If I have tarried long in fulfilling this
promise, I apologise. I just found out how demanding the task of finding Wargish influence in the Filipino culture is. Wargs were once so ingrained in life of the early Filipinos, yet only traces of this fact remain today, like the dwindling settlements of Warg-worshippers in the mountains of Zambales, just a few miles north-west of Manila.
Now, in Tagalog* mythology, the first man, Malakas, and the first woman, Maganda, were imprisoned inside enormous bamboo stalks before being liberated by a wood-pecking bird. The true reason for their confinement remains unknown, but some say that an evil Warg-rider, Masama, with his Warg, Mabangis, were responsible for this. It seems that they envied and feared these creations of the great Warg chief, Bathala, who deemed that the Wargs needed someone to teach, and thus created the two humans.
Under the cover of night, Masama and Mabangis stole into the halls of Bathala, and took captive Malakas and Maganda. When their disappearance was discovered, Bathala ordered his best soldiers to storm the dwelling of Masama. There was a great battle, in which many of Bathala’s warriors were killed, but not before killing Mabangis. Masama, realising his defeat, planted two bamboo stalks into the ground near Malakas and Maganda, and cursed them never to awaken until the race of Wargs have faded. The stalks grew into two huge bamboo trees, using up Masama’s remaining strength to feed themselves. So Masama died, and the battle ended.
Bathala and his people were grieved at the great loss of Wargs, and the incarceration of his creation. Thus they slowly dwindled, until all but a few remained. So was Masama’s curse fulfilled, and Malakas and Maganda were liberated from their bamboo prison.
This is just one of the stories I have managed to trace to its unhappy conclusion, requiring the aid of some Warg experts in the University of the Philippines’ Department of Anthropology, and a few Warg-worshippers who still live in some remote parts in the central region of Luzon.
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* Tagalog is one of the main ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines