Shadow

Serpent-bodied Enchantress · Seductress and Devourer in Greek Mythology

A monster of Greek myth, the upper body a beautiful woman and the lower body that of a great serpent. Once the beautiful queen of Libya and a lover of Zeus, she was driven by Hera's jealousy to the loss of all her children, and from her grief and rage was changed into a creature that, by night, steals and devours the children of other mothers (Diodorus Siculus, Library 20.41, 1st c. BCE). Hera further denied her sleep by cursing one of her eyes to remain forever open, and she carries her eyes out in a bowl when she leaves home (Plutarch, On Curiosity 2). Philostratus's Life of Apollonius of Tyana 4.25 (3rd c. CE) tells how a Lamia seduced the young Menippus, and was unmasked at the wedding feast by the philosopher Apollonius — the source which John Keats reworked in his poem Lamia (Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, Taylor & Hessey, 1820), turning her into a tragic figure of love and revealed truth.

Strix · Night Bird — Vampiric Bird of Ancient European Myth

A vampiric bird-creature of Roman and Greek myth, a nocturnal raptor that creeps into the bedrooms of sleeping infants to drink their blood and entrails. It is described variously as a witch transformed into a bird, or as a demon born in the shape of a bird. The most canonical account is Ovid's Fasti 6.131-168 (c. 8 CE), which depicts it as 'with a large head, staring eyes, a beak fit for plunder, grey feathers and curved talons', and describes the ritual of the goddess Carna with hawthorn branches that protected the newborn king Procas. Etymologically the figure is the direct ancestor of the later European vampire tradition — Romanian Strigoi, Italian strega 'witch', French stryge — all of which descend from the Latin strix.

King of Serpents in Medieval European Legend

The basilisk is a legendary creature from ancient Greco-Roman and medieval European traditions. The name derives from Greek 'basiliskos' (little king), referring to it as the 'king of serpents.' Pliny the Elder's Natural History first recorded it as a small snake with a crown-shaped crest. Through medieval times it evolved into a snake-rooster hybrid with chicken's head and legs. Its most feared ability is the 'death gaze' that kills with a single look, while its breath withers plants and cracks stones. Its only weaknesses are its own reflection and the scent of weasels.

Cerberus · Infernal Gatekeeper — Legendary triple-headed hound

The colossal three-headed hound of Greek myth, set at the gate of the underworld of Hades. In Hesiod's Theogony 310-318 (c. 700 BCE) he is the offspring of the great monsters Typhon and Echidna, sibling of the Hydra, the Chimera, and Orthos; Hesiod gives him fifty heads, but from Pindar and Stesichorus in the fifth century BCE the canonical three-headed form has been standard (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.12, 1st-2nd c. CE). His task is two-way: he prevents the dead from rising and the living from descending. The twelfth and last of the labours of Heracles was to bring Cerberus alive from the underworld; Virgil's Aeneid 6.417-425 (19 BCE) shows the Sibyl casting a honey-and-drugged cake to send the three heads at once to sleep, and Dante in Inferno 6.13-33 (c. 1308-1320) sets him as the warden of the gluttonous in the third circle of Hell. J. K. Rowling's three-headed Fluffy in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Bloomsbury, 1997), who is sent to sleep by music, is a direct descendant of the same canonical motif.

Jiangshi · The Chinese Hopping Corpse — A Stiff, Leaping Corpse-Spirit

A Chinese corpse-spirit, a body unburied after death that stiffens and reanimates. From rigor mortis it holds its arms forward, feet together, and hops to move. Clad in Qing-dynasty official robes, it drains the vital energy of the living and senses people by their breath. It is controlled and repelled by a Taoist priest's talismans and spells.

Banshee · The Wailing Death-Herald — Lament of Celtic Lore

A female spirit of Irish and Scottish Celtic lore. Attached to a particular family, she foretells by a chilling wail at night when death is near for one of that lineage. She is depicted combing her long hair, weeping by a river or outside a window. Not a bringer of death but an incarnation of grief who weeps the sorrow in advance.

