Spin the Wheel Species: 133 Peoples for Your Character

Spin one of 133 humanoid species for a character. Each comes with its origin and one design decision to make first.

Spin the Wheel Species: 133 Peoples for Your Character

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Spin 1 · number 67

Dryad

An oak nymph in Greek mythology; drys means tree, and oak in particular. Today the word covers tree nymphs in general. Choose the tree and you have the palette and the hair.

Every spin uses the whole wheel.

133 species on the wheel.

Numbers on the wheel

  1. Elf
  2. Dark elf
  3. Light elf
  4. Half-elf
  5. Dwarf
  6. Gnome
  7. Halfling
  8. Fairy
  9. Pixie
  10. Sprite
  11. Brownie
  12. Leprechaun
  13. Tomte
  14. Kobold
  15. Goblin
  16. Hobgoblin
  17. Changeling
  18. Duende
  19. Menehune
  20. Knocker
  21. Spriggan
  22. Aos sí
  23. Aziza
  24. Vila
  25. Domovoy
  26. Giant
  27. Jotunn
  28. Ogre
  29. Troll
  30. Orc
  31. Cyclops
  32. Titan
  33. Oni
  34. Fomorian
  35. Half-giant
  36. Centaur
  37. Satyr
  38. Faun
  39. Minotaur
  40. Harpy
  41. Merfolk
  42. Siren
  43. Selkie
  44. Naga
  45. Gorgon
  46. Kitsune
  47. Tanuki
  48. Tengu
  49. Kappa
  50. Jorogumo
  51. Werewolf
  52. Werecat
  53. Bakeneko
  54. Kinnara
  55. Melusine
  56. Swan maiden
  57. Fox spirit (huli jing)
  58. Gumiho
  59. Lizardfolk
  60. Catfolk
  61. Birdfolk
  62. Half-dragon
  63. Shapeshifter
  64. Angel
  65. Demon
  66. Half-demon
  67. Dryad
  68. Ifrit
  69. Peri
  70. Nymph
  71. Jinn
  72. Naiad
  73. Nereid
  74. Oread
  75. Undine
  76. Sylph
  77. Fire elemental
  78. Valkyrie
  79. Rusalka
  80. Huldra
  81. Nixie
  82. Yuki-onna
  83. Apsara
  84. Rakshasa
  85. Yaksha
  86. Gandharva
  87. Asura
  88. Demigod
  89. Tuatha Dé Danann
  90. Leshy
  91. Tennin
  92. Doppelganger
  93. Vampire
  94. Dhampir
  95. Ghost
  96. Revenant
  97. Zombie
  98. Skeleton
  99. Lich
  100. Mummy
  101. Ghoul
  102. Wraith
  103. Banshee
  104. Draugr
  105. Jiangshi
  106. Dullahan
  107. Golem
  108. Homunculus
  109. Gargoyle
  110. Automaton
  111. Living scarecrow
  112. Human
  113. Android
  114. Cyborg
  115. Robot
  116. Clone
  117. Mutant
  118. Superhuman
  119. Transhuman
  120. Uploaded mind
  121. Hologram person
  122. Artificial intelligence
  123. Gray alien
  124. Little green alien
  125. Insectoid alien
  126. Energy being
  127. Hive-mind member
  128. Uplifted animal
  129. Plant person
  130. Symbiont and host
  131. Space-born human
  132. Half-alien
  133. Parallel-world self

Results

  1. 1. Dryad

Tip: the space bar and the Enter key spin the wheel, and so does a tap on the wheel itself. Press again to skip to the result.

Next step Spin an element for this spiritSpin a power for this species

Spin the Wheel Species: 133 Peoples for Your Character: how it works

This spin the wheel species picker holds 133 peoples a character can belong to, taken from folklore and general science fiction: fair folk, giants, beastfolk, spirits, the undead, and a science fiction set that opens with plain Human. Pick a group, spin, and the note under the result gives the origin and the first design decision.

People on this wheel, beasts on the creature wheel

Everything on this species wheel can talk, wear clothes and carry a story. That is the line between a species and a creature: a centaur is a person, a griffin is a beast. No entry belongs to one book, film or game, so you get the generic halfling, dark elf and android. Homebrew and licensed species go in My list.

One of each for a whole cast

Filling a city or a starship crew? Switch to Elimination and spin ten times. No species repeats, so the market gets one kitsune, one golem and one gray alien, not four elves. Filter first to hold a genre: Undead and made things has 19 entries for a gothic cast, and Humans and science fiction has 22 with no pixies. Stuck on one character's species? Spin the wheel on All.

Tips

  • Jinn, naga, apsara and menehune come from living traditions. Give them ten minutes of reading before you draw.
  • Landed on Human? Keep it. With no horns to lean on, the job, the era and the posture have to carry the design.
  • Put the species rule on the character sheet. A bakeneko has one tail and a nekomata has two, and a rule that small keeps ten drawings consistent.

Questions and answers

Where do the species come from?

Mostly folklore: Germanic elves and dwarfs, Scottish brownies, Japanese kitsune and tengu, Greek nymphs, Slavic rusalki, West African aziza. The science fiction group holds general ideas such as android, clone and uplifted animal. Each origin was checked against the being's English Wikipedia article on 18 September 2026. Catfolk, half-dragon and a few others are fantasy conventions and carry a design note only.

How do I spin a half-species or hybrid character?

Spin twice and treat the results as the two parents, or as the body and the upbringing: a golem raised by pixies beats either alone. Elimination mode stops the second spin repeating the first. The wheel also holds ready-made halves: half-elf, half-giant, half-demon, half-dragon, half-alien and the dhampir.

Can I add species from my own world?

Yes. Open My list and type one species per line, up to 100 lines of 60 characters each. The list stays in this browser. Copy the share link after a spin and a co-writer or role-play group opens the same wheel with your species on it.

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All 133 species

Giants and big folk 10

  • Cyclops A one-eyed giant of Greek and Roman myth. In Hesiod three Cyclopes forge Zeus's thunderbolt; in Homer they are cave-dwelling shepherds. Smith or shepherd is your first decision.
  • Fomorian A supernatural race of Irish mythology, said to come from under the sea or the earth and later described as sea raiders and giants. Barnacles, kelp and a grudge.
  • Giant A being of human shape and great size and strength. The English word is first recorded in 1297 and comes from the Gigantes of Greek myth. Fix an exact height and draw a door beside them.
  • Half-giant One giant parent, one human. Choose the height in feet and keep it fixed, then design around everyday trouble: doorways, boots, borrowed horses.
  • Jotunn In Norse mythology the jötnar are set against the gods, the Æsir and Vanir, though the groups sometimes overlap. An archaic English word for one is ettin. A rival to the gods, not just a big brute.
  • Ogre The large, fearsome villain of fairy tales, drawn with an oversized head, a lot of hair and oddly colored skin. Play against type: an ogre who is fussy about table manners.
  • Oni A kind of yōkai in Japanese folklore, shown as a hulking figure with one or more horns and massive teeth, known for superhuman strength. Horn count and skin color are your variables.
  • Orc A race of humanoid monsters common in modern fantasy. Convention says tusks and green or gray skin, but no folklore binds you. Give yours a culture before you give them an axe.
  • Titan In Greek mythology the Titans are the gods who came before the Olympians, the twelve children of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth). An OC from the older, deposed family.
  • Troll In Old Norse sources trolls live among isolated rocks, mountains and caves in small family units. Later folklore varies their looks a great deal, so yours can be mossy, stony or tiny.

