#libulan

Libulan was the copper-bodied grandchild of Kaptan the Skyfather, characterized by his cowardly temperament. After joining a failed Heavenly Rebellion against his grandfather, he was struck down by divine lightning, and his melted remains were fashioned into the Moon.

This tragic event led his youngest sibling, Libali, to retreat into an eternal sleep beneath Mt. Madiyah-as.

Abilities Granted

Please Pity Me: You enjoy moping in public to gain sympathy. Once per scene, you can force all eyes upon you. For the next round of combat, enemies can only target you, and your allies gain +1 to all stealth-related actions while they are ignored.

Faces Like the Phases: Your moody nature makes you hard to influence. You gain +1 on Poise rolls to resist being intimidated, charmed, or manipulated.

Weight of Sadness: By acting visibly distraught, you can cause others to feel your weight. Once per scene, a target who can see you must pass a Heart roll or gain the effect Despairing (3 Hits).

Cowardly Retreat: Once per session, you can instantly leave a scene and successfully escape pursuit without needing to make a roll.

we deserve to be silly and goofy about our gods, and I think they are very interesting and can prompt some good writing! but instead you just focus on the (1) myth that's not even true

Fiction inspired by or based from precolonial Filipino mythologies, in a way, help preserve our ancestors' myths. Unfortunately, there are people out there who are spreading Filipino mythology-inspired stories reeking of modern concepts as actual precolonial myths either due to ignorance or a deliberate act to further personal biases or self-inserts influenced by the folly of identity representation - to make it look as if the very modern sociopolitical movement they are forcing into society was already a thing during our ancestors' time; take modern gender sensibilities, for example. Even worse are those who fetishize the myths. It's also lamentable that there are artists who spread poorly researched artwork on precolonial Filipino mythology and beliefs. These only confuse and misinform those who are new to Filipino mythology, doing further damage to what remains of our ancestors' myths. Centuries of colonization almost wiped out these myths and, sadly, today some of our own people are finishing what the colonizers started. With that in mind, let me present some facts to debunk the misconceptions some people are insinuating about the myths on Sidapa, Bulan, Libulan, Haliya and Mayari.

The Bulan/Libulan and Sidapa love story

The love story of Sidapa and Bulan or Libulan, that resulted to insinuations that they are "queer" deities with Bulan or Libulan being tagged as “patron god of homosexuality” is nothing but a modern fabrication. The tale is a hoax peddled online as actual precolonial Philippine mythology and belief. There aren't any old documents to prove that such a narrative is part of precolonial myths nor is the story featured in any oral tradition. The story is also borderline pedophilia. There are people who justify the narrative as a result of "evolving myths" or that it could be considered as a modern myth when in fact it is nothing but a certain group of people forcing their modern identity politics into our ancestors' myths. These people don't really give a damn about the culture behind our ancestors' myths. What matters to them is their own "culture" which they are projecting into the myths. They're warping indigenous myths to conform with their own agenda, with their own culture just like what the colonizers did. I guess facts are irrelevant when a narrative is being pushed.

Sidapa

Sidapa was first recorded in Miguel Loarca’s Relacion de las Islas Filipinas (1582), a report about the archipelago and it’s people. During Loarca’s time the people of what is now Arevalo District, Iloilo City and neighboring villages believed that Sidapa was responsible for the length of an individual’s lifespan and that he had a huge tree up Mt. Madiaas in Antique Province. On the said tree he carved a notch every time a person was born to set the length of the said person's life. According to Loarca he got such info through the natives' songs about their deities and ancestors, which they sang during communal gatherings, communal work and even during mundane tasks. There is no mention of Sidapa having an affair with a fellow deity. Also, he doesn’t mention Sidapa being revered in neighboring Visayan islands.

In the Diccionario Mitologico de Filipinas, there is a theory that Sidapa (the name particularly) must have been originally Sri Pada, a name identified with the Hindu god Vishnu. It’s not that far fetched considering that belief in Sidapa was only among the coastal people of precolonial Iloilo and some parts of Antique who were mostly descendants of Hindu Srivijayan migrants. There’s no mention of Sidapa in the Hinilawod or Sugidanon, epics of the inland and mountain people, the Sulod or Panay Bukidnon of Panay Island in Western Visayas. Blumentritt doesn’t mention Sidapa having any affair.

Sidapa appears in the Tagalog tale “Why the Cock Crows at Dawn” in Damiana Eugenio’s The Myths where said deity is portrayed as a war god who turns a servant into a rooster after failing to wake him early in the morning many times. There's no mention of Sidapa having an affair with another deity.

In Jocano’s Outline of Philippine Mythology (1969), Sidapa is a female deity with a husband and lives in a place called Kamariitan. Again, no mention of Sidapa having an affair with a moon deity.

Bulan & Libulan aren't deities

There aren't any evidence that explicitly cite Bulan and Libulan as lunar deities revered by the natives back then. Even the title "patron god of homosexuality" is nothing but a modern embellishment resulting from the Sidapa and Bulan/Libulan love story hoax.

There’s no such thing as a Bulan deity in precolonial Bicolano myths. In 1754, Fr. Marcos de Lisboa published the Vocabulario dela lengua Bicol, a dictionary of Bicolano words, terms. It contains entries on Gugurang, Aswang & other supernatural and mythical entities but no entry on a youthful male moon deity. It has an entry about the moon, just the moon as it is.

Bulan as a deity is even absent in Fr. Jose Castaño’s Breve Noticias acerca del origin, religion, creencias y supersticiones de los antiguos Indios del Bicol, a cultural monograph on ancient Bicolanos published in late 19th century.

