In the series' mythos, the world of the immortals was formed as the world was being created by the almighty Bathala. The immortal realm was divided into benevolent Kabanuas and evil Kasamayans. After contest and rivalry among immortal figures, Mariang Magayon turns Mariang Sinukuan into a unicorn; the unicorn later gave birth to a human baby girl. That child grows up unaware of her identity and is revealed as the Takda (Chosen One) — the Dyosa — who hails from the Kabanua line and is destined to save humankind from the imbalance caused by the Kasamayans. The Sun God (Bathala ng Araw) and Apo Suga/Amang Suga are named figures in the sequence that results in the arrival of the Destined Child.
Within the television narrative the protagonist Josephine manifests multiple supernatural physical forms corresponding to elemental powers: Dyosa Tierra appears as a centauride (human above the waist with an equine lower body), Dyosa Agua as a mermaid, and Dyosa Cielo as a harpy. The origin account also recounts Mariang Sinukuan's transformation into a unicorn prior to the birth of the human child who becomes the Dyosa.
The series states that as a full-fledged Dyosa the Takda possesses divine powers of the earth, air, and water. To harness these powers she transforms into the corresponding elemental embodiments (Dyosa Tierra for earth, Dyosa Agua for water, Dyosa Cielo for air). Narratively her role is mediatory and salvific: she is chosen to restore balance between the Kabanuas and the Kasamayans and faces tension between mortal attachments and her cosmic duty.
Aguingay
Aguingay (also Agingay) is a legendary woman from the Bulusan epic of Sorsogon, Philippines. Presented as a mortal of exceptional beauty and tragic fate, her life and death are etiologically linked to local landscape features (Mt. Bulusan and two lakes) and commemorated in an annual festival.
Alan
A class of non‑human spirit-beings in Tinguian (Philipine) folklore associated with reproductive wastes and springs; said to transform discarded menstrual blood, afterbirth, or miscarried tissue into human children whom they rear, and to dwell in fine houses near springs. Key described features include wings and backward-pointing fingers and toes.
Amalanhig
Amalanhig are Visayan undead beings in Philippine folk belief, described as aswang who failed to transfer their monstrosity or power before death and who rise from graves to attack living humans. Accounts portray them as externally human in appearance with enlarged upper canines and as predators that bite, feed with a pointed tongue in some tellings, or — in an alternative variant — tickle victims to death.
Angalo
Angalo is a primordial culture-hero and giant in Ilocano mythology credited with shaping the landscape of Luzon and explaining natural phenomena; narratives present him as the first man and an ancestral figure whose bodily acts produced mountains, valleys, seas, and celestial features.
Anggitay
A Philippine folkloric female equid–human hybrid often described with the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a horse. Frequently compared to the Greek centauride and sometimes presented as a female counterpart to the tikbalang; traditionally associated with an attraction to gemstones and jewelry and with a local homeland in Santo Tomas, Batangas in some accounts.
Anito
Anito is a category of non‑human and post‑human spiritual beings in indigenous Philippine animistic worldviews, encompassing ancestor spirits, nature spirits/local deities, and sometimes carved effigies (taotao) that house or represent those spirits. They mediate relations between the living and the unseen world, functioning as household guardians, owners of places, intercessors, or occasional agents of harm when offended.
Aswang
The most feared supernatural being in Philippine folklore — a shape-shifting monster that appears human by day but transforms at night to prey on pregnant women and children.
Bakla
Bakla is a Philippine social and gender category—commonly an assigned‑male‑at‑birth person who adopts a feminine gender expression and is often treated as a third gender. Historically some bakla served as indigenous ritual specialists (babaylan, katalonan), but the term itself denotes a social identity, not a supernatural being.
Bakunawa
A dragon- or serpent-like mythic being from Philippine tradition associated with the moon and eclipses; its actions explain lunar eclipses and some natural phenomena and were integrated into ritual practice and calendrical knowledge.
Bal-Bal
A Philippine folkloric undead/monster that steals corpses from funerals and graves and feeds on them, noted for keen scent for dead bodies, sharp claws and teeth, foul breath, and reportedly leaving a banana‑tree trunk in the coffin as a substitute for the stolen corpse.
Bathalà
In pre‑colonial Tagalog religion Bathalà (also Maykapál) functions as the transcendent supreme creator-preserver — the originator and ruler of the universe. The lexeme also served as an honorific applied to lesser tutelary spirits and portentous phenomena, and was later syncretized with the Christian Dios after Spanish contact.
Batibat
The Batibat is a vengeful, tree-dwelling female spirit in Philippine (Ilocano and Tagalog) folklore associated with causing suffocative sleep afflictions, nightmares, and sleep paralysis when trees that house it are felled and used near human sleeping spaces.
Community Record
- [1]Dyosa — Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors. "Dyosa." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyosawiki
- [2]Dyosa — Wikidata. Wikidata entry Q5319250 for Dyosa. http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5319250other
- [3]Dyosa — archived Yahoo Groups posts and web synopses (supporting media/context references). Archived Yahoo Groups and web synopses collected relating to the television series Dyosa. https://archive.org/details/yahoo-groups-2018-01-05T06-25-45Z-6cd892other
- [4]Dyosa series mentions in contemporary press and fan pages. Television plot summary and related pages referencing Dyosa. https://www.nothings.org/wikiplot/wikiplot_2/wikiplot_247.htmlother