Gumiho · Nine-Tailed Fox — The Bewitching Fox-Spirit of East Asia

A fox spirit that, after a thousand years, gains nine tails. Often transforming into a beautiful woman to beguile humans, it is said to sustain its power by taking livers or vital essence. The Korean form of the fox-spirit tradition shared across Korea, China, and Japan, portrayed as a being holding a tragic yearning to become human.

Ghoul · The Corpse-Eater — A Desert Monster That Digs Up and Devours the Dead

A corpse-eating monster originating in Arabian lore. Dwelling in deserts, ruins, and graveyards, it digs up and devours corpses, and at times lures lost travelers to eat them. It can shapeshift, taking the form of a human or beast (especially a hyena). In modern horror and fantasy it often appears as a rotted lesser undead that feeds on the dead.

Mummy · The Bandaged Dead — A Cursed Corpse Guarding the Tomb

An undead — an embalmed, bandage-wrapped ancient corpse brought back. Usually the mummy of an Egyptian pharaoh or priest, it lays a curse on those who violate its tomb and grave goods. Slow but relentless in pursuit, it commands sand, insects, and plague. Its image was fixed by the 'curse of Tutankhamun' legend and classic horror films.

Oni · The Japanese Demon — A Horned, Hulking Man-Eating Ogre

A huge, ferocious demon of Japanese lore. With red or blue skin, horns sprouting from its head, sharp tusks, a tiger-skin loincloth, and wielding an iron club (kanabo). Living in mountains or hell, it devours humans or punishes sinners. A signature monster of Japanese horror and legend, driven off by the bean-throwing custom of Setsubun.

Wraith · The Vengeful Specter — A Dark Spirit That Lost Its Form, Leaving Only Hatred

A specter that died bearing intense grudge or hatred, now drifting as a form of darkness and mist, having lost its body. Wreathed in cold chill, it drains the life force of the living, and physical attacks scarcely affect it. The signature form of the incorporeal undead, bound to places of deep grudge or cursed ruins.

Lich · The Undying Mage — An Archmage Who Refused Death by Sealing the Soul

A powerful mage who became undead through obsession with knowledge and power. Sealing its soul in a vessel called a phylactery, it revives so long as the vessel remains, even if its body is destroyed. With a decayed skeletal form, cold intellect, and immense dark and necromantic magic, it schemes through undying time.

Onryo · The Japanese Vengeful Ghost — A Cursing Specter Returned in Grudge

A Japanese vengeful spirit that died bearing injustice and deep grudge, bringing calamity upon the living. Appearing in a white burial kimono with disheveled long black hair and a pale face, it spreads its curse not only to those who wronged it but even to the unrelated. A core form of Japanese horror, as in Ring and Ju-on.

Vampire · The Bloodsucker — Night's Aristocrat Living Immortal on the Blood of the Living

An undead that, dead yet unable to die, sustains immortality by drinking the blood of the living. With pale skin, fangs, and beguiling charisma, it shifts into bat, mist, or wolf. Weak to sunlight, silver, the cross, garlic, and the stake. Rooted in Eastern European folklore, its aristocratic form was established by Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Dullahan · The Headless Horseman — Ireland's Death-Bringing Envoy

A headless rider driving a black horse, holding its own severed head in one hand. A death-envoy of Irish lore: where it halts and calls a name, that person's life is severed. It wields a whip made of a human spine, and the gates along its path swing open on their own. Familiar too as the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow.

Zombie · The Reanimated Corpse — Mindless Man-Eating Hordes of the Dead

An undead that, dead and reanimated, loses reason and craves the living. Moving slowly (or swiftly) with a rotting body, it spreads infection by bite or scratch. Rooted in the Vodou tradition of slave corpses raised by sorcery, it became in the modern era the symbol of apocalypse — hordes that topple civilization.

