#doña jeronima

[swellbloom-kids]

"Do you mean to challenge me, then? Give it your best shot, Little Drummer Boy."

Doña Jeronima is the Saint of Love in When the Crocodiles Weep. Regal but unhinged, she challenges the young Kulas to solve her riddles in the Retablo. She also acts as game host for the other Saints.

Design-wise, I was heavily inspired by the photos I'd see of Manila carnival queens, including Paz Marquez-Benitez. I initially sketched her on paper, which gave me a hard time settling on her colors. I eventually decided to keep her black-and-white to add to her vintage and anachronistic air.

[beholdtheleaves]

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom of love blossoming under the waters of a river.

People who lived above cried out: ”We are hungry! We are cold!”

The muse of the kingdom felt pity for these poor wretches. In her mercy, she turned them all into crocodiles, making them part of her kingdom. They lived underwater, and never knew suffering again.

Now, every time you see a crocodile weep, know that it is crying tears of joy.

—"Ang Alamat ng Buwaya" by Huseng Paksiw

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WHEN THE CROCODILES WEEP is a ttrpg inspired by the various myths surrounding the Pasig River. It tells the story of the Obispo family and their dealings with the Riverine Saint, Doña Jeronima. Parallel to this, the higher-existence saints debate with that same Jeronima in a metaphysical world known as the Retablo.

Follow the stories of:

Cesar, a political heir struggling to fill his father's shoes. His patron is Bernardo Carpio, Saint of Toil.

Malaya, an activist journalism student uncovering her family's dark secrets. Her patron is Flerida, Saint of Truth.

Kulas, a slacker musician challenged by Doña Jeronima to solve her riddles in the Retablo. His patron is Pilandok, Saint of Trickery.

Fely, a young but macabre bookworm regaining her memories as her patron Asuang, Saint of Damnation.

Hope you can check it out!

[raymondchristianhalasan]

National Artist for Literature (1976)

(May 4, 1917 – April 29, 2004)

“Before 1521 we could have been anything and everything not Filipino; after 1565 we can be nothing but Filipino.” ― Culture and History, 1988

Nicomedes "Nick" Márquez Joaquín was a Filipino writer and journalist best known for his short stories and novels in the English language. He also wrote using the pen name Quijano de Manila. Joaquín was conferred the rank and title of National Artist of the Philippines for Literature. He has been considered one of the most important Filipino writers, along with José Rizal and Claro M. Recto. Unlike Rizal and Recto, whose works were written in Spanish, Joaquin's major works were written in English despite being a native Spanish speaker.

Nick Joaquin, is regarded by many as the most distinguished Filipino writer in English writing so variedly and so well about so many aspects of the Filipino. Nick Joaquin has also enriched the English language with critics coining “Joaquinesque” to describe his baroque Spanish-flavored English or his reinventions of English based on Filipinisms. Aside from his handling of language, Bienvenido Lumbera writes that Nick Joaquin’s significance in Philippine literature involves his exploration of the Philippine colonial past under Spain and his probing into the psychology of social changes as seen by the young, as exemplified in stories such as Doña Jeronima, Candido’s Apocalypse and The Order of Melchizedek. Nick Joaquin has written plays, novels, poems, short stories and essays including reportage and journalism. As a journalist, Nick Joaquin uses the nome de guerre Quijano de Manila but whether he is writing literature or journalism, fellow National Artist Francisco Arcellana opines that “it is always of the highest skill and quality”.

Among his voluminous works are The Woman Who Had Two Navels, A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, Manila, My Manila: A History for the Young, The Ballad of the Five Battles, Rizal in Saga, Almanac for Manileños, Cave and Shadows.

Nick Joaquin died April 29, 2004.

[mymistiquekingcollectorthings]

CRITIQUE

THE SKETCH

Victorio C.Edades VictorioEdades was born on December 23, 1895 to Hilario and Cecilia Edades. He was the youngest of ten children (six of whom died of smallpox). He grew up in Barrio Bolosan in Dagupan, Pangasinan. His artistic ability surfaced during his early years. By seventh grade, his teachers were so impressed with him that he was dubbed "apprentice teacher" in his art class. He was also an achiever from the very beginning, having won awards in school debates and writing competitions.During his journey to America, he participated in art competitions, one of which was the Annual Exhibition of North American Artists. His entry The Sketch (1927) won second prize. When he returned to the Philippines in 1928, he saw that the state of art was "practically dead." Paintings he saw dealt with similar themes and were done in a limited technique that mostly followed the works of Fernando Amorsolo, the first Philippine national artist and the most popular painter of the time. Fernando Amorsolo was born on May 30, 1892, in Paco, Manila.[3][4] Don Fabián de la Rosa, his mother's cousin, was also a Filipino painter. At the age of 13, Amorsolo became an apprentice to De la Rosa, who would eventually become the advocate and guide to Amorsolo's painting career. During this time, Amorsolo's mother embroidered to earn money, while Amorsolo helped by selling water color postcards to a local bookstore for 10 centavos each.

