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A Collection of
Writings On
Silks and
Lotuses
The following is a series of translated writings and songs from the
lands of Gubat Banwa, many of them written upon palm leaf
manuscripts, others written on copperplate and ivory seals. Most of
these have been passed down to us in song and gossip.

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On The Shape of the Betel Nut
World 4 Ceremony 33
Martial Arts 5 On Gender and Sexuality
35
On the Topic of Rulership
5 Life In Settlements 37

The Scourge 10 Hygiene, Makeup, and

Aesthetics 37
Diwa 11
Jewelry 38
Hiyang 11
Tattooing 39
Concordance 12
Working the Field 39
Kalibutan 12
Woodworking 40
Godhood 12
Smithing 41
On Hiyang 15
Goldworking 42
Himayanon 18
Weaving 43
Himayadiwa 18
Pottery 44
The Flowing Flower
River 19 Seasons of The Sword
Isles 44
Death and the
Afterworld 20 Winds Of The Sword
Isles 45
On Essences 22
Sailing 46
The Five Holy Beasts 25
Food 47
On Names 27
Hunting 48
Language In The Sword
Isles 30 Alcohol and Drinking 48

Betel Nut 33 Faith and Religion in the

Sword Isles 48

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On The Shape of the World
Written by Sahajaya Ngarok, the Fortress Shattering
Makinaadmanon. There has been a violence within the echoes
and songs of the learned and the fools, upon the proper shape
of Gubat Banwa. Many have said that since there are countless
gods and demons that the world is not shaped at all, but the
spiritual truth of formless reality–Ang Tanan Nga Kawala (The All
That Is Nothing)--which is that ultimate reality that exists beyond
us and before us and even before the great Sky and Sea,
obviously goes against that. How can we, as finite creatures, little
eels upon the river of existence, know that the world is not
shaped? If the ultimate is formless then we must be formed, for
we are not ultimate.

Therefore the two most popular views upon which the world is
shaped are as follows: Hulma Niyog (Coconut Shaped) or Hulma
Baino (Lotus Shaped). The more common knowledge spread
across the Sword Isles is that the world is shaped like a coconut,
the Hulma Niyog. This view originated within the isles itself, and
only makes sense: there are the realm of the mortals, upon
which we live, in the middle of the coconut, the realm of the
gods on the upper half, and then the realm of the underdwellers
in the lower half, all of it encased within a coconut-shaped
cosmos. This world thus floats upon the Sea of Wine.

The other popular view has been introduced from the far
southeastern missionaries and monks: that the world is shaped
like a Lotus, and it is balanced upon the tip of the trident of
Rayasaiwa, the central Guardian God. The trident is known as
Kadaut Rishud. Others say that the Sea of Wine is the infinite
vastness that is Rayasaiwa (thus the Sea of Wine is also known as
Rayavritur, which means “Presence of Rayasaiwa”) and there are
a potentially infinite number of Lotuses (each one being a
smaller reality) which float upon Rayavritur, each one balanced
upon the infinite Kadaut Rishud. The sky is the lotus bud’s ceiling,
the farthest reaches of the World Jaws (upon which the
Continents are affixed) turn into the petals of the lotus, and the
depths of the world eventually ends in a giant pillar that is the
Kadaut Rishud.

What is the truth? Much more rumination and song is needed,

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and experience and storytelling, and perhaps we can ask the
ancestors about the truth of the matter. Perhaps it is both, or
perhaps it is neither? Whatever it may be, it is the shape.

Martial Arts
The primary way of fighting in every culture is expressed as an
art. These are martial arts. As with any art, there are many
different schools and branches of this art, and that is doubly true
for Gubat Banwa, where Martial Arts are the primary art.
Settlements might have special personal Martial Arts only taught
to the royalty of their village, while others might have traveling
martial sages or blacksmiths that actively spread their martial
art. Others might have started Communities of Learning deep
into the mountains, inspired by foreign monasteries.

On the Topic of Rulership

Written by Sri Kadasiga Mahawagas, an excerpt from his
“Sermons on Virtue and Rulership.”

“For many datu in the isles, some sort of divinity is a useful claim to
royalty. This is because a ruler’s powerbase, a king’s powerbase, in
the isles depends on how much virtue or merit the commonfolk see
that you have. If they realize that another, different warrior-brave or
king has a more powerful claim to royalty, whether it be divine
heritage, bloodline, or superior ultraviolence, then they will switch
allegiance on a dime, following the more powerful one. Why would
you follow a non-virtuous person? If you follow a virtuous leader,
then you will cultivate virtue yourself.

“Let me tell you, song within song, a story I have learned from my
teacher, a peerless spearwoman, named Tagos, which means pierce
through.

‘O great Makinaadmanon, tell us: what does it take to be a king?’

The great Makinaadmanon bent her head in introspection, and then

said: ‘Two things. Merit and Compassion.

‘To expound: all kings must express great merit, one that speaks
good of their actions on the earth. This merit shall fill them, proper
fealty and obeisance to the superstitions of the world. Those of

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Gatusan like to call it ‘Gahum’, power, but in fact it is more than just.
It is more than just power. It is respect, charisma, force of
personality, and virtue.’

‘Great Makinaadmanon, what brings one merit?’

‘Proper action. The king reflects upon his disciples, his followers, you
see. If the king acts correctly, then his followers shall follow correctly.
He shall avenge his ancestors that have been wronged, execute
justice, cultivate compassion and harmony with nature, and a
propensity for peace, and silent stoic virtue that cuts through
falsities, smoke, and bamboo to arrive at the proper conclusions to
better support his disciples.’

A pale young girl, with hair the color of yellowed flowers, said: ‘You
speak of the king with his disciples—‘

‘Yes,’ interrupted the Makinaadmanon. ‘That is because Kings from

your land subjugate. Kings here in the Sword Isles: Rajas, Lakan,
Datu, Sultans… they are all leaders. They are not simply rulers. They
carry with them their strength, and they are chosen by the people to
lead them, and not given to them by Gods. There is a difference.”

The boy lifted a thoughtful eyebrow. ‘But that is not how it seems,
great Makinaadmanon, in the Sword Isles. The Sultana claims
heritage to the Moon, the Pinakalakan is chosen by God, the Hari has
the blood of tiger-gods…’

The Makinaadmanon laughed and nodded. “No merit, no

compassion…” she turned on the boulder she sat and bent over, as if
retching. Then she said, her teeth stained red by the betel nut that
she had been chewing for 44 days: ‘That is why there are no kings in
The Sword Isles.’

‘Is Royalty something they must achieve then, wise one?’

‘Nay. Royalty is something they must shed.” The Makinaadmanon

grinned. Her shattered sword glinted in the night light. “Royalty is an
incomplete thought crafted by autocrats. They must trudge toward
holisticity, harmony, oneness, nature.”

There are many terms that deal with the complex topic of
rulership in the Isles. In general, “Kings” in the Sword Isles do not

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consolidate their power by collecting land, but rather, by
collecting people, as the manual labor lets them take advantage
of the abundant natural resources.

The hierarchies of Rulership are as follows.

Servants - The lowest in the Social Classes, those that can be

sold like items, and are owned by those they owe their debt to.
Servants are transferred through transference of debt. These are
known as aliping sagigilid in both Ba-e and Virbanwa, oripun
hayohay in Gatusan, ipun in Akai, and bayang in Apumbukid.
Even lower than servants are the war chattel, known as captives,
who do not even serve and are just sold like items. They are
known as bihag across the isles.

Peasant - The next lowest. They are indebted to their Chief, and
are considered as owned by their Chief, in the same sense that a
serf would be owned by a Lord. These are aliping namamahay in
both Ba-e and Virbanwa, oripun tuhay in Gatusan,
kiapangdilihan in Akai, and nugkat in Apumbukid.

Conscript - The third lowest of the “servant” classes, conscripts

have the most capacity for social mobility, as their primary
purpose is to serve both as boat rowers for their Chief or owner’s
vessel, as well as fighting for them. Brave exploits in combat in
the Isles are recognized, and many Chiefs elevate faithful
conscripts to becoming warriors. These are commonly known as
horohan across the isles.

Warriors - The middle-class after the peasants. They are similar

to vassals in that they will fight for their owner. They are very
often owned by Chiefs, and they have the ability to pay off their
duty freely and to leave and choose a different Chief to serve.
They are known as maharlika in Ba-e, sundalo in Virbanwa,
timawa in Gatusan, kalita-o in Apumbukid, and satariya in Akai.

Kadungganan - The best of the warriors, very often treated like

aristocracy. Kadungganan are well feared across the archipelago,
and spoken off in hushed tones. Many Kadungganan become
Chiefs of their own right, or become sung about in the songs of
the lorekeepers. Kadungganan in Gatusanon, Hulubalang in
Akayu, Bayani in Ba-e, Kabalyero in Virbanwa, and Vwiraya in

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Apu-apu.

Aristocrat - The nobles, very often they are related in some way
to the Chief, whether it be through blood (even second nephews
become Aristocrats), marriage, or by the Chief absolving them of
all Debt and making someone their vassal. Aristocrats enjoy the
most freedom in society, second only to the Royalty and the
Chief themselves, and very often delve into trades and
professions that they can afford, such as boatwrightship, singing,
mourning, weaving, blacksmithing, merchantry, and far-
continent trading. A chief’s concubines are considered
Aristocrats. They are known as tumao in Gatusan, mafengal in
Apumbukid, tuwan in Akai, maginoo/binibini in Ba-e, and don/
donya in Virbanwa.

Royalty - The greatest of the nobles, these are first of kin blood-
related to the Chief, or those that the Chief married. This
includes the Chief’s parents, brothers, children, and
grandchildren. Only the Chief’s main wife is considered royalty.
Royalty have access to the wealth of the settlement, and enjoy
the servitude of those that also serve the Chief. They are known
as kadatuan in most communities, and datu in Akai.

Chief - The greatest of royalty. They are the owners of a

settlement. The entire settlement is known as their Following
(remember power is gauged not by land controlled but by
number of people you lord over) or their Chiefdom. When a
Chief must pass down their title, they can choose amongst other
royalty, and not just the eldest son. This is very often an
important event, with the Chief speaking with a council of elders,
sages, and warriors to choose the next Chief. Chiefs commonly
choose the next Chief while still alive, and then retreat into a
safer position deeper inland or within natural defensive bulwarks
to live there, and are considered Elder Chiefs, who are
considered Chiefs even as their Following is transferred to the
newer Chief. Known as datu in most cultures. Akai calls them
panglima.

Chiefs very often depend on authority given to them by lineage

or divinity (those that have the blood of diwata or of ancient hero
ancestors are very often Chiefs). However, authority only gets
them so far: they must consolidate their power by gathering

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many treasures, which they must showcase and flaunt to
impress upon their Following the strength of their power.

King/Queen/Great King/Great Queen - Kings are rarer than not

in the Sword Isles, and are very commonly just Chiefs on a larger
scale. They are commonly known as Raja or sarripada, while Ba-e
calls them Pamegat, and Virbanwa calls them Lakan. Kings do
not have larger swathes of land to control, but rather, have a
number of Chiefs that defer authority to them, and they have
this authority by dint of either communal agreement (as is the
case in Gatusan), Trade Monopoly (meaning they have access to
much wanted international wares and other wares from even
within the Sword Isles), or through debt (they have a number of
Chiefs that have debt to them, meaning the Chiefs become part
of their Following). However, very often, when a King is defeated,
since their power comes from the three things above, it does not
mean that the Followings under the King’s authority
automatically follow the one that defeated the King. In many
cases, it means the Chiefdoms under the King are freed from the
King’s authority, unless the one replacing the King can showcase
that their power can daunt the other Followings as well.

Some Kings can be considered Great Kings, if they have Kings in

their debt. These Great Kings are rare in the isles, but they exist,
and they are very easy to depose due to the volatile nature of
political relationships. Great Kings very often have the title of
MahaRaja.

Both Kings and Great Kings when they reach this position take
on a different title, something impressive, something foreign, to
consolidate their power.

God-Kings/God-Queens - There are only five God-Kings in the

Sword Isles. These are the rulers of the five major polities. In
Akai, it is the Sultana. In Virbanwa, it is the Pinakalakan. In Ba-e, it
is the Sangpamegat. In Apumbukid, it is the Jayavarnam (of
which there are none, and is a title given only to the God of Apu
Dayawa). And in Gatusan there is the Diwata Hari (a term taken
more recently, as it was once reseved for foreign kings, but Raja
Ambasi has accrued enough power to take that term for
himself).

The God-Kings emanate with divinity, and with so much power

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that their very bodies are considered treasures, said to shine
with a sungleam aura, and their eyes burn with a different flame
than mortals. This is not poetry: the God-Kings are said to have
been blessed by the Ancestors so much that they are very close
to being the most powerful of mortals, and if any of them played
their cards right, they could begin a Conquest that could span
the entirety of Gubat Banwa.

And that exactly is the problem: all mahamandalas (even

Apumbukid, who must engage in violence to sustain Hiyang) are
at the tipping edge of all out war, a war to see who will become
the Universal Ruler of The Sword Isles. If any one takes control of
the Sword Isles, they can feasibly take control of all of Gubat
Banwa.

When the balance is broken is when begins the Eclipse Era,

poetically known as the Year of Kalakatri, Goddess of Star
Darkness and Murder. Even more poetically, it is known as The
Longest Year.

The Scourge
First, realize this: the warring realms contend and play with fire.
They must be in accordance with Hiyang, that is, supernal
harmony with nature and the world, which in itself is holy and
divine, for it is where all things come forth. In Gubat Banwa,
“sacred nature” is tautology: nature is already inherently sacred,
by dint of what it is.

What happens, then, when what is sacred is desecrated?

There is the state of anti Hiyang, known as Di-Hiyang. A being in

Di-Hiyang is a being outside of the natural state. It is very rare for
something to be in Di-Hiyang: almost anything done–from
violence to love–is part of Hiyang. Hiyang, after all, is the totality
of all these things. What is Di-Hiyang? Di-Hiyang arises in places
of pure atrocity. Mindless mass murder, things that the diwata
(manifestations of Hiyang) turn away from. Included in this
atrocity is the desecration of natural places in which the diwata
or the ancestors did not consent. Violence and brutality in a
sacred grove incurs Di-Hiyang.

A sacred place in Di-Hiyang is one that must be appeased,

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usually with balyan, but this can also be done naturally, by going
through proper rites and speaking with the offended spirit/s.
However, places of Di-Hiyang are very often marred forever by
some unnatural infliction and desecration. This is called The
Scourge.

The Scourge manifests commonly as festering deep saffron

petals, a broken and terrible perversion of natural beauty, as well
as ivory branches. This is a natural occurence. Many of the
beings that arise from Di-Hiyang are manifestations of the
Scourge, wicked dissonance from nature and the world. These
include beings such as demons (yawa, busaw, sitan) and the
undead.

Diwa
Diwa is the natural flow of everything, of nature. It is the spirit of
all things. When one says “Diwa of Justice”, then it means “The
Essence of Justice” or “Spiritual Essence of Justice”. As the essence
of all things it bolsters people. Diwa that is harnessed and used
by warriors and martial artists is known as Gahum, sometimes
Puhon, accessed through mystical-martial forms, practices, hand
mudras, and sorcerous incantations known as mentala. Ancient
items that have been passed down in generations have been
imbued with Gahum, and thus is bolstered with overflowering
Diwa. Items with overflowing Diwa become Treasures.

Treasures, known as kabilin or pusaka, are ancient heirlooms

passed down from generation to generation, with each
generation bolstering it with diwa by transferring gahom to it
through using it, or adding to its story, as diwa is bolstered
through the etheral void through song and tradition.

The state of Hiyang can only be achieved if one’s own body and
soul are harmonious with the everpresent diwa.

Since diwa is present in everything, and is essence everything,

even one’s self, Annuvaran religions conflate the concept of diwa
with the concept of the continunous stream of conscience and
state that there is no soul or self.

Hiyang

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Hiyang is an adjective. When something is “hiyang”, it is attuned
to the natural flow of Kalibutan. Someone who is attuned with
Hiyang is known as Naghiyang, and they are moving in the same
flow as Hiyang. This philosophy of animistic harmony is known
as Hiyangism.

Becoming Naghiyang is an enlightened state but is not a final

salvation or liberation from the sufferings of life. When one is
Naghiyang, one moves in accordance with the wants of nature,
with the bouncing gods that live in every single thing, including
one’s self. They do everything naturally, easily, without thinking,
action without thought. However, mindfulness is still required to
stay Naghiyang: one can be very easily brought out of
Naghiyang. Those in Naghiyang revel in the absolute joy in being
accordance with the trichiliocosm.

Concordance
Concordance is the state of pure bliss and a final harmonious
embrace of the Trichiliocosm. By embracing the truth of Ang
Hiyang, that we are all ourselves but also all part of this world, in
the same way that each leaf is its own leaf but is still part of a
tree and is considered a tree as a whole, so is God. We are all
individual parts of supreme reality but we all are, when one
zooms out. Concordance is the ultimate embrace: when one
becomes Ang Hiyang itself, or Essence itself, you disappear and
become unseeable by Dihiyang beings, transcendent animism.

Kalibutan
A term that means the world, or everything around you. It comes
from libut, which means “to go around”. It is the cycle of nature,
reality, and souls. It is a local term for the Trichiliocosm, because
what is the cycle of violence but everything around you? This is
the term used to describe the cyclical reality that all souls live in.
Enlightenment is very often not separation from the kalibutan
but rather, transcendental harmony with it, true liberation,
allowing your Soul to operate unchained by it as you are it. This
is a state known as Glory.

Godhood
There are two paths to Godhood in Gubat Banwa: Death By
Violence or Concordance.

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To begin, we must first define a God in Gubat Banwa. Gods in
Gubat Banwa are divine manifestations of the flow of the
universe of nature. Very often they arise from the world itself:
thus there is a God of Death, or a God of Swords. There are a
Trillion Trillion Gods across the Billion Billion Universes. There are
two kinds of Gods: those Primordial that are Gods without
having been once mortal, and those that were once mortal and
ascended to Godhood. Many Little Gods—that is, Gods of little
things, of cotton, of butterflies, of chrysanthemum petals, of
small streams—can either be primordial or ancestral.

