More Public Domain Creatures

One thing I love about things added in older versions of Minecraft is the public domain fantasy creatures, like zombies, skeletons, and giant spiders. Since then, Mojang has taken to adding fantasy creatures that come only from their own imagination. They have even added mobs based on these creatures, such as the allay and ravager, but they refuse to add the actual creatures. While this is cool, it makes it harder for the community to bring their dreams to life, all those builds of dragon lairs and elven villages sitting sadly uninhabited.

While I know Mojang likes to avoid pop culture references to make the Minecraft world feel mysterious, this still isn't satisfying so many people's vision of these amazing, classic, well-loved creatures inhabiting the Minecraft world. (Yeah, I know mods exist, but I've found those often slow parts of gameplay progression. Besides, there's a weird charm vanilla Minecraft has to it.)

So, I offer an alternative approach: add the creatures, but twist their stereotypical existence in such a way that they're familiar yet unique. For example, goblins are usually forest-dwelling bandits. Why not make them arctic nomads instead? Or make orcs sailors? Or dwarves the rulers of the desert's most powerful empires? Removing stereotypes adds an amazing list of possible ideas!