THE WOMAN WHO HAD TWO NAVELS 

EXCERPT  (DOÑA JERONIMA)

The story of Doña Jeronima of Nick Joaquin is a part of the classic tales in The woman who had two navels where in it tells a story of a youthful romance between the Spanish boy that has a great ambition for himself, where in little by little his love for the girl had been forgotten as the time went through. While the girl which is Doña Jeronima her love for the boy grew stronger as the time went by waiting for the boy who promised her before that turned out to be a man who forgot the things that he has promised her about their future. The story tells us a lesson about how long could you wait for that someone who promised you something or most probably about everything like your future and such, could you even still wait for that long even though you’re not even sure if there is something that you could hold unto. The symbolism that could be found in the story is the river wherein it shows on how does the man easily forgot his promise to Doña Jeronima, the time wherein as it went by they have different feelings that has been developed the man forgot his promise while the latter grew her feeling for the man got stronger. The story has the similarity of Jose Rizal where he wrote a story about Doña Jeronima in El Felibusterismo they had the same plot of the story but they had a great difference through the physical appearance of the main female character, on NIck’s story his main man character is part of the religious order, while the latter is only a priest and lastly the setting wherein time and place was on the 17th century in dawn country upstream, where the Pasig flows from the lake, to the downstream where it flows down into the sea, while the other is unknown time but they met outside the country. Even though the two writers has a similarity on that story that they’ve wrote about, but also we could not also deny that the two writers has it’s own unique way on how do they write their own stories to approach their readers and on how do they represent Doña Jeronima as a woman.

BONIFACIO MONUMENT

National Artist Guillermo E. Tolentino (1890-1976) dominated Filipino sculpture in the 1920s to 1970s and the decades beyond, particularly in the field of portraiture and human forms.He showed an early talent in sculpting. having been able to mold figures of horses and dogs out of clay. He worked in the classical style mainly used plaster and metal to create his sculptures. He also recieve awards and exibition. He is consider as the "Father of Philippine Arts" because of his great works like the famous "Bonifacio Monument" symbolizing Filipinos cry for freedom located in intersection of EDSA and Rizal Avenue. His artworks represents as the voices of those Filipinos who are aiming for their freedom as an individual. His talent somehow benefits the country in terms with it’s content and his way to express his emotion through his artwork. The distortion of plaster and metal somehow became as elements connected with mass and color that is compose of messages that the artwork was trying to convey to it’s audience. His choice of subject is somehow an impact to those who adores his masterpiece. Bonefacio Monument reminds every Filipino’s on how we had achieved our freedom. it enlighten us that we must not allow anyone to take our freedom away from us and just to be controlled by someone. That as a Filipino Citizen should be free from any chains that has been put upon us by those people who were trying to collonize our country.

[swellbloom-kids]

When the Crocodiles Weep

It’s 1986. You are members of the Obispo family, a political clan that’s lost its power after the ousting of a certain dictator. Your patriarch, Don Modesto, has summoned you to his private island in the middle of Laguna de Bai, where he will discuss with you matters of inheritance. But then, seemingly impossible murders start taking place, with letters from a mysterious Doña Jeronima taking credit for them. Jeronima styles herself as The Riverine Witch, promising ten tons of gold from Don Modesto’s datu ancestors to whoever solves her riddles.

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This is one of the story hooks found in Swellbloom Kids, my ttrpg about superpowered individuals blessed by the gods of Philippine mythology. Check it out here! (See if you can spot all the references without checking the tags, haha)

[swellbloom-kids]

I'm so happy I finally get to use Doña Jeronima's story and make her canon to Swellbloom Kids. She didn't really fit in as my previous imagining, but now I appreciate her a lot as a semi-sinister Beatrice figure. And in conjunction with other Pasig River myths no less!

[beholdtheleaves]

Snippets of something I’m cooking up. Tentative title: When the Crocodiles Weep.