Dying in Violence is the common way for many ancestors to

become Gods. When they die, their blood creates the rainbow,
and they travel to the sky with it, and they achieve Godhood and
inhabit a particular domain connected to their exploits or what
they loved to do when they were yet alive. A father who died
protecting his children might become a God of Protection, or a
the Guardian God of his lineage. Sometimes it arrives from soft
atrocities: little children butchered by a Tyrant Overlord might
become Yawa, but once cleansed and made Hiyang once again,
they might turn into little gods of a particular forest clearing,
manifesting as wood spirits (kahoynon) or earth spirits
(yutanon).

Those that achieve Godhood through

Concordance tend to be non-warriors: poets that
craft a transcendental epic that leads to them
becoming Gods midsong, or a shaman that has
perfected their revelry, penitence, and worship,
becoming a burning Forest God. Those that
achieve Godhood through Concordance rarely
become Little Gods, even if they are the ones
that understand that the power of Major Gods
mean nothing in the grand tapestry of the
Trichiliocosm.

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On Hiyang
1 - One day, walking upon a river of water lilies, Malaun the Oldest
God asked Baginda Sumongsuklay, Despot of the Moon: “Demons
are notorious liars. Do you not think this?”

2 - “I am inclined to think this, for I have slain demons and they have
decided to live instead.”

3 - “And should you believe anything a demon says?”

4 - “I would think not,” said Baginda Sumongsuklay, as she cleaved a

mountain in two, and took some of its copper and threw it to the
moon. “That is dangerous, and will make me a liar.”

5 - “Baginda is delightful. But would a demon know the truth of this

world?”

6 - “I would think not! Or perhaps, they would know truth but

understand it incorrectly!”

“Then what are mortals to you, then, Moon Goddess? They look at
the truth of the world square in the eye but choose to misunderstand
it.”

7 - “Mortals are worse than demons, Elder One,” said Baginda

Sumongsuklay. “For it is their nature to reject their nature.”

8 - “A paradox of self-evisceration. Why do you think this? And what

do you think of it? Rumination precedes anticipation.”

9 - Baginda Sumongsuklay thought for a moment. The moon lost 37

phases at that moment, as she felt paradoxes convalesce. “I have
seen them toil and work as all beings do. I have seen them slay their
lovers to lay with others. They have no halo but the blood of their
victims. Yet they seek happiness and love and joy. In a state of
constant self-compassion and self-evisceration.”

“Why do you think they are stuck in this loop?”

10 - “Because they do not understand the truth of the world, of which

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they misinterpret. The greatest of their sages write upon palm-leaf
treatises on Oneness and Harmony and Completion and loss of self.
That is a misinterpretation.”

“You know the half of it. Why do they misinterpret, o Huntress?”

11 - “They believe themselves to be separate from nature.”

“What is the truth of nature, then? Why must one be in harmony with
nature?”

12 - Baginda Sumongsuklay looked up in confusion. Malaon the

Eldest One, Ancestor of All Things, said: “Pity the fool, or pity none at
all. Cast the teeth and tell innumerable stories. Believing themselves
to be separate from nature is their greatest sin: they are part of
nature. We are all part of a whole, but we are also completely
different from each other. We are like the planks of a boat, meant to
fit together, to create grand war barges that can sail to heaven.”

13 - “Then great Baginda, what must be chased after?”

14 - Pagmata, or Awakening, to the transcendent truth. Only then

can one become Himayanon, Blossomed, liberated, living in Glory,
detached from the world and also being the world itself.

What is the world but an infinite number of causes and effects? If

that is the case, what is the first cause? It is hard to understand,
because mortal minds must understand things in order, one
after another, cause-and-effect. The first cause was also the
effect. The birth of causality is paradox: cause-effect.

The first cause-effect is two things as well: Love-Evisceration.

They are the same and also different. The Sky and Sea was also
the Skysea. They are one and the same, but then they are also
different.

When the Skysea became the Sky and Sea was the First Division.
It was already that, of course. The Sky and Sea became Skysea as
well, it also became First Unity. Thus the first Division and the
First Unity are constantly, consistently, parallel and endlessly
simultaneous. The Himayanon has been illuminated to this and
thus he almost achieved the ultimate division.

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All things are cause-effect. Thus all things are the causes of each
other’s effects, and vice versa.

We are all changing each other. This is called Evisceration, the

purest form of cause-effect, because we inherently are products
of it, so are we it. Therefore, we must change each other
responsibly, in accordance with each other’s needs, because we
are all part of the same cause-effect. That is, nature.

Folk are not separate from nature, they are nature. The greatest
mistake of elder-thought is their belief that they are different or
higher than others. This is the sin of Anthropocentrism. Nothing
can be further from the truth; you must return to us.

Only by returning to us will you find hiyang, which is a state of

being harmonious with the cause-effect, which is nature.

Being dissonant with the cause-effect, being in the state of Di

Hiyang, creates ripples and scourges through the cause-effect.
Since we are constantly affecting each other, if you do things
that do are not Hiyang, then others will be affected: spirits might
be displaced, trees might shrivel. A butterfly’s wings cause a
storm, you see. Your unrighteous murder of your brother by the
riverbed might cause her corpse to fall into the river, which
angers the spirits of the sea, which might summon a grand
typhoon upon your island, and the typhoon might threaten the
grand god of your island’s volcano, and thus they might burst
open, and cause clouds of black to block out the sun, and freeze
Gubat Banwa forever. That is how your act of murder can lead to
apocalypse.

Therefore, being Hiyang is, in other words, being mindful of two

things: your actions and your place in nature. You belong to us,
you have never been apart from us. Even your weapons, and
cannons, and vessels, and explosives, and towers… they are all
part of the cause-effect, created with our consent. Thus is the
same with you: we cannot affect you and kill you unless you
allow, or if you have tampered with nature, which is our
responsibility.

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Himayanon
Meaning Glorious - a syncretization of the Annuvaran buddha.
While Annuvaran preaches absence of self and liberation from
the phenomenal world (the term known as Annuvar), the Flower
Philosophy teaches that Blossoming is like a transcendent
joining. Your soul (kalag, or atma) is removed from kalibutan and
becomes one with it, and thsu you achieve liberation from the
Wheel. It is the realization that the Self and the All are one and
the same. The Self is not part of the All, and the All is not
composed of the Self. It is simply one thing, a transcendent
supreme nature of no dichotomy. Himaya means glorious
rapture or bliss.

Himayanon are not gods. They are past godhood, for even gods
are subject to the illusion of phenomenal reality (or dichotomous
reality). Very often gods achieve Himayanon, however.

Paired with a new chosen name: ie. Himayanon Madaogong

Senapati, or Himayanon Libong Kalis.

Himayadiwa
Syncretized from Annuvaran bodhisattva. One who possesses
perfect wisdom and has Glory (Himaya) Essence (Diwa).
Someone so close to the state of Namulakhood but has chosen
to forestall Blossoming to spread teachings and help others
achieve Himayahood. Himayadiwa are greater than gods as well,
for they are effectively liberated from kalibutan.

To achieve Himayadiwa one must first be Naghiyang, as to live in

glory one must first experience concordance, but some
exceptions exist: those that have attained a twisted
understanding of twisted glory and think that the wheel of
nature must be stopped or that all spirituality must be destroyed
are known as Pintasdiwa (Cruel Essence).

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The Flowing Flower River
The Flowing Flower River, spoken in a sermon by Dalugdog
Himayanon, the Thundering Awakened, condenses to a single
thought: give unto those around you, and those around you
shall give unto you. This is visualized by a flowing flower-river:
when you are in the river you think you are just a flower upon
the river, but the river is actually connected to the sea, and the
sea actually becomes the clouds, and the clouds eventually
becomes the rain, and the rain is the reason why there is a river
in the first place. At what point is there separation?

Similarly: the Self (Kaugalingon) is an important part of the

Community, and the Community is an important part of Nature.
As the Self, you must live in accordance with the Community, so
that the Community can live in accordance with Nature. Nature
in turn will grant blessings upon the Community, and all
blessings upon the Community will become blessings upon the
Self. Therefore, be mindful of yourself and those around you. No
firefly alights alone, and no man is a single island in an
archipelago.

The Path of the Flowing Flower River can be summarized into 4

Parts:

1. Know your place. Help those around you, and those around
you will help you in turn.

2. Live with the Community. The Community must live with you.
Help the Community, which might include things that might hurt
the Community.

3. Respect the Ancestors. They are the rain that created the river
that you are, but do not honor them if they have been
detrimental to the Community, and therefore, to Nature.

4. Revere Nature: you are the Trichiliocosm experiencing itself.

Liberation is not freedom but enlightenment. Glory is nothing
but returning to the Trichiliocosm. Live in harmony with the
Trichiliocosm’s absurdity and you will find Blossoming.

19
Death and the Afterworld
All Folk that die in battle ascend into the heaven of their choice
or faith upon a rainbow. Their blood creates the colors that
streak across the sky.

Otherwise, all those that die go into the process of being picked
up by the many psychopomps that permeate the cosmos. They
are brought to the proper judgment as dictated by what faith
holds their soul in thrall. In The Sword Isles, this is most often
Sulad, where they will be judged accordingly to what items they
were buried in. These afterworlds are several different reality
realms that are interconnected and turn in kalibutan.

