Libertad
Legend

Storefront Page, PDF
Storefront Page, Hardcover
When it comes to non-European fantasy counterpart settings, Dungeons & Dragons has traditionally been rather sparse. 2nd Edition onwards saw an increased amount of such settings, be it regional examples like with particular domains and city-states in Ravenloft and Dark Sun, and the inclusion of entire lines like Al-Qadim, Kara-Tur, and Maztica. But such lines struggled to get any support as complete self-contained settings in later Editions. Indeed, it was often left to fans' homebrew content to keep these lines alive, to say nothing of original worlds. By the advent of 5th Edition, we’ve seen a surge again of writers and designers eager to move beyond the Western standard, both on the part of Wizards of the Coast as well as gamers making use of the OGL. Furthermore, it’s increasingly the norm to have people from aforementioned cultures play a role in the creative process, like we’ve seen with Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel.
The Islands of Sina Una is one such book in the latter category, the finished product of a team of Filipinos (both residing in the country and the diaspora) who sought to take their culture’s legends, history, and folklore and turn it into a campaign setting for 5th Edition. Meaning “those who came first,” Sina Una is not a term used in-universe so much as a meta-reference to the pre-colonial eras of the Philippines. Sadly, a lot of Filipino history has been lost after colonization, with what survives persists largely via oral folklore, so the book was made to remember and celebrate their ancestors by collecting such fragmented pieces to shine a spotlight on the beautiful tales still remembered. The designers also included an appendix and cited sources on their historical research and how they adapted certain things into a fantasy RPG format, and also what they chose to leave out and why.
Before we start, I should note that the book contains Content Warnings for discussion and references to visual depictions of cannibalism, gore and spiders listed by page number. Unfortunately, one of the page references is mislabeled: the book mentions that “there is an extremely large spider on page 143 and 258,” but in both the PDF’s designation and the corner page reference the latter number reference the wrong monster. 258 has a picture of a Minokawa, a monstrous eagle-like being, and page 259 after it has a picture of a Tambanokano, a monstrous crab. In fact, the spider monster illustration (the Tambanokua) is on page 260. A rather unfortunate mistake.
Chapter One: Introduction goes over the major themes of the Islands of Sina Una, and what distinguishes its world.
Welcome to the Islands paints the setting in broad strokes, covering universal aspects. The known world consists of seven major islands in an archipelago in the middle of a vast ocean. Seafaring is an important means of trade and contact between peoples, although the skill and time conducted to voyages depends upon one’s lifestyle. Most people spend the majority of their lives in their local village, but traders, nomads, those living near the coasts, and of course raiders often stay on the waves for long enough that it becomes second nature. The climate is tropical, which has shaped the common tools used. Particularly for weapons and armor, as the heavy metal common to other settings rusts easily and imposes exhaustion on its wearer. Almost every settlement speaks Common, and a simple form of sign language for nonverbal communication has developed.
Every creature and object has its own spirit. Spirits are an important part of the world’s cosmic underpinnings. For mortals they are one’s soul, which moves on to the afterlife upon death. Spirits are also the source of magic, where various traditions of spellcasting have their own methods of using spirits to achieve wondrous feats. While most are unseen and immaterial, spirits can also manifest physically in the world, and every island has particularly powerful and famous spirits that act as figures of importance who locals pay homage to in exchange for favors and protection. People are aware that they’re never truly “alone” even in the desolate wilderness and middle of the ocean, so it’s common to conduct rituals and respectful greetings as a means of acknowledging one’s trespass. For instance, sailors might petition the sea and sky for fair weather and guidance, while a hunter one walking through the grove of a balete tree may politely ask the plant to pardon their steps as they walk.
The islands may share a common language and customs, but governance takes place at the local level. Most settlements are led by a figure known as a datu, who acts as a lawmaker, judge, and administrator of protection and resources for the community. Warriors known as timawa defend the datu and enforce their laws in exchange for their patronage. Higher-ranking figures known as rajahs lead larger settlements, with multiple communities having their own individual datus who pay tribute to the rajah. The position of a datu is most often hereditary, making them similar to nobles in other settings, but upon reaching old age they often step down to advisor status in a local council to let their adult children rule.