Undead and made things 19

  • Automaton A self-operating machine built to follow a set sequence. The word has long meant clockwork figures that imitate people or animals. Show the key, the seams and the winding hole.
  • Banshee A female spirit of Irish folklore who warns of a death in a family by wailing or keening. The name means woman of the fairy mound. She is a messenger, not the cause.
  • Dhampir In Balkan folklore, the child of a vampire and a human. Half the weaknesses, half the hunger and a family dinner nobody wants to attend.
  • Draugr A revenant of Nordic folklore. In the Icelandic sagas draugar live on in their graves. Grave goods, rusted mail and a cold stare are a starting kit.
  • Dullahan A headless rider on a black horse in Irish folklore, or a coachman, who carries his own head. Where the head sits in each pose is the entire design.
  • Gargoyle The living-stone monster is modern. It takes its look from grotesque statues, above all those carved for Notre-Dame in Paris during its 19th-century reconstruction. Often a guardian.
  • Ghost The spirit of a dead person that can appear to the living. Descriptions run from an unseen presence to wispy shapes to fully lifelike figures, so choose how solid yours is.
  • Ghoul From Arabic ghūl: a monstrous humanoid that haunts graveyards, a figure that began in pre-Islamic Arabian religion. Modern fiction uses the word far more loosely.
  • Golem In Jewish folklore, a human-shaped being made entirely from lifeless matter, usually clay or mud, and brought to life. The best-known story is set in late 16th-century Prague.
  • Homunculus Latin for little person: a small artificial human made popular by 16th-century alchemy. Jar-sized or child-sized, it has a maker somewhere who wants it back.
  • Jiangshi A reanimated corpse of Chinese legend, known in English as the hopping vampire. Hong Kong films fixed the look: a stiff body in the official robes of the Qing dynasty.
  • Lich In fantasy fiction, an undead spellcaster, often a wizard who chose the change to live forever. Older stories used lich for any corpse. Robes, rings and a very long memory.
  • Living scarecrow A scarecrow is a decoy in human shape, dressed in old clothes and set in a field to keep birds off the seed. One that wakes up already has a job, a field and a wardrobe.
  • Mummy The bandage-wrapped undead of horror stories. Wrappings are a gift to a designer: vary the wear, tuck charms and notes into the layers, let one end trail.
  • Revenant A spirit or animated corpse that returns to haunt the living; the word is Old French for returning. Found in Celtic and Norse legend. Give yours unfinished business.
  • Skeleton A physically present undead of fantasy, gothic and horror fiction as well as folklore and art. With no face to act with, pose and costume do all the talking.
  • Vampire In European folklore vampires were bloated and ruddy or dark in the face. The gaunt, pale vampire dates only from the early 19th century, so both looks are fair.
  • Wraith One of several traditional words for a ghost or spirit. Use it for the thin, cold, hooded kind and keep ghost for the friendly one.
  • Zombie The word comes from Haitian folklore, where a zombie is a dead body raised by a bokor's magic. Modern stories swap the magic for science. Decide how much of the person is left.