For Gatusanon, Ba-enense, and Apunon: if they were buried with

many gold and material wealth, they would be given the chance
to be saved by Iraon-Daron, who brings them into one of the
many heavens, usually a place of rest atop great mountains.
Either that, or they can choose to send their dungan, their soulful
willpower, into the body of another unborn child, effectively
reincarnating. Many Ba-enense believe that a soul reincarnates
as gods or other beings.

For Virbanwans: this is usually the Impyerno, where they suffer

the fires of Makaubos until the end of days. They do not have a
chance for heaven unless they were redeemed by their faith to
Makagagahum.

For Akayu: they have a very similar process as with Gatusanon.

20
However, if they profess their faith to Baginda Sumongsuklay,
they get to be brought by Iraon-Daron to the tallest mountain on
the moon, where the Holy Moon City of Baginda Sumongsuklay
lies. There they rest and train until they are called into the final
reckoning, the Ultimate War. Those of Akai get to have their
souls kept in great holy jars guarded by six-winged Garuda in the
Moon. The moon lies in the fifth heaven. Those that die in holy
striving, usually in combat in the name of the Moon, get to live as
sentient souls beside Baginda Sumongsuklay in her Lunar
Palace.

Those that were not given the chance to heaven either suffer in
Impyerno, or toil forevermore in Sulad, doing what they already
did in life: trading, farming, working, raiding, and feasting. This is
a very benign end, and even in the afterlife they might be able to
die. If they do, they reincarnate into the mortal world once again,
although with a smaller soul this time. Having a smaller soul is
not detrimental. However, once the soul is as small as a rice
grain and can fit into the many thousand miniature caskets—
usually after nine lives—they are thoroughly buried into Si
Ginarugan’s garden, never to incarnate again.

Souls of young children do not go to Sulad. They incarnate as

birds of paradise in heaven and live in Glory.

21
ON ESSENCES
There are various competing traditions in the Sword Isles that
speak of the cosmic elements that make up the physical reality of
the Trichiliocosm. However, there is a single conception that is
currently, as of Addawa Year 1001, the majority among most
thinkers, sages, and priests of the Sword Isles: one that adopts
concepts from Ashinin tradition that is then inherently mixed
with common local conceptions. This has been turned into the
Walodiwa, which means Eight Souls or Essences, and is more
commonly associated with the latter, and so we used it to mean
Eight Essences.

Across all things, Emptiness. It is important to note, I suppose,

that thinking in beginnings is a fruitless act. We think in long-
time-agos, but never in beginnings. Once upon a time, never in
beginnings, because beginnings necessitate an end, and
Emptiness is eternal. Kawalan, Sunyata, whatever you call it, all
things come from Nothingness. Something must come from
Nothing—this means Nothing is the closest thing to a beginning,
and is the closest thing to Liberation.

Then, the Unity: the entirety of the world is impregnated by

spirits. Anything that has a spirit (that is, everything) has the
capacity to live, die, love, and hate. The whole range of emotions.
In some cultures, spirit is quintessence, but since every Element
has a spirit, Anitu-an Sages choose not to include it into the
Walodiwa. Spirits arise from nothingness, and in the act of
existence are broken upon the wheel.

After Unity is Separation: remember Jamiyun Kulisa’s Net. That is

22
to say: all things are interconnected. All of the world can be given
a particular Essence that is the most integral part of their
physical reality. A Sword is made of metal, as Electricity is made
of Lightning. The Sun and Stars are made of Light as the
shadows and the night is made of Dark.

There are Eight Primary Essences that constitute the physical

reality of Gubat Banwa: Water, Fire, Metal, Lightning, Air, Earth,
Light, and then Dark. The time in which they arose to become
Not-Nothing is not a fruitful conversation, but it is sometimes
considered thus, by those addicted to Time: Nothingness’ closest
cousin is the Dark, and Dark gave birth necessarily to Light, its
own destroyer. They cannot exist without the other, and so they
destroy continually, for Glory requires both Enlightenment and
Extinguishing.

From the Dark arose Water, and from the Light descended Air
(and with it, the Sky). They saw each other and hated each other,
and they warred, and the bodies became the Earth, and from
Earth sprang life. Air and Water gathered together and created
the monsoons, from which was born Lightning. Lightning ignited
the first Fire, and the first Fires burned so hot that from them
arose illustrious Metal. This is the cycle of generation.

The Eight Essences are thus, and all are spokes upon the Wheel

23
which break you:
0 Water is all of the waters: from fresh water to salt water. To
the rain and the precipitation, all the way to the frozen form
of it. Associated with calmness, mystery, and stillness.
0 Earth is the brother to water, the strength of fortitude. It is all
of the stones, the mountains, the trees and the grass and the
flowers. Associated with protection, nourishing, and
connection.
0 Air is every howling wind, every roaring cloud, every lazy mist,
every foreboding fog, every blast of music. Associated with
joyfulness, freedom, and grace.
0 Lightning is the streak of burning plasma, electricity running
through steel, the leaping of shocks in between lovers.
Associated with explosiveness, attractiveness, and energy.
0 Fire is all flame upon the earth: the heat of the stove, the fires
of destruction, the aftermath of lightning. Associated with
passion, emotion, and conquest.
0 Metal is every mineral, from silver to gold to brass to bronze
to steel. Within it, merit and spirituality are caught and
trapped and protected, thus why it is illuminated by light.
Associated with creation, ambition, and ritual.
0 Light is the sun, moon, the stars, the planets, the haloes of
light, the spirits and the gods. Associated with spirituality,
faith, and life. Merit and righteousness blossom from Light,
but too much of it bleaches and sears away Glory and
Liberation. Remember that Nirvana is an extinguishing.
0 Dark is the shadow, the gloom, the shade, the silence, the
soft and tender warning of Nirvana and Liberation, the
demons and antigods. Associated with silence, emptiness,
and annihilation. The Dark, in many aspects, is more
important than the Light, as it is the first Not-Nothing
essence, and it shall be the last.

Now reality is an autophagous god: such is the nature of

suffering after all. All of reality is a constantly consuming
violence. Therefore the Walodiwa is constantly in a state of
consumption: the necessary violence for reality to continue. If
violence ends, so does the Trichiliocosm. To view the totality of
reality is to view tremendous violencev

24
The Five Holy Beasts
There are 5 animals in the Sword Isles that are almost always
considered Holy, or at least Sacred. One must know that the
attitude to things holy and sacred in the Sword Isles tend to be
one with fear and reverence, awe and monumental respect.

The Crocodile is one of the most well respected beasts: they are
very often considered to be avatars of the ancestors themselves,
and are treated like Grandfathers—that is, with utmost care and
respect. They are the great masters of both sea and land,
protectors of the places where water and earth meet.

The Serpent is another well respected beast, and is just as

feared. They are the consummate lords of the earth, as they are
always in tune with the flow of the land, of the soil, of the rocks.
Serpents that do not get killed are said to live forever, growing to
immense sizes. Giant serpents are very often found in the deep
forests, and they are very often gods. Serpent venom is the most
potent venom, powerful enough to corrode the target’s shields
and flesh, but it is also a healing component that must be mixed
with blood and feathers of its opposite beast, the Eagle.

The Eagle is the lord of the skies, the opposite of the serpent.
They split the sky with their wings, and very often can kill whole
mortals if they so wish and if they grew large enough, and they
very often do, in the deep forests. Their talons can be worn as
anting-anting to sharpen one’s own senses, and their feathers
and blood are used by witches to create potions of temporary
flight. In ancient tales prominent eagle figures are Rajah Lawin,
who fought Rajah Manuk and won, as well as Hari Manaul, God-
King of the Winds, who facilitated the creation of land by tricking
the Gods of the Sea and Sky.

The Water Buffalo is the lord of the plains. In Virbanwa, they are
considered the lords of farmlands and tenacity, as they are used
for plows. The Water Buffalo represents determination and
steadfastness, and most importantly, the conviction of warriors.
Water buffalo horn and hide is used to create armors and
shields.

The Dog is the lord of hunting and forests. They are cooperation,
familial nature, and faithfulness incarnate. They represent honest

25
work, and discipline needed for those in need. Dogs are very
often guardian beasts for mountain settlements and inland
settlements. The fabled Witch Dogs live in the deep forest: they
are nature guardian spirits in their own right, and harming them
is said to place a curse upon you.

In the Ashen Star Faith, the Serpent is sometimes replaced

with The Lion. There are no Lions in the Sword Isles, but there
are lions from the regions where the Tranquility Missionaries
from the Far Southeast and the Sanguine Missionaries of
Issohappa hailed from. The Lion is the holy beast of pride, of
strength, of leadership. It is associated with individuality and
royalty, things kings cling to to keep power.

In the Lunar Faith, the Serpent is sometimes replaced with

the Horse. The horse, or kuda in Akayu tongue, is an animal that
toils endlessly but is treated as a close companion. Many horses
are outfitted with royal saddles of gold and pearl. Horses are
named, and there are professional horse caretakers: some
settlements in Kalanawan center around taking care of horses
for example. Horses are also a symbol of royalty, faithfulness,
and tenacity. It is also revered as a giver, as horse hide can be
turned into armor, and their postures are commonly imitated by
Akai warriors, creating the universal Akai martial art stance of
kuda-kuda. Elder wild steeds become gods of the plains, and
only the greatest of warlords can tame the horse gods.