Foods vary wildly depending on local resources, although rice and tubers are staple crops, seafood is common, and spices are used to add flavor. Meals are an important means of social bonding, whether it’s something as small as having a friend over or larger feasts to celebrate holidays and achievements. The betel nut in particular holds a special place in island culture, where fruits from an areca palm are sliced and then wrapped in a leaf from a betel piper vine. People carry tools for this method of preparation at all times, and the betel nut is shared whenever a serious discussion is to happen or someone is invited into another’s house in order to solidify social bonds.

We get a list of Ingredients and Dishes for common meals, such as taro (root vegetables used to thicken stews), luya (ginger plant spices used to flavor dishes and tea), malunggay (leaves used for soups and medicinal recipes), biko (popular snack and dessert made from glutinous rice, coconut milk, and brown sugar served in an oiled banana leaf), lugaw (rice porridge with chicken, ginger, and garlic often topped with a boiled egg and chopped green onions), and ube halaya (jam made from purple yams and coconut milk, either eaten on its own or put on other desserts).
This section ends by covering the History of the Islands, which is surprisingly quite short. It begins with the creation of the world, which was originally fragments of land within a churning sea. The god Bathala began to shape reality into something more cohesive, and fashioned the people of the world out of various natural features and spirits taking mortal form, such as the elves who were original plant and flower spirits, or the gnomes who rose from the very earth itself. A few spirits went on to join Bathala as fellow gods,* having children of their own who then went on to form the various celestial objects. They lived as one big happy family, eager to protect the new land they all helped create.
*Gods in Sina Una are basically very powerful spirits rather than being uniquely distinct categories of being.
Sadly, the gods and the world would soon come to know sorrow, as there were monsters lurking in the dark corners of reality, dating from before creation. They were jealous of Bathala’s works, and one such entity was a shapeshifter known as Bakunawa who sought to devour Mayari, the moon. One night, when Mayari shone bright, Bakunawa emerged as a titanic serpent. He was repelled by Haliya, one of Mayari’s younger siblings, and forced to retreat into the deep reaches of the ocean. The gods, now aware of this new danger, prepared for the next time that Bakunawa would emerge from the waves, and emerge she did. They fought a grand battle across the islands and the heavens, with Haliya dealing a deadly blow to Bakunawa. This eldritch horror would be the first of such Celestial Eaters, so named for their desire to consume the moon and other creations of Bathala. Haliya formed an order of mortals known as the balat-kayo to call upon her blade when the time came to fight such entities. The gods otherwise retreated, leaving mortals among a broken world, who then turned to spirits in order to rebuild and survive. From this came the emergence of the umalagad, dragonborn who are reincarnated ancestral spirits, as well as the shamans known as the babaylan who act as intermediaries between mortals and spirits of the land. Kaylahon was a particularly famous babaylan who helped found the port town of Timanduk, which still stands to this day. But one day, she left for unknown horizons but not before appointing a new leader for her home. Some say that she’s looking for a way to defend against the Celestial Eaters. Kaylahon has reason to be concerned, for all manner of monsters and curses scour the lands, giving rise to the need for healers, warriors, and petitioners of spirits to make the world a safer place.

The book then briefly touches on common kinds of adventures and character-building. The book notes that life in the islands emphasizes connectedness of all kinds. Beyond the ties people have with their families and hometowns, they petition ancestors for insight because they are “connected to those who came before you.” People respect and provide offerings to spirits in exchange for aid because the spirits need mortals’ help as much as mortals need spirits. Faith and worship, thus, is seen in similar terms, of one's relationship to family and community.
When it comes to running a campaign, the book is rather vague on this count. It mentions the idea of PCs being traveling monster-hunters who may eventually work up to fighting the Celestial Eaters themselves. For other kinds of campaigns it mentions PCs traveling between the islands as they get involved with the conflicts of the gods, but little in regards to specifics on the gods and their particular conflicts. There is more text devoted to a gaming group’s concerns of doing “something wrong” when it comes to portraying Filipino culture, and that everyone makes mistakes and that the most one can do is to learn from them and strive to do better. The book says that the fact that one is willing to treat these stories with respect is already a step in the right direction.