Skeleton Warrior · Undead Soldier — A warrior risen from death and granted unlife

The skeleton warrior is a warrior-type undead being composed of dead bones. Summoned or resurrected through magic, curses, or black arts and deployed in battle, fighting with sword, spear, shield, and armor through pure skeletal form without flesh or soul. Usually depicted as instrumental beings with no original personality or will, faithfully following only the necromancer's commands. The mythological archetype traces back to the Spartoi 'warriors grown from dragon's teeth' of Greek mythology's Cadmus, but the modern image was established by the iconic scene in the 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts — the seven skeleton warriors brought to life by Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion animation engaging in sword duels with heroes. Since then they appear as the most common undead enemies in nearly all fantasy RPGs including D&D, Diablo, Dark Souls, and Elder Scrolls. Terrifying enemies that endlessly regenerate or shatter when struck only to rise again.

Tsukumogami · The Tool Yokai — A Spirit Dwelling in a Hundred-Year-Old Object

A Japanese yokai born when a tool or object used for nearly a hundred years gains a spirit. Everyday things — umbrellas, lanterns, kotos, straw sandals, pots — gain eyes and limbs and move. An object discarded carelessly or treated poorly may bear a grudge, or merely play pranks. A signature group forming the procession of the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.

Dokkaebi · The Korean Goblin — A Capricious Spirit of Mischief and Wealth

A signature creature of Korean folklore, said to arise from old objects or implements such as bloodstained brooms and pestles. Playful and capricious, it loves wrestling and pranks. Wielding a wish-granting club, it bestows or seizes wealth, valuing promises and repayment while mischievously tormenting people.

Nue · Chimera — Legendary Japanese Monster

The Nue (鵺) is one of the most mysterious composite yokai in Japanese legend, with the face of a monkey, body of a tanuki (raccoon dog), legs of a tiger, and tail of a snake. The name comes from the cry of Japan's native 'nue' bird (虎鶫, scaly thrush) — its sad and bizarre call is said to herald disaster. The most famous tale is the late 12th-century Heian-era event when it appeared every night with black clouds at the imperial palace, disturbing the emperor's sleep and making him ill, recorded in detail in the Heike Monogatari (Tale of the Heike). The hero who slew it was Minamoto no Yorimasa, the greatest archer of the Heian era, whose feat of shooting down the Nue with an arrow became one of the decisive scenes in Japanese warrior heroic narrative. The Nue's corpse was placed on a log boat and set adrift on the river — wherever it landed, villages were said to be devastated.

Ghost · The Wandering Spirit — A Soul Bound to the World by Attachment and Unfinished Story

The soul of the dead, unable to pass on due to attachment, grudge, or an unresolved story, lingering in the world of the living. In a transparent or translucent form, bound to a specific place (a haunted house, an old home), it reveals itself through poltergeist movement of objects, a cold presence, apparitions, and sounds. It may convey a message to the living or warn them.

Revenant · The Vengeful Returned — A Corpse Risen From the Grave for One Purpose

A corpse that rose from its grave by its own will, driven by intense vengeance or an unfulfilled mission. Unlike the mindless zombie, it holds a clear self and a single purpose. It pursues to the end the one who killed it or the traitor, a relentless hunter that rises again even if destroyed, until its purpose is met.

Cheonyeo-gwisin · The Grudge-Bound Maiden Ghost — A Korean Spirit Wandering With Unresolved Han

The vengeful spirit of a maiden who died unwed, bearing han. She appears in a white burial robe, with long unbound hair and a bloodless face. She wanders the living world until the han of an unjust death or an unfulfilled bond is resolved. Where the Japanese onryo spreads an indiscriminate curse, the maiden ghost carries the Korean sentiment of awaiting someone who will recognize and resolve her han.

Wight · The Barrow Dead — A Cursed Corpse Guarding the Tomb's Treasure

An undead — a corpse buried in a barrow or mound, revived by obsession with treasure and a curse. With coldly glowing eyes, ice-cold hands, and a desiccated corpse-form, it guards the grave goods of the tomb. It curses intruders or drains the life of the living to make them its kind. Unlike the formless wraith, the signature graveyard undead that keeps a corpse's form.

