Top 5 badass creatures from myth and folklore
The Wendigo:
A creature from Algonquian folklore. While movies and television may portray it as a physical monster in the Native American myth it function more as an evil possessing spirit. Legend tells that if a man were driven to cannibalism during one of the many harsh winters back then then they were possessed by the spirit of the Wendigo. This evil spirit would drive them to kill and cannibalize all the while becoming more and more hungry the more they killed.
The Draugr:
A Norse version of Count Dracula only not so nice and sophisticated. They could do the standard vampire things, control the weather, have super strength, shapeshifting, and were blamed for spreading diseases. The main difference between them and Dracula is that they looked more like rotten corpses with blue-black skin instead of human counts. Instead of a castle they tended to live in burial mounds. One may or may not be the main villain in the second novel of my series.
Gashadokuro:
Creature from Japanese mythology. A giant skeleton formed from the bones and souls of those who didn’t receive a proper burial in ancient Japan. If encountered it would either drink your blood or just eat you. I mean what’s more to say, GIANT SKELETON!
Nuckelavee:
Creature from the Orkney Isles. A massive creature said to spread plague and death. A giant humanoid who is essentially a human torso attached to a horse. You think that’s terrifying enough? Well this thing happens to have no skin. That’s right none at all. This creature is so badass and evil that they even made a song about it for the video game A Bards Tale.
Manticore:
Creature from Persian mythology. It had the face of a person, which is just unnerving, the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion or in other tales a tail covered in venomous spines that it can shoot out. It can imitate the voices of men to lure victims in and is a prolific man-eater. Imagine something like this coming charging at you from out of nowhere. Yet for some reason the fact that this thing has a humans face makes it ten times more frightening.
Top 5 modern Paranormal cryptids
PALE CRAWLERS: A few years ago reports started coming in online of pale, tall, thin hairless creatures being sighted by witnesses. It didn’t take long for the sightings to blow up and a name was christened for them, Pale Crawlers. Many of the stories had the same basic premise, a witness see’s a pale, usually very tall and hairless creature sometimes with glowing eyes. All claim to have experienced intense terror (which is only suitable for seeing something like that) and usually run away or hide. There’s a few videos out there claiming to show them but all of them just show vague dark shapes in the darkness that might or might not be humanoid. I myself am skeptical of the reports as they are only a few years old and of course have no real evidence.
Black Eyed Kids: another new one (if you consider the 90’s new) that started with a reporter making a claim to encounter two strange boys in a parking lot. They gave him the creeps and then filled him with terror when he noticed their eyes were black. Reports started coming in of people claiming to encounter the same thing, two or more young boys asking to be let into the witnesses living houses, people begin to feel uneasy but often feel a strange compulsion to do what they ask. That is until they realize the children’s eyes are black, soulless orbs without anything but blackness in them. I’m skeptical of many of these reports, especially because a lot of them seem to be written by people without a firm grasp on the English language.
GLIMMER MAN: A name coined by one of my favorite podcasts, Expanded Perspectives. Witnesses claim to see something they can only describe as the Predator from the movie of the same name. A cloaked figure of somewhat humanoid shape but anything else is unable to be made out. Reports are relatively new but have been steadily growing. There is one picture reporting to be one of these things but as you can surmise nothing but a blur can be seen.
Dogman: Another somewhat recent addition. Often described as 5-7 feet tall and looking like an upright wolf or dog. Officially these reports began in the early 2000s with the release of the book The Beast Of Bray Road by Linda Godfree. Since then people around the world have reported seeing these elusive creatures. There’s entire books dedicated to the sightings and even a podcast now!
Reptilians: What list would be complete without these SOB’s. They are fairly recent in the conspiracy sphere but if you know anything about the paranormal or conspiracy you have heard of them. A certain sports commentator went insane and eventually began believing the entire human race was ruled in secret by shape-shifting reptilian aliens. The royal family? Reptilians. Every President in history? Reptilian. Every actor in history? Reptilians. That random person walking by you on the street? Reptilian. To top it off there’s additional anti-semitism mixed in too. As you can guess I am very skeptical of the claims as any rational person would be.