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Troll · The Regenerating Giant — A Savage Race of Tenacious Vitality

The troll, from Old Norse 'troll' (proto-Germanic *trullaz, 'magical being, monster'), is a giant of Norse mythology who dwells in mountains, caves and under bridges. The fullest medieval source is Snorri Sturluson's prose 'Edda', Gylfaginning chapter forty-eight (c. 1220), and the 'Þrymskviða' of the Poetic Edda preserved in the Codex Regius manuscript (GKS 2365 4to, c. 1270, Árni Magnússon Institute, Reykjavik), in which trolls are great human-shaped jǫtnar or wicked magicians. The modern fantasy troll — two hundred and thirty to three hundred centimetres tall, green or green-yellow skinned, with long sinewy limbs and the signature trait of astonishing regeneration (severed parts regrow at once) — is the direct invention of Poul Anderson's science-fantasy novel 'Three Hearts and Three Lions' (Doubleday, 1962), chapter eight, in which the hero Holger Danske finds his sword cuts wholly futile against a regenerating troll. Gary Gygax borrowed Anderson's troll wholesale for the D&D original boxed set of 1974 and codified the figure in the 1977 AD&D Monster Manual. In the fifth-edition Monster Manual (2014) the troll is Challenge Rating 5, 84 hit points, AC 15, with three attacks per turn (one bite and two claws) and the Regeneration trait (regain 10 hit points at the start of its turn unless it has taken fire or acid damage during the previous turn). The same iconography runs through the three trolls William, Bert and Tom in J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' (1937), the cave trolls and Olog-hai of 'The Lord of the Rings' (1954-55), the troll tribal cards of 'Magic: The Gathering' (from 1993), the Darkspear and Amani trolls of Blizzard's 'World of Warcraft' (from 2004), and the friendly rock-spirit reinterpretation in Disney's 'Frozen' (2013).

Giant-kin · The Giant Race — Primal Titans Like Living Mountains

A primal people of bodies that dwarf the human form, raising tribes in mountains, glaciers, and wastes and dividing along elemental lines — frost, fire, stone, storm, hill, and cloud. They wield overwhelming strength and live for centuries, the lingering remnants of a mythic age before human kingdoms. The oldest direct attestations are Hesiod's Gigantes and Titans in the Theogony (c. 700 BCE) and Snorri Sturluson's Jotnar in the Prose Edda (c. 1220 CE); Dungeons & Dragons' Monster Manual (TSR, 1977) fixed the six-elemental schema, and the fifth-edition adventure Storm King's Thunder (Wizards of the Coast, 2016) canonised the Ordning, the caste order among giants.

Lizardfolk · The Lizard People — Cold-Blooded Tribal Warriors of the Marsh

Lizardfolk (originally 'Lizardman') are a reptilian humanoid race with scaled skin, lizard-like heads and thick tails, introduced by Gary Gygax in 'Greyhawk: Supplement I to Dungeons & Dragons' (1972) and codified as a swamp-tribe warrior race in the AD&D Monster Manual (1977); the name was changed to the gender-neutral 'Lizardfolk' in the fifth-edition Monster Manual (2014). They stand 180 to 210 centimetres tall, weigh 120 to 180 kilograms with a muscular build, and bear green-grey, olive or teal scales, a lizard's head with yellow eyes and slit pupils, and a thick tail of one metre or more for balance and melee strikes. They live in swamps, wetlands and mangrove river basins in tribes of two hundred to four hundred members under a matriarch or shaman, hatch from eggs, and are cold-blooded — slowing in cold climates. Their psychology, most fully codified in 'Volo's Guide to Monsters' (2016), is that of the 'cold pragmatist': they prioritise survival, utility and resource efficiency over emotion, never breaking a promise but interpreting its terms in favour of their kind. The same lineage is recognisable in the Lizardmen army of Warhammer Fantasy (Games Workshop, from 1989) with its Slann, Saurus and Skink hierarchy, and in the Sleestak of the NBC television series 'Land of the Lost' (1974-1976), which directly influenced the AD&D design.

