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
• Apo Aswang

Relations

• sibling: Gugurang
• father of: Oryol
• father of: Magindara

Sources

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