Tikbalang

     A creature from the folklore of the Philippines. It stands upright like a tall and powerful man but has the head and hooves of a horse. The forelegs, which look like arms ending with bony fingers, are long enough to touch the ground. They're known to scare travelers and leave them astray. Tikbalangs can also imitate voices and mannerisms of a person known to the traveler, using this ruse to lure victims into the forest where they never return from. Ways travelers protect themselves include wearing their shirts inside out and either calling out a warning or walking silently through the forest where the creature lives so as not to disturb it. Tikbalang can also be tamed, but a person must ride it to exhaustion and pluck one of the three thickest spines of its mane to use as a magic talisman. Sounds easy enough...

4. Nue

    Also referred to as the Japanese Chimera. A hybrid of several animals with the head of a monkey, body of a tanuki (a raccoon dog), the legs of a tiger, and tail of a snake. Because of its ability to transform into a black cloud and fly around, the Nue is reputed to bring misfortune and illness. 

5. Crocotta and Leucrotta

     The Crocotta is a combination of wolf and dog, with impossibly strong teeth and uncanny ability to lure by imitating the human voice both dogs and men into the forest in order to devour them. Its offspring, the Leucrotta, is about the size of the wild ass, with the legs of a stag, the neck, tail, and breast of a lion, the head of a badger, cloven hooves, and an enormous mouth that extends up to its ears. Instead of teeth, the Leucrotta has a horizontal blade of bone between the upper and lower jaws. Like the Crocotta, the beast's voice imitates a human laugh (kind of like a hyena). 

6. Ahuizotl

    In Aztec Mythology, its name means "water monster" in Náhuatl (on the nose). About the size of a small dog, the creature is smooth, slippery, and black, with a simian face and a monkey's prehensile fingers. At the tip of its tail is a human-shaped hand. The Ahuizotl lures its victims to the water's edge by imitating a fish and then grabs the person with the hand at the end of its tail to pull him or her into the depths. Three days later the victim's body floats to the surface, unblemished but missing its eyes, teeth, and nails. When the Ahuizotl was unable to catch and drown a victim, it had been heard to cry like a baby. 

7. Ningyo

    A Japanese mermaid-like creature. Ancient texts describe it as having a mouth like a monkey, shining golden scales, a voice like a flute, and a human face. Eating a Ningyo confers immortality. 

8. Yawkyawk

   Indigenous Australian people honor a female water spirit. These creatures often look like mermaids, young women with fishtails and long green hair seaweed or algae. Yawkyawks are fertility spirits. If a woman walks by a water hole inhabited by Yawkyawks will instantly make the woman pregnant. They also bring the rains but if angry can also bring violent storms. Yawkyawks are shape shifters sometimes becoming crocodiles, swordfish, or snakes. Sometimes Yawkyawks grow legs and walk the land at night. They even marry human men but the marriages end when the Yawkyawk returns to the water.

9. Adaro

      Malevolent merman-like sea spirits in the mythology of the Solomon Islands. Believed to embody the wicked part of a dead man's spirit, the creatures are human shape, with gills behind the ears, fins instead of feet, a shark-like dorsal fin, and a swordfish-like spear growing out of its head. Adaros live in the Sun traveling back and forth to Earth on rainbows. Such a lovely thought about a dark creature. They also travel via sun showers and water spouts. Adaros are dangerous to humans and kill by shooting people in the neck with poisonous flying fish. However, Adaros also visit men in their dreams to teach them new songs and dances.


    You can find more mythical creatures in The Mythical Creatures Bible by Brenda Rosen.