#funnily enough my sis named her childhood pillow butin (short for lambutin lmao cause it was soft)

[pinayelf]

Here some questions for you!

What's to you the most interesting pit of research you ever stumbled upon while designing/deciding the backgrounds for your characters? A cool fact you were excited to learn.

Also, what's your favourite thing to draw?

Thank you so much Arja!! ❤️

I was looking up pre-colonial Tagalog naming customs and was pleasantly surprised that I found something! This isn't for any specific story/project just general for high fantasy world building (as well as researching my own culture).

Source here (the original sources are linked in the reddit post, I prefer this post bc the og sources are journals from colonizers :/)

- The mother is usually responsible naming the child, and it can range anywhere from how the baby was during birth of perhaps they were near a river when the baby was born. Ex: Malakas (meaning: strong, like maybe the baby kicked with some strength behind it lol), Damo (meaning: grass, the mom looked outside after the baby was born and saw grass)

- Male and female names are differentiated by adding -in to the end of female names. Ex: Ilog (river) becomes Ilogin

- You will receive a new title when you have children. Amani (father of) and Inani (mother of). For example if you're the father of Bakal your new title would be Amanibakal (Father of Bakal). I've read that this is similar with Arabic names? Which is cool

- Filipino culture in general has a colorful way with nicknames and I wouldn't be surprised if it's because pre-colonial people (not just the Tagalog people) influenced it. For example if you shared an egg with your friend you call them Kaitlog (itlog meaning egg)

There's much much more in that thread and the linked sources. I wish it had more info and I hope there's more sources that have documented th3 specificities of it because I'm hungry to know.

I don't have access to journals and rely on people who do, and people who will dig through colonizer journals sadly. But I love learning it and I have a fondness for etymology in general ❤️

Hence Linawin (one of the name options for my Rook) was created with this naming custom in mind, Linaw meaning clear.

I also wonder if I should apply this to Biyaya (blessing) and make it Biyayain! I do wonder if Biyaya WOULD be used as a name - tho it does seem like pre-colonial Tagalog people named children from anywhere like Matatag (sturdy) to Maliwag (difficult) to Bato (rock)

For the second question, I love drawing eyes and lips hehe. I was talking to friends the other day and said I love giving male characters big pretty eyes (honestly I love giving everyone big pretty eyes lmao).

A wip but I enjoyed drawing Bellara's lips so much (mayhaps it's bc I am thinking of her lips lol 😳)