Mythic humanoids are legendary, folkloric, or mythological creatures that are part human, or that resemble humans through appearance or character. Each culture has different mythical creatures that come from many different origins, and many of these creatures are humanoids. They are often able to talk and in many stories they guide the hero on their journey.
Africa Jengu – A beautiful, mermaid-like being from Sawabantu spirituality. Mami Wata – Mermaid-like water-dwelling humanoids from Central and West African mythology. Ogbanje – (Igbo) Spirit who is born into the same family repeatedly and dies young on purpose to drive them into grief. Werehyena – Hyaenidae therianthropic creature common in the folklore of North and East Africa and West Asia.
Americas Adlet – Dog-like humanoids in Inuit folklore. Anung Ite – (Lakota) Female spirit with two faces and spikes protruding from elbows. Variations from other tribes known as Sharp Legs and Sharp Elbows. Asin – (Pacific Northwest) Often called the Basket Woman, this was an ogre-like monster who sneaked up on and captured naughty children, throwing them into a basket on her back to take home and eat. Baykok – (Anishinaabeg) Skeletal monster. The ghost of a human cursed for horrific acts in life. Attacks warriors and devours their organs. Biboon – (Anishinaabeg) Winter Spirit. Descends from Hudson Bay to cover everything in winter. Described as an old man. Bigfoot – Large, hairy, and bipedal ape-like creature taller than a human and said to inhabit forests in North America. Boo hag – (American) A shapeshifting witch in Gullah Geechee culture that feeds on the lifeforce of people vampirically in the night. Has also absorbed aspects of elf and Night Mare beliefs from European culture. Chindi – (Navajo) The dark side of the soul, which can often separate in death and remain behind in a place as a sort of dark spirit. Ciguapa – Mythical women who live in the high mountains of the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean. Of human female form with brown or dark blue skin, backward-facing feet, and very long manes of smooth, glossy hair covering their bodies; nocturnal, hostile, to be avoided. El Cucuy – Boogeyman to scare children into being good in Spain, Portugal, and South America. Name comes from the word for "head". Seen as shadowy figure prowling on rooftops, said to eat or kidnap children. Encantado – Amazon river dolphins said to occasionally take human form in South American folklore. Faceless Spirit – (Iroquois) Appears as female maiden with no face. Collects life force of dead things in her basket and returns it to the Creator to be recycled into new life. Fiura – Evil creature in Chilean mythology. A small, nasty woman with large breasts. Headless Corpse – (Southeast) headless body that runs around on all fours with gaping mouth where head should be. Heyoka – (Lakota) People chosen by the Thunder Beings to be Medicine Men. Possessing supernatural abilities. A Heyoka must have a vision of a Thunder Being or be struck by lightning. May have visions of the future or other abilities. Appear to others as backwards. Acts in backwards behaviors. They are mysterious and move between worlds. Ijiraq – (Inuit) Shapeshifting childnapper with red eyes and a sideways face. Inipi – (Southern California) Mostly known from the Kawaiisu people, this is the shapeshifting ghost of a human. It may take virtually any form, with given stories depicting it as looking normal, or as a skeleton with extremely long nails. Like modern western ghost lore, it may be aware of its surroundings, or just going through the motions obliviously. They say it starts walking once a person's death is assured, even before they actually die. To get rid of one, a person blows across one's open palm at it. Kalku – A Chiloe and Mapuche mythological sorcerer who controls crows and contains dark magic and negative powers. Kushtaka – Shapeshifting otter creature found in the folklore of the Tlingit and Tsimshian people. Little People – Various fairy/elf-like beings believed in across North America. Some are a couple inches tall and look like humans, some a couple feet and are hairy or look ugly, some take the form of human children. Different types can be mischievous, evil or beneficial. Mesingw – (Algonquian) Lenape name for the spirit of the forests. Hairy dwarf who wears a wooden mask to hide deformed face and rides on the back of a white stag. Mothman – A large winged cryptid with red eyes. Pombero – Mythical humanoid creature of small stature being from Guaraní mythology. Qalupalik – (Inuit) Female entities with green skin, webbed hands, and claws that emit shrieks that paralyze men. Sabuqwanilnu – (Algonquian) Migmaaq name for a mermaid-like being believed in across Algonquian-speaking peoples. Top half human, bottom half fish, able to control and predict the weather and travel between the human world and the underworld through water. Anishinaabeg myth refers to one trying to take a human husband, the act of bringing him to their world and going through with the marriage turning him into one of them. Sasquatch – See Bigfoot. Shade – Spirit or ghost of a dead person, residing in the underworld, believed to be a shadowy place. Common to beliefs in the Near East, e.g. Islamic Jinn and the Choctaw Nalusa Chito. Shadow people – Dark, nonspecific apparitions in folklore, often taken to be neutral, or harbingers of events. Skin-walker – (Navajo) Type of witch with ability to disguise themselves as an animal or turn into one. Squawkowtemus – (Abenaki) Female spirit that resides in swamps. Its cries lure people close. If it touches them, they die. Stick Indians – (Pacific Northwest) Monsters who materialize from out of the roots of trees and bushes and attack men. Stikini - (Seminole) A witch that primarily transforms into a were-owl monster at night, after vomiting up its soul and organs and hanging them in a tree. Tariaksuq – (Inuit) Anthropomorphic