poisonouslittleviper

[flouresea]

yosano as a manananggal 🦇✨

happy halloween!! this was a collab with my art mutuals on insta <33

[pinoy-culture]

Today, let's discuss lunar myths, beliefs, and practices from the Philippines. 🌙✨️

As humans, we are all drawn to the beauty of the moon. Every culture has practices and stories associated with this celestial object that illuminates the dark night sky.

Are there any other lunar beliefs and practices you know of in the Philippines?

[lynnoepogi]

Ultrakill inspired Bakunawa oc (WIP)

[motziedapul]

We've just added another standalone comic to our many add-ons!

Aswang at Berdugo is a political horror comic with a queer superhero protagonist dealing with police being murdered by Aswang during the Duterte era.

You can get it by supporting our main Kickstarter!

It's available as a physical copy add-on for $15 CAD (not a main reward!)

It's one of our many comic add-ons to our main erotic/romantic adult comic (with high fantasy, sci-fi, and slice of life stories), The Pinoy Monster Lover Anthology: After Dark.

While it's not exactly as related as the other Pinoy Monster Anthologies, it's always present when I sell these comics in person!

Grab your copy now!

[bestiarium]

The Siyokoy [Filipino mythology]!

Aquatic humanoid creatures, usually with claws, scales and webbed appendages, live in lakes or rivers and drag unfortunate travelers under the water to drown them. To say that this story is a popular trope in folktales throughout the world would be about as big an understatement as saying that American chocolate chip cookies are popular in my apartment.

Almost every civilization has its own variety of aquatic humanoid monster, and that makes sense for two reasons: first, humans tend to drown when submerged for extended periods of time. A lot of people have drowned throughout human history, so it makes sense that many different myths arose about monsters who tried to drag their victims under the water. Second, these stories are often a variation of the classic ‘bogeyman’ tale: parents tell their children about a scary monster that would eat them (or bestow some other, presumably unpleasant fate upon them) to scare them away from bad behaviour.

A very common bogeyman tale is ‘if you venture too close to the river, a monster will come out and grab you’. This way, the child is dissuaded from playing near deep wells or rivers where it might fall in and drown (see reason 1 for more details on why this can happen).

In the Philippines, people believed in the Siyokoy (pronounced ‘Sho-koy’). These malicious monsters are dangerous creatures that lurk underwater. They are vaguely human-like in shape, but their head resembles that of a fish and their feet have webbed toes for swimming. The body of a Siyokoy is covered in fishy scales that are either green or brown, and they breathe through gills.

The Siyokoy eat human flesh, so they often hunt for fishermen. When a Siyokoy spots suitable prey, they grab their victim and drag them downward until they drown, before devouring them like I devour the aforementioned chocolate chip cookies.

Interestingly, there is some variety in the physical descriptions of these monsters. In some tales, they resemble classical mermaids (though male) with a fish-like lower body attached to the torso of a human. They are often said to have long tentacles to grab their victims. There are only male Siyokoy, because the monster is a counterpart of sorts to the Sirena, which are always female. Sirena are usually portrayed as human girls with a mermaid tail.

Sources: Bane, T., 2016, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, McFarland, p. 294, 428 pp. De Las Caras, D. and Gagatiga, Z. C., 2011, Tales from the 7000 Isles: Filipino Folk Stories, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, p. 16, 204 pp. (image source 1: Gladys Domalaon, RPG corebook illustration for Secret Garden Games) (image source 2: Dread-Softly on Deviantart)

[hinaypod]

The Gods of Hi Nay

The Gods of Hi Nay will be a recorded feature in which I will explain the gods Mari invokes throughout the series.

You'll get to learn more about Tagalog mythology, as well as the slight liberties I take in the series in order to make them fit the narrative. This will be based on my personal research into Tagalog mythology, which is extensive (but not expert! You'd have to talk to actual history and mythology scholars in the Philippines for that).

Enjoy this excerpt below:

