#phillipine mythology

[creatureofclouds]

Day 31: Death Angel

Thank you so much to everyone who supported me and helped me finish my first Inktober!

[combodactyl]

"Man I shouldn't have taken that detour, I know this place like the back of my hand, why is that tree so weird looking. They cackle making fun of your predicament. Your trip home was going so well but they are at fault. What did your grandparents say again, something about your shirt? Nah that would be dumb. You gaze upon the balete tree it rustles to life. Three of the creatures jump out laughing in all to familiar voice. You're stuck here with them.... forever"

And that's supposed Day 4. This monster is based on the Phillipine legend of the Tikbalang a monster that gets you lost. For our next post we travel back to Africa into an unknown cave. Anyway until my next post stay safe as we wander our way into the next #inktober monster.

[alpaca-clouds]

About the international vampires (that are not really vampires)

You know what? Based on the rant I posted last week about the James Somerton video, let me vent about this one specific thing that I have seen around since basically forever. The thing even I believed, because the non-fiction books on vampire mythology I read as a teen claimed this as well. The claim that there are vampires all around the world, that basically every culture has a vampire myth. And that... it is just bullshit. And not only bullshit, but colonial bullshit.

Let me ask you one thing: What do you think of, when I say "vampire"?

I would guess your thoughts are:

Undead (and hence probably immortal)

Drinks blood or maybe consumes human life energy

Probably some sexually charged stuff

And, well... Those things are only really a thing with some of the vampires we find in Eastern European Mythology, which later spread into other parts of Europe (especially England). There is one of the wanna-be international vampires, that kinda fit the deal - though only through more modern interpretation. And that is the Aswang from the Phillipines. But even here, this is not part of the original myth but more came to be through mixing of the myths of the culture with Western mythology.

And that... is actually the big issue here.

See, vampire mythology as we know it is mostly a thing from Victorian England. While we will find some of the ideas in the Eastern European mythology that Victorian England based their ideas on, most things we associate with it come from England. And you know what England did over the years? Yeah, that is right, they colonized most of the fucking world.

And that is where the issue comes in.

See, as someone who is very much into comparative mythology I can tell you: Yes, there are certain ideas in different mythologies that repeat. Showing up in myths around the world. (One of my favorites is the "magic tree connected to knowledge".)

But a big issue with comparative mythology is, that some parts of it are also Western researchers (or people who wanna be such) looking for imagery that confirms their preconscieved notions. And as such they want to find those creatures and gods and patterns that are "just like this thing from our mythology". It is a big thing that happened with Campbell.

And that... kinda has just happened with vampires as well. If you look into the claimed to be vampires all around the world, you will find, that most of them are not vampires at all. At times they do not consume blood, are not undead and also do not have anything about themselves that could really be considered vampiric. Or they are undead, but if we were honest, if anything they are more like zombies than vampires (the hungry dead of Chinese mythology are a good example of this).

And, yeah... I am sorry, but that is just colonial bullshit. It is taking a Western thing and pressing international mythology through this one specific lense. That is not how any of this works.

It is disrespectful towards those other cultures and their mythology. Those creatures are not vampires, they are their own fucking thing.

Now, by all means. If you wanna put other European creatures through the vampire lense... Fine. But don't go around and claim that stuff from other cultures is actually "totally like this one European thing". It is... just horrible.

And yes, I am looking angrily at fucking World of Darkness here, too. Because boy howdy, do they like to do that with their rulebooks, too. (For heaven's sake, White Wolf, just hire people from other cultures. I am begging you!)

[lurinoodle]

Final Concepts for my original species Amihan– which is inspired by the Phillipine mythology of the same name!

[godsofhumanity]

While we are in the subject of Phillipine Mythology, What do you think of the love story between Sidapa and bulan?

never heard of it... but i read up about it here: site link

i was thinking elements of this story sound a LOT like hades x persephone... i find it interesting that people like portraying death gods as extreme/jealous lovers... like they're always like that. hades, veles, now this sidapa guy etc.

but the most interesting thing is---- apparently this myth isn't even real. it's not true. someone just wrote fanfiction on the net and people believed them?????????? so what's real? is this a true myth?

[rwbyazre]

Do you have designs of Team AZRE's families?