Death Knight · The Knight of Death — A Specter-Warrior of Cursed Blade and Black Magic

A knight undead risen even after death, having forsaken a living oath or seized by a curse. Within jet-black armor it carries the cold will of a specter, commanding undead hosts with masterful swordsmanship plus black and necromantic magic. A once-noble but fallen tragic knight, it battles between the curse that binds it and the remnants of its honor.

Gremlin · The Machine-Breaking Yokai — A Prankster of the Modern Technological Age

A small, cunning modern creature that secretly breaks machines and devices. Born in the early 20th century among aircraft mechanics as an unseen being causing inexplicable malfunctions. Small and nimble and mischievous, it slips into planes, engines, and electronics to commit sabotage. The newest form of creature born of technological civilization.

Azrael · Angel of Death — Reaper of Souls

The angel of death in Jewish and Islamic tradition. His name means 'God has helped' (Azra-el). When a mortal dies, he gently takes the soul and bears it to God — depicted not as a fearful reaper but as a compassionate and dignified guide. In Islam he is one of the four archangels, and Muslim tradition holds that he appears veiled in seventy thousand veils when collecting a soul.

Lucifer · Bearer of Light — Fallen Archangel, Prince of Pride

The most famous fallen angel in Christian tradition. The name is Latin for 'Light-bearer' (Lux-fer). Once God's most glorious archangel, his pride (superbia) — seeking to place himself equal to God — cast him down from heaven to become king of Hell. Dante's Inferno depicts him frozen at Hell's deepest pit, three-faced, eternally chewing the gravest sinners.

Satan · The Adversary — Prince of Wrath, Accuser of Humanity

Chief demon of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The name is Hebrew for 'adversary' or 'accuser.' In the Book of Job he plays a celestial prosecutor accusing mortals in God's court; later Christianity merged him with Lucifer as the incarnate evil opposing God. Prince of Wrath among the Seven Deadly Sins. The one who tempted Christ in the wilderness.

Mammon · Demon of Wealth — Prince of Greed

Demon of wealth and greed in Christian tradition. The name is Aramaic for 'riches' or 'money' (mamona). In the Gospel, Christ says, 'No man can serve two masters — you cannot serve both God and Mammon' (Matthew 6:24). Prince of Greed among the Seven Deadly Sins. He is the personification of wealth, depicted enthroned on gold, counting heaps of coins.

Belphegor · Prince of Sloth — He Who Ruins Humanity Through Laziness

Demon of Jewish and Christian tradition, prince of Sloth among the Seven Deadly Sins. Derived from the Moabite god Baal-Peor mentioned in the Old Testament Psalms and Hosea. He tempts humans into the laziness of discovery, the stagnation of creativity, and pleasure without effort. One satirical legend tells that, hearing humans boasting of happy marriages, he descended to verify and returned disillusioned to Hell.

Anubis · Egyptian God — Guardian of Death and Mummification

Anubis is the god of ancient Egyptian mythology who guides the souls of the dead and presides over mummification rituals. Depicted with a black jackal head and human body, the deification likely originated from observing jackals frequently roaming Egyptian cemeteries and feeding on corpses, identifying them as 'gods of death and burial.' His most important duty was the 'weighing of the heart' — bringing the souls of the dead to the Hall of the Dead, weighing their hearts against the feather of Maat (goddess of justice) on a scale to judge whether the soul deserved entry into the afterlife. If the heart was lighter than the feather, the soul went to the Field of Reeds (Aaru) of eternal peace; if heavier, it was devoured by the monster Ammut and annihilated forever. He is said to have taught humans mummification, with Egyptian priests wearing Anubis masks during embalming ceremonies. A beloved god as the just and merciful guide of the afterlife.

Abaddon · Angel of Destruction — King of the Abyss

Hebrew for 'destruction' (אֲבַדּוֹן); in Greek, Apollyon — 'destroyer.' In Revelation 9, when the fifth apocalyptic trumpet sounds, he emerges as king of the Abyss, leading an army with lion's teeth and scorpion tails like a swarm of locusts, tormenting mankind for five months. In some traditions he is a servant of God enacting final judgment; in others, a fallen angel.

