The Visayan Creation Myth

A long time ago, there were two Gods – Maguayan, ruler of water, and Kaptan, ruler of the sky.
One day, the two Gods decided to marry their children. Three sons were born from this union –
Likalibutan was extremely brave and strong, Liadlao was made of gold and was always
cheerful, and Libulan, made of copper, was timid and weak. Lisuga was the only daughter, she
was made of silver and was very beautiful, gentle and sweet. Sadly, they were orphaned at a
young age, but their grandparents took care of them and protected them from evil. Eventually,
the siblings grew up to be strong and beautiful.

One day, Likalibutan, proud of his strength and power, decided to attack Kaptan’s sky kingdom.
Scared of their brother, Liadlao and Libulan were coerced into joining him and they left for the
sky kingdom. An enormous steel gate was blocking their way, but Likalibutan summoned the
wind and knocked it down. When Kaptan came to know of this, he got furious and fired them
with lightning bolts. A lightning bolt landed on each of the three brothers. Likalibutan’s rock-like
body fragmented into a thousand pieces and fell down in the sea, Liadlao and Libulan melted
into balls of gold and copper, respectively. Worried for her brothers, Lisuga came searching for
them, but Kaptan, still fuming, attacked her as well. Her silver body too, was scattered into a
million pieces. Kaptan then called Maguayan, accusing him of planning the whole thing. But
Maguayan had been sleeping through the entire ordeal and didn’t have the slightest clue.
Kaptan eventually calmed down, and both the gods deeply mourned the loss of their
grandchildren. Sadly, even with all their powers, they couldn’t bring the siblings to life. So, they
gave each of them light, except for Likalibutan. Luminous with this light, Liadlao became the
Sun, Libulan, the Moon and Lisuga’s fragmented body can be seen today as the stars.