Orc · Warrior Tribes — A Fierce Race That Reveres Strength and Honor

A warrior race marked by green, grey, or brown skin, protruding tusks, and a heavily muscled, often oversized frame. Orcs live in tribes and clans across wastelands, mountains, and fortresses, prizing strength, valour, and the honour of single combat. After J. R. R. Tolkien revived the word in The Hobbit (George Allen & Unwin, 1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954–55), the orc became the most recognisable adversarial race of modern fantasy. Tolkien's letters 144 and 153 frame them as corruptions of Elves bred by Melkor, and through Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer, and Warcraft the orc has shifted from generic foe to a society with its own pride, kinship, and warrior code.

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).

Fishfolk · The Deep-Sea Fish People — Wild Tribes of the Abyss

A people of scaled bodies, fins, and gills, more savage and warlike than the elegant merfolk, who hold tribes in lightless trenches and sunken cities. They arm themselves with tridents, harpoons, and abyssal magic and worship ancient gods of storm and tide. The figure descends from the Semitic fish-god Dagon (Ugaritic tablets from Ras Shamra, c. 14th century BCE), was refigured by H. P. Lovecraft's Deep Ones in The Shadow over Innsmouth (Visionary Publishing, 1936), and was given its modern visual canon by the film Creature from the Black Lagoon (Universal Pictures, 1954); Dungeons & Dragons split it into the Sahuagin and the Kuo-toa in the Greyhawk supplement (TSR, 1975) and the Monster Manual (TSR, 1977).

Birdfolk · The Bird People — A Mountain-Peak Race That Flies the Skies

Birdfolk are an avian humanoid race with feathers, wings and beaks. The mythic substrate runs through four ancient traditions: the falcon-headed god Horus of ancient Egypt (attested from the Narmer Palette of the thirty-first century BCE, Cairo Museum), the giant bird Garuḍa of Vedic India (Rigveda Mandala 10, c. 1500-1200 BCE, the mount of Vishnu), the Japanese Tengu of the Heian period (recorded in the 'Nihon Shoki' of 720 CE) and the Greek Harpies of Hesiod's 'Theogony' (c. 720 BCE) and Apollonius of Rhodes's 'Argonautica' (third century BCE). The D&D standardisation begins with the Aarakocra race introduced by Gary Gygax in 'Dragon Magazine' issue 109 (August 1986) for his World of Greyhawk campaign, codified across 'Forgotten Realms Adventures' (1989), 'Monstrous Compendium Volume 2' (1990), the third-edition 'Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting' (2000), the fifth-edition 'Elemental Evil Player's Companion' (2015) and 'Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse' (2022). Birdfolk stand 150 to 180 centimetres tall, weigh 35 to 50 kilograms with light, slender build, and have wings spanning six to seven metres (eagle, hawk, owl or parrot varieties), taloned legs in place of feet, a beak and the keen sight of an eagle. Fifth-edition racial traits are +2 Dexterity, +1 Wisdom, flying speed 50 feet (about 15 metres) and a talon natural weapon (1d4). Their tribal societies nest on high mountain peaks above four thousand metres in the Andes or Himalayas or in cloud-borne airborne cities, and the iconography extends to the Sky Tribes of Skypiea in Eiichiro Oda's 'One Piece' (from 1997), the Arakkoa of Blizzard's 'World of Warcraft' (from 2004), the Aven of 'Magic: The Gathering' (from 1993) and the Ikran Riders of James Cameron's 'Avatar' (2009).

Ogre · The Man-Eating Giant — A Dull, Cruel Tyrant of the Wilds

A man-eating giant race standing nine to ten feet tall (roughly 2.7-3 m), thick-hided in grey-green or sallow tones, brutally strong yet slow of wit. Ogres live alone or in small family bands in caves, ruins, and under bridges, swinging tree-trunk clubs and hunting humans, especially children. The figure descends from Giambattista Basile's Neapolitan fairy tale collection (1634-36) and Charles Perrault's tales of 1697, and was crystallised into the standard club-wielding giantkind by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson's Dungeons & Dragons (1974) and the 1977 Monster Manual.