Bael · First of Solomon's 72 Spirits — King of the East

First demon listed among the 72 spirits in the 16th-century grimoire Lesser Key of Solomon, a great king of the East. Originally the Canaanite-Phoenician god of fertility 'Baal,' he was degraded by Judeo-Christian tradition from foreign deity to powerful demon-king of Solomonic magic. He commands 66 legions of demons.

Astaroth · 29th of Solomon's 72 Spirits — Great Duke

29th demon of the Lesser Key of Solomon, a great duke. Originally Ishtar / Astarte, the ancient Semitic goddess of fertility, love, and war; Judeo-Christian tradition transformed her into a male demon. He appears riding a wicked dragon, holding a viper, and teaches the conjurer all things past, present, and future, along with the liberal arts and astronomy.

Hades · Greek God of the Underworld — King of the Dead

Greek god of the underworld and ruler of the dead. Brother of Zeus and Poseidon, not numbered among the Twelve Olympians but their equal in power. Stern, just, and reputedly miserly, he rules over the realm of souls — not death itself. He is famed for abducting Persephone to be his queen.

Lilith · Witch of the Night — Adam's First Wife, Mother of Demons

Female demon of Jewish lore. Some traditions hold she was 'the first woman,' shaped from clay alongside Adam — not from his rib. Considering herself his equal, she refused to submit to him and left Eden. She is said to have then mated with Satan and bore countless demons (the lilim). Long feared as a witch who steals infants at night, in modern feminism she has been reinterpreted as the first woman to resist patriarchy.

Mara · Buddhist Demon-King of Desire — Hinderer of Enlightenment

The demon-king of Buddhist mythology. Lord of the Paranirmita-vasavartin, the sixth heaven of the realm of desire (kāmaloka), he pulls humans into desire and delusion to obstruct liberation. He is most famous for sending armies and three daughters (Desire, Discontent, Thirst) to tempt the Buddha as he neared enlightenment beneath the Bodhi tree — all failed. The Sanskrit 'Māra' means 'death' or 'destroyer.'

Baphomet · Goat-Headed Idol — Symbol of the Occult and Conspiracy

Name of the idol the Knights Templar were accused of worshipping in their trials (1307–1314). The original form was vague, but the 19th-century French occultist Éliphas Lévi codified it as a hermaphroditic figure with goat's head, female breasts, bat wings, and a pentagram on the brow. This image has since become the standard. The most iconic symbol of black magic and occult conspiracy.

Odin · Allfather of Norse Myth — God of Wisdom, War, and Death

Chief god of Norse mythology and father of gods and men (Allfather). Rules over wisdom, poetry, war, death, runes, and magic. He sacrificed one eye at Mimir's Well for cosmic wisdom and hung himself on Yggdrasil for nine nights to learn the runes. He gathers fallen warriors (Einherjar) in Valhalla to prepare for Ragnarök.

Shiva · Hindu God of Destruction and Renewal — Cosmic Dancer

One of the Hindu Trimurti, presiding over destruction and renewal. Not merely a destroyer, he clears away the old to make space for new creation — the god of transformation. He is shown in twin poles: the meditating yogi and Nataraja, the cosmic dancer. He dwells on Mount Kailash with his consort Parvati.

八岐大蛇 · Eight-Headed Serpent of Japanese Myth

Yamata-no-Orochi ('eight-forked great serpent') is the most iconic many-headed dragon-serpent of Japanese myth, recorded in the early eighth century in the two foundational chronicles of the Japanese state: the 'Kojiki' (712) compiled by Ō no Yasumaro and the 'Nihon Shoki' (720) compiled under Prince Toneri. The serpent has eight heads and eight tails, and its body is so vast that it covers 'eight valleys and eight ridges, with cypress and cedar growing on its back and its belly always inflamed and bleeding'. It appears each year along the Hi no Kawa (today's Hii River) in the Izumo region (eastern Shimane prefecture) and demands one of the daughters of the old couple Ashinazuchi and Tenazuchi as tribute. After devouring seven of their eight daughters, it returns for the last, Kushinada-hime, when the storm-god Susanoo, banished from heaven, descends to Izumo. Susanoo prepares yashiori-no-sake (a wine brewed and refined eight times, sometimes called 'eight-fold wine'), pours it into eight large vats placed before eight gates so that each of Orochi's eight heads will drink from a separate vat, and waits until the eight heads are dead drunk. He then severs all eight heads and eight tails with the divine sword Totsuka-no-Tsurugi (a sword 'ten hand-spans long'). When one tail dulls his blade, he finds inside it another, finer sword — the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi (also Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi), one of the Three Sacred Treasures of the Japanese imperial house, today enshrined at Atsuta Shrine in Nagoya, Aichi prefecture.