Humans and science fiction 22

  • Android A humanoid robot or other artificial being, often made from a flesh-like material. The question is how close to human: one visible seam or panel line tells the viewer.
  • Artificial intelligence Machines that think like people have been in fiction since at least an 1872 novel. With no body to draw, design the avatar, the voice and the room the servers sit in.
  • Clone Cloning produces individuals with identical genomes. Same face, so tell the two apart by everything else: haircut, scars, posture, how they sign their name.
  • Cyborg A being with both organic and biomechatronic parts. The word, from cybernetic organism, was coined in 1960. Choose what was replaced and why, and the backstory writes itself.
  • Energy being A life form made of energy instead of matter, a staple of speculative fiction. It needs a container, a suit or a host to stand in a lineup with everyone else.
  • Gray alien Hairless humanoids with gray skin, small bodies, large heads and big almond-shaped eyes. The image spread widely after a 1961 abduction claim. Instantly readable, so change one thing.
  • Half-alien One human parent, one from somewhere else. Keep the alien half to two or three features, then decide which parent's planet feels like home.
  • Hive-mind member In science fiction a group mind links many minds into one shared consciousness. One body of thousands: design what marks this one as an individual, if anything does.
  • Hologram person A hologram records an interference pattern of light and rebuilds a 3D image from it. A character made of light cannot hold a cup, which is a personality in itself.
  • Human The baseline. With no horns or wings to lean on, the design has to come from the job, the era, the posture and what is in the pockets.
  • Insectoid alien An insect-like or arachnid-like being. Count the limbs and keep the count: four arms means four sleeves in every outfit you draw.
  • Little green alien Small humanoids with green skin and sometimes antennae. The phrase little green men took off with the flying saucer reports of the 1950s. Retro by default: bubble helmets, ray guns.
  • Mutant In biology, an organism with a new genetic character that came from a mutation. One clear change reads better than six: extra fingers, odd pigment, a tail.
  • Parallel-world self Parallel universes let a character meet another version of themselves. Same person, one different choice: change the scar, the uniform or the side they fight on.
  • Plant person Plants make sugars from sunlight, water and carbon dioxide using chlorophyll. A plant person might nap in the sun instead of eating, wilt in winter and flower when happy.
  • Robot A programmable machine. Robots can be humanoid, but most real ones are shaped by their task. Design yours job-first: a welder, a nurse and a courier do not share a body.
  • Space-born human A human raised in a space habitat or a colony on another world. A design suggestion: soft boots, tethers on every tool and no instinct for weather.
  • Superhuman A human whose abilities exceed the natural range, by birth, training or technology. The costume can wait; first decide what ordinary thing they can no longer do.
  • Symbiont and host Symbiosis is a close, long-term relationship between two organisms of different species. Two minds in one body: decide who steers, and who picks the clothes.
  • Transhuman Transhumanism argues for using technology to push people past natural limits such as lifespan and cognition. A subtle species: perfect teeth, no glasses, and 140 years old.
  • Uplifted animal In science fiction, uplift is raising an animal species to human-level intelligence, often by genetic engineering. The idea first appears in an 1896 H. G. Wells novel. Choose the animal first.
  • Uploaded mind Mind uploading is the hypothetical copying of a brain's state into a computer that then runs it. Your character may be a copy, and the original might still be around.

Fair folk and small folk 25

  • Aos sí The Irish name for a supernatural race in Gaelic folklore, similar to elves, said to live in mounds that are doors to an Otherworld. Think nobility with a hill for a front door.
  • Aziza A kindly race of little people in West African (Dahomey) mythology who live in anthills and silk-cotton trees and give good magic to hunters. A forest guide who teaches, then vanishes.