Kobold · The Dragon-Serving Little Folk — Masters of Traps

The kobold is a small reptilian, dog-like humanoid race introduced by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in the 1974 Dungeons & Dragons original boxed set and codified in the 1977 AD&D Monster Manual as a Lawful Evil (Challenge Rating 1/8) cave-dwelling trapsmith race that worships dragons. The name descends from sixteenth-century German mining folklore, where 'Kobold' was a mine-haunting sprite blamed for arsenic poisoning of silver-ore miners, attested in Georgius Agricola's 'De re metallica' (Leipzig, 1556), book six, under the form 'cobaltus'; the chemical element cobalt was later named after the same sprite by the Swedish chemist Georg Brandt in 1735. In fifth-edition Dungeons & Dragons the kobold stands sixty to ninety centimetres tall, with red-brown, dark blue-green or black scales, small horns, a thin tail and a body proportioned as a miniature dragon — 'Volo's Guide to Monsters' (2016) and 'Fizban's Treasury of Dragons' (2021) codify that kobolds hatch from dragon eggs or are otherwise a magical by-product of the dragon. Kobolds live in tribal warrens of fifty to two hundred members in mines, caves and underground labyrinths and give blind religious devotion to a dragon overlord or a great kobold chieftain. They specialise in elaborate traps — spinning blades, slippery slopes, falling stones, poison gas, deadfall pits — and although individual combat power is minimal (5 HP, AC 12 at Challenge Rating 1/8), their numbers, cunning and precise ambushes make them a persistent threat.

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).

Elf · People of the Forest — Longevity, Magic, Guardians of Nature

The standard race of modern fantasy: long pointed ears, slender and graceful frames, lifespans counted in centuries or millennia, deep communion with nature, and mastery of bow and elven magic. The earliest direct attestation is the Old Norse álfar of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda (c. 1220) and the Codex Regius (c. 1270); through Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595-96) and Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590-96) the figure entered English letters, and J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1954-55) and The Silmarillion (1977) recast the elf as the noble, near-immortal high race that has been the canon of modern fantasy ever since.

Firbolg · The Gentle Giant — A Reclusive Race of Giant Lineage Hidden in Forests

A giant-blooded but mild and retiring people who tend the deep forests, who tower over humans but never raise a hand in war, and who speak with beasts and spirits and hide themselves and their hamlets in illusions. The name comes from the Fir Bolg, the fifth invader tribe of Lebor Gabala Erenn (eleventh-century Ireland); but the modern fantasy firbolg is the work of Gary Gygax in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual II (TSR, 1983) and of Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford in Volo's Guide to Monsters (Wizards of the Coast, 2016), with Critical Role's Caduceus Clay in The Mighty Nein (2018-2021) fixing the modern popular image.

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).

High Elf · Noble Elves — Aristocrats of Arcane Magic

An elven aristocracy of light and high arcana, with hair of gold or silver, ornate robes, and a mastery of arcane magic that rises above all other elven branches. They are the ruling caste of elven realms and the keepers of an ancient magical civilisation, prouder and more closed than their lesser-elven kin. J. R. R. Tolkien's Noldor in The Silmarillion (George Allen & Unwin, 1977) fixed the modern archetype; Dungeons & Dragons (Advanced Players Handbook 2nd ed., TSR, 1989; 5th ed. PHB, 2014), Games Workshop's Asur of Ulthuan in Warhammer Armies: High Elves (1993), and Blizzard's Quel'dorei in World of Warcraft (2004) have made the fantasy template.

