[Hana]

[quote]Originally posted by Saber Cherry:

If you know any Japanese mythology, it would be useful for making heroes, national summons, national gods, and national sites. I don't know much about Japanese religion or mythology.

I like the Japanese theme. I'm reasonably familiar with the mythology, so I'll post a bit of info here. I'm more familiar with the Shinto side of the religion (most Japanese go by a mixture of Buddhist and Shinto beliefs), so the bulk of the info will come from that side.

The two primary Shinto deities are Izanami (female) and Izanagi (male). They were siblings, but also husband and wife. Anyway they created the world, but Izanami ended up dying and going to the underworld after giving birth to one of her children. Izanagi followed her there to take it back, but since she was already decomposing, or according to some accounts she just aged a great deal, she said it was too late and made him leave. The two of them seem to be an embodiment of the yin/yang concept, with Izanami being the yin (feminine/soft/passive/cold/etc.) and Izanagi being the yang (masculine/hard/active/warm/etc). I could easily see them as death and nature oriented pretenders, respectively.

Inari is a rice deity of ambiguous gender. Some of what I've read says female, some says male, so I'm not sure. Inari is very much associated with fox spirits called kitsune, so attracting them may be a possibility for this deity. I recommend this link as a source of kitsune info, and a bit about Inari. The famous kitsune section has a few that might be good as hero units. http://www.comnet.ca/~foxtrot/kitsune/kitsune1.htm

Kappa are sort of bipedal frogs with shells on their backs. They're associated with water (their natural habitat, but they can go on land as well) and it's believed that if they ever dry out they die.

Hannya are the spirits of jealous women who became demons because of their jealousy. They're known to drink blood, particularly from children and infants.

Outside of Shinto beliefs there's a historical figure that ended up rising to legendary status. Minamoto Yo****sune. In short he and his brother Yoritomo were both on the same side of a civil war of a sort. Their side was victorious, but somewhere along the line some animosity built up between the brothers. Yoritomo decided Yo****sune needed to die, and eventually he did. In any case Yo****sune was said to be a very capable fighter and general, and was also said to have been trained by a race of men with some bird-like characteristics (tengu). His consort Shizuka Gozen is quite well known in her own right too. I could very easily see her as a modified geisha.