Creating a 16th Century Philippines-inspired D&D World – Geographic and Oceanic Features (Part 2)

It’s been a while since I wrote the first part where I talked about the overland or surface of my setting, but now I’m back for the underworld and the sea. It took a while to figure out.

The Underworld

Caverns and tunnels are a staple of Dungeons & Dragons, especially in OSR, so it’s a must-have. The impression I had while reading about 16^th Century Filipino culture is that caves are generally associated with death. A belief in Visayas tells that the entrance to the underworld is a deep cave known as Lalangban. It echoes a loud noise, like the slamming of a door, when a datu died. Caves were also used as burial sites when available.

I leaned towards those kinds of beliefs of the afterlife, above all else. Caves and the underground are where spirits stay. The gold they wear at their burial eventually reintegrated back into ore.

But caves aren’t just places of death. Life also thrives within. Many beasts and creatures treat these places like nighttime shelters. Even deeper within, there are creatures who never leave because they have complete ecosystems in these depths. This duality of these domains are like the duality of Diwata and Yawa, so it makes some sort of sense in the setting, maybe.

Volcanic caves are a special kind of cave that occur near volcanoes, which the Philippines has many of. I’ve already associated Volcanoes with Minokawa, the Sun Eater eagle, so it’s easier to characterize. These caves burn with the deadly heat of lava and are inhabited by Anakminokawa, children of the Sun Eater.

Underground Rivers are another special kind of cave. It’s a river that flows under a cavern; that alone makes it very interesting to explore. A god in Visayan myth, Magwayen, ferries the souls of the dead to the underworld from the sea or rivers, so underground rivers being something like an entrance to the underworld or spirit hotspot is not a difficult connection to make.

Try exploring that.

The Sea

For a while now, I knew the Sea (and rivers) had to be something significant in my setting. Water had such importance in the ancestors’ lives. They settled near rivers and seas. They are provided with water to drink and fish to eat. They used the waters as roads, using boats to get everywhere. Water connected life. Water is life.

But the sea also doles out death. Drowning is a common occurrence. The Philippines is visited by typhoons more than any other nation, and with these typhoons, the rivers and seas swell up and deal destruction. Sea raiding being the preferred method of war means that the sea is the grave to countless men. It gives life and death. Another duality.

The Sea Bed covers most of the terrain of the sea. Basically the plains of the Sea, but there are some mountains and hills and what not, too.

Coral Reefs are home to not just sea creatures, but also Bantay Dagat (or Bantay Tubig), mermen. Legends say they have mansions of gold and jewels and all that jazz, but I wonder where they got those metals from. I lean towards their castles being made of corals and pearls, because they might as well flaunt their own natural resources.

Sea Trenches are the deepest points of the sea. Our very own Philippine Trench is the second deepest point in any ocean. I don’t know if the ancestors had legends about this part of the sea. It’s likely they never even knew about its existence, so I’m planting my own. The winding trench in the sea was made by Bakunawa, the serpentine Moon Eater, as he slithered and dug out a place to sleep. It’s home to the strangest sea creatures, living in complete darkness, and Anakbakunawa, children of the Moon Eater.

That’s a biiig Bakunawa