That I do! We'll start with Adam first of course:

Since Cerise is the wilted rose to Adam's Beast, I wanted to keep a lot of Adam's own design in hers. Obviously, her pink is a softer version of Adam's true red, with the green shirt underneath being a nice complimentary colour that matches her green eyes.

I wanted to design her to have a very motherly and civilian look, so she's pretty much wrapped up with the loose "anime mom" hairstyle. Her hair is also the more pinkish-red than true red, which Adam still has, but her eyes are green rather than blue so that Adam didn't just inherit everything from her.

I also gave her cow ears, I just think they look cute! The tag on her right with the SDC is common practice in Mantle's mines, but not anywhere else in Remnant. Not every Faunus has them, and they were far more common when Cerise was a younger girl, but Faunus trapped working for the SDC are often given tags so that they can easily be tracked.

Fun fact, Alon was originally called Chairo, Japanese for Brown, before I decided to go more for a Filipino inspiration to offset how I constantly go to Japanese for characters. I also made it that the parents are mostly opposites in their colour schemes, I just think it makes them look better together while still having something in common.

Alon is the Sarangay in Phillipine mythology, so I obviously went with a water/blue design to offset with Cerise' pink theme. The blue and white together also serve the water/water foam thing while the white helps to offset parts of his limps, such as his arms and feet, from the darker blues. His bull background is shown more with the bull shaped buttons on his jacket, and with the one earring to tie him to the Sarangay specifically.

His hair texture and horns are what Adam inherited, but also the eye shape and blue eyes. Really, Adam took Cerise' colours and emblem, but he really does look a lot like his father, just lighter skinned.

For a look into how his first draft looked like, here's an edit of him from about three years ago:

Oof.

Now Ghira is still Bagheera, but I did change some of his design to better fit both his allusion and where he lives. 

I never liked his canon outfit, especially with the fur, so I got rid of that and gave him more Indian-inspired clothing. He still has the same colouring, which is what Blake also uses, and you can really see that Blake takes after Ghira a lot compared to Hajimu. He uses the flower pattern on his shirt that Hajimu uses on her bolero, just so his black shirt looks a bit more interesting than just a standard shirt. 

The shawl over his shoulder also helped to add more of his purple, since his colour comes from his surname; Belladonna. He has the yellow decoration as a complimentary colour for his purple, and to match his yellow eyes. I also gave him ears to go with his claws, just because of how Faunus genetics work with Blake having ears too. 

Also, the arm sling is something he wears constantly after he was shot by humans while still in the White Fang. Some of the scars from that wound is visible under the wide collar. 

Hajimu very much takes after Kali’s canon design, just with a few colour changes. As her name means blue-black in Japanese, the gold was swapped out for blue to match her eyes, along with the purple sash to tie her to her husband. Ghira has a blue wrist sash, but it’s on the arm that’s covered by his shawl. 

Her hair was also changed from black to silverish grey to mimic a wolf’s fur, same with her giant ears being specifically wolf ears. Since she’s Raksha in the White Fang and the okami-okuri for her personal allusion, she takes a lot of wolf imagery. 

Her eyes are now blue instead of gold, as well. Really, I just wanted to make sure both Ghira and Hajimu didn’t look the same, and that while Blake clearly takes after Ghira, she still has some of Hajimu’s features.

Xanthe is obviously where Argenta and Zanthus get their Greek inspiration and allusions from, so he really was designed with Zanthus in mind, barring differences of course. He’s noticeably lighter skinned and has green eyes rather than the slit pupils, but Zanthus does use his colouring more with the golds and reds. He’s also the Lion faunus like his kids, rather than the wild cat Faunus that Sable is. 

His scars are from the Faunus Rights Revolution that he fought in, and he is missing his left hand, which he covers with his cape. His cape isn’t what inspired Zanthus’ though, as he uses the more typical back cape like Qrow and Ruby. 

 Fun fact; her original colouring was blue because I thought it was purple, and now I know.

Also, she went through a pretty different clothes design than her original outfit, which is what’s described in her debut chapter. I designed her right at the beginning of AZRE, when my designing skills weren’t that great, so I redid her while doing these full bodies for the AZRE cast. 