Wood Elf · Forest Elves — Wild Archers and Nature Tribes

The Wood Elf — Tolkien's Silvan Elves — is a wild forest-dwelling branch of the elven race, derived from the elf taxonomy of Appendix F of J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings' (1954-55) and codified for tabletop play in the AD&D Monster Manual (1977) and 'Greyhawk Adventures' (1989). Wood Elves stand 165 to 180 centimetres tall with lithe builds, copper, olive or tawny skin, green-brown camouflaging clothing, long straight black or brown hair, and the long pointed ears common to all elves. Their tribal society maintains a simple hunter-gatherer life in contrast to the magical aristocracy of the High Elves, and they specialise in the longbow, tracking, stealth and communion with nature-spirits. In the fifth-edition 'Player's Handbook' (2014) the wood-elf subrace carries +2 Dexterity, +1 Wisdom, the Elf Weapon Training (longsword, shortsword, shortbow, longbow), Fleet of Foot (+5 movement) and Mask of the Wild traits. The iconography runs from the Mirkwood Elves (Thranduil, Legolas) and the Galadhrim of Lothlórien in Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' (1937) and 'The Lord of the Rings' (1954-55) through the Wood Elf army of Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy (from 1987), the Bosmer of Bethesda's 'The Elder Scrolls' series (from 1994), the Dalish of BioWare's 'Dragon Age' series, and the Night Elves of Blizzard's 'World of Warcraft' (from 2004).

Halfling · The Little Folk — Peaceful Farming Folk

The halfling is the generic D&D name for J.R.R. Tolkien's hobbit, the small humanoid race introduced in 'The Hobbit, or There and Back Again' (George Allen & Unwin, London, 21 September 1937) and 'The Lord of the Rings' (1954-55). The word 'Halfling' itself is Tolkien's own term — in Appendix F of 'The Lord of the Rings', he gives it as the common designation by which Men of Middle-earth called the hobbits, derived from Old English 'half + -ling' ('one half-grown'). After Saul Zaentz's Tolkien Enterprises filed a trademark claim against TSR in July 1977 over the use of 'Hobbit', 'Ent', 'Balrog', 'Mithril' and 'Nazgûl', the AD&D Player's Handbook (1977) renamed Gygax's 1974 'Hobbit' race 'Halfling', and the name has been canonical since. In the fifth-edition Player's Handbook (2014), halflings stand ninety to one hundred and five centimetres tall, weigh eighteen to twenty-two kilograms, and bear curly brown or fair foot-hair on large bare feet with thick leather soles, round faces, curly brown, fair or red hair and an average lifespan of one hundred and fifty years. Their society is built on peaceful farming and herding communities, Shire-style chimney-houses and a famously elaborate seven-meal day (first breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, supper). Fifth-edition racial traits are +2 Dexterity, Lucky (reroll natural 1s), Brave (advantage on fear saves) and Halfling Nimbleness (move through larger creatures' spaces), with the two canonical subraces Lightfoot (+1 Charisma, stealth advantage) and Stout (+1 Constitution, poison resistance). The same iconography is visible in the Halfling counties of Warhammer Fantasy (Games Workshop, from 1986) and is locked into modern popular imagination by Peter Jackson's 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy (2001-2003) and 'Hobbit' trilogy (2012-2014).

Dwarf · People of the Mountain — Smiths, Miners, Rune Artisans

A short and broadly built race that raises great kingdoms inside mountains and beneath the earth. Long beards, dense musculature, mastery of forge and mine, and a near-religious regard for gold, oaths, and family honour define them. The figure descends from the Old Norse 'dvergr', whose oldest written sources are Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda (c. 1220) and the Codex Regius (c. 1270), which preserves the Voluspa list of dwarf-names. J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit (Allen & Unwin, 1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954-55) recast the dvergar as a kingdom-building people in exile, and Dungeons & Dragons (TSR, 1974) made that template the standard for modern fantasy.

Gnome · Folk of the Earth — Artisans of Invention and Illusion

A short, cheerful, and incessantly curious people, smaller even than dwarves, who are geniuses of mechanical invention, alchemy, illusion magic, and gemwork. They cluster in workshops dug into hills or hidden in deep forests, and they are famous for their pranks and outlandish ideas. The name was coined in 1566 by Paracelsus in his posthumously published Liber de Nymphis, Sylphis, Pygmaeis et Salamandris (Henricpetri, Basel, 1566) as the elemental of earth, and the figure fused with European folk earth-spirits (German Heinzelmaennchen, Polish krasnoludek, Italian gnomo). Dungeons & Dragons turned them into a standard player race in the Greyhawk supplement (TSR, 1975), and Blizzard's World of Warcraft (2004) has made the Gnomeregan gnome a popular variant.

