I love this category because it’s so broad and diverse. If you think about it for a minute, I bet you could name at least a dozen different creatures from fantasy tales. They range from standbys like dragons and trolls to less common ones such as chulls.

When it comes to creatures, authors have a clean canvas to exercise their creativity on. The results range from cool, to creepy, to downright weird. Some draw heavily from mythology, others prefer to use their imaginations. Either way, fantasy fans who love new creatures are in for a treat.

Looking at my quickly composed list of creatures I’ve come across, it’s a hard choice to make. So many options.

How about a compromise? Because this topic is so huge, and picking a single favorite has never been easy for me, I’ll do three. Evil, generally neutral, and good.

First, the evil fantasy creature.

Fade (also called Myrddraal)

Fades appear in the epic fantasy series Wheel of Time—and they’re terrifying. Spawn of Trollocs—read the books to find out what those are—with partly human bloodlines and pale, maggoty skin, fades are straight out of a nightmare.

They have that sinister cast you want from servants of the enemy, properly powerful skills, and a face only a mother could love.

Because they don’t have eyes.

That’s right—no eyes. They have the form of tall men and can still see, but that small change is enough to send their creepy factor to the top of the gauge. I’ve found it’s usually like that with creatures. Make them totally strange and they aren’t as frightening, but give them human characteristics with one or two abnormal features thrown in, and pow.

Freaky creatures 101.

In some aspects, Wheel of Time was torturous, but fades definitely earn their title as favorite evil fantasy creature.

Now on to round two. For neutral fantasy creature, we have…

Kandra

If you don’t know what a kandra is, you really need to read Mistborn. You should read it anyway.

I have to hand the creativity prize to Brandon Sanderson on this one. Kandra are, without a doubt, the most unique creatures I’ve encountered in my travels through the pages of fantasy.

There are too many details to go into, but the main thing that sticks out is their ability to digest a person or another creature and assume that shape, down to the voice and facial features—or fur in some cases.

Bizarre, huh? Yeah it’s gross, but look beyond that and you realize how awesome it is. The possibilities of what kandra can do are endless, and they take the idea of fantasy creatures in a completely new direction.

Now on to the good creature.

I could pick dragons, but Smaug kind of ruins the “good creature” theme. In the end, after much agonizing debate—like a minute or two—I decided my favorite good fantasy creature is…

Unicorn

I know, not the most original choice, but certainly one of the best. Oddly, though unicorns and fantasy go hand-in-hand, they don’t appear as much as you’d expect—the most obvious unicorn is Jewel from The Last Battle.

Despite their absence in many stories, unicorns rank high on the list of fantasy creatures. Any fantasy reader knows what they are, and their popularity among fans is rivaled only by dragons.

Unicorns are majestic beasts, symbols of purity and goodness and a sharp contrast to the shadowy creatures of evil. They perhaps more than any other fantasy creature embody the divide between good and evil that forms the backbone of many stories.

There you have it, a sampling of the creatures fantasy has to offer.

What’s your favorite fantasy creature for each category? I would love to hear your thoughts.