"Build Your Own Vampire" Project: Period 5, Team Deadicated™

Objective: The goal of this project is for your team to create the rules and attributes of your own vampire universe.

Team Members: Kajini Sandrakumar, Yostina Girgis, Samantha Sabah, Kyle Su, Ben Shoykhet, John Doyle

Vampire's Ethnicity: (Sam)
- Filipino

Justification: In Filipino culture, there exists a monster called the “aswang”: it is similar to a vampire in that they drink human blood (and liver and unborn babies) and are repelled by items usually considered to be effective against vampires. According to The Aswang Project, some scholars believe that when the Spanish were colonizing the Philippines, the colonizers demonized the natives who continued practicing their pagan beliefs; those who were ostracized secluded themselves from the rest of society in the mountains and became the origin for the legend of the aswang (The Aswang Project, 2015).

Our vampire’s name is Malaya. She wanted to continue her traditional beliefs and the Spanish were destroying her village so she followed an old, magical ritual to become an aswang and strike back against them. She tied a fertilized chicken egg to her stomach, and once the chick passes into her flesh, she buried the shell in a bamboo tube with coconut oil and chicken feces (Nelson, 2018). She then become an Aswang: a helpful woman, though a bit tired looking, in the day, but a vengeful monster at night who feasted on her enemies. Since she transformed in the 17th century, though, she’s become a more confident and outgoing person, no longer afraid of losing what she holds dear, and happy to see her country moving away from its imperialist history.

Citation:

- “25 Facts About The Aswang, The Evil Spirit Who Lives Amongst Humans.” Thought Catalog, 2 Sept. 2018, thoughtcatalog.com/january-nelson/2018/08/aswang/.

- “What is an ASWANG.” The Aswang Project, 2 Dec. 2015, https://www.aswangproject.com/what-is-an-aswang/

Vampire’s Abilities: (Tina)

- Have the ability to transform their appearance (shape shift) and the appearance of other objects.

- A dying Aswang can pass their powers on to somebody else.

Justification: During the day, our vampire uses her shape shifting abilities to appear as a regular townsperson (particularly a woman, as mentioned in the previous section). By doing this, she is able to blend in with her victims while observing who to target next. Once night starts creeping in, our vampire shifts into her predatory form which is obviously better suited for hunting. There is never a consistent image or description of what she looks like. Some reports of sightings talked of a man-sized bird, a Tasmanian devil, pigs, and dogs, but she prefers to take the form of a large bird, as she loves to soar over the island at night. It’s also a very effective form to hunt in as well.

Our vampire possesses the ability to transform the appearance of other objects, as well. This becomes quite convenient when she wants to create a doppelganger of one of her victims, in order to hide the evidence of her feeding habits from locals. However, despite her careful precautions, she always has to be on the move in case the villagers get suspicious about the missing people or they realize she isn’t aging.  

Lastly, when our vampire is dying, she can choose to pass her magical powers on to someone else. All she would have to do is hold her mouth close to a chosen person. Then the chick that helped her originally become an aswang would hop into the mouth of said chosen person. She’s still looking for the right, willing person to pass her powers on to, as she views becoming an aswang a choice, especially with the hardships that come with it, despite the pretty awesome abilities.

Citation:

- Geller. “Aswang - Mythical Creature from Philippine.” Mythology.net, Mythology.net, 21 Oct. 2016, mythology.net/monsters/aswang/.

- Valdeavilla, Ronica. “Aswang: The Terrifying Vampire Ghouls of the Philippines.” Culture Trip, 18 Oct. 2018, theculturetrip.com/asia/philippines/articles/aswang-the-terrifying-vampire-ghouls-of-the-philippines/.

Vampire's Weakness(es): (John)

- Religious artifacts, such as holy water, rosary, and prayers. Also weak to intense heat and light.

Justification: During the time that our vampire transformed, Spanish colonizers were doing their best to convert Filipino natives to Christianity. As an incentive, Christian prayers and artifacts were said to be able to ward off monsters such as our vampire. Since the ritual Malaya took part in was pagan in origin, and Christianity is by nature strongly opposite to pagan values, she cannot touch any religious artifacts or partake in Christian activities like praying. She can pretend to of course: she had a human hang a cross in her house to prove to her neighbors she wasn’t in league with Satan and she can attend church, though it does make her uncomfortable and she can’t receive the Eucharist. She pretends to pray in the pew. She is not weak to the sun, but can be burned by incredibly powerful lights, especially light created by fire, if the energy is directed at her. Also, the person must know she is an Aswang, otherwise she will not be harmed.

Citation:

- “25 Facts About The Aswang, The Evil Spirit Who Lives Amongst Humans.” Thought Catalog, 2 Sept. 2018, thoughtcatalog.com/january-nelson/2018/08/aswang/.

