Kami

Kami (Japanese: 神 (かみ) ) are "great spirits", specifically the spirits that associate with all things in the world of Kamigawa.

Description

Kami come in an overwhelming variety of forms, even among the same "species" of kami, and their brand of magic is mysterious and beyond anything mortals have conceived. The greatest kami of all are the five myojin, rivaled only by the mighty O-Kagachi. It was because the theft of O-Kagachi's scion, that the Kami War began.

When the kami manifest into the ordinary world, their manifestation is a bit unstable and creates strange energy objects orbiting around them.

Background

According to Brady Dommermuth "[t]he overarching premise of the Kamigawa block is 'Shinto gone wrong.' In Shinto, a belief system indigenous to Japan, everything has a kami. Kami are gods of a sort; they’re the eternal essences of things, people, places, ideas, and so on. To give Kamigawa its own distinct look, as well as to reflect the fact that the plane was in turmoil, we concepted the kami as bizarre creatures that look out of place in the natural world, as though they couldn’t even realistically exist within it."

Subclassification

• Akuba. An evil, hag-like spirit-world creature.
• Baku. A benevolent spirit with aspects of a lion and other animals that is said to eat the bad dreams of children.
• Bunrei. A spirit created by dividing another spirit.
• Genju. A great spirit of the land.
• Goryo. The vengeful spirit of a mortal who died in anger or without the proper rites.
• Haru-Onna. “Spring woman,” a spirit-world creature in the form of a woman surrounded with burgeoning growth.
• Kaijin. A kami of water.
• Kemuri-Onna. “Smog woman,” a spirit-world creature in the form of a woman shrouded in smog.
• Kiri-Onna. “Mist woman,” a spirit-world creature in the form of a woman enveloped in mist.
• Kirin. A mythical, otherworldly creature with aspects of a horse, a dragon, and a deer or goat. Before the war, kirin were omens of good fortune and long life.
• Kodama. A tree spirit.
• Myojin. “Bright divinity.” A kami of great importance.
• Nikko-Onna. “Sunlight woman,” a spirit-world creature in the form of a dazzling woman.
• Oni. Demon, bloodthirsty and bent on destruction.
• Zubera. The faceless kami of a human who has been pulled into the spirit world.

Notable kami

• The All-Consuming Oni of Chaos, the mightiest of the oni.
• Adamaro, the feared kami of a famed human warrior who was consumed by his own anger and envy.
• Akuta, a legendary kami of ashes and ruin.
• Arashi, the great kami of monsoons and typhoons, whose appearance was always accompanied by storms of shinen (“spirit fire”).
• Ayumi, the kami who “reclaimed” abandoned places in the name of nature.
• Azamuki, a kami of treachery residing in the body of a simple sanzoku (mountain bandit).
• Chisei, a strange kami of intelligence said to reward the finding of patterns within thoughts.
• Hikari, the kami that guards the border between day and night.
• Hokori, a great kami of dust and drought.
• Horobi, a powerful kami of death that came into being at the Reito Massacre.
• Ichiga, a mighty forest kami residing in the body of a simple monk.
• Iname, a major kami that has two aspects — one of life and one of death.
• Jaraku, a meddlesome kami of manipulations residing in the body of a simple wizard.
• Jiwari, the great kami of earthquakes, whose appearance was always preceded by waves of shinen (“spirit fire”).
• Kaiso, a protective kami of lingering loyalties residing in the body of a simple samurai's attendant.
• Kakkazan, great kami of the Mountain Fire.
• Kagemaro, the first human to become so evil that his spirit became an oni.
• Kaminari, the great kami of thunder and lightning.
• Kataki, a legendary kami of retribution.
• Kira, an infamous kami that can ward itself and others against spells using coatings of magical glass.
• Kiyomaro, the ancient kami of Kamigawa's first daimyo.
• Kuro, a powerful oni who took many Nezumi and others as his minions.
• Kyodai / That Which Was Taken, the child of O-Kagachi, imprisoned by the daimyo Konda
• Kyoki, a dreaded oni whose gaze induces insanity.
• Mannichi, a mischievous, strange little kami of fevers and hallucinations.
• Masumaro, the once-revered kami of the first human to live by the ways of the kami.
• Mochi, the Smiling Kami of the Crescent Moon, a powerful yet diminutive kami who attempted to manipulate Toshiro Umezawa, while secretly working with the Soratami.
• The Myojin of Infinite Rage, the mami of all red magic. During the final months of the Kami War the Myojin of Infinite Rage gathered his all his worshipers, even though they usually fight among themselves, to launch a large attack against Eiganjo. But O-Kagachi already attacked the citadel and the Myojin's force had to deal with the samurai protecting the Eiganjoan refugees, as well as Yosei, the Morning Star.
• The Myojin of Life's Web, the patron spirit of all green-aligned things, and the god worshipped by the Orochi and the Jukai Monks. She had Michiko captured, hoping that her death would end the Kami War. But the princess escaped, and not much later her forest was attacked by the Moonfolk of Oboro.
• The Myojin of Night's Reach, the kami of black magic.
• O-Kagachi. The great kami of all things; all kami are in a way part of the O-Kagachi. Its manifest form resembles an unbelievably immense eight-headed serpent.
• Oyobi, a great kami of the sky and of winged creatures.
• Seizan, a powerful, evil oni known for its ability to deceive.
• Sekki, the great kami of the turning of the seasons.
• Shimatsu, an oni overlord.
• Shirei, a legendary kami, a kind of shepherd of the dead, who watches over the disgraced and abandoned battlefield called Shizo.
• Soromaro, the once-respected kami of a famous half-human, half-soratami wizard.
• Terashi, the great kami of the sun.
• Towazu, the great kami of things unspeakable.
• Yomiji, the sacred and revered kami who guards the passage from life into death.
• Yukora, a terrifying, murderous oni that was magically imprisoned for decades by 99 powerful kannushi.
• Yuki-Onna. “Snow woman,” a spirit-world creature in the form of a beautiful woman impervious to cold.
• Urami, a legendary oni caged underground for centuries.

External links

• Magic Arcana (September 14, 2004). "A Kamigawa Glossary, Part 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Magic Arcana (January 24, 2005). "A Kamigawa Glossary, Part 2". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Magic Arcana (May 31, 2005). "A Kamigawa Glossary, Part 3". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.