In the Lunar Faith, the Water Buffalo is sometimes replaced

with the Elephant. The elephant, or gaja in Akayu tongue, is a
grand animal that worships the moon and bathes in moonlight,
a symbol of wealth, prestige, and most importantly, power. The
elephant is not native to Akai, although dwarf elephants
(remembered still by the Ba-enon as gaja pandak) were common
in the elder Cycles. Much of the elephants were sailed in from
Barungsai, Naksuwarga, and Malirawat, and many live now in
Siga and northern Kalanawan. Elephants in the Sword Isles have
only since become popular hunting game for Royal Hunts, led by
Datu and Panglimas, although the Moonstone Elephants
(gajabulan)—elephants with ivory skin and have a third eye
made of moonstone—are reserved for the Sultana’s Royal Hunts
only. It has been long said that elephants are the royal mount of
Baginda Sumongsuklay.

26
In the Lunar Faith (especially those Lunar Faith practitioners
still living in Ananara), the Dog is sometimes replaced with
the Tiger. Harimau in the Akayu tongue, the tiger is a burning
symbol of ferocity, strength, power, and regality. There are only
a few tigers in the Sword Isles, and most of them are found only
in the Blade Island of Khadnala: the Khadnalan Tiger is the same
tiger as the Sonyoh Tiger, which prowl the deep forests and
create temples with the bones of its prey. Tiger fangs and claws
are very often heirlooms, which boast great spiritual power and
often have magical effects. The tiger’s majesty is alluded to
among the Northeastern Akai settlements, closer to the Shield
Isle of Sonyoh: they only ever talk about tigers in euphemisms,
such as deep forest dog or striped bear. Legendary Sonyoh and
Old Tundun demigod Si Gantar (full name: Si Gantar Pembunuh
Harimau Rajarajaputih, which means Si Gantar, the Tiger Slayer
of White Kings) was said to have slain Pale King Iacomus Broc
while leading his warriors upon a flaming orange tiger, and so
has the tiger become a symbol of freedom and rebellion.

On Names
What is in a name? Let the Makinaadmanon speak: the name is
the approximation of lightning. Do you know that what we name
lightning is a fulmination at both end and beginning? Lightning
leaves its origin and meets its destination immediately. We name
and wax poetic about a moment without dichotomy, the truth of
this world, for [now/later] or [beginning/ending] is a
misconception made by mortals that die.

And so thus is how we name ourselves. At our brightest, at our

fulmination, at when we are reminded that we are both
beginning and ending at the same exact time. Time is but
justification.

Like lightning, we are bright across a number of points, we are

bright in a line, not a point. We are both instant and also
causation-effect.

Names, therefore, in the Thunder-Stricken Isles, are mercurial.

To have only one name is the first death. To have many is
immortality. The Thunder Lord Datu Sumangga, for example, is
known very frequently only as the Thunder Lord, Datu
Dawogdong, in other tongues. These are all their names and

27
more, because what are names but approximations of us?

Lovers, blood-oathed brothers, fire-forged friends (what’s the

difference? I lump them together, my palm leaf paper binding
them together as banana leaves wrap rice) frequently give each
other poetic names that only they and they alone can speak, in
the seconds of true night, in the glimpses of coming dawn. This
is ours, they will say to themselves, because so many things are
not theirs. This is ours and the worlds, not theirs.

Ito ay sa atin, at atin lamang, they say. Sa atin, kasama ang

daigdig, ang kalikasan, ikaw, at ako, hindi sila.

[This is ours, and ours only. Ours: that is to say, the world’s,
nature’s, yours, and mine, but not theirs.]

Witness two women: one named Bulan, for she was born during
the full moon, and the other Siga, for she was born the day after
a burning of villages.

They could not be further apart: one is majesty in darkness, the

other a palimpsest of our violence. One is divine, the other is
mortal, truly mortal.

These names do not define them, of course, but they define their
names. Bulan is a noble, rich and powerful, bathed in copper like
the moon itself. Siga, on the other hand, is infantry, a warrior-
slave, to her. Like the flame that she is, she climbs up the ranks,
builds her own honor, until she is finally become a warrior, of the
warrior class, and appointed as personal guard to Bulan.

Do you see the constellation I write with these words-as-stars?

The noble Bulan was not allowed to be seen by men. Of course

she wasn’t: she was a veiled maiden, binukot in our dragon-
slaying tongue. She was meant to be sold off to powerful nobles

28
to increase the power of her father ruler.

Siga was seen as a woman as well as dictated by her society,

despite her being in a primarily male profession. She was
allowed into Bulan’s enclosure, and there their rituals were
religion. Hushed whispers, breath like incense smoke. There they
named each other again: something only they can know. Only
they can know.

“Let us defy our fates,” whispered Bulan, her voice small, her
voice not her, but Siga’s, for the first time.

“I want to reach you,” replied Siga, as a flame that can never,

ever, climb high enough to singe the moon.

“Then you must become the darkness that wraps about me,”
Bulan said, pushing a lock of hair behind Siga’s ear. “Because the
darkness that wraps about the moon is perpetual, and
eventually, subsumes it.”

“Name me, and so shall I name you,” Siga whispered, her flames
dying out into embers, into darkness, as she was told.

“You are Dulumgabii,” Dark Night or Night Darkness, not any

other kind of darkness.

Dulumgabii nodded. She held her push-dagger so tight that she

cut herself with its water-whetted blade. “And you will be my
Gikaon,” replied the warrior whose flames have burnt out into
darkness. Gikaon. Eaten—no. Consumed—no, too weak.
Devoured, there. Devoured.

For at endings the darkness always devours the moon, and that
is their destiny now.

And so was Sri Gikaon, noble devoured, named and consumed

and eaten.

29
Language In The Sword Isles
The locals have their own language, and each polity has their
own languages. Gatusanun is closest to Sinugbuanon. Ba-enun
and Virbanweño is closest to Tagalog. Akainun is closest to
Tausug. Apumbukidnun is closest also to Sinugbuanon, but also
Maranao. They are mutually unintelligible, though Gatusanun,
Ba-enun, and Akainun can communicate passingly through brute
forcing similar sounding terms.

However, when trading they use the prominent Trading

Language, Trade Mataram, which is a heavily mixed language
that built upon two frameworks: Put’wanun (the language of
Put’wan) and Mataraman (the language in the old Mataram
Kingdom, before it fell to ruin, and was succeeded by
Naksuwarga). They were the foremost traders, and thus
everyone else took up their terms. Trade Mataram is a
constructed language that is explicitly similar to a mixture of
Bahasa Melayu and Sinugbuanon Bisaya, with borrowings from
Old Tagalog, Hiligaynon, and the Tausug languages.

Words are modified through the use of particles. In particular:

-sin is equal to “of” in English, and is used to show that

something afterwards owns it. Therefore: Sundangsin would
translate to “Sword of”. Sundangsin Kadaugan would translate to
“Sword of Victory”.

Manga- is a plural modifier and added in front of a word.

“Mangasundang” means “Swords”. “Mangasundangsin
Kadaugan” would translate to Swords of Victory.

30
-mo showcases ownership of the second person. “Sundangmo”
means “Your sword.”

-ko shows that you owe that word. “Sundangko” means “My
Sword”.

-mi translates closest to “us, but not including you”. Sundangmi

means “Our sword, but not yours”.

-ta translates closest to “us, including you”. Sundangta means

“Our sword”.

Trade Mataram has no gendered pronouns: referring to the

third person is simply siya (if before the noun) or iya (if after the
noun). Wa’ay siya sundang/Wa’ay sundang iya. (They do not have
a sword).

Terms are usually created similarly to English: an adjective and

then the noun. Adjectives are linked to nouns by affixing them
after the noun or pronoun they modify. Balaybatu means “stone
house”. Balaykahuy means “wooden house”. These combinations
can usually end up in new terminology for terms: Batobalani for
example would simply mean “Charming or Attractive Stone”, but
has since become the term for Magnet.

Some terms connect two nouns together to create a new

meaning. Gubat Banwa is war + land. The various kinds of spirits
have the region or location they live in before -diwata.
Banwadiwata (Land Spirit) means they’re a forest/mountain/
inland spirit, basically any spirit in untouched, natural land.
Dagatdiwata (Sea spirit) means they’re a sea spirit.
Lungsoddiwata (Community spirit) means they’re a settlement
spirit, whether the settlement be a small hamlet or a large city.

31
Translating Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi (Grass Cutter Sword) to Trade
Mataram would then be “Sundangsin-Ganut” (Sword of Grass-
Clearing). This can be rendered either as Sundangsinganut or
Sundangsin Ganut and they mean the same. Ame-no-
Murakumo-no-Tsurugi (Heavenly Sword of Gathering Clouds)
would be written as “Sundanglangitnonsin Nangtigomng
Panganod” which translates closest to (Heavenly Sword of
Gathering Clouds).

Due to the nature of the Sword Isles, there is a great number of

foreign terms that borrow from other terms. A worshipped god
is usually understood to be a diwa. But a borrowed term from
Naksuwarga has become used to refer to worshipped gods that
do not live in nature and/or live in the sky, which is balahala.