caribou people who exist as their own separate society in a parallel universe. Only their shadows can be seen in this world, though sometimes glimpses of them can be caught out of the corner of the eye. Only become visible when killed. Thunderbirds – (Eastern Woodlands) Most tribes in Eastern Woodlands claim Thunderbirds often shapeshift into people. They live in secret villages atop mountains. Shawnee say they speak backwards. Towiŋ – (Lakota) Female spirit who guards the road to the afterlife in Lakota lore. Souls stop at her lodge while she judges their worthiness to progress on to Wanagi Tamakoce (heaven). Said to mean Blue Woman, but can also translate as Aunt. Pronounced tow-wih. Trauco – Dwarf- or goblin-like creature that inhabits the woods of Chiloé islands in Chile. Tzitzimitl – (Aztec) Female demons who worked for several deities and were worshipped by midwives. Attacked the sun during eclipses and were alleged to be the prophesied cause of the end of the world. Their queen, Ītzpāpālōtl, was a skeletal obsidian butterfly demon. Several other Uto-Aztecan peoples as far north as the Shoshone had similar mythological creatures to her in their lore. Wanaģi/Wanuŋchi – (Siouan) The spirits of the dead, almost always take form of shadow people. The word is also the word for soul and shadow. Sometimes referred to as the Night Spirits. Commonly seen at night around burial grounds/mounds. Pronounced wah-nah-khee/wah-nuh-chee. Water Babies – (American West) Evil spirit who resides near springs or ponds and takes the form of a crying baby, luring people to pick it up, after which, it becomes so heavy that it crushes them to death. Wechuge – (Athabaskan) Cannibal said to be a person who has been possessed or overwhelmed by the monster, or a demonic presence. In return, the person becomes "too strong". Related to the regions of Canada. Wendigo – (Algonquian) A human possessed by evil spirit to cannibalize humans and is never sated. Werecoyote – A canine therianthropic creature. Yacuruna – Hairy beings with deformed feet and their heads turned backwards. Zombie – An undead human servant, originating in Haitian folklore.
Asia Äbädä - (Turkic) A protective forest spirit. Can take human form, but usually portrayed as having blue skin, green hair, and horns. Abasy – (Yakut) One-eyed, one-armed, one-legged monsters. Souls who serve the underworld god, cause madness and disease, and ride two-headed, wingless dragons like horses. Alyp Khara Aat Mogoidoon – (Yakut) chief of the Abasy. Described as a giant made of iron with three heads and six arms and legs. Angel – (Abrahamic religions) Divine messengers in Abrahamic religions, often depicted in humanoid form. Anito or diwata – Philippine indigenous ancestor spirits, heroic spirits, and evil gods. Aswang – Philippine shapeshifting human-eating ghouls, vampires, and demons. Bak – Assamese aqueous creature that can take human form after killing them. Dokkaebi – A mythical being in Korean folklore or fairy tales. Although usually frightening, it could also represent a humorous, grotesque-looking ogre or goblin. Ebu Gogo – Human-like creatures in Indonesian mythology. Engkanto – Elf-like creatures in Philippine mythology. Most are slender, fair-skinned, and fair-haired, but some are completely jet black. Garuda – Vishnu's bird-like mount. Ghoul – (Arabian) Monstrous flesh-eating spirits, jinn, or shayatin associated with graveyards. Gwisin – General term for a Korean ghost. Hibagon – The Japanese equivalent of Bigfoot. Hitotsume-kozou – A yōkai that takes on the appearance of a bald, one-eyed child. Jiangshi – A being in Chinese legends and folklore similar to zombie or vampire. Jinn – (Arabian) Genie-like beings. Jorōgumo – A spider that can change its appearance into that of a seductive woman. Kappa – A turtle-like trickster yōkai that is about the size of a child. Kinari – Beautiful, slender, and androgynous creatures with bird wings from Hindu and Buddhist mythology. Kitsune, huli jing, kumiho, and hồ ly tinh – Many-tailed fox spirits in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese folklore respectively. Manananggal – A self-segmenting humanoid which preys on humans in Philippine folklore. Mandurugo – (Filipino) Harpy-like vampires with the body of birds of prey and the faces of beautiful women. Mangkukulam () – Tagalog for Filipino witch employing black magic or using hexes for revenge and punishment reasons. Nāga – Divine, or semi-divine, race of half-human, half-serpent beings that reside in the netherworld (Patala), and can occasionally take human or part-human form. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism mythology. Nukekubi – Yōkai whose heads come off and float about. Nuno – Dwarf-like creature in Philippine mythology. Oni – (Japanese) Yōkai which are similar to ogres or demons. Pugot – (Philippines) Mythical fiend found in the Ilocos Region. Rannamaari - (Maldives) Sea monster/demon with similar mythology to Orochi. Rokurokubi – Yōkai with long necks or removable heads. Tengu – Legendary creatures with human and bird features in Japanese folklore. Tennin – Spiritual beings found in Japanese Buddhism that are similar to western angels, nymphs, or fairies. Tikbalang – (Filipino) Tall, bony creatures with the features of a horse. Tiyanak – Vampiric creature in Philippine mythology that imitates the form of a child. Vanara – Man-ape species with human intelligence in Hindu scriptures. Weretiger – Feline therianthropic creature, Asian version. Yama-uba – (Japanese) Monstrous crone with cannibalistic tendencies. Yeren – Legendary creature said to be an as yet undiscovered hominid residing in the remote mountainous forested regions of western Hubei, China. Yeti – An ape-like entity taller than an average human said to inhabit the Himalayan region of Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet. Yuki-onna – Spirit or yōkai in Japanese folklore associated with snow.
Europe