Throughout the story of Hi Nay, Mari mentions a few Tagalog gods.  Some of those gods include Anagolay–the Tagalog goddess of lost things. Mari references the eye in her anting-anting as “the eye of Anagolay”, which she invokes to help her find things. Answers, lost people, etc.  In F. Landa Jocano’s Notes on Philippine Divinities, this is the only mention of Anagolay:  “They had a daughter named Anagolay who became the goddess of lost things. When Anagolay reached maidenhood, she married Dumakulem, son of Idianali and Dumangan, with whom she had two children, Apolaki who became the god of the sun and patron of fighters, and Dian Masalanta who became the goddess of lovers.” He further expands on the relationship between Tagalogs and their gods: “From the union of these gods and goddesses came the order and regularity of the Tagalog world. However, as life became more and more complex as a result of the expanding social relationship among the worshippers, Bathala sent down to earth the ancestral spirits to help these different divinities administer to the needs of the people on earth. Each of these spirits had a special office. Some of them were assigned as guardians of those who fight in war and others were given the task of protecting men from illnesses. However, as time went on, these spirits became the interceding divinities between men and the gods. They were the ones to whom sacrifices were offered whenever the people desired something. These sacrifices were performed by the catalonan or priest.” The Eye of Anagolay is entirely my creation, based on the traditional anting-anting often bearing eye imagery. Since many horror podcasts have ironically involved eye imagery, in Hi Nay, the eye is benevolent rather than malevolent–Anagolay’s eye, always finding lost things, always looking out for Mari in a foreign land.  The writing on Mari’s anting-anting reads the following:  Marilag na anak ni Lakampating mahabagin; translated as “Beautiful child of compassionate Lakampati” This is a play on words: Anagolay’s appearance is never described in historical records, but in this we call her “beautiful”. The word for “beautiful” also happens to be Mari’s real name: Marilag; “beautiful” or “gorgeous”. 

[fricklefracklefloof]

take a gander at my beloved oc’s

[adarlingmess]

But what if we combine Mermay and Maynananggal?

Behold, a stingray mermaynananggal 🧜‍♀️🦇

[quitealotofsodapop]

It's really funny cuz none of the pilgrims are aware of the demons of other countries that specifically target pregnant women—

What do you think it's gonna be like when a manananggal comes out at night and tries to cut open SWK's lower abdomen while their bowels are just sticking out? because the lower half of the manananggal's body is cut and will stand in place within a dark place (i.e, a forest, a cave or something) so that nobody can see/find it + can only be killed when garlic or salt is sprinkled on their lower body

I visualize it as either chaotic or just straight up something from a horror film—

I oddly think that the Stone Egg itself has a magic barrier around it to cushion damage from it's enviroment - being buried in the ground means it would be subject to earthquakes, volcanic activity, floods, the physical death of it's parent etc.

So imagine a scenario where the Pilgrim gang are staying the night in a somber village, hearing rumors of women losing their unborn children and suffering from horrific injuries or infection. Wukong i mega-sketched out, but the gang decides to investigate if it's a curse or something in case it follows them.

They don't seem to find any leads until an old merchant warns them of a bat-like creature said to inhabit the islands farther south-east. The animate flying torso of a woman that splits itself in half at night to target sleeping victims, particularly the pregnant.

The Pilgrims shudder at the implications.

That very night, the horse starts freaking tf out, waking the Pilgrims from their sleep where they see the figure of a bisected woman leaning over their eldest brother...

The whole Pilgrim group is freakings out, especially Wukong who's woken up to see this horrorfying demon cutting into his body. His heart fills with fear not for his own immortal body, but for the developing one he holds within.

The sharp tongue of the creature punctures through the furry stomach... only to find an Egg-shaped barrier of magic enveloping it's prize.

The creature is confused long enough for Zhu Bajie to crush and hold down it's top-half with his rake. Tripitaka and Sha Wujing have a brief argument on what the protocol is for this type of demon and recruit the old merchant to assist them in defeating the creature for good. The merchant explains the method to kill the creature by salting it's hidden lower half - Ao Lie gets a clever idea.

Flying over the village and the surrounding forest, Ao Lie and Sha Wujing convince the dragons of the local skies to rain saltwater down heavily upon the village before sunrise to flush out the creature's lower half.

At sunrise; the manananggal manages to escape from Bajie's grasp, only for a horrific screech to ring out as it tries to reconnect with it's lower body moments later.

The village is super greatful when they find the remains of the demoness, especially when they learn one of the Pilgrims was a pregnant person injured in the attack. The gang gets lots of alms for their troubles, and Wukong now knows his Egg has a layer of magic to cushion it from such threats.

[messydoodles]

That moment when you want a Filipino character so bad you make one yourself….but you make her a villainous monster.

I made a mini MK1 OC, her name is Cielo.

Shes one of Shang Tsung’s failed experiments that was locked in his lab. A mixture of Vaturnian and human blood. However the human blood came from a creature known as the Manananggal, a Filipino violent cryptid that has large wings and is able to detach itself from her lower half.

Cielo only escaped after Shang Tsung was captured and his lab was being investigated. A few unlucky Umgadi let her loose after smelling just one drop of blood. She’s let loose into Outworld to satisfy her years of hunger.

The first encounter she had with the MK1 characters was in Sun Do. Kenshi, Kung Lao, Johnny, and Raiden were in Outworld for the week staying at the palace. They’re suddenly woken up in the middle of the night to deal with a sudden alert of a threat that needs immediate attention. Going out in their PJ’s and weapons they split up to find the creature. Raiden is the first to encounter Ceilo in an alleyway eating a dead corpse.

