CC and OGC

[Smeazel]

Wikipedia doesn't say anything about the mythological berbalangs being monstrous only in their astral form; on the contrary, it says their slit pupils (apparently their only obvious monstrous feature) are present whether they're projecting or not, and that they always have to eat human flesh; they normally get it from corpses, and project just to feed more easily from living victims. Admittedly, the mention of their wings is a bit confusing, and I'm not clear on whether they have wings all the time or just in their astral form, but aside from possibly the wings there's nothing there to imply they become more monstrous when projecting. Granted, the quoted does refer to them as the "people" of a certain village, but it's not uncommon in mythology to refer to clearly monstrous races as just another people; cf. the Fomorians of Irish mythology, or even the classical centaurs. I certainly don't get from the Wikipedia article that the mythological berbalang is just a "human who's an astrally-projecting cannibal". (Unless you're getting your information from a source other than Wikipedia, in which case of course it's entirely possible that you're right and Wikipedia's wrong; I know Wikipedia isn't completely reliable.)

In any case, though, no, I have no intention of modifying the berbalang to be closer to the mythological original (which I guess makes the above paragraph moot anyway); for my purposes it's the D&D version I'm interested in. If it turned out that the Creature Catalog conversion wasn't OGC and that I had to fall back on the mythological version, I was just going to mention the berbalang by name and maybe a few details common to both versions (like its wings), but not mention anything specific to the D&D version, so I could leave it implied that it was the D&D version that was meant without actually explicitly stating anything that wasn't mythological in origin. Fortunately, it seems that the Creature Catalog version of the berbalang apparently is OGC so I don't have to do that.

 

[Cleon]

Wikipedia doesn't say anything about the mythological berbalangs being monstrous only in their astral form; on the contrary, it says their slit pupils (apparently their only obvious monstrous feature) are present whether they're projecting or not, and that they always have to eat human flesh; they normally get it from corpses, and project just to feed more easily from living victims. Admittedly, the mention of their wings is a bit confusing, and I'm not clear on whether they have wings all the time or just in their astral form, but aside from possibly the wings there's nothing there to imply they become more monstrous when projecting. Granted, the quoted does refer to them as the "people" of a certain village, but it's not uncommon in mythology to refer to clearly monstrous races as just another people; cf. the Fomorians of Irish mythology, or even the classical centaurs. I certainly don't get from the Wikipedia article that the mythological berbalang is just a "human who's an astrally-projecting cannibal". (Unless you're getting your information from a source other than Wikipedia, in which case of course it's entirely possible that you're right and Wikipedia's wrong; I know Wikipedia isn't completely reliable.)

Well I read a couple of other sources, and the impression I got was the berbalang are witches/ghouls/vampires who seem human physically, although they are funny-looking in appearance or behaviour. They enter a trance and astrally project as a giant bird or winged monster, In which flying form they rob graves and kill in order to feed on human flesh. Like many alleged witches, these suspected berbalang seem to be outsider types (unpopular minority tribe, crazy/diseased outcasts, et cetera) who the locals accuse of having supernatural powers.

In the story you refer to the village of the alleged berbalang was described was an actual place the anthropologist visited - I doubt the abandoned houses were built by purely mythical beings, so the inhabitants could have been human beings who the locals thought were berbalang.

Anyhow, I think that the odds are the berbalang is similar to the Aswang, and might be a regional variant of that class of creature. "Aswangs are shapeshifters. Stories recount aswangs living as regular townspeople. As regular townspeople, they are quiet, shy and elusive. At night, they transform into creatures from cat, pig, bird and the most common a dog. They enjoy eating unborn fetuses and small children, favoring livers and hearts."

 

[Smeazel]

OK, I was just going by Wikipedia... like I said, if you had sources other than Wikipedia, that's different. (I admit I hadn't even been aware the berbalang had mythological roots until very recently when I tried to search to see if it had appeared in the Tome of Horrors or some other OGL product, and ran across a post somewhere that numbered it among D&D monsters with mythological origins -- till then I had no idea it wasn't purely an invention of Albie Fiore, who's credited with its creation in the 1E Fiend Folio.) If you've read about the berbalang elsewhere, I have no reason not to trust your account of it, and your analysis of the account quoted in Wikipedia seems reasonable to me.

As I said, it's a moot point for what I want to do with it, since I just wanted to use the D&D version anyway, but still it's interesting to know more about the mythological underpinnings. (Out of curiosity, do you remember any of the other sources you ran across it in? I'd be interested in looking them up myself, and maybe editing the Wikipedia article to give a more comprehensive description.)

 

[Cleon]

As I said, it's a moot point for what I want to do with it, since I just wanted to use the D&D version anyway, but still it's interesting to know more about the mythological underpinnings. (Out of curiosity, do you remember any of the other sources you ran across it in? I'd be interested in looking them up myself, and maybe editing the Wikipedia article to give a more comprehensive description.)

I make no claim to have looked into it in any depth. The best info I found was a few posts on the mythfolk mail archives, the most relevant of which is this one Re: Berbalang or balbalan "witches" and "vampires" as southern Philippine social outcasts

That does seem to say at least some "berbalangs" are considered to be human witches. Of course, folklore can be very polymorphic, so there may also be a belief in berbalangs as monsters that can disguise themselves as human, or humanoid creatures that hide in the wilderness and fly about to prey on humans at night.

 

[Smeazel]

Ah... unfortunately, that's not enough to go on to update the Wikipedia article; a mail archive wouldn't be considered a reliable source. Just as well, really, though; I've got enough on my plate that I didn't really have time to be hunting down books for the sake of adding info on an obscure mythological creature in a Wikipedia article that probably hardly anyone reads anyway...

Anyway, though, thanks for the info. It doesn't really have any direct bearing on what I was planning to use the berbalang for, but it's still interesting.

 

[Cleon]

Ah... unfortunately, that's not enough to go on to update the Wikipedia article; a mail archive wouldn't be considered a reliable source. Just as well, really, though; I've got enough on my plate that I didn't really have time to be hunting down books for the sake of adding info on an obscure mythological creature in a Wikipedia article that probably hardly anyone reads anyway...

Anyway, though, thanks for the info. It doesn't really have any direct bearing on what I was planning to use the berbalang for, but it's still interesting.

That's OK, it's all grist for the mill. It can be difficult finding scholarly sources for these obscure folkloric beasts, and even some of them are a bit dubious. i.e.19th century reference works by "gentlemen adventurers" and the like.

Quite a few mythological beasties in D&D are based on very thin sources. The Peryton, for example. As far as I can tell it derives from a single story (which seems very much a "tall tale") about heart-eating flying monsters attacking a ship.