Writing Prompt: The Bestiary

Halloween means beasties. But let’s not concern ourselves with the usual fare like lycans, vampires and zombies, let’s dig deep  and work with less commonly used monsters for our stories this month.

Here’s a few ideas, or go and research something that tickles your fancy.

• Hippocamps – half horse, half seaserpent of Grecian legend
• Strix – vampiric owls of Grecian legend
• Cockatrice – winged cockerels with serpentine tails
• Garuda – half man, half bird of prey with golden body and red wings from Indian myth
• Tengu – beaked birdmen of Japanese folklore
• Amphisbaena – two headed serpent of Grecian legend
• Tupilak – vengeful living effigies created by Inuit shamans from human or animal body parts
• Qilin – China’s version of a unicorn
• Kitsune and Tanuki – Foxes and raccoon-dogs (respectively) that could transform into other shapes, particularly humans
• Baku – a bear’s body with an elephant trunk and an ox tail, eats nightmares, from Japanese folklore
• Kappa – monkey faced turtles with frog limbs, mischievous, sometimes murderous Japanese imps
• Squonk – warty, loose-fitting skin, ugly face, suffers from severe depression, lives in hemlock groves in northern Pennsylvania
• Bunyip – usually hairy water monsters of Australian legend
• Selkie – seals that shed their skins and become human from Irish, Scottish and Icelandic tales
• Ahuuizotl – aztec water dog who drowns people by grabbing them with its tail that ends in a hand
• Dybbuk – wandering spirits of Jewish legend who make their homes in a person’s mind becoming a ‘voice in their head’
• Tsukumogami – household objects with a life of their own of Japanese folklore
• Korrigans – beautiful maidens who lived in wells and either lured their victim to drowning or sucked away his life succubus style

If none of these strike your fancy check out bestiaries for Pokemon or Final Fantasy monsters. Or heck, build your own and go wild.

Don’t forget to comment or link to the work in the comments below.