Under-used supernatural creatures

Exactly what it says on the tin. Urban fantasy, not to mention fantasy and horror in general have pretty much used the same few creatures (werewolves, vampires, etc) to death. What is there that could do with a bit more attention?

As a general rule, we could stand to have a lot more from non-Western mythology.

Even from Western mythology and folklore, there are a handful of pretty major mythical entities and beasts that appear surprisingly infrequently even where potentially useful or amusing. Consider the gryphon.

As for non-European myth—or the weird side of European myth, as it stands, and philosophy at large—just about anything in Jorge Luis Borges' The Book Of Imaginary Beings is worth looking into.

*begins to make make mandatory Doom Patrol allusion, realises Grant Morrison doesn't count, stops*

edited 21st Mar '12 5:33:14 PM by JHM

The British have a Boogey(wo)man figure called Black Annis. You never hear about her.

You could always try out a Banshee.

I demand more of the trippy mythology of Eastern Europe or Asia.

Like vampire squash. Or ghosts without hands. Stuff like that.

How about Mesoamerican stuff? Also El Chupacabra.

edited 21st Mar '12 7:20:50 PM by MajorTom

Jenny Greenteeth! That's a pretty gross supernatural character.

There's also some pretty bizarre interpretations of vampires out there. Like the panengalia or however it's spelled. That's basically a floating head and organs.

One of my characters is a Chinese vampire. They don't see enough love.

Zombies! Oh, wait...

How about mummies? They're overdue for a revival. That, or Plant People like nymphs or something. Or the minotaur. Or the hydra, a cyclops, or a manticore.

I'm also of the opinion that there are lots of nasty creatures underwater. While none come to mind (besides the kraken and mermaids), it probably wouldn't be too hard to pull something up.

Also if you've ever played a Shin Megami Tensei game, there are plenty of demons for you to tap. (Devil Survivor 2 has a compendium that gives more information. Try sifting through the wiki if you have the time.)

edited 21st Mar '12 9:20:48 PM by Voltech44

I love the Greek myths myself. Personally, I'd like to see more stories featuring Minotaurs and Sirens where they aren't simply throw-away baddies.

I also believe there is a lot of unused potential for modern "unstoppable Golem" stories. The last film I can think of with the concept was It! from 1967 (which was interesting, but fell short of par), and the last book with the concept I can think of is Clay.

Fauns?

edited 21st Mar '12 9:23:15 PM by DoctorDiabolical

Golems are used as a (pretty clever) pastiche for Asimovian robots in Terry Pratchett's Feet of Clay.

I think the Basilisk is pretty cool.

edited 21st Mar '12 10:30:50 PM by Nightwire

If you look through a book on folklore, something should pop up.

A 'species' that springs to my mind is a kelpies or waterhorses, which usually drown people, or drag them under the water and tear them to pieces. They're not exactly under-used, I suppose, because I've read a number of books containing them, but they don't have the saturation level of vampires. Some of the versions I've read have them able to turn into attractive young men with water-weeds growing in their hair.

edited 21st Mar '12 10:21:56 PM by LoniJay

I'm surprised how rarely revenants pop up in fiction. Now a days all walking dead are zombies who are either slaves to necromancers or just nom nom nom.

edited 22nd Mar '12 4:46:13 AM by joeyjojo

For me, litches and a kind of African vampire with iron teeth.

Are there any? It seems like they've all been done to death.

As said before, you almost never hear about anything from Eastern European folklore in fiction.

The Set Animal of Egyptian myths also stands out to me, but people probably don't use it because, well, Seth = Satan and nobody knows what it's supposed to be.

You also don't really see a lot of traditional Japanese Youkai outside of, well, Japan. And China. And India; I'm pretty sure there's more to Indian lore than just nagas.

edited 22nd Mar '12 12:53:12 PM by CrystalGlacia

Giants never seem to play an important role in stories, usually just described as big dumb ogres that make loud noises. One Piece is the only story that comes to mind where giants of various sizes play important roles in the story, ranging from random one-off characters to plot important individuals.

The kappa would be an interesting one to see be taken seriously. Not really a race, but it could be turned into one with enough effort.

There's also a lot of hybrids/animal-people that have some oddly deep folklore to them if you look into it. Almost all of them deal with shedding their skin to become human and other cliche nonsense.

I think Harry Potter has kappas, but it shows up, like, once.

I love creatures from Scandinavian folklore...

They are used far to little...

Oh, yeah, you live in Sweden.

[/sadly doesn't know anything about Scandinavian folklore]

I really wanna use creatures from African folklore sometime... I feel painfully uneducated on everything African...

And valravn.

Russian supernatural stuff has no traction outside of Russian fiction. It's not as trippy as some of the stuff out of Eastern Europe, but this could actually be an advantage; it tends to be more consistent and make more sense, making for easier storytelling.

If these count and are allowed to be used, most D&D aberration creatures. They are all usually inspired from existing mythological creatures. For example, the Beholder is probably inspired by the evil eye since evil eyes don't really have a physical form but are an embodiment of evil in some religions or mythologies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberration_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)

My personal favorites are aboleths, illithids, nagas, and rust monsters - don't really know if those are what you are looking for. They are all mostly cosmic horror creatures, not supernatural. Personally, I'd love to see a horror movie that has these creatures and alike fighting off modern Humans.

Ethiopian creatures are sometimes shown in Greek mythology, but they are all very unknown. The catoblepas is one of my favorites (and is coincidentally on the aberration creature list in D&D, as well as an inspiration for a final fantasy summon).

http://www.theoi.com/greek-mythology/fantastic-creatures.html

While I wouldn't say D&D creatures count anyway, the illithid at least is Cthulhu-inspired and therefore anything but under-used.