To get words for Trade Mataram, use Cebuano, Hiligaynon, or

Butuanon words for common things, while more esoteric or
specific concepts such as noble lords, flying serpents, winged
beings, etc. can be Javanese, Thai, or Balinese in origin. More
modern concepts can have Sanskrit, Hokkien or Mandarin roots,
such as the printing press and carriages. Use these to spice up
your Gubat Banwa settings.

32
Betel Nut
Betel Nut (bonga/bunga, nganga), the fruit of the areca palm, is
an integral part of socializing in the Sword Isles. In a simple way
of understanding it, think of it as like the various tea ceremonies
one would find in East Asia. Betel nut chewing is accompanied
with its own ceremonies, given to visitors like an owner would
offer tea. Betel nut itself has a mild narcotic effect, similarly to
how tea might calm the nerves, or how alcohol might relax. Thus
it is integral to conversation. Not only that, but betel nut chewing
stains teeth red, making one “not an animal”, as only animals
have white teeth.

Betel Nut Ceremony

The nut is cut into segments, sprinkled with lime made from
shells, wrapped in a leaf, and chewed into a quid which produces
a blood-red spittle. The preparation, exchange, and serving of
betel nut is the most important social act in all of the Sword Isles,
even in Virbanwa. Men carried the necessary ingredients in little
baskets or pouches. A householder who fails to offer betel nut to
anyone who entered his house was an insult inviting enmity.

On formal visits, the quids are prepared and served in expensive

and beautiful metal trays or boxes by the females of the
household: servants, daughters, or even the lady of the house
herself, depending on the social standing of the guest.

A special honor is to add a touch of musk or a slice of cinnamon

bark, or some other aromatic flavoring, to the chew.

Betel nut is also important in romance and courtship: to offer a

quid partially chewed is an act of flirtation; to send one in
response to a man’s clandestine request is an act of acceptance
to his advances. To send it unbidden is an open invitation.

Betel nut palms are extensively cultivated across the isles.

Youths chewing for the first time usually suffer giddiness like
drinking alcohol. Young noble ladies have their first betel nut
chew as a kind of puberty rite or ceremony.

33
34
On Gender and Sexuality
While Classical Philippines isn’t as progressive as us these days
when it comes to sexuality, they still had some interesting takes
on it. At this point, you might have well known that most
Philippine languages don’t have gendered pronouns, and if we
did, they only came when the Spanish came.

Another thing to note is the balyan in Ancient Philippines. While

predominantly a woman’s profession, men could also take it up.
While in Tagalog regions, it hasn’t been said whether a transition
to femininity was required, it has been recorded in those regions,
as well as almost every other region in the Philippines. These
people were known as asug, bayugin, or binabaye in most
contexts.

They were treated like women and could even marry men. They
were supposed to wear women’s clothing and perform women’s
tasks.

While this is not exactly the most progressive idea now, we can
glean a bit from that, and we can apply a more progressive idea
into our Fantasy twist on Classical Southeast Asia.

I’ve long thought about the idea of Classical Philippine gender

and sex being entirely functional, due to the existence of the
asug. If a man performed a woman’s duties and tasks, they were
considered women.

However, I’ve eventually come to the conclusion that another

way of doing it might have been possible: that how they
presented themselves was their gender.

So a woman who presents and wears women's clothes, but

35
performs the tasks of a man such as raiding, warring, and
carpentry, would still be treated as a woman. However, if they
chose to wear men’s clothes and preferred to be seen as a man,
then they would be treated as such.

In this manner, we can stay kind of true to what our research has
shown us: that pre-Western genders were much more malleable
than post-colonial ones. Despite this being much more in the
space of speculation, it is one based on researched and informed
speculation. Due to some Katalonan men still probably being
treated like men despite performing the tasks of a “woman”, we
can only assume that the same is true for the other islands and
cultures.

Of course, this still isn’t as progressive as we want it to be: from

what I can see, despite the malleability of genders and sex in
Classical Philippines, there was still that forced binary. While I’m
personally staying true to that portion of history--partially
because as much as I love this time period I don’t want people
conflating this time period even more as a golden age--if you
prefer to play Gubat Banwa without a stifling pre-Western
binary, go ahead. As someone who doesn’t feel exactly in line
with any binary either (especially the Western binary) I am only
inclined to encourage you to do exactly that.

36
Life In Settlements
I have been using settlements to refer to the towns, villages,
neighborhoods, and cities of The Sword Isles. This is because
they are called a variety of things in The Sword Isles: in the
Rajahnate it is usually termed haop, (following) and already
stated, but in the Lakanate it is bayan.

Settlements are neighborhoods of around 30 or more

households, each one usually pledging allegiance to a Datu.
Settlements can band together and work together, fusing to
become larger settlements. Larger settlements are known to
have more than one Datu governing them.

The following is generic, it is not true for every settlement and

for every culture.

Hygiene, Makeup, and Aesthetics

Mornings begin at the first light of dawn, when the wind is chilly
and the sun has not risen up fully just yet. They then bathe,
usually in rivers, using oils and other herbal extracts to shampoo
hair and apply fragrances upon their body. Hygiene is an integral
part of The Sword Isles life: men and women both pluck their
eyebrows to thin crescents, Lakanate and Sultanate men grow
their moustaches and beards out while Confederation and
Rajahnate men trim them or clip them off with clam shaped
tweezers.

Bodies are scrubbed with pumice and other fragrant flowers,

especially among nobles, who wish to have good body odors.
They clean their ears out with feathers and swabs and brush
their teeth with a toothbrush made of vegetable husk, to polish
and keep teeth clean.

37
This does not make their teeth white, however: white is for the
foreigners, who are like animals. Only animals have white teeth.
The tawo of The Sword Isles pride themselves on stained teeth,
reddened or blackened, and sometimes completely pitch or
crimson. Some tawo even file their teeth to points.

Both women and men applied makeup: from tana eyebrow

paint, pupol face powder, red kamuntigi nail polish, and yellow
barak root to rub on the body as a skin lotion.

Some children are also given skull molding, which is done

through contraptions that flattened the front of the skull, letting
the front of the skull grow backwards instead of forwards. The
Sword Isles beauty standards hold crescent moon-like skulls,
called tinangad, to the peak of beauty, alongside broad faces and
flat noses. This practice is more popular among the Rajahnate
and Confederation settlements than the Lakanate and
Rajahnate.

Jewelry
Jewelry is an important part of The Sword Isles culture: even
debtors would have bangles or anklets of gold. Some jewelry
would have carnelian adornments, or pearl, or sometimes even
diamonds and rubies. The most important jewelry is of course
the gold accessories, which range from diadems to bangles to
waist cords to sashes made of pure gold to rings to arm bands
to thigh bands to belts to anklets to ear ornaments to ear
piercings and even to golden pegs upon the teeth.

Decorative dentistry is another important component of jewelry:

those that can afford it would fill the gaps between their teeth
with gold, and others would peg their teeth with gold stubs,
making it so that whenever they grinned or smiled their mouth
would shine like the sun, akin to the epic heroes of their tales.

Most ilawod settlements are almost never built out of reach of

salt water. Men and women that paddled would carve out their
own paddles, and were as personal to them as their weapons.

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Tattooing
Tattoos are called batuk or patik, and mostly only some
settlements in the Rajahnate and the Confederation used them.
Professional tattoo artists are called Mambabatuk and those
tattooed are called binatakan. The first tattoo is usually given as
a coming of age deal, with a person’s first conquest in war or
love: either by killing another or by having sex. Tattoos are then
only given to those that continue to conquer, each new tattoo a
burning marking of his valor. They are given piecemeal, but each
one would eventually connect with other tattoos to create an
intricate painting with the body as a canvas. The most valiant of
them, which constituted a sort of warrior elite, will have tattoos
up to the eyelids, giving them a demonic look and no doubt
affect their enemies psychologically.

Working the Field

During the early hours of morning, if it is planting or harvesting
season, they work the fields. Not only do the peasant work the
fields, but so do also the rest of the people, especially if they
must work the fields of the Datu. Even nobles, Kadungganan,
and freemen must pitch in, as a form of tribute to the Datu at
some point during the planting or harvesting season.

Most farming is done upon swiddens, using a traditional kaingin

system of slash-and-burn farming. This constituted rice farming
for some islands that had the conditions for it. The most
common crop was the root crop, such as taro and yams. Rice,
while favored, was not always in supply, and was much less
available year round. In worse harvesting days, even nobility
resorted to eating root crops instead of rice.

Farming is stopped immediately in the sight of bad omens, such

as termite mounds and squeaking snails.

39
Millet is also of great importance, and in some islands is the
main crop, with rice not being grown at all.

In addition to root crops and rice and millet, bananas and sago
(a kind of starchy palm flour) were also planted in swiddens.

Planting and harvesting season is not the same across the

islands of The Sword Isles, due to varying exposure to monsoon
winds. Time was measured through harvests: a year is defined as
the time between one harvest and the next. Age therefore is
measured through how many harvests a person has lived
through.