[swellbloom-kids]

Flerida is the Saint of Truth in my Umineko-inspired ttrpg, When the Crocodiles Weep. Yes, the Flerida from Florante at Laura! Here, she represents the force of truth as she tries to get to the bottom of Doña Jeronima's riddles.

I thought giving her the truth theme was appropriate, given that she wields a bow and arrow ("true" aim) and is faithfully devoted to Aladin ("true love").

[swellbloom-kids]

Weeping Crocodiles and Riverine Muses

The main art for WHEN THE CROCODILES WEEP is inspired by the ending shot of Mutya ng Pasig (1950, dir. Richard Abelardo). The movie is a drama about the death of the village songstress Chedeng and its ripple effects years later. The ending shot is of the floating ghost of Chedeng - theorized by the locals to be various things, from a witch to a mermaid.

This haunting imagery called to mind the folk tale of Doña Jeronima, also a diwata haunting the Pasig River - her story is retold by both Jose Rizal in El Filibusterismo and Nick Joaquin in a short story of the same name. I ended up merging Chedeng's character with her to create the Doña Jeronima of the game. She is The Riverine Saint, patroness of the Obispo clan (whose names are a reference to the Archbishop in the Doña Jeronima short story, by the way!).

Back to Chedeng. In the movie, Chedeng sings the following lines:

Dati akong Paraluman sa Kaharian ng pag-ibig Ang pag-ibig nang mamatay Naglaho rin ang kaharian

[Translation: I used to be the Muse of a Kingdom of love When the love died The kingdom was destroyed as well]

This made me think: what if instead of a Golden Land, it was a Kingdom of Love? I expressed this through the game's opening text:

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom of love blossoming under the waters of a river. People who lived above cried out: ”We are hungry! We are cold!” The muse of the kingdom felt pity for these poor wretches. In her mercy, she turned them all into crocodiles, making them part of her kingdom. They lived underwater, and never knew suffering again. Now, every time you see a crocodile weep, know that it is crying tears of joy.

Which brings me to the imagery of crocodiles, which were numerous in the Pasig River during the Spanish colonial period. We're familiar with the expression crocodile tears; we often represent politicians as these supposedly greedy, deceitful reptiles. The Obispos are a political clan, so I wanted to make a reference this.

However, in some pre-colonial belief systems crocodiles were also revered as the souls of ancestors. I tied this by establishing that the hoard of gold came from the Obispo patriarch's datu ancestors. The idea that a single clan has been ruling a territory as far back as 500 years ago also compels me greatly.

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I tried to be comprehensive in covering the game's references to Philippine literature while still being coherent. Hopefully this is a step in the right direction; I acknowledge that most likely no one will pick up on the Mutya ng Pasig reference in particular, so I wanted to spell it out.

[swellbloom-kids]

the spectating saints.

Saints are higher-existence beings spectating on the story - in this case, When the Crocodiles Weep - a Filipino reimagining of Umineko. From left to right, they are:

Bernardo Carpio, the Saint of Toil. An imprisoned giant chained between two mountains.

Asuang, the Saint of Damnation. The mother of monsters and all things hellish. Dwells deep under Mt. Malinao.

Sto. Monito, the Saint of Gifts. The saint form of Kulas Obispo, the story's hero. He must defeat Doña Jeronima and uncover her lies.

Flerida, the Saint of Truth. Her statements, just like her arrows, always hit their mark. Values accuracy above all.

I've got other Saint OCs, but these are the main ones. They're premade PCs for When the Crocodiles Weep, though you can always make your own.

Check out WTCW here:

[swellbloom-kids]

Saints are Swellbloom Kids' equivalent of Umineko witches. They are heavily featured in When the Crocodiles Weep.

I originally came up with just Doña Jeronima (the game's host) along with the four main PCs' patrons (Bernardo Carpio, Flerida, Pilandok, and Asuang), but I had a few more ideas. See if you can spot the references!

Semana Santan is my favorite so far.

[beholdtheleaves]

When the Crocodiles Weep is a murder mystery tabletop inspired by Umineko, Nick Joaquin's Doña Jeronima short story, Mutya ng Pasig, and other folk tales about the Pasig River.

It features the wealthy Obispo family trying to survive seemingly-impossible murders supposedly enacted by Doña Jeronima, the Muse of the Pasig. Meanwhile, higher-existence beings called Saints spectate on the story, trying to solve its mysteries - among them, Bernardo Carpio, Asuang, and Flerida.

Check it out here: