Asuang

Bicolano deity of evil and chaos; sealed beneath Mount Malinao after his failed attempt to steal Gugurang's sacred fire. Eponymous progenitor of the broader Filipino aswang folkloric category via his dark-gift transmission to mortal worshippers. Father of the demigoddess sisters Oryol (half-serpent) and Magindara (half-eel) by two different mortal women — the cross-class divine-deity-and-mortal-woman pairings that the Bicolano tradition records.

Children

• Magindara
• Oryol

Domains

• evil chaos and night creatures
• aswang class creator

Powers

• Bestows the dark gift of shape-shifting on his worshippers
• Attempts to steal Gugurang's sacred fire from Mayon
• Bestows shape-shifting on mortals
• Shifts between handsome and monstrous form
• Steals the sacred fire

Epithets

• Asuang latin · Asuang · oralThe god of evil and the dark, eternal rival of the good Gugurang for fire and soulsBicolano oral tradition (the Ibalon epic milieu) (secondary)
• Apo Aswang Bikol · Apo Aswang · vernacular'Lord Aswang', the evil godRealubit, Maria Lilia F. (1983). Bikols of the Philippines. (secondary)

Relations

• sibling: GugurangIbalong cosmological framework (primary)
• father of: OryolBicolano oral tradition (primary)
• father of: MagindaraBicolano oral tradition (primary)

Sources

• existence: Ibalong epic (Bicolano oral epic, ~60-stanza fragment recorded from Bicolano oral tradition); Bicolano cosmological tradition; Felix B. Regalado ethnographic compilation (primary)