  • Brownie A Scottish household spirit that does chores at night for a bowl of milk or cream left by the hearth, and leaves for good if insulted. An OC with a very short temper about manners.
  • Changeling In European folklore, the look-alike left behind when fairies took a human away. The design question is what gives yours away: eyes, shadow, appetite or voice.
  • Dark elf The Norse Dökkálfar dwell within the earth, in the 13th-century Prose Edda, which gives them a dark complexion. Design for a life below ground: large eyes and clothes that never met rain.
  • Domovoy In Slavic tradition, the household spirit of a family line. Tie yours to one house and one family, and decide what happens when they move.
  • Duende A humanoid figure of Iberian and Latin American folklore, compared to dwarves, gnomes and leprechauns. Details change from country to country, so choose one region and read up on it.
  • Dwarf A human-shaped being of Germanic folklore, usually placed in mountains or stones and known as a skilled craftsman. Give yours a trade and let the tools hang off the belt.
  • Elf A humanoid supernatural being of Germanic folklore, named in the Icelandic Poetic Edda and Prose Edda. Settle the ears and the lifespan first: both change how the character sees everyone else.
  • Fairy A human-shaped spirit from the folklore of many European cultures, Celtic, Slavic, Germanic and French among them. Pick the wing type early: moth, dragonfly and leaf wings give three different characters.
  • Gnome Introduced by the Swiss alchemist Paracelsus in the 16th century and drawn ever since as a small humanoid who lives underground. Pocket-sized characters need big, readable hats and hands.
  • Goblin A small, mischievous humanoid of European folklore. The word comes from Old French gobelin, in use by the late 12th century. Big ears and a bigger grin carry the silhouette.
  • Half-elf Born of an elf and a human, an idea with roots in Norse mythology, and often written as torn between two worlds. Show it with one mismatched trait, such as a single pointed ear.
  • Halfling A small folk found in fantasy novels and games. Scale drives the design: a human chair is a climb, a pony is a warhorse and a dagger is a sword.
  • Hobgoblin A household spirit of English folklore, once thought helpful and later mischievous. Shakespeare calls Puck a hobgoblin, so a prankster with a job to do is fair game.
  • Knocker A subterranean, gnome-like being of Cornish and Devon folklore, described as two feet tall with a large head, long arms, wrinkled skin and white whiskers. The description is a ready-made model sheet.
  • Kobold The generic German name for a household spirit. Kobolds do chores such as washing dishes in exchange for offerings, and cause damage when mistreated. Draw the helpful version and the wronged one.
  • Leprechaun A small solitary fairy of Irish folklore, shown as a little bearded man in a coat and hat. Later stories made him a shoemaker with a hidden pot of gold, so give yours a cobbler's hands.
  • Light elf The Norse Ljósálfar live in Álfheimr and are called fairer than the sun to look at. A glow is hard to draw, so put it in the palette: warm whites and one gold accent.
  • Menehune In Hawaiian tradition, a dwarf-like people of the deep forests and hidden valleys, famed as craftspeople who built temples, fishponds, roads and canoes. Research the tradition before you draw from it.
  • Pixie A being of British folklore tied to the high moorland of Cornwall and Devon. Dress one from the moor: heather, gorse, lichen and a lot of mud.
  • Spriggan A legendary creature of Cornish folklore, tied to West Penwith at the far tip of Cornwall. The sources leave plenty open, which makes it a good species for your own rules.
  • Sprite A supernatural entity of European mythology, drawn as fairy-like or as something barely solid. Try a body that fades out below the knees.
  • Tomte The nisse or tomte of Nordic folklore is a small household spirit in a red cap and gray clothes who expects porridge around the winter solstice. A farm, a barn and one bowl are the whole setting.
  • Vila A Slavic fairy similar to a nymph, best known among the South Slavs. Wind, woodland and long loose hair are a reasonable starting brief.

