Aswang by Lycan Rex – Non-Fiction

Writer: Lycan Rex

Subject: Aswang

Link: MEWE / 12.03.2023

Aswang

The vampire

The vampire aswang disguises itself in the shape of a beautiful woman. It shares its diet of blood with vampires of Western cultures. However, it differs by sucking blood using a proboscis-like tongue, rather than sharpened teeth. Furthermore, aswang do not live in tombs. Some live in forests far from human communities, but the aswang can infiltrate human society by means of marrying into a community, and either slowly draining their husband of blood, or else using it strictly as a hideout and leaving at night to raid other villages, thereby keeping their cover intact. One example of a vampire aswang is the Tagalog mandurugo, said to live in the region of Capiz.

The viscera sucker

The viscera sucker, also known as manananggal, is said to have a diet of internal organs, or the phlegmatic discharge of the sick. Like the vampire aswang, it consumes its food with its tongue, narrow and tubular, but not pointed like the vampire. By day, it takes the shape of an attractive, light-skinned, and long-haired woman. By night, it grows wings and segments itself, leaving behind its body from the waist downwards. It takes great care to hide its lower half, then flies in searches for victims. It is particularly attracted to the fetuses growing inside pregnant women. Viscera suckers are said to live in domiciles deep in the jungle, if not the trees themselves. But like the vampire aswang, most infiltrate human communities via marriage.

The weredog

Maximo Ramos refers to this category as the weredog, though the creature does not necessarily transform into a dog. Ramos reasons that the werecreature of a given region is named after their most ferocious creature. As such, for example, Europe has werewolves, India has weretigers, Africa has wereleopards, and Russia has werebears. The Philippines has no indigenous wolf population, thus making weredog the more appropriate term. Like the previous aswang, the weredog infiltrates villages and turns into a creature by night, around midnight. The creature is most commonly a dog, but a cat or pig is also possible. The weredog then kills and eats people, particularly pregnant women on the road in the night, and do not let their long hair hang loose. (Doing so is said to protect against these aswang.) The weredog is said to develop a taste for human flesh by eating food spat on, or licked, by another weredog. (The same is said of the viscera sucker.) Unlike the previous aswang, the weredog does not infiltrate human communities through marriage, but as a traveler of some sort, such as a peddler or a construction labourer.

The witch / See also: Kulam

Witch aswang are characterized by extreme vindictiveness, laying curses upon those who have crossed her by making certain objects, such as rice, bones, or insects, come out of the bodily orifices of the cursed. Witches have eyes that reflect images upside down, as well as elongated irises. They live in the outskirts of towns and villages. Witches in the Philippines are feared, avoided and hated. Witches can become aswang, only if they have certain qualities that follow an aswang already. Then they can become an aswang, and by doing so their powers become stronger, stronger than the other witches as well. If an aswang is caught, they are to be immediately killed without question. Though with witches there is just complete avoidance by the people and people around them regard them with fear. Though if an incident were to happen near the witch’s residence, then there is reason to turn to the witch to blame and punish.

The ghoul

Ghoul aswang are described as humanoid but generally hidden. Their diet consists of human corpses, they are carrion-eaters. Their nails and teeth are sharp and strong to help with the theft and consumption of the corpses. Their diet makes them smell rank and pungent. They gather in trees near cemeteries to exhume and consume the fresh burials.