Ceilo, while not a large scale threat, is a danger. The combination of very animalistic DNA, the intelligence to make calculated decisions, and being deprived of food creates a recipe of disaster. She won’t stop to devour bodies and bodies until she’s satisfied

(I really just wanted a cool Filipino character, this is the first OC I’ve drawn in awhile)

[kazuzuha22]

“I am the jester

My job's to entertain

And it seems that soon enough

It too will be my job to reign

Over all that you see

Over all that you know

As the king is slowly dying

At any moment he could go

Yes the king is slowly dying

Any moment he will go”

Oh sweet Jester of the moon, the entertainer of the gods, I pray that in these dark moments you bring us hope from despair, as you have granted us light from darkness.

——————————————————————————————

Okay so basically in my book Malyari is a jester, the god’s entertainer. Though she is sometimes worshipped as a king by the aetas and sambals. But after possessing a dead body, he soon lost some of her powers, making him weak. He wishes to be back on the moon, entertaining gods and being with his brother once again.

[pinoy-culture]

✨️ Our ancestors before the Spaniards arrived wore gold and passed them down through the generations, regardless of social class. They even crafted bowls, liquid vessels, and the hilts and covers of daggers and swords out of gold.

They buried these ornaments with the dead so that they could use it in the afterlife and as a token to give the spirit or deity to leave purgatory. They also covered the faces of the dead with gold death masks to protect them from evil spirits entering the body.

Numerous Spanish accounts record that they wore gold and buried their dead with gold bahandi, or heirlooms. From Antonio Pigafetta, Francisco Alcina, Pedro Chirino, Friar Bobadilla and within the Boxer Codex Manuscript. Together with historical accounts, archeological finds of gold artifacts from Luzon, the Bisayas, and Mindanao show how much our pre-colonial ancestors wore and used gold in their clothing, divine figures, and everyday wear, similar to the rest of Southeast Asia.

To see many of these artifacts, check out the gold exhibit in the National Museum of the Philippines and Ayala Museum.

[boog-how]

Kapre's Anito

[motziedapul]

🌺 19 DAYS TO GO! 🌺

The Pinoy Monster Lover Anthology: After Dark, a queer, 18+ comic anthology by Filipino creators is 50% funded on Kickstarter.

Motzie explains why she started this project, and how it's a celebration of Filipino queerness, sexuality, and culture:

We've got the work of 8 amazing artists on display, and I've been hard at work on the pages while running the marketing campaign for this project - the fourth installment in our Pinoy Monster Anthology series, and the first adults only entry. There are a few reasons we wanted to go with an 18+ anthology. For one thing, we've always had a primarily adult audience, but more importantly; most Filipinos know, especially queer Filipinos, how restrictive and sex negative certain parts of the culture can be, and celebrations of sexuality are, in a way, a joyful re-invigoration of a part of our culture that's been labeled dirty or unholy, by the very same institutions that erased so much of our history. Sexuality was such a big part of precolonial Filipino culture that we still have records of such from that era - up to and including our anito, or pre-colonial gods and spirits (look up Lakambakod! His only physical traits are… very interesting). Along with reclaiming our expressions of sexuality, there's been a renewed appreciation for Filipino folklore and monsters, and just like Guillermo Del Toro (but perhaps, in a very different direction - though not that different, considering The Shape of Water), I wanted to celebrate the beauty in the monstrous, the romance in the horror, alongside other amazing Filipino artists, whose efforts I want to be rewarded in full. Please do check out the Pinoy Monster Lover Anthology! The main title is 18+ but the previous titles (which are included as add-ons) are all ages or PG-13 at most. We have a few weeks to go, and lots of amazing art to share.

🌺Back it on Kickstarter HERE🌺

[inkcurlsandknives]

Enter the world of Saints, as an elemental magic user blessed by one of the three goddesses, for my followers who accepted my offer to be sorted!

Once a year, at the start of the wet season, the Katalonan (shaman) sing down the Ambon (sun shower) and name all those of age to the three goddesses. The named will dive for a sacred oyster to make their mother of pearl mutya and see if they might find a pearl and be named gods-blessed.

Today’s divers each found a round pearl, the mark of the tide-touched, chosen by the Sea Lady, Aman Sinaya.

Will you choose a healer’s path, or learn to call sea currents and waves to your bidding?

Enter the world of Saints of Storm and Sorrow to learn more.

Today’s Tide-Touched Divers:

@merryfromthestars

@tryan-a-bex

@ex-libris-craux

@quarra

@purpleflowerluminaryus

(this is part of the reblog game I ran, if you didn't get a chance to join keep your eye out I'm working on a Saints sorting quiz!)

[mutiniir]

gonna introduce u guys to some filipino monster heehee