Egyptian Cosmic Serpent of Darkness and Chaos

Apep, hellenised as Apophis, is the cosmic serpent of darkness, chaos and isfet (disorder) of ancient Egyptian religion, figured as a sand-coloured monstrous snake some thirty cubits (about sixteen metres) long. Every night, when the sun-god Ra sails the Mesektet boat through the Duat (the underworld), Apep attacks the vessel to prevent the dawn. Ra and his allies — the storm-god Set, the lioness goddess Bastet, the goddess of truth Maat, Mehit and Selket — overthrow him in a nightly battle, but he rises again the following night, an eternal cosmic war that the Egyptians said was the very reason to rejoice at each dawn. Solar and lunar eclipses, earthquakes, storms and floods were read as Apep's momentary victories. The fullest record survives in Chapters 17, 39 and 108 of the New Kingdom 'Book of the Dead' (papyri, c. 1550-1077 BCE) and on the ceiling reliefs of the tomb of Ramesses VI (KV9). Apep is the oldest attested instance of the cosmic-serpent type to which the Mesopotamian Tiamat, the Indo-Aryan Vritra, the Norse Jörmungandr and the Hebrew Leviathan all belong.

The Limbless Ancient Dragon

The wyrm (Old English wyrm, Old Norse ormr, Old High German wurm) is the legless, wingless serpent-dragon of Germanic and Norse mythology, the most archaic of the dragon forms and a distinct lineage from the later chromatic dragon and the heraldic wyvern. The word descends from the Proto-Indo-European root *wérmis ('worm, serpent'), cognate with Latin vermis and Sanskrit krmi, and the form is named 'wyrm' in the closing episode of the Old English 'Beowulf' (lines 2200-3182), where Beowulf slays the hoard-keeper that guards a treasure for fifty years before being woken by a stolen cup. The most famous example is Jǫrmungandr ('huge monster' or 'great staff'), the Midgard serpent who encircles the world and bites his own tail, recorded most fully in Snorri Sturluson's prose 'Edda' (Gylfaginning chapter thirty-four, c. 1220) and in the 'Sæmundar Edda'; he is fated to meet the thunder-god Thor at Ragnarǫk in a duel from which neither will return. English regional traditions multiply the figure: the Lambton Worm of Penshaw in County Durham (whose 1867 ballad records its slaying by Sir John Lambton on his return from the Crusades), the Lyminster Knucker of Sussex (slain by a Saxon knight), and the Sherborne Wyrm of Devon.

Goblin · The Cunning Little Folk — Raiders Who Live by Numbers and Guile

The goblin is the most pervasive 'small raiding humanoid' of modern Anglophone fantasy, descended from the spiteful little fairies of medieval European folklore and codified through three textual layers: the Victorian children's literature of Christina Rossetti's 'Goblin Market' (1862) and George MacDonald's 'The Princess and the Goblin' (Edinburgh, 1872), J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' (1937) — chapters four to six, the Goblins of the Misty Mountains — and the 1974 Dungeons & Dragons original boxed set by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. Goblins stand ninety to one hundred and twenty centimetres tall with wiry, sinewy bodies, oversized ears and noses, yellow-green or ashen skin, yellow eyes and sharp canines. They live in tribal warrens in caves, ruins and dark forests, surviving on traps, ambushes and raids. Their individual combat power is low — Challenge Rating 1/4 (7 hit points, AC 15) in the fifth-edition D&D Monster Manual (2014) — but their numbers, cunning and improvisation make them an enduring threat. Their alignment was fixed as Neutral Evil in the 1977 AD&D Monster Manual and remains so. The same lineage appears in the Greenskins of Warhammer Fantasy (from 1983), the Gringotts goblins of J.K. Rowling's 'Harry Potter' (1997 onward), the Kezan goblins of Blizzard's 'World of Warcraft' (2004 onward) and the post-colonial readings of R.F. Kuang's 'Babel' (2022).