Beastfolk and shapeshifters 28

  • Bakeneko A Japanese supernatural cat whose name means changed cat. It has one tail; its cousin the nekomata has two. An easy rule to show on a character sheet.
  • Birdfolk A feathered person. Beak or lips, wings or arms, and which real bird: an owl scholar and a gull sailor share a species and nothing else.
  • Catfolk A person with a cat's ears, tail and reflexes. Settle the ratio before drawing: a human with ears and a tail, or a cat that walks upright, are two different species.
  • Centaur From Greek mythology: the upper body of a human on the body and legs of a horse, said to live in the mountains of Thessaly. Choose the horse breed first; a draft horse and a racer give different people.
  • Faun Half human and half goat, from Greek and Roman mythology. Roman fauns began as spirits of rustic places under the god Faunus. Hooves, small horns and a shepherd's pipe.
  • Fox spirit (huli jing) Chinese fox spirits can change shape and may be kindly or not, depending on the story. The nine-tailed fox is one of their forms. Tail count makes a simple rank system.
  • Gorgon In Greek mythology, three sisters, Stheno, Euryale and Medusa, who turned anyone who looked at them to stone. As a species, the design problem is eye contact: veils, mirrors, tinted glass.
  • Gumiho The nine-tailed fox of Korean legend, cousin to the Chinese nine-tailed fox and the Japanese kitsune. The name first meant a magical fox in novels of the Joseon dynasty.
  • Half-dragon Part human, part dragon. Ration the dragon features: horns, scales, tail, wings and breath all at once leave no room for a person.
  • Harpy Half human and half bird in Greek and Roman mythology, often read as the storm winds in person. Decide whether the arms are the wings or the wings are extra.
  • Jorogumo A yōkai of Japanese folklore that can take the shape of a beautiful woman; the name can be read as woman-spider. Work the web into hair, sleeves or jewelry.
  • Kappa The kappa, or river-child, is a water yōkai said to live in the ponds and rivers of Japan. Old tales make it dangerous to swimmers, so a friendly one needs a reason.
  • Kinnara Part human and part bird in Hindu and Buddhist mythology, linked with music and love and said to come from the Himalayas. A musician species, from a living tradition worth reading about first.
  • Kitsune In Japanese folklore, a fox or fox spirit with the power to shapeshift or bewitch. In human form, decide which fox trait refuses to hide.
  • Lizardfolk Upright reptilian people appear in folklore, science fiction and fantasy alike. Base yours on one real reptile, gecko, monitor or chameleon, and borrow its feet and eyes.
  • Melusine A freshwater spirit of European folklore, a woman who is serpent or fish from the waist down, sometimes with wings or two tails. Her legends cluster in France, Luxembourg and the Low Countries.
  • Merfolk Water-dwelling, human-like beings found in folklore all over the world; mermaids and mermen are the English names. Match the tail to a real fish and the palette follows.
  • Minotaur In Greek myth, the head and tail of a bull on the body of a man, kept at the center of the Labyrinth that Daedalus built for King Minos of Crete. As a species, give them a maze-builder's mind.
  • Naga In several Asian religious traditions, a divine or semi-divine race of half-human, half-serpent beings living in the netherworld Patala. They belong to living faiths, so research before you design.
  • Satyr A male nature spirit of Greek mythology with the ears and tail of a horse. Early art sometimes gave satyrs horse legs; by the sixth century BC they had human ones. Goat legs belong to the faun.
  • Selkie Able to change between seal and human form by taking off or putting on a seal skin, in traditions of Celtic and Norse origin. The word is Scots for seal. The coat is the character's most guarded object.
  • Shapeshifter Changing form by unnatural means is one of the oldest ideas in storytelling, found in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Iliad. Give yours a tell that survives every shape.
  • Siren Female humanlike beings of Greek mythology with alluring voices, met by Odysseus in the Odyssey. The voice is the species trait, so design the rest around a singer.
  • Swan maiden In the swan maiden folktale, a being who shifts between human and bird by putting on a feathered cloak or swan skin. Whoever holds the cloak holds the plot.
  • Tanuki Bake-danuki are yōkai tied to the Japanese raccoon dog, a real animal. In some regions they shapeshift into things or people, as kitsune do. Rounder and sillier than a fox spirit.
  • Tengu The name means heavenly dog. A yōkai or kami traditionally shown with human and bird traits; one type has a red face and a long nose. Choose the bird version or the long-nosed one.
  • Werecat The feline answer to the werewolf: a person with a cat or cat-hybrid form. Pick one species of cat, since a lynx, a lion and a house cat move nothing alike.
  • Werewolf A person who shifts into a wolf or wolf-human hybrid, by will or under a curse; the word is Old English for man-wolf. The full moon trigger comes from modern fiction, so you can drop it.

