Andrei Peruvkhin, accessed at his deviantArt page here
[The Philippine tradition of the mambabarang could probably have been covered by an archetype (for witch? maybe a sorcerer bloodline?) as well as a monster template, but I wanted to stress the inhuman nature of this vermin-curse-magic.]
Mambabarang
A human woman stands here, her
skin and long hair caked with filth. Her fingernails are long and crooked,
almost like claws. Her skin has an odd sheen to it, and a swarm of vermin fly
around and crawl over her body.
The
terrifying sorcerers known as mambabarang are spellcasters who sacrifice their
humanity in exchange for command over vermin. The paths leading to becoming a
mambabarang are numerous, as many as the paths to lichdom, but most
mambabarangs have sworn oaths to powerful demon lords of disease, consumption
and monstrous insects in order to effect their transformation. As such,
mambabarangs are evil more often than not, and goodly mambabarangs are all but
unheard of.
Although
the spells of the mambabarang are fearsome indeed, none of their abilities
inspires so much terror as does the creeping curse, a means by which a
mambabarang can cause their enemies to sicken and die over long distances by
causing their flesh to be consumed as if by insects. A lucky victim of the
creeping curse may experience internal bleeding and discomfort that passes in
days or weeks, but a truly doomed victim is eaten from the inside out, leaving
a horribly mutilated corpse.
The tradition of the mambabarang originated in distant Frunsim, and the legend accompanied Frunsimite immigrants to Gladia. They are fantastically rare, only appearing once or twice per generation. Their sheer power is undeniable, however. The most recent one appeared during the Egdweni revolution, acting on the side of the peasant rebels and recounted as favoring her creeping curse against the nobles of the 5 Houses over all other targets. She disappeared in the aftermath of the revolution, however, and her ultimate fate is unknown. The azkat, who favor communing with vermin, respect this power but find it ill-suited to their preferred methods of war.
Shores of Swords 