- “What is an ASWANG.” The Aswang Project, 2 Dec. 2015, https://www.aswangproject.com/what-is-an-aswang

Vampire's Reproduction: (Kyle)

- Marrying other human beings, “marking humans”, transferring power

Justification: When our vampire transformed herself in a ritual (mentioned above), she resigned herself to a life of loneliness. She could reproduce by either marrying a human or passing on her powers onto a willing recipient by letting the chick that passed through her flesh leave her body and go through a mouth of a human. She highly doubted the first one would ever happen without deception, and if she did the second one, she would die soon after. However, after almost a century of preying on colonizers and other unfortunate souls that displeased her, she met a human man in her mortal form. He began to court her, and she fell in love with him, though she was constantly afraid that once he found out the truth, he would leave her and hate her. One day, she was forced to tell him the truth once he proposed to her, unwilling to go through with a wedding when the end result would be him transforming against his will. Instead of him fleeing as soon as possible, he was silent for a moment, before professing that he didn’t care, and that he was willing to become an aswang to be with her. They married quickly, and are very happy together, though they have to hunt separately as they dislike sharing food. They both agreed to not have children as they don’t want to force a living being to live a life they didn’t choose. Now, they constantly move around the island, occasionally traveling the world together, both unwilling to leave the world before the other had found a willing recipient of their powers.

Citation:

- Geller. “Aswang - Mythical Creature from Philippine.” Mythology.net, Mythology.net, 21 Oct. 2016, mythology.net/monsters/aswang/.

Vampire's Camouflage (How vampires live with humans without being detected): (Ben)

Justification: In Filipino culture, vampires are known as “The Danag Spirits” and they look very similar to humans, and once helped them by planting taro and clearing fields for them. They were “gods” to humans on earth. Vampires in the Philippines are also considered to be typically beautiful females during the day, but fiends for humans at night. This is why during the day, our vampire can inconspicuously live among humans, though she is much weaker then and appears very tired. Our vampire can act as human as any normal person can, and during the day, she might as well be fully human. Unless somebody saw her at night, then she would be completely undetectable during the day.

Citation:

- “25 Facts About The Aswang, The Evil Spirit Who Lives Amongst Humans.” Thought Catalog, 2 Sept. 2018, thoughtcatalog.com/january-nelson/2018/08/aswang/.

Vampire's Home: (Sam)

- A small town in the province of Capiz.

Justification: Historically, the province of Capiz is known as “aswang country”, possibly due to the fact that a genetic disorder called “X-Linked Dystonia Parkinsonism” was found to come from the Capiz province 63% of the time. Many with the disorder would suffer from “body twisting, tongue protruding from their mouth, and salivating”, so other members of society thought them to be “transforming” into a monsterous state of the aswang. Thus, our “vampire” lives inconspicuously in a small town with her husband, helping out her neighbors and friends, transforming at night with none the wiser, though frequently having to move around to avoid suspicion. Despite the opportunity to move out of the Philippines, our vampire continues to stay in the area. She became an aswang to defend her country, or at least rebel the only way she could against the colonizers. She feels tied there: she was born there (twice), and she’ll die there.

Citation: “The Truth about the ASWANG in Capiz.” THE ASWANG PROJECT, www.aswangproject.com/aswang-in-capiz/.

Vampire's Preferences: (Kajini)
- Small children, fetuses, corpses, human blood and livers. Prefer not to feed on those who are close to them. Will feed on those who have wronged her, or wronged others close to her.

Justification:  Aswangs behave like ghouls when hunting. They feast on corpses but they mostly prefer eating unborn fetuses and small children, more specifically sick children. They relish the taste of their blood, livers, and hearts. Some stories say that an aswang has a long, tube-like nose that they can use to suck out a fetus from a sleeping mother’s womb. However, despite these monstrous descriptions, Aswangs feel everything a human feels: happiness, anger, sadness. It is easy for them to develop friendships with humans around them. Due to this bond, they prefer not to feed on those they develop friendships with, and sometimes even offer healing potions and helpful spells to their neighbors. Our vampire dislikes feeding on fetuses, and goes out of her way to feed on the blood of people she views as “bad”, which used to be colonizers and now  applies to criminals and generally unpleasant people. However, because of this, she considers her judgements on people final, and views herself as punishing the wicked, even though there are times she feeds on people in spite, even if they aren’t bad, and excuses her actions.

Citation:

- “What is an ASWANG.” The Aswang Project, 2 Dec. 2015, https://www.aswangproject.com/what-is-an-aswang/

- Ramos, Octavio. “Monster of the Week: Aswang.” AXS, 8 Nov. 2013, www.axs.com/monster-of-the-week-aswang-98666.

- “25 Facts About The Aswang, The Evil Spirit Who Lives Amongst Humans.” Thought Catalog, 2 Sept. 2018, thoughtcatalog.com/january-nelson/2018/08/aswang/.