Spirits and immortals 29

  • Angel In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, a messenger sent by God to people; the word comes from the Greek for messenger. Usually pictured in human form with wings. From living faiths, so read first. Messenger is a job, so give yours a message.
  • Apsara A class of celestial beings in Hindu and Buddhist culture, first linked with clouds and water, and carved and danced across South and Southeast Asia. From living faiths, so research before you draw.
  • Asura A class of power-seeking beings in Indian religions, related to the more benevolent devas. Buddhist texts translate the word as titan, demigod or antigod. Ambition is the species trait.
  • Demigod Half divine and half human, born of a deity and a mortal. Decide which parent shows: one godly feature on an otherwise ordinary person says more than a full glow.
  • Demon A malevolent supernatural entity in the folklore and religion of many cultures, though stories allow kindly ones too. Horns are optional; a bargain is not.
  • Doppelganger A supernatural double of a living person, usually read as a sign of bad luck. For an OC, design the original first, then change exactly one thing.
  • Dryad An oak nymph in Greek mythology; drys means tree, and oak in particular. Today the word covers tree nymphs in general. Choose the tree and you have the palette and the hair.
  • Fire elemental Paracelsus named four kinds of elemental in the 16th century; the fire kind he called salamanders. A person made of flame needs a fixed core shape, or every pose reads as a campfire.
  • Gandharva Celestial beings in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism; the males are divine musicians and singers and the females divine dancers. The instrument is part of the character design.
  • Half-demon European legend calls the child of a human and a demon a cambion; in its earliest uses the word was interchangeable with changeling. One human trait and one that is not.
  • Huldra A forest being of Scandinavian folklore whose name comes from a root meaning covered or secret. Folklore assumes a whole hulder people, not one individual. Design the thing she hides.
  • Ifrit A powerful kind of demon in Islamic culture, often tied to the underworld. In early texts the word works as an epithet, always followed by the phrase among the jinn. Research before you design.
  • Jinn Supernatural beings in ancient Arabian religion and in Islam. Like humans they answer for their deeds, and they are neither good nor evil by nature. Far more than a wish machine in a lamp.
  • Leshy A guardian of the forest in Slavic mythology who often appears as a masculine humanoid and can take the look of any person and change his size. Bark, moss and a height that will not hold still.
  • Naiad In Greek mythology, a nymph of fresh water: fountains, wells, springs, streams and brooks. River gods are a separate thing. Yours belongs to one named spring.
  • Nereid The sea nymphs of Greek mythology, the 50 daughters of Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea. They travel with Poseidon and can be helpful to sailors. Forty-nine sisters is a lot of backstory.
  • Nixie Humanoid, often shapeshifting water spirits of Germanic mythology and folklore, best known from Scandinavia. The names run from nix and neck to näck. A musician by a millpond suits one.
  • Nymph A minor nature deity of ancient Greek folklore, tied to one place, landform or tree. Nymphs could heal and shapeshift but, divine or not, they were not immortal.
  • Oread A mountain nymph of Greek mythology, a companion of Artemis. Dress for altitude: wind-cut hair, bare rock colors, a hunter's gear.
  • Peri A being from Persian tales, often described as a winged creature of great beauty living in a society much like a human one. A court, a family and politics come with the species.
  • Rakshasa A race of usually malevolent beings in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain texts who live on Earth and hold supernatural powers. A villain species by tradition; read the sources before bending it.
  • Rusalka A female being of Slavic folklore tied to water, often unfriendly to people, though folklorists think rusalki may once have been kindly spirits. Both versions are open to you.
  • Sylph An air spirit from the 16th-century works of Paracelsus, who described sylphs as invisible beings of the air. Draw what the air moves, scarves, hair and leaves, more than the body.
  • Tennin The Japanese word means heavenly person. A celestial being for a character who has come down to earth for a while; decide what they are not allowed to do there.
  • Tuatha Dé Danann A supernatural race of Irish mythology, shown as kings, queens, druids, bards, warriors, healers and craftsmen who live in the Otherworld. Pick the profession first; the species supplies the rest.
  • Undine A water elemental from the alchemical writings of Paracelsus, turned into a water nymph by later writers. The earth, air and fire versions are the gnome, the sylph and the salamander.
  • Valkyrie In Norse mythology, one of a host of female figures who guide the souls of the slain to Odin's hall, Valhalla; the name means chooser of the slain. Some are linked with ravens or swans.
  • Yaksha A broad class of nature spirits in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts, linked with water, trees, forests and treasure. Usually kindly, sometimes capricious, and carved on temples as guardians.
  • Yuki-onna The snow woman of Japanese folklore, also called snow daughter and snow princess in different regions. White on white is the design challenge: separate skin, hair and kimono by value.

How this list was compiled: List written in-house for this page: humanoid peoples from folklore plus general science-fiction concepts, with no species that belongs to a single book, film or game. The origin stated in each note was checked on 2026-09-18 against the opening section of that being's own English Wikipedia article, reached from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_legendary_creatures_by_type (for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elf, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_(folklore), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnome, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisse_(folklore), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%B6kk%C3%A1lfar_and_Lj%C3%B3s%C3%A1lfar, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclopes, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selkie, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakeneko, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elemental, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gargoyle_(monster), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyborg, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uplift_(science_fiction), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_alien and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_green_men). Design suggestions in the notes are our own. Entries with no folklore behind them (half-giant, catfolk, birdfolk, half-dragon, half-alien, human) carry a design note only. Licence: Facts, and in places the phrasing of a card's first sentence, follow the opening of each being's English Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/; articles named in source). The selection, the grouping and the design notes are own work.