Now her colour scheme reflects her actual name; Sigal, which means violet rather than Sable, the name forced on her. The purple is used with a very pale cream, almost white, and I went with Jordan inspired clothing because Jordan is where the Midians were thought to originate from with some research, and because she was always meant to be MENA like Zanthus and Argenta. 

You can obviously see where Zanthus gets his skin tone, eyes, but also his hair is meant to mimic Sable’s hairtype; a more fluffier version to Xanthe’s. Her emblem is also now visible, and honestly I just like the colouring of this outfit far more.

For comparision, her OG outfit:

Cringe. 

Similar to Sable, Argenta actually had gone through a rehaul of her design, but I did keep the colouring the same. Really, I wanted to personalise it more than the OG showed, and really feed into the heart of stone aspect that I wanted for Argenta’s design. She also has visible scars now because i like characters with scars, and I changed the bandana colour from light blue to orange for Qiu and for a pop of something contrasting. 

She also one of the few Faunus with animal ears to actually style her hair to show that she doesn’t have human ears. A lot of other Faunus actually style their hair to hide away this trait. 

This was her original outfit. Not something I hate, but very plain and lacking compared to what she wears now. 

Qiu is the last of Zanthus’ family outside of his own kids in the sequel, but he’s the adoptive son of Argenta and so is Zanthus’ nephew, and that plotpoint is actually a part of Argenta’s story and character growth. I wanted to do a red panda Faunus as well, so he was perfect for using that in his design. 

Obviously with the tail and ears, but the black stripes on his face are actually another traits of his. Since his name means Autumn, I obviously went with that theme in his look and his colour scheme, which implements some of Argenta in due to how close they are. He’s honestly one of my favourite designs despite being pretty straightforward, and it’s just so cute. 

Since Hisui is the Kashima God to Ruri’s Namazu, I wanted to keep the water theme with him, hence the wave patterns on his sleeves and kimono. He’s also where Ruri gets the catfish heritage from, though Hisui differs slightly in that his ears aren’t completely fins, which helped him avoid the whole becoming deaf part that his daughter struggles with. 

He has the scales still, and the gills are hidden away by his beard. I also styled his mustache to looks like the catfish whiskers. Besides that, he takes a very fuedal Japan daiymo look to his outfit since he is very rich, but still keeps the waves to tie back to his humble fisherman roots. 

The Kashima family really hasn’t differed from the OG drafts I had when I first created them. Everything is really the same except the added checkered Obi, and the sakura patterns on her kimono. Since she’s themed around the pearl, I used more pinks/purples/whites in her design to reflect the typical colours of the pearl.

As she’s the Maneki-Neko, she’s a calico cat and is based around money, having a more rich style clothing to match her background. The hair decorations are very common for wealthy women in Northern Mistral, but none are as extravagent as the Empress who started the whole trend. 

It’s very pretty, but a pain to draw all those little details.

Seigyoku is very much the same design as she started with, save for the addition of a few details. She has added thigh belts for her fans, her belt now has sakura patterns on them, and her emblem is now on her chest. It’s a latern to allude to the laterns that Bakenekos are attracted to in Japanese mythology.

And since her allusion is the Bakeneko, she inherited the cat traits from Shinju to follow with this choice. She obviously looks very similar to Shinju, compared to Ruri taking after Hisui, but neither of them have lilac/green hair. In universe reason? They got it from their grandmother. Out of universe reason? I designed the parents after and the blue hair clashed with their set colour palletes.

Now, Eirian has legit the biggest family out of her team, and I believe the whole cast, so her section is obviously gonna be longer. 

Very much Eirian Snr. I could’ve added more of Clementine to Eirian’s design to counter just how similar she is to Icheku, but I ended up not doing that since I wanted to reflect how close Eirian and Icheku are compared to the absence Clementine has both in life and death in Eirian’s life. 

But I did give Icheku a contrasting colour pallete and obviously visible Faunus traits. He uses white, browns and oranges against Eirian’s whites, blacks and blues. But he obviously wears more Zulu style clothing, and the silver bracelets that Eirian does. His necklace is also there from when he turned eighteen, but the necklaces are unique in that they reflect the colours of the wearer.

Specifically, their eye colour and the complimentary colour; which is why Icheku’s are purple and yellow while Eirian’s are red and green, they both have different eye colours. You also can’t see on this, but Icheku actually has rectangle pupils rather than the typical round. 

