Fantasy emoji: who is in the cast
Most of the fantasy folk arrived together in 2017 with Unicode 10: mage, fairy, vampire, merperson, elf, genie and zombie. Each one has a woman and a man form made with a zero-width joiner, so is the wizard, the witch, the mermaid and the merman, and the genies, and the elves. The grid lists the base character of each; copy it, or copy the gendered form straight from this text.
The creatures came in waves. dragon and dragon face date from Unicode 6.0 in 2010, unicorn from 2015, troll from 2021, phoenix from 2023, and hairy creature, the Bigfoot or yeti emoji, from Emoji 17.0 in 2025. Older than all of them are the Japanese masks ogre (an oni) and goblin (a tengu), which fantasy chats use for orcs, ogres and goblins of any tradition, and ghost, and for imps and demons.
Mythical creatures emoji and what they mean
Unicorn stands for anything rare, magical or too good to be true: a startup worth a billion, a perfect candidate, a day that went right. Paired with and it is the whole pastel unicorn aesthetic. In dating apps it has a second life: a unicorn is a person who joins a couple, so read a in a bio with that in mind. Dragon means power, fire and the East: most platforms draw the Chinese zodiac dragon, long and serpentine, not the winged European one, which is why it fills Lunar New Year posts in a Year of the Dragon as much as it does Game of Thrones chats. Add for dragonfire and for the tower it guards.
Phoenix is rebirth and coming back stronger; fairy is small, quick magic and the whole fairycore look with and ; genie means wishes, usually three, with as the lamp; mermaid lives with , where trident doubles as Poseidon's or King Triton's weapon. Elf is the pointed-eared archer of Tolkien rather than Santa's helper, troll is the lumbering creature of Nordic folklore and, just as often, the person derailing a thread. Ordinary animals carry myths too: under a is a werewolf, is Odin's raven, a wizard's messenger owl, a basilisk or serpent, the kraken, the white stag, the heraldic lion.
Knights, castles and quests
There is no knight emoji and no sword-and-armour figure. People build one from crossed swords, shield, fencer or rider, or they use the chess knight , which works in any text. The court is better served: crown, princess, prince, person with crown (the gender-neutral monarch, 2021) and fleur-de-lis from royal heraldry, with castle for a European keep and for a Japanese one. The chess king and queen give you royalty in plain text.
For the quest itself: map, compass, scroll, horn and harp for the bard, die for the dice, then coin, gem, ring and the new treasure chest (2025) for the loot. Dwarves get , Thor gets , the archer . A Dungeons & Dragons party in one line is a class each: wizard, ranger, fighter, druid, bard, with waiting at the end of the dungeon.
Dark fantasy: vampires, undead and haunted castles
The night side of the collection is vampire with bat, drop of blood, coffin and full moon; zombie with headstone and skull; ghost in a derelict house wrapped in fog, with in the corners and a candle down the corridor. Skull and crossbones marks poison and pirates. For the text version of this mood use †, ‡, ⸸ (an inverted dagger) and ; they stay sharp at small sizes where emoji turn to colour blobs.
Fantasy text symbols: stars, daggers, runes and name frames
Gamer tags and fantasy bios run on plain Unicode. The small stars ✧ ✦ ⋆ ☆ ★ and moons ☽ ☾ make sparkle lines, ⚝ is an outlined pentacle, ✠ the Maltese cross of knightly orders, ⚚ the staff of Hermes, ♆ the trident sign of Neptune, and † the dagger. The alchemical elements 🜂 fire, 🜄 water, 🜁 air and 🜃 earth label elemental magic in a sentence. The brackets ꧁ ꧂ (Javanese ornaments) and ༺ ༻ (Tibetan marks) are the frames around half the names in any online game: ꧁༺ Ragnar ༻꧂.
Runes are the fantasy script par excellence: on the map in The Hobbit, on every Viking show, in Skyrim and God of War. The grid holds the 24 letters of the Elder Futhark, the oldest runic alphabet, used from about the 2nd to the 8th century, in their three rows of eight. The name comes from its first six letters ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚨ ᚱ ᚲ, f-u-th-a-r-k, the way "alphabet" comes from alpha and beta. Readers transliterate names letter by letter (ᚦ is th, ᛜ is ng), and since each rune is one character they sit in a username anywhere Unicode fonts reach.
Symbols
167Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Mythical beings
the creatures and folk every fantasy story starts with
Royal court and knights
there is no knight emoji; a fencer, a rider or the chess knight stands in
Spells, potions and relics
Creatures of legend and omen
real animals that carry a myth with them
Fairy tales
one object each: Snow White, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, the wishing well, the Frog Prince
Text symbols for fantasy names and bios
plain Unicode, so they show in usernames, Discord names and fonts without colour emoji
How to use them
6 situationsClick to copyFantasy & Mythical Creature Emoji combos
15Worth knowing
- was encoded as "Unicorn Face" in Unicode 8.0 (2015); its everyday short name was changed to plain "unicorn" in 2020.
- and came from Japanese carrier emoji, which is why nearly every platform draws an East Asian zodiac dragon rather than a winged European one.
- and are not generic monsters: they are the Japanese oni (a horned ogre) and tengu (the long-nosed mountain spirit), both as festival masks.
- phoenix is a joiner sequence of bird and fire (2023), so on an old device it falls apart into a bird next to a flame.
- The Elder Futhark is named after its first six runes ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚨ ᚱ ᚲ (f, u, th, a, r, k), just as "alphabet" is named after alpha and beta; the Runic block has been in Unicode since version 3.0 in 1999.
Questions people ask
8Is there a wizard emoji?
Yes: man mage is the wizard and woman mage the witch; the base mage is in the grid. Add or and a spellbook to make the scene.
Is there a knight emoji?
No. Use for the arms, fencer or rider for the figure, or the chess knight or , which works in any text, including usernames.
What does the unicorn emoji mean?
means rare, magical or too good to be true, and it carries the pastel unicorn aesthetic with . In dating profiles a unicorn is a person who dates a couple, so the emoji there is usually a hint, not a decoration.
What does the dragon emoji mean?
stands for power, fire and luck; it is drawn as the Chinese zodiac dragon, so it is big in Lunar New Year posts in a Year of the Dragon, and it is the go-to for fantasy books, D&D and dragon fandoms. is the cuter head-only version.
Is there a mermaid emoji?
Yes: mermaid and merman, both forms of merperson added in 2017. Pair with .
Is there a werewolf emoji?
No. wolf and full moon is the standard werewolf combo; zombie or vampire covers the other monsters of the night.
How do I copy and paste fantasy emoji?
Tap or click any emoji or symbol in the grid to copy it, then paste it anywhere. Combos copy as one piece, and the text symbols and runes paste into usernames that refuse emoji.
What are good fantasy emoji combos?
for a quest, for fairycore, for mermaids, for vampires, for a D&D night and for a medieval kingdom.