In the original written record of the Bicolano epic Ibalon – included in Castaño’s Breve Noticia – there is also no mention of Bulan as a deity.

In Ferdinand Blumentritt’s Diccionario Mitologico de Filipinas (1895), there is no mention of a Bicolano deity named Bulan.

The only mention of Bulan - as a primordial entity representative of the moon - is in the Bicolano creation myth included in H. Otley Beyer’s Ethnography of the Bikol People (1923).

Libulan, on the other hand, is from an old Visayan creation myth titled "How the World was Made" from John Maurice Miller's Philippine Folklore Stories (1904).

Libulan as a deity having some sort of an affair with Sidapa was shown in the television series Indio where Sidapa expressed admiration to Libulan (a female character in the series).

Thus, claims of Bulan, Libulan and Sidapa as queer deities from precolonial Filipino myths are nothing but the result of a hoax fooling a lot of people who are new to Philippine mythology and folklore or the deliberate act of a group of people to further their own agenda.

The misconception with Haliya

Unfortunately, the so-called masked goddess of the moon who battled the moon-eating bakunawa in Bicolano mythology is not really a moon goddess nor a lunar entity. Haliya was originally halea (pronounced as hali-a or halya), an ancient Bicolano women’s game, which involved singing to the moon as described by Fr. Lisboa in his Vocabulario dela lengua Bicol (1754). Unfortunately, years later, scholars misinterpreted Lisboa’s description and wrote it down as a song-dance ritual to drive away the eclipse-causing bakunawa. This misinterpretation was adapted and further embellished by later works particularly in Bikol Literary History where halea is portrayed as a moon goddess battling the bakunawa.

There is no mention of a goddess called Haliya from the various writings of Spanish missionaries who documented the culture, ways of the natives of Bicol nor is there a documented oral tradition about such a goddess in various ethnographic works from later scholars. Why are there numerous mentions of the bakunawa - the creature the goddess Haliya supposedly battles with - from old writings and oral lore but never a mention of a Haliya moon goddess? Well, that's because there never was a Bicolano moon goddess named Haliya.

Mayari or Kulalaying?

Contrary to popular belief, Mayari is not the actual Tagalog goddess of the moon, it's Kulalaying (Colalaiyng in Spanish) a.k.a. Dalaga nasa Buwan; as documented in the Noceda-Sanlucar Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala (1754) and the letters of Felipe Pardo, former archbishop of Manila (1686-1688). So, yeah, some anito/diwata worship revivalists today have been paying reverence to the wrong Tagalog lunar goddess, no thanks to those flowery, poorly-researched posts about Mayari online. Imagine Kulalaying rolling her eyes every time someone posts about Mayari with the following modern embellishments "Goddess of Combat, War, Revolution, Hunt, Weaponry, Strength" with her being reduced to just another name for Mayari.

Mayari is from F. Landa Jocano's Notes on Philippines Divinities (1968). Unfortunately, on some of his entries on Tagalog deities including Mayari, Jocano forgot cite any source for them nor did he mention if he got their myths from oral tradition. Even after the entries were incorporated into his book, Outline of Philippine Mythology (1969), sources for some of the Tagalog deities including Mayari were not cited. Mayari is probably derived from Apo Namalyari or Malayari, the supreme deity of precolonial Sambal, Aeta and Kapampangans on the Zambales range. Some Aeta communities in Zambales still revere Apo Namalyari to this day. Even the story of Mayari and Apolaki (Tagalog god of the sun and war) fighting over who should rule may have been derived from the battle for supremacy between Apo Namalyari, also known as a moon god and Sinukwan or Aring Sinukuan, the Kapampangan god of the sun, war and death.

Sidapa: (kinikilig) Bakit? ❤️❤️❤️

Libulan: Hindi, pero bakit?✨

Bathala: (pagod) ugh, bakit?

Maria Makiling: Bakit? Gusto mo ng away?

Apolaki: (umiiyak) B-baka ikaw!!!!

Mayari: At sino'ng nagsabi sa'yo na maaari mo akong kausapin?

Galang Kaluluwa: .... Opo 😢

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For a brief time - a thousand years, for that is brief for the two of them - the Heat Haze Boy and the Monsoon Girl grew tired of their quarrel.

“Sister, we need a bigger playground,” said the Boy.

The Girl nodded in agreement. “Let us create the world and all its creatures.”

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Although they could have done it by themselves, the Twin Forces wanted help. And so, they created five god-siblings to assist them in their endeavor.

Licalibutan, the eldest, was strong and mighty, with a body made of rock. He rubbed off pieces of his skin and gathered them up into mounds. These became the mountains and land. Pleased with his work, he laughed heartily and left the rest of it to his siblings.

Libulan, the second, was calm and thoughtful, with a body made of copper. He paused for a moment, and reasoned that life could not spring forth without water. He pierced his heart, and from it bled the rivers and seas.

Liadlao, the third, was wild and fiery, with a body made of gold. Impatient for his turn, he fumed that the world was still cold and dark. He then took out one of his eyes and placed it in the heavens, making the sun.

Lisuga, the fourth, was curious and inventive, with a body made of silver. Sighing at her third brother’s impetuousness, she plucked out her teeth and hung them in the heavens as well, making stars.

Libali, the youngest (our stories often forget her), was humble and generous, with a body made of flowers. Marveling at everything that her siblings created, she wept with joy, and her tears became seeds that fell into the earth and grew up to be plants.

Such is how the world came to be.

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In the Visayan creation myth, Libulan was one of the four children of Lihangin, god of the wind, and Lidagat, goddess of the sea. Libulan was a cowardly individual with a body made of copper.