No one make fun of how similar Clementine looks to Yang. My friends do that enough. 

There wasn’t much in the notes for designing Clementine. Really all there was down were “GingerTM” and “CelticTM”, and that was what I went off on. She has Scottish and Irish influences, and her mother/sisters are more Irish, but I have her father as the Scottish one where she got her last name from. And since she has orange hair, I could use that orange as an accent and a connection to Icheku.

The rest is just different shades of blue, and white for the ivory parts in her corset. The silver bracelet is obviously Icheku’s, since marriage involves giving a part of yourself to your spouse, and vice versa. It’s why Eirian wears a yellow hair tie and Yang wears one of her bracelets. Her emblem is also the Triquetra, which is the Celtic symbol that has connections to spirituality and family.

And she has face scars because I like them. 

Another fun factTM: I can’t spell Muerinn’s name properly. Her name is actually  MUIREANN but my dyslexic ass misread it as Muerinn. She’s one of Clementine’s younger sisters that she left in Atlas when she went to Haven Academy. 

But anyway, her allusion is Anne Bonney because I wanted a pirate character for the pirate colony south of Vacuo. With both her names connecting to the sea and dark, her colour scheme is very oceanic, with the different shades of blue, white and silver. The orange is meant to be like a complimentary colour to her blue, and to connect her to Clementine, so it’s the colour of her sash and one of the pendants she wears.

Another of my favourite designs, I should draw her without the jacket sometime. 

Aisling is Muireann’s twin, so she’s Eirian’s maternal aunt. She also shares the Celtic inspiration that the rest of Clementine’s side of the family does, with the wide shaped sleeves, skirt and corset, and cape, but I added some eye imagry to tie into her allusion of Babd; who is connected to foretelling of battles and deaths.

Which is also why she has Clementine’s Triquetra as part of her emblem, and also wears orange in connection to her deceased sister, like Muireann. She’s also blind, which is why her red eyes are milky in colour compared to Muireann/Clementine/Eirian.

Last of Clementine’s shown family is Roisinn, her mother and Eirian’s maternal grandmother. She’s very much designed after the old women I see constantly in my real life, and her long skirt was great for adding the extra detail; including the roses where she got her name, her tree of life emblem, and the broken Triquetra to symbolise her broken relationship with Clementine.

She originally had black hair which the twins get, but her eyes are pink rather than red, as they all get their red eyes from their deceased father.  

You can’t see under her sweater much, but she also wears a back brace, since she has a bad back from her work in the SDC mines. 

Safou is the only living relative on Icheku’s side, and has actually been alluded to in the story, but she’s very much separated from her son and granddaughter. 

While her last name was taken by Eirian, I designed her to have the more Zulu inspired clothing like Icheku, but she has the ewe ears compared to horns that Icheku got from his father. Her ears are actually inherited by Eirian, but they’re recessive so she doesn’t show them. 

The giant scar on her right arm came from a Dust explosion, as she originally was from Vacuo but was taken to Menagerie to work in the mines set up there by Atlas. She remained in Menagerie after it’s reclaimation.

Jacob is Muireann’s lover and can be seen as Eirian’s uncle, with the two having adopted Sage, but yeah his allusion is Mary Read and they’re another pirate like Muireann. Nothing much to say about his design since I never really had a set look for him before, but I do remember really wanting him to wear  the thigh high boots so there we go. 

His name was originally Bluebelle before he fell in with the pirates, so that’s also why he has blue, plus it connects him to Muireann. 

Finally, Sage rounds it off for the families. 

He’s been repurposed from canon RWBY, since he’s now in the pirate crew ran by Muireann, so his design is slightly different. I shortened his giant white coat and added a few decorations, and I might redesign him again in the future since I’m not 100% on this look, but it’ll do for now. 

[edwardtulane01]

Myths are reflections of the societies they originate from. By reading these myths, we learn what they valued and what they feared. They also serve as tales of morality, differentiating between good and bad. Some myths explain how cultural traditions came to be or what they signify. The oral passing of the myths keeps traditions alive. 

Myths also served as explanations for natural phenomena. In Norse Mythology, the Northern Lights are caused by light reflecting off Valkyrie armor. In Phillipine mythology, night comes when the morning goddess descends into the underworld to visit her father, then emerges, bringing morning with her.

