Nosfecatu's page

Hello, Endzeitgeist!

I'm Billy/Beej, the conceptual author of Tikbalang: Guardians of Kalikasan. I have been doing a lot of research on Philippine myths in the past few years with the goal of adapting them to RPGs. For my own plug, I like to direct readers to Nosfecatu's blog for some more musing into adapting Philippine myth.

Now, with regards to Tikbalang, hopefully I can explain some of the fluff decisions properly.

There are many variations on stories told regarding the tikbalangs here in the Philippines. For the base racial traits, we stuck to things that were common to the mythos.

One defining aspect among the tikbalangs is its possession of an item that allows other creatures to control it. We represented it with the golden strand, which is one of its forms (although it is also commonly described as an amulet.) The strand version seemed more compelling, especially since the idea of tying it around one's finger like a ring is reminiscent of another myth:

When it rains on a sunny day, a common saying that persists here in the Philippines to this day is that a tikbalang is getting married (usually with a girl it kidnapped/lured from her home.) We wanted to distance the awesome creatures from their "lascivious abductor" version, but we wanted to keep the rain-while-the-sun-is-out aspect of things. So we instead tied it to the sealing of a geas with the tikbalang through its golden mane.

In some of the stories regarding the tikbalangs, the desire of people to wrestle them in an effort to find the talisman/hair strand that controls them has led to them magically turning their mane into sharp bristles. This is a rather uncommon aspect of their mythos, but it does get referred to from time to time. So instead of just including it as a core feature of the race, we decided to represent it via a Prestige Class. One thing led to another, and the mane eventually became prehensile enough to be used as a secondary weapon. It does get a bit silly, I guess: But one inspiration for prehensile hair is the tale of the malakat, an aswang that killed people by having its prehensile hair slither into its grabbed victims' mouths to suffocate them. But I digress.

Anyway, thanks for posting up a review of our first Pathfinder compatible product, Endzeitgeist!

Alzrius and me can hopefully answer other questions with regards to the Tikbalang or other Philippine myths. :D

Alzrius did the mechanical conversions for this product, while the fluff part is part of my initial design for that other game system. We are both eager for feedback, so do check it out! :D

A Tikblang that looks like this http://www.keiththompsonart.com/pages/tikbalang.html

Hello Mystic_Snowfang!

While it's certainly not Bestiary 4, we have recently released Tikbalang: Guardians of Kalikasan for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rules. :D

Still, if Paizo includes it in Bestiary 4, it'd be awesome. @__@

I'm very happy to see that one of my favorite monsters, the manananggal, has found its way to an official Pathfinder product. ^__^

I was supposed to convert my Asuang: Shapechanging Horrors into PF, but that'd mean a double entry for the manananggal, so now I'll have to think about it again. I do have some reservations about the Bestiary version (vulnerability to light blades? The creature cuts itself in half every night. @_@), so my "own take" might be nice.

Hey there Alzrius,

Odds are that you already know this by now, but I'll say it anyway. I believe the penanggalen, with an e, is found in the third Bestiary. Why they changed the spelling (and thus make it slightly harder to find for those familiar with the core mythos) is beyond me. :P

Incidentally, its cousin the manananggal (which, as you may know, interests me more) is also in that book according to the OGL.