Underused Sapient/Humanoid Species?

Not sure if this is the right section, but I'm working on an Urban Fantasy story set in a modern-day melting pot city like New York or Los Angeles with humans and non-humans from all over the world. The only problem is that most of the fantasy races I know of are from European mythologies, can anyone help me find mythological humanoid species from the other five continents?

Well, humanoid beings like The Fair Folk are actually very common. The main problem is that the other five continents' mythologies and folklore don't have nearly as much popularity, so naturally we only see the specific quirks of European fairies on a regular basis. Maybe go to Sacred Texts or run a Google search for Asian/African/Indigenous folklore?

When you want something exotic but underused, go no further then Yokai.

Funny, I know a lot of people who consider those horribly overused :P.

I'll echo Sharysa's suggestion of looking into african and asian (not just japanese) folklore.

For example, take a look at these guys:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asanbosam

A species of arboreal ambush predators. "Feet pointing both ways" can be interpreted as them working like a chameleon's...adapted for grasping branches. They'd move by brachiating, hands and feet fully interchangeable, and they'd probably be extremely awkward on the ground.

While almost-overused here (South Africa), you might be interested in the Tokoloshe.

I think you might be limiting yourself unduly.

Pretty much every culture's going to have a 'deep earth' race and a 'forest' race at the very least. If you're looking to invent some, you could probably come up with a few races just by looking at landforms humans don't live in - underwater or in the sky, for example.

I don't get the impression that the Cosmicocean wants to create new entities, but rather wants to create an All Myths Are True melting pot, and in particular one that draws from a wider pool than the European mythologies.

edited 10th Aug '14 8:59:32 AM by ArsThaumaturgis

There are the Naga, Ghandarva/Apsara, and Vanara species from Hindu mythology. Arabian mythology has the Jinn and Ifrit races.

Oh yeah, totally. But that would leave out Australia, if I'm understanding Dreaming correctly.

edited 13th Aug '14 2:44:05 PM by DeusDenuo

How about down here in New Zealand? We have all kinds of weird stuff here, you would be lucky to go to a park without some kind of story in it's name. First of all and most famously their are the Taniwha which everyone just thinks 'Generic Doom Monster' but are anything but with massive differences between each one with some as guardians while others can manipulate the enviroment or even whole peoples.

Then their are the Patupaiarehe which have the unfortunate mischance of being translated as 'Fairies' but are really a diffrent culture of humans that were presumed to live in the treetops with red hair and albino skin.

Then their are the sea-people they call Pakeha and mistook us white people for and their pre-european descriptions are not actually very different so maybe they were very good at guessing.

Of course this is only just scratching the surface down here, the Maori invented new stange peoples just about everywhere they meant and even classified themselves among them by exaggerating the exploits of other tribes.

Why does that leave out Australia? Australia has mythological humanoid species.

The Yowie is the most well known, but there are others.

edited 22nd Aug '14 5:42:16 AM by editerguy

Describe a couple, then? I'm a little curious about that. (The Yowie's a cryptid and I thought we were going for 'mythological', is why.)

No, the yowie originates in Aboriginal Australian mythology and became part of general Australian folklore, like the bunyip. It's treated like an Australian Bigfoot these days but that's not how it started.

Keep in mind there are literally hundreds of distinct Indigenous Australian cultural groups. One group had these thin spirits that could travel through cracks or something, I learned about some of them in school but I can't remember what they were called because it was a long time ago. Just be aware that yowies and bunyips could be considered part of Australian pop culture by now, but taking from Indigenous stories directly is called theft by some people (obviously there are different views about that).

edited 22nd Aug '14 7:40:21 PM by editerguy

...sounds like the same diff, then, for modern purposes.

Wikipedia has this, and then there's this. Neither are especially helpful when it comes to Australian myth creatures ('drop bear'? Really, Wikipedia?), and there's an uncharted aspect to it that, to an American like me, seems like a gold mine.

Do they have to be existing fantasy races? You could always just make up new ones yourself.