We then get a pronunciation guide, a reference to an appendix for common words and names, and a d100 table of names for those who need help choosing ones for characters. Names don’t have gendered connotations.
Chapter One’s final major section concerns Spirits & Religion, particularly the 22 gods of the world. Sina Una’s cosmology is an animist one, meaning that every object, creature, and even natural phenomenon, has an animating soul. Thus, the term “spirit” is much broader in definition than your typical incorporeal undead. Even those who aren’t babaylan take pains to do their part in ensuring that they stay on the spirits’ good side, for respect and offerings earn their aid, while disrespect and apathy can bring their ire in the form of various misfortunes. People reserve special houses and altars for such offerings, and the kinds of offerings depend on the local spirits’ tastes and desires. But some common offerings in the islands are wine, gold ornaments, betel nuts, and animal blood. Salt and spices are one of the few universal dislikes, so such things are almost never offered.
Spirits of nature are self-aware, meaning that they have their own names and desires. While they may seem inanimate at first glance, spells and the proper rituals can be used to communicate with them. Some of these spirits can create manifestations of a person or animal in order to properly converse. While spirits of related things can share features in common, each spirit is unique and can have the gamut of personalities and moral outlooks as mortals do.
Ancestor spirits are the souls of mortals who still continue to exist, looking over the households of their descendants. Such spirits can interact with mortals via possessing a willing host or an object carved in their likeness, as well as entering the dreams of their descendents. A rare few can reincarnate in the mortal world as umalagad.
How does death and the afterlife tie into things? Well, it’s believed that a body can remain alive even without a soul, and that sometimes the soul can temporarily leave the body during sleep or via special magic and talents. True death occurs when the physical body expires and the soul starts its journey to the Underworld. Food, drink, and personal possessions are buried with the corpse during funerals as a means of helping their spirit’s journey by having such things take form alongside them. All souls who die share the same path: they travel northward along forest paths and rivers to Lalangban, a gateway sitting at the edge of the world. While such a place can be physically journeyed to by the living, it is a waterfall spilling into an endless abyss, with jagged rocks and a whirlpool that can destroy inbound ships. Souls enter the whirlpool to go on their next journey to the Black River, whose current is bathed in total darkness designed to cleanse souls of fear and attachment to their prior lives. The goddess Magwayen watches over this river, using a glowing beacon to help guide souls to her boat and thus to the dreamlike Underworld, a paradise-like place where spirits go to live among their departed loved ones.
Souls who don’t wish to move on must swim upstream, and mortal barbarians empowered by the Black River itself* are tasked with ensuring that such reluctant souls don’t make their way out. But those spirits who manage to rescape reincarnate as umalagad but lose all memory of their former lives as a result of the ordeal. Spirits unable to make their way to Lalangban in the first place become ghosts, trapped in a pitiable state of aimlessly wandering a world in which they can no longer truly live and experience.
*a subclass detailed later in this book.
As can be expected, necromancy is a major taboo, for it is a disruption of the natural process of dead bodies returning to the earth which helps ensure the flourishing of new life. On a similar note, magic that brings back the dead is viewed as disrespectful to the deities Siadpa and Magwayen, albeit not to the same extent as the creation of undead. That latter kind of magic is forbidden under any circumstance.

Gods of the Islands covers the most well-known spirits who embody universal forces and concepts. They do not have listed alignments or favored domains, their info being in the realm of flavor text as well as half-page or full-page artwork. They include Bathala, the creator god and god of the sky who is known as a merciful protector. He prefers to act as a guide and takes a less active role in the world, knowing that his children have a good handle on things. Then there’s Apolaki, a stubborn yet compassionate spirit of the sun who shines upon the world every day. She once fought Mayari for control over the sky, but the duel was called off when she lost her eye in the fight, and the two opted to govern half the sky every day as a compromise to avoid further bloodshed. Mayari the moon goddess is known for her wisdom and beauty, and the Moon Siblings are a pair of twins (half-sisters to Marayi) who protect her by enshrouding part of the moon via lunar phases. Mayari’s sister Tala helps manage the stars so as to help the lost find their way home at night. Mayari’s other sister Hanan presides over morning, decorating fields with dew and encouraging roosters to wake people up for another day’s work. For those wondering, Mayari and her sisters are the daughters of an unnamed mortal woman, while the Moon Siblings came from the goddess Anagolay.