Half-Elf · Of Mixed Blood — Between the Worlds of Human and Elf

A people born of human and elven parents, between the two in features, longevity, and inheritance. Half-elves live longer than humans but shorter than elves, blend the gifts and looks of both lineages, and are remarkable for their adaptability and charisma; yet they belong fully to neither world. J. R. R. Tolkien's Peredhil lineage in The Silmarillion (George Allen & Unwin, 1977, edited by Christopher Tolkien) — Beren and Luthien, Tuor and Idril, Earendil and Elwing — and the standard half-elf race introduced by Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 together fixed the figure as the canonical 'walker between two worlds' of modern fantasy.

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.

Dragonborn · Dragon-Kin — Warrior Race of Draconic Lineage

The dragonborn is a draconic humanoid race that descends from dragons, formally introduced as a player race in the Dungeons & Dragons fourth-edition Player's Handbook (Wizards of the Coast, June 2008) and standardised across the English-language fantasy mainstream by the fifth-edition Player's Handbook (2014). The earliest D&D antecedent is the 'Dragon-kin' of the 1990 AD&D 'Council of Wyrms' boxed set (TSR), with the half-dragon template of 'Races of the Dragon' (Wizards of the Coast, 2006) as a transitional form. Dragonborn stand 180 to 200 centimetres tall, weigh 90 to 110 kilograms, with a robust muscular build and scales in chromatic (red, blue, green, white, black — the line of Tiamat) or metallic (gold, silver, copper, bronze, brass — the line of Bahamut) colouring; they have a dragon's head with short horns and a hooked beak and stand upright without a tail. Fifth-edition racial traits are +2 Strength, +1 Charisma, Draconic Ancestry (the elemental damage type set by the parent dragon: fire for red and gold, cold for white and silver, lightning for blue and bronze, acid for black and copper, poison for green), a Breath Weapon (a fifteen-foot cone or thirty-foot line of the chosen damage, recharged on a short or long rest) and Damage Resistance to that same type. The fullest cultural canon is in 'Fizban's Treasury of Dragons' (2021), which paints dragonborn as warriors of clan honour descended from the dragon-gods Bahamut and Tiamat. The same iconography has been borrowed for the Dovahkiin of Bethesda's 'The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim' (2011), BioWare's 'Dragon Age: Inquisition' (2014), the Draconids of 'Magic: The Gathering' (from 1993) and the Dracthyr of Blizzard's 'World of Warcraft: Dragonflight' (2022).

Beastkin · Beastfolk — Half-Human, Half-Beast Race

A half-human, half-beast people whose human bodies bear the ears, tails, fur, and claws of an animal kin, divided into many subraces — catfolk, dogfolk, tigerfolk, wolffolk, bullfolk, and so on — by their animal lineage. They carry the senses, instincts, and physical gifts of their kin and usually live in tribal hunter or pastoral societies. The figure crystallises traditions that span the Egyptian therianthropic gods (Anubis, Bastet, Horus, attested in the Pyramid Texts c. 2400 BCE), Greek myth (Minotaur and Centaur, Hesiod Theogony c. 700 BCE), Indic myth (Hanuman in the Ramayana, c. 400 BCE), Japanese fox and tanuki shapeshifters, and European werewolf lore (Petronius, Satyricon ch. 62, c. 60 CE), and the fantasy template was fixed by Dungeons & Dragons (Monster Manual, TSR, 1977; Volo's Guide to Monsters, 2016) and Blizzard's Tauren in Warcraft III (2002).

Merfolk · The Sea People — Human Above, Fish Below

A sea-people with human upper bodies and fishlike tails, raising kingdoms in deep waters or among coral cities, gifted with enchanting song, oceanic magic, and the ability to breathe and move freely beneath the waves. The figure is the crystallisation of a worldwide aquatic-human tradition that runs from the Mesopotamian fish-god Oannes (Berossus' Babyloniaca, 3rd century BCE) through Greek Tritons and Nereids, Japanese ningyo (Nihon Shoki, 720 CE), and Hans Christian Andersen's Den lille Havfrue (C. A. Reitzel, Copenhagen, 1837), down to the modern fantasy roster fixed by Dungeons & Dragons in 1975-77.

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.

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.