Symposium of post-mysticism (AKA various demons, spirits and other things needed)

[Maryring]

Soon, I'm going to be DMing a game, where the player 's a hunter of the things that go bump in the night. Now, the hunt is going to be for a lot more than just vampires and werewolves, but I'm uncertain if I'll be giving a proper representation to the sheer breadth of various monsters that might exist from various folk-lores.

I have a decent grasp of creatures to include from Norse (Alfar, Huldra, Fossekallen), Eastern (all sorts of Yokai and lesser gods), Greek and Roman and classical European critters like Goblins, Vampires and such. But that's also it. So, I was wondering if there's anyone here who consider themselves knowledgeable about supernatural beasts of folklore that could be interesting to bring out to help or hinder the players. Anything is appreciated, but I'd especially love American and African sources of inspiration.

Thanks in advance.

[TheThan]

A lot of American folklore centers around tall tales of actual real people. So it doesn’t sound like you want any of those. But here’s some stuff I’ve quickly dug up.

The headless horseman
the white lady (or just about any other ghost works here.
fearsome critters
Just about any Cryptid works.
Aliens are also a popular thing for people to be sighting.

There’s tons of native American folklore to deal with. I’ll let you or someone else look into that.

[Maryring]

Cryptids is a class of monsters that completely eluded me. Thanks. That's gonna be a great source for inspiration. The other suggestions are also neat. And while I may not be able to use them all, but a lot can be done with a Dullahan. Thanks.

[Dysart]

Hey, so I'm a first time poster but noticed your topic.

I've been researching into a lot of mythology for the game I'm building and a few of the things I could suggest all tend to come under the type of "Fae" or "Fairie-folk".

Something that will probably get their brains whirring away is the Bakhtak from Iranian folklore. It's a physical imbodiement of a nightmare basically and tends to kneel on it's victims chest paralysing them while it eats away at their dreams/nightmares... pretty horrific!

Depending on where you're setting it (or global?) but there's european things like Red Caps too which are more your bread and butter "wrong place" type monster that kills to keep it's bloody red cap nice and wet.

If you're wanting to dabble into the more religious iconography there is probably hundreds of different demonic creatures in the various demonology stories. Like the obvious succubus (think vampire for sex) and the male version of incubus.

Best thing to do in my experience is to come up with something off putting or interesting and make stuff up to fill it out! There's so many different mythologies out there that it likely will already exist under one name or another anyway.

[Jeff the Green]

There are a lot of Native American and Mesoamerican creatures that could be played with: Wendigo, thunderbirds, white buffalo woman, yee naalglooshii, coyote spirits, camazotz (bats with human heads), mishibizhiw (kelpies, but jaguars), and any number of others are good options.

[Dire Moose]

I think White Buffalo Woman would actually qualify as more of a demigod or angel than anything else.

[Telok]

I have an archived bookmark here.

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

69 historical demons, just in case I ever need them.

[TeChameleon]

Here's a quick-and-dirty reference thingy-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...dary_creatures

Just off the top of my head, the rakshasa and asuras of Hindu myth are interesting opponents (well, the asuras would probably serve better as endgame opponents, given that they're literally anti-gods...), and I've gotta second the Wendigo- weird, fascinating, terrifying and a bit sad.

[Jeff the Green]

I've gotta second the Wendigo- weird, fascinating, terrifying and a bit sad.

The best part of the Wendigo myth is that there are as many interpretations as there are spellings. Some say it's a pre-existent being, some say it's a human that resorted to cannibalism and changed, while others say it's a spirit that possesses people during times of famine and forces them to cannibalize a fellow.

Also, check out Aztec and Mayan mythology; it's really hard to describe many creatures (and particularly why they can make such good bad guys or good guys, and why any given type could be either or both) without violating forum rules because there was never a period between "religion" and "idolatry" where the creatures could have an identity independent of faith. I keep going back to that when I need inspiration; as different as European and Persian/Indian mythology and folklore can be the difference between either of those and mesoamerican stuff is much more vast and profound, but there are still compelling parallels like cenotes and sidhe.

[DarkestKnight]

I can step forward on the Nordic front. I'm currently running one campaign, and about to start another, based in Icelandic folktales and Nordic mythology. A large number of Icelandic beasties are semi-supernatural (undead cats for example) or cursed halfbreed (half fox half cat), and some require a certain way to be killed (shot with sheep dung. no, I'm not kidding.). I nice thing that I've found is that Icelandic folktales describe the Dreadwhales, which are man hating whales that attack boats and people in a startling manner of ways. Aquatic adventures always help to keep PC's in line.

Do you mind if I ask what time your campaign setting is like? I'm curious as to what you are up to.

[daremetoidareyo]

Look up skin walkers for native american monsters. Some tribes even say that the act of talking about them makes them take notice of you. We don't know what they want, but we do know that they do sometimes separate a few individuals from a group and kill them viciously.

[Jeff the Green]

Look up skin walkers for native american monsters. Some tribes even say that the act of talking about them makes them take notice of you. We don't know what they want, but we do know that they do sometimes separate a few individuals from a group and kill them viciously.

Those things are ****ing terrifying, and the "real" ones are arguably worse than the ones in the Dresden Files.

(Incidentally, if you want to use a yee naaldlooshii in 3.5, I've got a PrC for it in my expanded sig that was well received and covers most of the lore. I think it works best on a Spirit Shaman.)