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majingojira · 1 year

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"Universal" Monsters: The Update

After the last post went over so well, I figured you all would like to see the 'results' of your input and further research. The original idea was the focus on mythology, folklore, occult, and religious beings. Truthfully, I don't think categorically, anything can really be added to this list even if we include modern monsters. But feel free to mention things you think I missed or should be expanded upon into their own categories.

Humans Who Have Passed On - This is a broad category of undead beings. Notable Subtypes include:

Blessed/Damned - People who've gone to an afterlife and come back from that.

Ghosts - Your standard spirit of those who've passed on. A subtype of this is the Haunt, which is a location so full of death that it's not so much one ghost, but a gestalt entity of horror.

Revenants - Undead that are physical. This can be a zombie, a slasher, or any other physical being that's come back from death.

The Border of Life and Death - Women who die in childbirth and the children who die similarly tend to take on special significance in cultures and tend to come back as some of the most horrifying monsters in many cultures.

Spirits - Incorporeal beings that often embody a concept. Subtypes include:

Elemental Embodiments.

Spirits of Intellect - less in religion and more in occult circles, these are plied for information since they just 'know' things.

Larva - another occult concept, basically the magical equivalent of decomposers. They eat leftover magical and emotional effluvia.

Magical Assistants - Many magical traditions invoke different spirits to perform different tasks. Sometimes, it's gods, but lesser more direct spirits are also invoked.

Patrons - Spirits of Places, Buildings, Homes, or even crafts. Humans have a special relationship with the latter spirits, and they are often invoked to aid in tasks related to the home or work.

Fae/The People Who Are Not People - A common group of supernatural beings that are like people but have both powers and limits that make them more and less than people. Often tied to the natural world.

The High Fae/The Arch Fae - Sometimes conflated with the Nordics of UFO Lore (Yeah, UFO lore has racist connotations to it). These are the High Elves, the Court Faeries, and similar beings.

Communal Fae - These are the "Common" fae, shorter in stature and often seen in groups. The "Greys" of UFO lore. Also, the common short-statured Elves, Dwarves, Svartalves, Goblins, and possibly Huldrafolk).

House Fae - A specific variety of Fae similar to the Patron spirits, but more corporeal. Brownie, Domovoi, Knockers, Gremlines -- all beings tied to the home and hearth, but distinctly 'other'.

"The Little People" - Liliputian Humanoid beings, from "pixies" to Abatwas.

Merfolk - This one is pretty clear. They are like the above Fae varieites, but tied to the oceans.

The Unreal Being - A lot of fae creatures can be just... weird. Not full hybrids, but often hybrid as a base before weirder things are put down. Weird is the key for such beings to show that they are "Others".

Giants - They're like humans, but bigger and more 'primal'. But mostly, they are big.

Giant - This is the basic giant, a person who is bigger.

Ogre - Like a giant, but usually not as big, and less human in appearance. Trolls also fit in here via the popular conception (thou Troll is like the words Faerie and Yokai, as a general catch-all term for supernaturals not infernal or divine).

Wildman/Bigfoot - A big person, covered in hair.

Animal-Like - Animals! But Magical.

Animal Bride/Animal Shifter - An animal who turns into a person, or a person who turns into an animal. These include: Wolves, Bears, Boars, Cats, Hares, Owls, Crocodiles, Lions, Hyena, Jaguars, Leopards, Coyotes, Tigers, Seal/Sea Lion, Frog, Swan, Peahen, Cow/Bull/Ox/Cape Buffalo, Shark, Hedgehog, Fox, Dog, Jackal, River Dolphin, Dove, and Cranes. I'm sure there are more.

Ancient/Sacred Animal - Often greater in size or with magical powers, but still an animal. Probably can talk, but not always.

Yaogwai - An animal that has lived for so long and gained so much wisdom that it's become a magical being. Often taking human form. The age part is more important than the shifting part.

Chimeras - Mixtures of multiple animals or impossible combinations (like Mothman)

"The Foreigner" - Like Chimera but for people. These range from people with a face in their chest and no head to those with a giant foot they use for shade, to just normal-looking people with strange habits. A product of xenophobia.

Sea Monsters - Monsters of the ocean depths. Often hybridized with land animals or otherwise of 'abnormal' proportions.

Demons - Demons are negative spirits, beings that cause maladies, calamities, and other things. They are dangers, warnings, and cultrual tools to explain away problems or to guide culture.

Hag - Fears of aging and death manifest in these evil magical old women who do all sorts of evils to the world. Sometimes just referred to as "Witches" in those cultures, but more specifically when a full dehumanizing aspect is applied to them rather than just having them be malicious spellcasters. Yes, it is often found in cultures with rampant misogyny.

Fiends/Lesser Demons - Your "Generic" Demon/Malicious spirit.

Devils - Tempters and smooth talkers. Bargaining beings.

Disease Spirit - Spirits used to explain away various illnesses.

Boogiemen - Spirits used to warn children away from activities or locations that often have mundane dangers they won't take seriously.

Vampire - A variation of the Disease Spirit, specifically accounting sickness/pestilence with a being literally 'draining the life' from others. Often given a lot of powers, but also the word itself is bandied about to describe so many monsters that it loses a bit of its meaning.

The Beautiful Lure - Succubus/Incubus/Temptresses of the Road. It's something between a Devil and a Boogiemen, but because the archetype is so common, I placed it here.

Dragons - Big, Scaley, Dangerous. Sometimes exhales a dangerous substance.

Wyrm - Dragons without limbs

Horned Water Serpent - Dragons of North America, associated with the earth and poison/disease.

Lindworm - Dragons with two limbs (legs).

Wyvern - Dragons with four limbs (wings and legs).

Classical Dragon - Dragons with six limbs (wings, arms, and legs)

Naga - Shapeshifting Serpents of India and Indonesia

Amphiptere - Dragons with wings

Asiatic Dragon - Ryu, Lung, Rong, etc. Serpentine, magical, 4 limbs, fly via magic.

Feathered Serpent/Wadjet/Quetzalcoatl/Seraphim(?) - Sometimes winged, sometimes not winged.

Celestials - Spirits and beings associated with the skies/divine realms

Standard Celestials (Angels, and so on)

Personal Guardian Being - "Guardian Angels" or "Aspects of the Soul", it depends on the culture.

Celestial Animals - Animals associated with the divine realms (often Chimerical)

Hellhounds/Black Dogs - Dogs of darkness and the night. Sometimes demonic, sometimes not. A lot of folklore around these beings. Often they are guards.

Automata - Rare, they are inanimate objects brought to life as a psuedo-living thing either by gods or humans. Includes Golems, Karakuri, Automata (IE: the Greek Talos). More common in modern times.

Plant Monsters - Plant monsters are actually very rare in folklore. Most early ones simply expelled poisonous vapors/gases. By the 1800s, they began to move and invade locations (a dark inversion of colonialism) or used to enhance the exoticism of a location. When insectivorous plants were discovered in 1875, they got nastier, and 'reports' of such things as man-eaters began to appear. By 1889, the monsters became truly mobile. And in 1907, we get our first Fungal Infection/Takeover Plant monster.

Guardians - Spirits and beings which are designed to guard locations or even concepts. Often associated with justice or retribution as well. These can range from Tengu, Fu Dog/Shisha, and Otoroshi, to Dakini, Harpy, Furies, Sphinxes, and Gorgons. Yes, Gorgon's heads were used like a "Mr. Yuk" face in Ancient Greece.

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