Gnoll · The Hyena People — A Raiding Tribe Maddened by Hunger

The gnoll is a hyena-headed humanoid raider race introduced by Gary Gygax in the 1974 Dungeons & Dragons original boxed set and codified in the 1977 AD&D Monster Manual as a Chaotic Evil scavenger tribe (Challenge Rating 1/2) that worships the demon-prince of hunger and slaughter, Yeenoghu. The name was acknowledged by Gygax himself, in 'Strategic Review' issue six (1976) and in his 'Dragon Magazine' issue one hundred interview of 1985, as a borrowing from the 'gnole' of Lord Dunsany's short story 'How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art upon the Gnoles' in 'The Book of Wonder' (1912); the form is also commonly read as a portmanteau of 'gnome' and 'troll'. Gnolls stand two hundred and ten to two hundred and twenty centimetres tall, with the rough muscular build of a hominid, the head and brown-grey spotted coat of the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), human-like clawed fingers and a chilling whooping laughter taken from the spotted hyena's territorial call. They live in nomadic packs of four to twelve in savannas, badlands and arid wastes, and obey a Gnoll Fang of Yeenoghu — a warrior touched by the demon-prince. The fifth-edition 'Volo's Guide to Monsters' (2016) makes the canon explicit: gnolls are not a naturally breeding species but the result of Yeenoghu's demon-ichor mutating spotted hyenas. The lineage is borrowed in the Gnoblars of Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy, the marogh of BioWare's 'Dragon Age: Inquisition' (2014) and the gnoll raiders of Black Isle's 'Baldur's Gate' series (from 1998).

Changeling · The Shapeshifting Race — Those Without a Fixed Face

A people without a fixed face, who can shift appearance at will and copy the form and voice of others to perfection — and who are, for that reason, never quite sure who they themselves are. They live as spies, actors, diplomats, and fugitives, slipping through the seams of society under borrowed skins. The figure grows from the Celtic and Germanic folk-tale of the changeling — a fae or troll child secretly substituted for a human infant — collected canonically in William Butler Yeats' Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (Walter Scott Publishing, London, 1888); Keith Baker's Eberron Campaign Setting (Wizards of the Coast, 2004) and White Wolf's Changeling games made the modern player-race.

Dark Elf · Elves of Darkness — Intrigue and Black Magic of the Underworld

A subterranean branch of elvenkind with dark or grey skin, white or silver hair, and a cruel matriarchal society devoted to spider-goddesses or other gods of darkness. Schemers, assassins, and black magicians, they live deep beneath the world in stone cities. The figure descends from Old Norse svartálfar and dökkálfar in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda (c. 1220), but the modern template was fixed by Gary Gygax's Drow in the AD&D Monster Manual (1977) and the module Vault of the Drow (1978), and elaborated by R. A. Salvatore's Drizzt Do'Urden saga (TSR, 1988–), Games Workshop's Druchii (1985), and Bethesda's Dunmer (Morrowind, 2002).

Tiefling · The Infernal-Blooded — Bearers of Hell's Lineage

A people in whom a distant ancestor mingled blood with a devil or fiendish lord, leaving the human shape marked by horns, a long tail, red or blue skin, and beast-like eyes. Tieflings carry an innate magical affinity along with resistance to fire and shadow, yet meet suspicion or open prejudice almost everywhere they go. Introduced by Dungeons & Dragons in MC8 Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes Appendix (TSR, 1991) and given a fixed home in Planescape (TSR, 1994), the name is a coinage from German 'tief' (deep) plus the suffix '-ling', a being whose blood reaches into the deepest hells.