Dreams and Dragons: Fantasy Beings I Want to See

Now, don't get me wrong: I love dragons as much as the next girl. I mean, I've got a collection of stuffed and figurine dragons, half the books on my shelves involve dragons in some way, and I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to them. And elves and elf-like Fey and dwarves are all pretty awesome too. But why is that so often all we see? There's so many other beings in myths and fairy tales who deserve a spot in the stories of this era- and today, I'm going to spotlight some of my favorites.

Fantasy Beings I Want to See More Of

Griffins. Granted, as the lesser-known fantasy creatures go, griffins (or, if you prefer, gryphons) don't have it too bad. They're not entirely unknown, and there are some pretty awesome books that feature them. However, they're still pretty under-represented in fantasy. A Goodreads list of the best griffin books has 66 books, while the "Best Books With or About Dragons" list contains 540 books. Yeah. Big difference. So, why don't we see more griffin-riders? More noble griffins allying themselves with the heroes in order to defeat the villain, not out of any love for the hero but out of their own pride and hatred of that villain? More baby griffins acting sort of like baby birds and sort of like kittens and generally being adorable? Am I the only one who thinks this would be awesome?
Selkies. So they're basically seal shapeshifters? Except different? And I'll take that over mermaids any day, thank you, and not just because seals are adorable. (And yes, I know about The Little Selkie and it's on my to-be-read list, but I want more.) A lot of the mythology about selkies seems to be tragic, which makes sense- selkies would work really well in a torn-between-their-own-people-and-the-humans plotline- but I think you could work out a happy ending as well. (Oh, and the picture above is from The Song of the Sea, which is an Irish animated film about selkies that I want to watch so much. Go watch this music video from it and you'll understand why.)
Kelpies. They're carnivorous water horses, y'all. Carnivorous water horses. Why is this not a thing? Imagine it: the heroes are short on time, rushing to get to the villain's castle in time, and then- Oh, hurrah! One of them spots a small herd of horses by the lake! And what's this? The horses seem to be friendly! They must have been tame at one time! The most impulsive one swings astride and- Oh, dragon's teeth BAD IDEA! On the other hand, imagine the character who can actually ride one of them? It'd be a sure sign of just how awesome (or terrifying) he is.
Banshees. I know of one book- Jackaby- that used banshees really well, in my opinion, but why don't more books? They've got a lot of potential. Imagine an army (either attacking or defending) sending out banshees to wander among their enemies, singing their terrifying songs, as a form of psychological warfare? Imagine a young banshee trying to escape the negative stereotypes of her race, working as a healer and always able to know if a patient can be saved or not. Imagine a banshee villain who plays up the reputation for all it's worth. Why is none of this a thing?
And now, for something completely different: the ittan-momen. Ok, so first, let me say that Japan has some really weird and creepy legends. (I know this because, in trying to remember the name of this thing, I ended up reading about some of the freakier ones.) Second of all: the ittan momen. According to various sources, it's a possessed roll of cotton that flies around and occasionally strangles or suffocates people. Why? I don't know. Who came up with this? I don't know that either. Why do I know about it? Writing research. I didn't end up using it at the time because it didn't fit the situation, but I really want one of these to show up somewhere just so people (including the characters) can be all "What the pumpernickel why does this even exist?" with me.