The Aswang Tour The Aswang Wars Stop October 31, 2013 Precious Banaag Topic: Philippine Folklore

and The Aswang Wars This is the night, isnt it? All Hallows Eve, they call it. The night the humans remember the dead. I do wonder sometimes, about these foolish beings. On this night, do any of them remember me? And will they remember the death Of Jei Rivera? Tonight, children will run amuck, the dead will wander, and the Aswang will take the hunt. This special night of Halloween, the Aswang Wars trilogy will be coming to an endand start all over again! Thats to say, the last installment of the paranormal trilogy The Aswang Wars, titled Segbin, will be released in all ebook formats from MuseItUp Publishing in very little time indeed; and tonight on Halloween the first print edition of the first installment, Manduruko, will become available worldwide! Just as the trilogy is set to wrap itself up, the story will start all over again. In celebration, Im here for the first stop of The Aswang Tours at Fragments of Life to talk about the amazing folklore and mythology of the Philippines that inspired an American like me to write a complete trilogy based on the creature called aswang. Ever since I made a brief visit to Manila with a Filipino friend years ago, the country has consistently left me in awe: the culture, the land, the people, and most of all the folklore. The Philippines has some of the darkest and most interesting mythology and folklore in the world. From half-horse Tikbalang to eclipse-causing bacunaua to cigar-smoking giants called Kapre, there was a plethora of myths and legends from the nation that still leave me wishing I could have somehow included them in the story. But the one creature, the one both feared and revered above all in almost every corner of the Philippine Islands is the one from which my paranormal trilogy takes its name: The Aswang. One of the harder parts of writing the aswang into a novel targeted for Western audiences was making the strict distinction between an aswang and a vampire. Both drink blood. Both change form. Both are feared, and sometimes immortal, monsters. My goal was to make sure that, although vampires are very in these days, my aswang were in no way mistaken for but simple vampires.

So I created the three clans. One for each main region of the Philippines, namely Luzon (northernmost), the Visayas (geographical middle), and Mindanao (far south). Each clan is equally aswang, but I wasnt just about to stick to the usual modern depiction of an aswang (which in some ways is very vampire-ish indeed). Mine had to be just as gruesome as the original legends. So I incorporated just a dash more of Philippine folklore. I researched aswang and found that theyre said to commonly shapeshift to the form of an animal, most often a black dog, bat/bird, or pig. A tad more research and I found three more creatures of Philippine mythology: a bat-like monster called Mandurugo, a forest-dwelling giant boar-like creature called Mantahungal, and finally a terrifying giant goat- or dog-like animal called Sigbin. That is how the three warring clans came to take the form of the mandurugo, mantahungal, and sigbin. The ghoulish beings youll find in the trilogy are not too unlike the old tales of aswang. I even had one aswang bury her victim with banana palms! But dont be mistaken in thinking that theyre the same old thing. These aswang have my own twisted edge to them. My aswang start as monstrous beasts (the abovementioned mantahungal, mandurugo, and sigbin) that naturally drink blood, and in some cases, eat the internal organs of other living beings. In an ancient feud with man, the aswang of old separated into two bloodlines: those too frail to cause a threat to humans; and those too great and monstrous to be killed by human force. There are only hundreds left, and even fewer retain the dominant bloodline, the blood that makes the segbin big as a bear, the manduruko as fierce as a wildcat, and the mantahungal as destructive as an elephant. Their survival relies on their ability to steal a human form and identity by bonding with their first human kill. They have proboscis tongues with which they can stab clear through a human body, a weakness to bagacay (bamboo spears), and a general resentment for all things mankind. Most of all, my aswang are brutal, savage, and primal, with very little emotion to speak of. That made writing the trilogy a challenge. As a writer, one has to connect with the emotions of the reader. You cant just rely on plot alone! But the main character, a dominant bloodline whos forgotten that he was ever aswang at all, is hardened to a point where only the voice can make him feel. Without giving too much away, the emotions (and the story with them) become more and more powerful as the series progresses, but from the beginning we know that Jei is moved only by the voice. The voice is the mystery, a sixth sense that only Jei has. It speaks to only him, and Im excited for after Halloween, when readers will finally understand the secrets that Ive been holding onto until now. Whether youve been following the Aswang Wars since the very beginning, or youre just now being introduced, I am excited to share the print release of Manduruko and the upcoming ebook release of Segbin with all of you. As the mysteries all come together, I know you will all be excited as I am. The monsters are waiting.

Yes, we are. Happy Halloween.