click on this if i've posted for the first time in three months and you'd rather not read 10,000 words of bad fanfiction about the pre-colonial philippines just to get up to speed

what is talampunay
talampunay is a collection of non-territorially defined chiefdoms who until some time ago were busily trying to one up each other with displays of machismo and hoarding cool trinkets and also just straight up killing each other. power radiates like light out of these chiefs based on their prowess, and can link like a chain up and down to superior and subordinate chiefs, which spreads their power. this power being highly personal, chiefs polygamous, and succession bilineal, power built up by one chief was often destroyed by his rivals as soon as he died. nonetheless, this pattern culminated some thirty years ago in the centralisation of the realm under the high lakan, the coolest and most charismatic chief, under whom are almost all the most powerful chiefs. you can read this poorly written factbook for a more detailed explanation of power in talampunay, or maybe an actual book like laura lee junker's raiding, trading and feasting and the pre-colonial part of patricio abinales and donna amoroso's state and society in the philippines.

ghosts and ghouls and beasts are REAL in talampunay. sometimes they lurk in the undergrowth or come out at night and sometimes they just hang around in your house and in the streets in broad daylight. likewise with gods, of which there are probably half a million (which devalues them somewhat). the line between small time chump change gods and especially powerful datus - people of chiefly lineage - is blurred. the ancestors from any walk of life almost always pass into the otherworld and can affect the realm of the living in various ways, but especially cagey datus can ascend to the ranks of quasi-divinity in their lifetimes. what that actually means in practice varies considerably, but most often a datu can channel the power of one or several gods through him. quite often you end up with a chief who's just really good with words. or with swords! sometimes he becomes capable of cooking a mean tinola. that is to say, quasi-divinity is typically an augmentation of humanity rather than being truly godlike.

despite its questionable benefits, reaching quasi-divinity is something of an ultimate goal to all datus which is helped by the fact it is actually quite achievable. the taking of heads, perfecting a silver tongue, communing with spirits, ritual feasting and the hoarding of prestige goods (especially from abroad) are all matter-of-course activities for chiefs high and low to build their light and increase their power, and it turns out conveniently that these are the exact ingredients for reaching superhumanness. or whatever the word is. in a few rare cases quasi-divinity bestows exceptional boons worthy of its name, and such datus are capable of genuinely earth-shattering feats and power. for instance, the southern highland laranaw tribes, who live on the shores of a deep volcanic lake of the same name, trace their foundation to a neetal prince named hantufan who could swim to the bottom of this lake and back in a single breath, bringing with him the brimstone on the floor as proof. this among other evidence of his prowess allowed him to end the laranaws' internecine warfare that characterises virtually every other tribal group in interior talampunay, and uniting them into a confederation which persists today. on the side he built singlehandedly a great floating city which was destroyed in the ilanimat. also one of his wives was a totally smokin hot goddess. suffice to say this goes rather beyond what is expected of quasi-divinity and is considered true godhood. of course, this power is entirely personal and while inheritance is recognised in talampunay, it does seem rather silly to transfer the powers of a guy like this to a screaming baby - so like the chiefdoms themselves, this power runs only to the end of the mortal coil.

the high lakanship was an attempt by the coolest of datus to try and circumvent this with whatever passed for state institutions in pre-modern post-apocalyptic magical land. borrowing mainland dajin ideas of bureaucracy, legalism, and recording things on materials that did not rot away within five years, he attempted to supplement his personal strength with these institutions so they might outlive him. it worked! after the easy work of getting every top-level chief in talampunay to pay tribute to him (which may or may not have happened before, no one bothered to write it down), he declared himself high lakan and boldly announced that the position was elective but not hereditary, so that everyone would get a turn. what's more, instead of doing the lame, nerdy move of merely communicating with gods and spirits like everyone else, he was able to tie to the institution of the crown the ability to claim divine descent from makatha, the god of the sun and warriors who settles mortal disputes. which is very convenient for the chief of chiefs to have. some people have asked questions about how the institution can claim descent given it's elective but since everyone who matters gets to have a go the done thing is to maybe shut up and stop asking questions.

anyway all that to say some guy in samtoy did start asking questions and now the realm is being torn asunder by yadda yadda you know what this is it's a bunch of guys beating each other up for power and this has consequences (vampires and huge gorillas being let loose across the islands).

ok i don't care. what is talampunay actually so i know if i can be bothered to read all that nonsense
alright fine here's the chapter summary

chapter summary
chapter 1: the agturay (chief) of samtoy gets slimed. but by who! everyone is freakin pissed and they are about to tear napigsa limb from limb because he's from the second most important family in town and he seems kind of shifty anyway. does he get away whooooo knows guess you'll have to read it.

chapter 2: the bad agatha christie novel ends prematurely and you are introduced to... an even worse jin yong novel with endless exposition! better supplement your reading of pre-colonial southeast asian political economy with a heavy dose of shangqing taoism because siunn-hue and the """dorists""" sure think about it a lot up in their monastery unless they have a craving for sea urchins. there's an action scene in this one at least. it's not much good though.

chapter 3: we're still doing the martial arts thing but do you know what that genre is missing. that's right it's some awful wattpad shoujo that goes nowhere. oh my god. the annoying male lead does have some useful information for the overarching plot though so too bad you'll have to read this.

chapter 4: hey does anyone remember napigsa because i don't. anyway he goes and kills a bunch of highlanders. uh allegedly anyway you'll have to read the chapter to find out. i think he gets something cool i don't rember

wow! this seems like an interesting scenario you are such a cool writer. is there anything else i should know?
hey thanks man that's really nice of you. anyway here's some other worldbuilding stuff that my twisted mind is regurgitating point for point from real life.

owing to its difficult geography and climate, 'talampunes' are really a collection of related peoples whose cultures and languages are diverse. the dominant ethnic group are the tagaduungans, who inhabit the central lowlands and count the high lakan in their number. other prominent lowland groups are the north-eastern samtoyanos, the insular eastern karizay, and the western kamadlums. these groups do a bunch of lowland stuff.

the existence of the lowlands implies the existence of the highlands, of which there are many highlander groups. among these are the aforementioned laranaw, as well as the tolbog and whutlak who are related. they do a bunch of highland stuff.

besides the talampunes are a handful of unrelated cultures who also live in these islands. there are the chinese. sometimes white dudes show up too. and a handful of arabs. i haven't thought this part out very much.

the high lakan is an old ass man

important people
who is napigsa and what does he want
oooooh isn't he so inscrutable and mysterious and foreboding what could he possibly want oooooo. post your creepypasta fan theories in the comments

who cares about siunn-hue what does she even do
she's getting sea urchins you dummy! it's important to the plot!!!

does mapangahas even do anything other than harass chinese women he's just met
uh he moves through this world with beautiful abandon. so he knows some stuff i guess.

important places
maeyit is the capital, sitting near the mouth of the big river on the map which i don't have a name for. i dunno. the tagaduungans, the dominant ethnic group of talampunay, consider this their cultural, political and economic centre. predictably this is where the high lakan sits. there's a bit more stone architecture here than anywhere else in the country.

samtoy is a region in the northeast of the country, home to napigsa and his scheming ways. the toblog uplands neighbour samtoy in the mountainous interior, and is inhabited by yep you guessed it the toblogs.

bekit is uh i dunno. it's a small island far to the east. there's a dorist monastery there.

this is a work in progress.