#Middle Gods of Japan — Divinity 3

Contents

Canon — Middle God stats. Kami who take charge of nature, fertility, war, healing, and the like on a regional scale. The principal deities of famous shrines worshipped jointly by several villages.

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#Scent — The Face of a Region

A single region knows his name. The roof of his main shrine is one of that region's landscapes. People rush to him when they fall ill, throw coins when they start a business, and go to receive a name when a child is born. These are the Middle Gods.

If a Great God is the name of a nation, a Middle God is the face of a region. The boundary between the two is fluid — when popularity rises, one can become a Great God, and when dedications cease, one falls to a Minor God. That is why a Middle God's shrine offers rites most zealously. To keep its own place.

"A Middle God is the heart of a region. When the region shakes, his name shakes too."

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#Law — Common Rules for Middle Gods

• Main base-class path: arahitogami / celestial 3rd–6th dan / monk 5th–7th dan.
• Daily benefit: 2 uses per domain.
• Middle Authority: 1 use per week.
• Return: the shrine's monthly rite (月祭). Greater Authorities require a quarterly great festival.

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#The Seven Lucky Gods (七福神) — A Mixed Pantheon Group

#Scent

A group of seven gods of fortune. A leading example of syncretism (神仏習合) formed by mixing gods of India, China, and Japan. Each may be enshrined separately, and the seven may also be enshrined together in a picture of all aboard a single ship (Takarabune · 宝船).

This supplement covers only the 4 principal members (Benzaiten, Ebisu, Daikoku, Bishamon). The remaining 3 members (Fukurokuju, Jurojin, Hotei) can be generated at the GM's discretion as Middle Gods of rank 2–3.

"The seven come riding aboard a single ship. The one who welcomes that ship has fortune all year round." — Seven Lucky Gods lore

A note on syncretism terminology: "syncretism" is the phenomenon in which gods of two religions are mixed and treated as the same god. In Japan, Shinto and Buddhism coexisted for over a thousand years, so there are many cases where originally separate gods were integrated into one in folk belief. The Seven Lucky Gods are the representative case.

#Law — Individual Data of the Seven Lucky Gods

#Benzaiten (弁才天)

Scent: The Indian goddess Saraswati, Japanized through the transmission of Buddhism. Goddess of music, performing arts, learning, and water. Depicted embracing a biwa (琵琶). Her messenger is the white snake (a white serpent). Mainly enshrined at waterside shrines.

Law:

• Divinity: 3 / Domains: Art & Learning · Water · Eloquence (oratory)
• Divine Authorities:
• Art & Learning → automatically Critical Hit one PC's performing-arts check or Wisdom-based lore check.
• Water → favorable manipulation of 1 water zone.
• Eloquence → one die locked to 10 on a Negotiation check.
• Base: miko 7th–9th dan + Divinity 3.

#Ebisu (恵比寿)

Scent: A being formed when Hiruko (蛭子) — the child of Izanagi and Izanami, born without bones and set adrift on the sea — grew up and was deified. A uniquely Japanese member of the Seven Lucky Gods. The god of fishermen, the god of commerce. Depicted smiling, embracing a sea bream (鯛) and holding a fishing rod.

"Because he was once cast away, he cherishes those who are cast away." — Ebisu lore

Law:

• Divinity: 3 / Domains: Fishing · Commerce · Harmless Fortune
• Divine Authorities:
• Fishing → automatically succeed a catch.
• Commerce → adjust a trade check favorably.
• Fortune → release a small stroke of luck that harms no one.
• Base: Commoner (fisherman) 5th–7th dan + Divinity 3.
• Almost no risk of Tatari conversion — the gentlest of the Middle Gods.

#Daikokuten (大黒天)

Scent: The Indian Mahakala (Mahākāla) — Shiva's wrathful form — which on its transmission to Japan syncretized with Okuninushi. God of fortune, agriculture, the kitchen, and wealth. Depicted wearing a black hood, shouldering a large sack, and holding a small mallet. This mallet is also the origin of the confusion with Okuninushi's mallet.

Law:

• Divinity: 3 / Domains: Agriculture · Wealth · Prosperity of the Kitchen
• Divine Authorities:
• Agriculture → automatically succeed a village's harvest.
• Wealth → favor a check on the circulation of money.
• Kitchen → a bonus to every check related to food and provisions.
• Base: monk 6th–8th dan + Divinity 3.
• Relationship with Okuninushi: in folk belief they are treated as almost the same god (the confusion began through overlapping domains). In game terms they are handled as separate Divinities, but they are not activated at once in a single scene.

#Bishamonten (毘沙門天)

Name note: This section uses Bishamonten, the Japanese Seven Lucky Gods form naturalized into local faith. In Buddhist deva and Four Heavenly Kings contexts, the same being may be treated as Vaishravana/Tamonten.

Scent: The Indian Vaishravana (Vaiśravaṇa) — among the Four Heavenly Kings, the Guardian of the North (北方天). Turned into a war god through the transmission of Buddhism. Depicted in armor, holding a spear, in martial form. A guardian of the Buddhist Law.

