Bukana Illustrated: True Aswang

We’ve previously looked at the Markupo piece that Brian Valeza did for us. Some of you may recognize Brian’s work from Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, Paizo’s Pathfinder, Elder Scroll Legends and other tabletop and mobile games. Today we’re going to talk about Aswangs and his latest illustration for us.

Aswang is a term used in Philippine myth quite extensively, so we knew that we were going to have to take our time to give them their proper due. The creatures called aswang run the gamut from weredogs to old witches. They generally fall into a few categories: ghouls, werebeasts, witches, vampires, and viscera suckers. Karl Gaverza of PHSpirits.com suggested that we have Brian illustrate a creature that combines features of each of these aspects, which we dubbed a “true aswang.” This is person who has completely given up their humanity for the terrible gifts offered by the agents of the Under-Realm.

There’s a lot to dig into on this horror show. The wings and the missing lower body are from a class of self-segmenting fliers. The furry forearms and wicked claws come from the werebeast shapeshifters. The nasty chompers tie in the vampire and ghoul aspects, while the overall hag look wraps up the ensemble with the warlock versions.

If you actually want to play a character who has begun their journey down this dark path, check out the Yanggaw warlock subclass in our class decriptions.

Check out Brian’s art on Artstation.

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