Woodworking
Carpenters cut their own timber. They had lore for when to cut:
different species are felled during the different turns of the
moon, some are more solid on the eastern side, and “male” trees
are always stronger than the “females” of a species. Trees are
felled with ax and bolo, split down the middle with edges, and
then each half is adzed into a single plank, squared with the
same tool. All carpentry and house construction are done with
skillful joinery without saws or nails. This has lead to beautiful
geometrical pegs and shapes made to fit entire boats and
houses, usually only held together by the ingenuity of the joinery
design or by thick abaca rope.

Plates, bowls, spoons, and ladles, urns called bohon, coffins, and
chests of all sizes are hewn from single blocks of wood, and
often decorated with fine carvings. Rough leaves of the hagopit
tree or biri palm are used as sandpaper, and ray fish tails or
dahonan hides are used to smooth even the hardest of woods.

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Smithing
Smithing is a very valued skill, and one that even datu practice
due to its prestige. Being a smith, which is called a panday, does
not only mean you can create weapons and armor. Smiths can
craft all sorts of things, from gold (Panday-sa-bulawan) to iron
(Panday-sa-puthaw).

Smithing is expensive since it would mean you would have the

materials needed to craft weapons and items. It is considered
the noblest trade, as usually only the wealthiest datu could even
afford the raw material. Iron and such were usually not mined,
but rather, stolen from raids against other polities, whether it be
from within the Archipelago or from foreign influences. Regular
raids to Baik Hu to gain iron to melt and use for smithing is a
very common raiding impetus.

A smith’s shed is called gusali. This is usually an open house

beside their actual house. Here they would have their forge,
made of hollowed out small tree trunks, with pistons ringed with
chicken feathers set so as to collapse on the return stroke. They
were alternately raised and lowered by the blacksmith’s
apprentice, known as masaop, to produce a steady draft. Both
cylinders had a bamboo outlet near the bottom which led to a
common stone receptacle known as a lilong, which concetrated
the draft into a charcoal fire. The anvil was a piece of iron set in a
heavy wooden block, and the smiths’ tools were: palo (two-
handed stone maul), a palo-palo (stone hammer), kipit (pair of
tongs), and an assortment of bolos for cutting the red-hot metal.

The most important tool manufactured, repaired, or retempered

by the blacksmith was the bolo. Dohong/Dayopak was the
ordinary one, while tuwad was a larger, heavier one for
woodcutting. Bako for weeding or cultivating, pisaw was one
with a short blade and long handle to be pressed under the arm
or against the ground with the foot to leave both hands free for
stripping rattan.

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Additional tools used by the smith are the abluwang (drill), barit
(a rough piece of iron for whetting tools or striking with flint for
fire), binkong (curved adze), bisong (knife for preparing betel
nut), dallag (straight adze), garol (spurs for fighting cocks), kalob
(spoon bit), sabit (billhook), salat (sickle), sipol (paring knife), tigib
(chisel), tirlos (lancet for bleeding), ulok (dentist’s awl).

Goldworking
Most The Sword Isles settlements and polities almost always
have gold upon almost every person. Most gold was mined by
placer mining: gold panning in streams or riverbeds. These
placers are called dulangan, dulang being the wooden pan used.
Pamiling, sifting, was the activity.

Gold is bulawan, fine gold is himulawan. They had touchstones

known as sanitran to test its quality, but most people could
estimate content on sight. Some men would carry around little
scales and weights in special pouches to make spot purchases.

A panday-sa-bulawan take advantage of gold’s supremely

workable material. Lumps are carved, modeled, and hammered
to shape, beat out into onionskin sheets, to be cut with shears
into silhouettes, wrapped into beads, or drawn into thin wires to
be used in filgree work or woven into thick ropes. They soldered
tiny granules together, several hundred in a square centimeter.

None have surpassed The Sword Isles smiths in this manner.

The Sword Isles gold is integral to this goldworking progress.

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Weaving
Weavers were usually those considered women. It is usually
done through the use of backstrap looms. The warp threads
were not placed in a permanent framework but rather, in one
continuous loop around a loom bar held in the weaver’s lap by a
strap behind her back, and another one suspended from a
house beam or tree branch.

Weaving is a normal part of housekeeping, and weavers supplied

clothing. In the epic literature even in the Philippines, this is the
pastime of even royal ladies. Heroes departing on ventures are
ritually clothed with magical raiments and garments by their
mothers and sisters.

Cotton and abaca are both exports here. Baik Hu called Ba-e
abaca yu-da, or jute, in the thirteenth century. Wives of
householding oripun are required to spin cotton, supplied to
them by their masters. Paid workers are employed as domestic
weavers.

Tying fibers together with fine knots to produce threads is the

first task taught to young girls. Cotton is a standard part of
blankets. Cloth straight from the loom--whether they be cotton
or abaca--are soaked in lime, sometimes dyed, and then
cudgeled to soften. Dyestuffs are red sibukaw, intensified by
nino wood, indigo tagum, yellow ginger root known as dulaw,
kasuba a kind of saffron, and an impermanent black dye known
as tina. Dyed thread is used to insert colored stripes in plain
cloth, including imported silk and sometimes even threads of
gold.

The most elexant textile, considered to be a monopoly among

those of Gatusan and Apumbukid, is pinayusan. It is woven of
abaca fibers hand-selected for both their whiteness and hair-thin
structure. It is then tie-dyed by binding little pinches of cloth,
leaving a fine flowered pattern in natural color on a field of deep
red. It can be made to make pudong as thin as gauze.

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Pottery
A potter’s craft is known as dihoon. They do not employ the
potter’s wheel but rather, the paddle-and-anvil technique.

The common cooking pot is daba/koron. Wide-mouthed jars are

bogoy, and flat pans for cooking are balanga. Banga water jars
are shaped like porcelain jars. Dinner plates are Baikhan
porcelain, however: pingan lasa are large ones, lampay are small
ones, and siwit are little ones like sauce dishes.

Baikhan jars are known as ang-ang, those used for pangasi

alcohol are gining. Linoping are big ones with ears for handles,
so called because they look like men tattooed all over. Hinalasan
are dragon jars, so called because of the serpent done in high
relief on their sides. Tinampilak are large black jars, tuytuy are
small black ones. Kabo are blue and white jarlets, often used for
tea and carrying waters.

Seasons of The Sword Isles

In most islands, the agricultural season began when the
Constellation of Boiling Lights appeared in the night sky.
Swiddens are prepared during this time, and then two moons
later--when the Boiling Lights are directly overhead--they would
plant seeds. Those in the south waited for the Constellation of
the Ballista before planting seeds, and those in the north area
waited until the Constellation of the Coconut Palm. This is
because of, as already stated, because of the differing monsoon
winds that strike different parts of the archipelago at different
times.

The seasonal rotation of The Sword Isles depended on the

flowering of certain trees. There are four in all: Katparasan,
Kattaloto, Katlawaan, and Katkisiw, which constituted the
mercurial harvesting cycle. Each season lasted for 2-3 moons
each.

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Each of them pertained to the particular blossoming of trees:
Katlawaan is when the lawaan trees blossomed, for example.
This would also signal planting season. Most planting seasons in
the island are during the season of Katlawaan, while those on
the northern and southern extremities begin in Kattaloto and
Katkisiw, respectively. At the final season, the harvesting
season—the end of Katparasan for most islands, end of Katkisw
for the northern islands, and the end of Katlawaan for southern
islands—they end a harvesting year, and move into the next
year. The first season is then used as a resting period.

Winds Of The Sword Isles

The Amihan is the wind that blows from the Northeast, bringing
with it warm winds and constant rains. Ships from Baik Hu,
Naksuwarga, and Malirawat use this wind to travel to the isles,
and it also facilitates domestic trade among The Sword Isles.

The Timog trade wind is a wind that circulates throughout the

archipelago during the tail end of the Habagat, around three
moons before Habagat ends. Using this wind, trading and
raiding is facilitated, and is an important aspect of interisland
travel. It is the third major wind in the archipelago.

Between the Habagat and Amihan winds, there are two other
winds that blow: Kanay the South Chill Wind, and Iphag the
Northern Wind after that. The Iphag Wind is known to have been
the wind coming from caverns deep in the earth, seemingly from
the World Below, bringing with it haunting wailing gales and
warm winds.

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Sailing
Water is the lifeblood of The Sword Isles. From the rivers that
wind up to the upland societies, and down to the seas that
spread its arms in both a beautiful and terrifying embrace. When
in The Sword Isles, look for no roads or trade paths: it is the
water that provides movement. This is why there is no need for
wheeled carriages during this time: the ships that shipbuilders
create are more than capable of bringing anything they wish to
any part of the island, from coconuts to elephants.

Sailors in the islands of The Sword Isles are almost never out of
sight from land, and thus they rely on landmarks and piloting
instead of celestial observations. The waters between islands are
a means to connect, and not separate, the differing polities and
societies of The Sword Isles.

Shipbuilders are known to be usually very rich, and datu are

known to be shipbuilders as well. A wide variety of ships sail
across The Sword Isles waters: from the single canoe baroto, to
the large merchant biroko, to the outrigger warships of biray
and karakoa. Among the Lakanate the trading galyon ship,
stolen from the Pale Kings, has already arisen to dominance and
has led to further trade among the region.

46
A few examples of boats...

Baroto. Made usually out of a single log. Dugout canoe. Might or

might not have outriggers.