Anagolay is the spirit of lost things, who fell in love with Bathala and beget their son Apolaki. Bathala would later become consumed by his work as creator, so they parted ways. Anagolay later wed Dumakulem, spirit of the mountains, and spends her days helping people cope with loss and giving guidance for those searching for something or someone. Dumakulem created mountain ranges with his own hands, to help provide shelter for those who explore such regions. Those unable to care for children began leaving them up in the mountains in hopes of having the god provide them protection. People also entreaty the god in order to safely travel through mountains, before an auspicious hunting expedition, or to better defend others.
Dian Masalanta is the spirit of lovers and childbirth, and is known for being a peace loving being who people pray to for relationship advice, how to love oneself and others, and to ensure healthy conceptions. Sidapa is the god of death and mortality, a rather introverted, reclusive god who primarily acts as an archivist of those who passed on. People pray to him to make the most of their lives rather than for longer ones, as that’s considered a disrespectful and selfish wish. Magwayen has a similar role as a ferrywoman of souls making their way to the Underworld, and people pray to her to ensure peace for those grieving and to help their dearly departed on a safe journey to the afterlife.
Lakapati is an intersex goddess of harvests and fertility, who taught people how to farm the land and observe the changing seasons, and is petitioned by farmers for fruitful harvests and to safeguard their herds. Maylupa is the god of the earth, sometimes taking the form of a crow. He once ate the flesh of a corpse out of curiosity, which angered Bathala who then covered his once-bright feathers with black ink. Eventually Bathala met Maylupa again, and the two reached a compromise: Maylupa would live closer to the earth as a means of penance, but also help encourage his curious nature in exploring the world.
Okot is a spirit that prefers to live in forests, his songs sometimes heard but all its inhabitants step to his tune. He is an odd ally of hunters, who often find the spirit guiding animals to them either to lead them out of the woods faster or be more easily caught. Haik is the god of the ocean, but he shares this territory with many other spirits and is more of a respected coworker than an overlord. He works with Anitun Tabun, the goddess of storms who is much less reasonable and is known for her fickle and stern nature, but those who please her are often blessed with rain to help crops grow and cool the lava of volcanoes. Maklium Sa-Bagidan is the god of fire, who encourages mortals to treat this element as a tool to be respected. Dangerous, yet useful for the many functions of civilization, from cooking food to clearing forest for farmland. Lalahon is the goddess of volcanoes, simultaneously an entity of creation and destruction. Destruction for a volcano’s ability to smother and burn all that stands in its way, but also creation for the ash spewed forth which fertilizes soil for farming and cooled lava that becomes obsidian.
Ribung Linti is the god of lightning and thunder, an upbeat and energetic deity who knows the danger of his domain so he sends dark clouds ahead of time as a warning. He wields lightning as a precise instrument to quickly and mercifully kill evildoers. Amanikabli is the god of hunting, ever on the move for the next great endeavor. When he is not chasing after a creature, he spends his spare time building and experimenting with new weapons and traps, and emphasizes mortals to perform ethical means of conservation. Those who act foolishly or cruelly find their hunts marked with misfortune, with the god manipulating events so that they’re unable to catch their quarry.
Thoughts So Far: The Islands of Sina Una’s opening chapter does a good job in giving us the broad strokes of the setting. The focus on spirits as a common glue connecting things together is a strong theme running throughout the book, and in covering topics such as government, food, and seafaring the reader already has a strong mental image of day to day life. The history section is very brief, but quickly sets up the Celestial Eaters as the main antagonists of the setting. By having their war against the gods be a recent event, it’s something that hits closer to home rather than being an obscure footnote in the distant past.
In regards to weak parts, I think the book should more concretely define what kind of adventures the setting wishes to emphasize, rather than saying that fighting the Celestial Eaters doesn’t have to be the default. Defining oneself by what one is expected to do is just as important as departures from the norm.
Join us next time as we cover the first few islands in Chapter Two: the World!