"What Bishamon guards is not the life of a single warrior. It is the Buddhist Law (仏法) itself." — Bishamon lore

Law:

• Divinity: 3 / Domains: War (Buddhist style) · Protection of the North · Expulsion of Evil
• Divine Authorities:
• War → Critical Hit range +1 on attack checks.
• Protection of the North → automatic detection and defense against threats coming from the north.
• Expulsion of Evil → expel 1 Tatari or yoma being out of the zone.
• Base: samurai-monk 7th–9th dan + Divinity 3.
• Relationship with Hachiman: both are war gods, but their charges differ — Hachiman is the guardian god of individual Japanese warriors (samurai) and their houses, while Bishamonten is the guardian god of the Buddhist Law (法). Hachiman works in the manner of "protect the warriors of this house," whereas Bishamonten works in the manner of "protect the side where the Buddhist Law is persecuted." Their origins differ too (Hachiman: of imperial origin; Bishamonten: of India's Four Heavenly Kings).

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#Tenjin (天神) — Sugawara no Michizane

#Scent

The 9th-century scholar and statesman Sugawara no Michizane (菅原道真, 845-903). He was an outstanding civil official of the Heian court, but became entangled in political strife and was exiled to Kyushu. Dying at his place of exile bearing his grievance, he became an onryo (怨霊) and returned to Kyoto — lightning struck the palace, and his political enemies died of illness one after another.

The court was afraid. To appease him, they elevated him to godhood — this is enshrinement-as-deity (祭神化). A scholar, by way of an onryo, became the god of learning. His main shrine is Dazaifu Tenmangu (太宰府天満宮) — in the present-day Fukuoka region, the land where he was exiled and died.

"The one in whom resentment rings the loudest must be enshrined the most grandly." — the principle of the Goryo faith (御霊信仰)

Tenjin stands at the boundary between Tatari and kami. Enshrined courteously, he is the god of learning, but provoke his resentment and even now he summons lightning. The archetype of the heroic spirit → Middle God enshrinement-as-deity.

#Law

• Divinity: 3 Middle God / Domains: 3
• Domains and Divine Authorities:
• Learning → automatically succeed Wisdom-based lore checks.
• Justice & Clearing False Charges → decisive testimony on checks of false accusation and slander.
• Thunder (雷, residual) → 1 bolt of lightning on a target (a residual shadow of Tatari — risk of control failure).
• Base:
• Main: arahitogami 5th–7th dan + Middle God.
• Fragment: scholar / onmyoji 4th–7th dan + Divinity 2.

#GM Note

Tenjin is a kami who stands at the boundary between Tatari and kami. Enshrined with justice, he is the god of learning, but provoke his resentment and he still summons lightning. Scenario hook: when one who has been falsely accused prays at Tenmangu, should the PCs help or not?

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#The Kumano Sanzan — 熊野三山

#Scent

The three grand shrines of the Kii Peninsula (紀伊半島 — the jutting peninsula of present-day Wakayama and Mie Prefectures):

• Kumano Hongu Taisha (熊野本宮大社) — principal deity Ketsumiko no Okami (originally the Buddhist Amida Buddha syncretized into Shinto).
• Kumano Hayatama Taisha (熊野速玉大社) — principal deity Kumano Hayatama no Okami (said by some to be another name for Izanagi).
• Kumano Nachi Taisha (熊野那智大社) — principal deity Kumano Fusumi no Okami (of the Izanami line).

The ancient pilgrimage route that walks these three grand shrines in order, the Kumano Kodo (熊野古道), is "the sacred road." From the Heian period onward, nobles, warriors, monks, and commoners alike walked this road — to wash away defilement, to heal illness, to obtain one purification before death.

"When you reach Kumano, the boundary between the dead and the living grows thinnest." — Kumano lore

It is also the base of the ascetics (yamabushi · 山伏) who push their way through the mountains.

#Law

• Divinity: 3 Middle God (the sum of three kami) / Domains: 3 (shared by the three)
• Domains and Divine Authorities:
• Mountain Asceticism → automatically succeed mountain-terrain checks.
• Purification & Rebirth → remove 1 instance of defilement or curse (a weaker version of Izanagi's misogi).
• Boundary of Mountain and Sea → shorten the Kumano pilgrimage route across space and time.

#GM Note

In Kumano, "the sacred road" itself is a character. When a PC sets out on a Kumano pilgrimage during a scenario, stage it as several kami moving together. Receiving the rite that washes away defilement once during the pilgrimage gives a buff on subsequent checks.

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#Sanno Okami — 山王

#Scent

The principal deity of Mount Hiei (比叡山). This mountain is the center of Japanese Buddhism and a holy site of Shinto — the temple of Enryaku-ji (延暦寺) and the shrine of Hiyoshi Taisha (日吉大社) coexist on the same mountain. Living proof of Shinto-Buddhist syncretism.

Sanno's messenger is the monkey. It is one of the roots of the imagery of the Japanese folk "Three Monkeys" (mizaru, iwazaru, kikazaru — see not, speak not, hear not).

"Mount Hiei is one mountain beneath the roof of two religions. Sanno upholds that roof." — Hiei lore

The main shrine of all the "Sanno shrines" throughout Japan.

#Law

• Divinity: 3 Middle God / Domains: 3
• Domains and Divine Authorities:
• Mountain (山) → one die locked to 10 on checks within one mountain region.
• Protection of Buddhism → automatically succeed checks related to temples and monks.
• Monkey Messenger → automatically succeed information-gathering and detection (the monkey sees on one's behalf).

#GM Note

Sanno Okami is "a kami in whom monks intervene." Rather than a purely Shinto character, diplomacy with temples suits him. The warrior-monks (sohei · 僧兵) of Enryaku-ji sometimes move in the name of Sanno.

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#Law — Summary Table of the Middle Gods

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#Scent — In One Sentence

"A Middle God is the heart of a region — as long as the region beats, his name beats too."