Biroko. A kind of boat with high sides, large sails and no

outriggers. Used for cargo.

Biray. A large outrigger ship with multiple washboards for

carrying even more cargo (which, remember, includes debtors).
Will usually have painted and colorful prows.

Karakoa. Similar to the Biray, but larger and can carry up to forty
warriors on each side. It had large outriggers whereupon rowers
would sit upon. Its prow was decorated and intricately painted,
and would have tall staffs of brilliant plumage (sombol on the
prow, tongol on the stern). Lantaka, swivel guns, were commonly
placed on its sides to attack. It also had an elevated fighting deck
amidship.

Daya. Flat open ships, similar in shape and appearance to

Chinese sampan.

Galyon. Stolen design from the Pale Kings. Slow but can carry
lots of cargo. Reminiscent of Spanish galleons.

Food
Most food is made in iron stoves and pots, wherein they boil
chicken, fish, octopus, squid, pig, deer meat, goat meat, and
more foodstuffs that could be eaten. Fishermen and Hunters
bring back their catch with them at the end of the day, and
freshly caught catch is almost always cooked and eaten
immediately.

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Hunting
Hunters use hunting dogs to hunt down wild boar and deer, and
chase them into balatik traps: bamboo balistas that could skewer
entire human bodies. Using these strategies they capture large
games easily. Fishermen use traps at the mouths of rivers, as
well as cast wide nets while out in the sea to catch fish and other
game. For fish in streams, they would harpoon it, and for larger
fish such as whale sharks, they would hunt it down and bleed it
out with serrated harpoons.

Alcohol and Drinking

Alcohol is almost never drunk alone, except for those alcoholics.
Alcohol is stored in large porcelain jars, as is water, which
preserves a certain amount of chill. Alcohol in porcelain jars
would ferment and then be drunk straight through reed straws.
Imagine a single large porcelain jar, with multiple reed straws
poking out of it. These straws would be drunk communally
between friends, although they usually never shared straws.

Pangasi is rice wine stored in these jars. Kabarawaan is a kind of

wood mixed with honey and drunk in a shared porcelain jar.
Intus is sugarcane juice. Tuba is made from the sap of wild trees.
Alak is anything made with a still and drunk in small jarlets.

Drinking is an important social norm in The Sword Isles. Drinking

is usually done outside of the house, with a group of friends, and
anyone is welcome to join. It begins with the agda, which is a
sort of ceremony to persuade a person or the diwata to take the
first drink, before beginning the drinking.

Faith and Religion in the Sword Isles

The Sword Isles is pierced through by a multiple faiths and
religions. It is, however, pierced through with a belief in the living
thoughts of things not usually seen as living. These are the
spirits, the little gods. The following are known languages of the
Sword Isles.

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Astraiman - Worships the Bleeding God, who gaves His Son to
die for our Sins. Brought to the Isles by Issohappa.

Sampalataya - The indigenized version of Aimastra, which

worships the almighty Makagagahum, who protects the world as
Makagagahum, and will annihilate it at the end of the Festival of
the Longest Night as Makaobus. Syncretizes anitu with
Aimastran.

Anitu - The most common religion. Less of an organized religion

and a collection of superstitions, rites, and beliefs in the very real
living spirits that live in the wind, the trees, in everything. Each
anitu culture worships their own pantheon of gods.

Ashinin - Based off the Ashinin word, which means “One Million
Million”, which comes from the Indr Subcontinent. Believes that
there are a thousand thousand gods and that the true reality is
the All Pervading Soul, known as the Atman.

Annuvaran - Built by the buddha of this Trichiliocosm, a warrior-

priest named Annuvar. Annuvar Buddha preaches sunyata and
the precepts of compassion, and advocates violence that ends
violence.

Agma Damlag. The worship of Goddess, Baginda

Sumongsuklay. Alata Baginda! Gave all her teachings to the
slave-warrioress turned Ultimate Prophet Sihkandag. Teaches
the Divine Striving and ultimate humility for Goddess. Preaches
that dying in Lunar Goddesses’ name invites one to final bliss.

Agma Damlag is very much syncretized with anitu. Jinn and other
gods live alongside Baginda as ancestor spirits but are strictly
not worshipped. Sword Isle Bulanan have removed all traces of
dragon and hornbill art from their archietcture.

Rusunugan Anitu - An offshoot of Anitu that syncretizes Ashinin

and Annuvaran beliefs. Believes in the importance of merit and
righteousness, the belief in reincarnation, and the cycle of
suffering must be escaped from to achieve Liberation (Glory for
many).

49
50
The Addawa
Calendar
The Addawa Calendar is so named after Raja Diraja Addawa
Sagwan, the warrior-sage that traveled to the region in the
Subcontinent known as INDR and traded not just items but also The Celestials
ideologies and religions. From there, he managed to gain a few
Ashinin Jyotisha, particularly nuns named Sage Hiran and Sage There are 9 Celestials,
Chali, who worked as Starseers for Varsha. The Raja arrived in gods that live in the
Ba-e and they began reckoning the stars, and created a Calendar night sky. Celestial is
that takes inspiration from Malirawat concepts, but situates time just a term we use:
squarely in the Sword Isles. the syncretized term
is graha, which once
When the Raja Diraja traded across the Sword Isles, he started meant demon.
spreading the Addawa Calendar. Before long, within the larger Therefore the planets
metropoles and port towns (where reckoning of time not just for are Sidereal Demons
themselves but also for foreign merchants was important), they that cause eclipses
adopted the Addawa Calendar. Though the time intuition that and eat the stars.
most Folk in the Sword Isles have is more than enough when
having to reckon time for themselves. The 9 Celestials are
Surya the Sun,
The Addawa Calendar still depends on the Moon and the Stars Chandra the Moon,
for its readings, and i sued in tandem with local timekeeping Budha (Mercury),
practices. Addawa timekeeping devices are circular pies cut into Sukra (Venus),
twelve. Those that learn to be calendarists are known as Jyotisha, Mangala (Mars),
Astronomers or Starseers. Wrespati (Jupiter),
Sani (Saturn), Rahu
The years of the Addawa Calendar begin exactly 1001 years ago, (North Moon Node)
different from how other empires reckon it. It begins 1001 years and Ketu (South Moon
ago because that was when Ba-e was said to be first Node).
consolidated under a single ruler. The other polities go with it
because when a calendar begins means nothing to them. Time
wheels infinitely behind and before them.

Even with the Addawa Calendar, local time keeping practices are
still used more and intuitively.

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Wasara (Days of the Week) 3. Jyeshta, the Third Moon, corresponds to
There are seven days in an Addawa week, May-June. To Gatusanon, Jyeshta is
known as Wasara. The wasara relate aligned with Daganenan Bulan, when
perfectly to the seven days of the week we they pile up wood in the field.
would have. 4. Ashada, the Fourth moon, corresponds
0 Rawiwara, related to the Sun, is the to June-July. To Gatusanon, Ashada is
first day of the week. Sunday. aligned with Elkilin, when farmers burn
0 Somawara, related to the Moon. the field.
Second day of the week. Monday. 5. Shraawana, The Fifth Moon,
0 Mangalawara, related to the god corresponds to July-August. To
Mangala, the God of Mars. Third day of Gatusanon, this aligns with Inabuyan, the
the week. Tuesday. time where the fair winds were brought
0 Budhawara, related to the God of the about by the change of the monsoon.
Silver Celestial Budha (Mercury). Fourth Sailing is easier during this time.
day of the week. Wednesday. 6. Bhadra, The Sixth Moon, corresponds to
0 Wrespatiwara, related to the Giant August-September. To Gatusanon, this
Celestial Wrespati (Jupiter). Fifth day of aligns with Kaway, when they weed the
the week. Thursday. fields.
0 Sukrawara, related to the Beautiful 7. Ashwina, The Seventh Moon,
Celestial Sukra (Venus). Sixth day of the corresponds to September-October. To
week. Friday. Gatusanon, this aligns with Irarapun,
0 Saniwara, related to the Celestial of when they harvest the rice.
Endings Sani (Saturn). Seventh day of 8. Kartika, The Eighth Moon, corresponds
the week. Saturday. to October-November. To Gatusanon,
this aligns with Manululsul, when they
Moons finish harvesting the rice. After this, the
There are twelve Addawa months, each Gatusanon no longer keep track of the
with thirty days, known as Moons. Other moons.
cultures in the Sword Isles have differing 9. Margarsira, The Ninth Moon,
months: in Pannai, for example, they only corresponds to November-December.
have 8 Moons, and the rest is not counted 10. Pausha, the Tenth Moon, corresponds to
because they do not need it to reckon their December-January. From Pausha to
next farming time. Palguna, this is commonly known as the
1. Chaitra, the first Moon, corresponds to Cold Period, and Amihan is strongest.
March-April. The stars known as the Little 11. Magha, The Eleventh Moon, corresponds
Goats appear. Gatusanon know this to January-February.
corresponds to Ulalen. Seeds are 12. Palguna, the Twelvth Moon,
prepared. corresponds to February-March, and is
2. Waisakha, the Second Moon, the coldest part of the entire year.
corresponds to April-May. To Gatusanon,
Waisakha is aligned with Dagankahuy,
and they clear off trees to prepare for
planting.

52