Myths often serve as the foundation of narratives today. One of the biggest film franchises around today, Marvel, features Thor as a main character, with many of his movies featuring elements from Norse mythology, placed in contemporary society. Something that otherwise would not have reached such a wide audience is now a household name.

[vanwolffen]

I just got into reading the Jujutsu Kaisen manga.

I really like the anime, Mappa's animators are incredible.

Buy I never really got into the manta because I don't enjoy the style. I don't even enjoy the story that much.

And I just got to chapter 136, where it says that Japan's is the only nation capable of training cursed users and energy.

And I hate it.

1, it goes against what is stated at the beginning of the manga, saying that cursed users are every day less and less.

And

2, it just shows the lack of research and understanding of the world.

The Caribbean, many countries in Africa, India, countries in South America, Mexico, Phillipines and many other countries on South East Asia. All of this are, to this day, are culturally rich, not only for traditions, but the rituals and mythologies they interweave into their mysticism.

The Loa and their curses that go from New Orleans and all the Caribbean. The Santeria used in Mexico and Latin America.

Magic and protection spells, curses. Necromancy. Monsters and creatures.

And the mangaka just says Middle East and America.

Wtf?

Shaman King showed way more respect than that.

Maybe this is a result of Japan becoming increasingly isolationist.

It is a true shame, when an author crafts a nice magic system, and it just says. "Oh, it only works here because we are special."

It reminds me of one particular someone in the United Kindgom.

[daphnaea]

tagalog mythology: anagolay

goddess of lost things

Requested by @harayaan-mo-sila

[dragoncreator312]

[mecthology]

The Tiyanak from Phillipine mythology.

Once it is picked up by an unfortunate passerby, it reverts to its true form and attacks the victim. The tiyanak is also depicted to take malevolent delight in leading travelers astray, or in abducting children.

While various legends have slightly different versions of the tiyanak folklore, the stories all agree on its ability to mimic an infant, able to imitate an infant's cries for luring victims.

There are various stories on how tiyanaks came to be. The Mandaya people of Mindanao claim that the tiyanak is the spirit of a child whose mother died before giving birth. This caused it to be "born in the ground", thus gaining its current state.

With the Spanish colonization of the Philippines in the 16th century, the tiyanak myth was integrated into Catholicism. The tiyanak in the Catholic version were supposedly the souls of infants that died before being baptized.

It is also said that Tiyanak cannot go to the afterlife because of not having a name. This causes them to be Earth-bound creatures which wander around searching for someone to give them names.

In local belief, various countermeasures are supposedly effective against the tiyanak. Those that were led astray by the creature's cries are believed to be able to break the enchantment by turning their clothes inside out. The tiyanak finds the method humorous enough to let go of the traveler and go back to the jungles. Loud noises such as a New Year's celebration are also thought to be enough to drive the tiyanak away from the vicinity. Objects like garlic and the rosary, are also commonly believed to be effective against the tiyanak. It is also believed that giving a name to these lost souls will bring them peace, and offering a white candle will help guide its spirit to afterlife.

Follow @mecthology for more myths and lore. DM for pic credit or removal. https://www.instagram.com/p/CZUliaRPW_E/?utm_medium=tumblr

[lady-of-lyon]

Part 2 of my 20 goddess project. I hate to do this to you but tumblr is sucky with links, so if you want in-depth descriptions of the goddesses they're in my highlights on my insta, @lyon_ofthe_lounge. Check 'em out there!

[moontruffles]

The Ramenanggal

Why is Filipino mythology full of scary monsters?! Haha, I actually love the idea of manananggals because of how over-the-top freaky they are, but since I don’t draw bloody/gory stuff I wanted to put a cute twist on the idea. And since I’m always craving ramen, I figured this would be a fun mash-up!

[oliverdemersartist]

-Concept Sketch_2019_Berberoka-

With these, I picked a theme, and then worked on that theme to make character designs. This one based on Berberoka, a creature in Philippine mythology, also known by it's unofficial name "human trapper" and "master at hide and seek."

[angiyonglibulan]

SIDAPA X LIBULAN (Speedpaint)

Watch here: https://youtu.be/bm5oopy168Q