So the following is taken from various Pathfinder sources (Jade Regent Adventure Path - Forest of Spirits p.63-67, PF1E Dragon Empires Gazetteer p.23, PF1E Bestiary 3 p.159-165, and Lost Omens Ancestry Guide p.122) and coalesced into something of a workable summary of the kami stuff.
First and foremost, the kami are interested in maintaining the balance of the natural world. This maintenance comes in the form of protecting the various creatures and things on the Material Plane that are often unable to protect themselves.
The kami are everywhere in Minkai, and are less common as you get further from that nation. With them virtually unheard of in Inner Sea Region.
While the type of kami will indicate their individual physical power there is no hierarchy or political structure that indicates any sort of social ranking. The only possible exception is the unique creatures known as kami lords, though this title seems to be a classification created by mortals.
Kami are, generally speaking, good creatures that are only interested in protecting their wards and following the dictates of the Laws of Golden Perfection, which affect every aspect of the conduct of kami and their interaction with the world and its inhabitants.
Humanoid communities in Tian Xia have many different types of relationships with kami, and these variations are often related to the way in which a community interacts with its surrounding environment. Settlements that depend on cooperation with nature, such as those of farmers and herders, tend to coexist peacefully with kami. Citizens of these cooperative settlements often construct roadside shrines to kami, where they provide offerings of incense, rice, wheat, milk, and so on. In these communities, nearby areas of wilderness are frequently honored by the people with celebrations and festivals intended to foster harmony with the neighboring kami. Most such festivals occur at the beginning of planting and harvest seasons. Cooperative communities frown on outsiders who do not show proper respect for the natural world or violate sacred areas, seeing this as a direct assault on the safety of their homes and the kami they live with.
Communities that sap the land via exploitation or extraction—such as through mining, fishing, or logging—tend to have tense relationships with neighboring kami. In these locales, shrines are often forbidding places, visited by designated representatives who bear offerings composed of materials that were taken from nature. For instance, those living near an iron mine may leave a dagger or bowl of arrowheads. Local ceremonies are geared toward appeasement of the spirits rather than thanking them, and dour festivals are intended only to avert kami’s capricious wrath. Outsiders who anger local kami are treated with hostility for bringing misfortune upon a community, and the communities often demand recompense.
Places with naturally adversarial relationships with their environments—most notably urban centers—have difficulty maintaining relationships with kami. These larger settlements often try to appease kami in little ways, such as by constructing parks within city limits to placate the spiritual beings. More often, however, such communities resort to violence against kami, whom they see as enemies of progress or their industrial efforts. These settlements often place emphasis on setting up barriers and protections against kami, characterizing them as backward-minded monsters bent on destruction.
Of course, even communities that have hostile relations with kami of the forest, rivers, and hills may have better connections with the kami of inanimate objects, such as dosojins and zuishins. An urban scholar may have a playful and cooperative relationship with a book kami or the kami of a library, and a blacksmith might work closely with a furnace kami.
One thing that is common across all of these types of communities is that there are rarely direct interactions with kami. So long as they are appeased they remain content to watch from afar or remain completely hidden. It's only when beings actively pursue the destruction of the kami's wards in ways that are contradictory to the ways of nature, do they take action to avenge or defend.
Oracles, druids and rangers are the mortals who are most likely to interact with kami in any sort of consistent and meaningful way. These classes have similar mindsets and goals as the kami and will work as mediators and ambassadors between the spirits and the mortal communities/individuals. Generally, this is done as a preventative measure to ensure there isn't anything done to dishonor the kami, but sometimes there is a need for emergency appeasement or warning.
Beyond these classes, only the Souko kitsune have dedicated relations with kami. These kitsune serve as couriers, diplomats, and translators between distant kami, especially the ancient kami lords known as jinushigami. They facilitate communication among the kami, operate as traveling mediators among the settlements of northern Minkai and eastern Hongal, where they liaise with other mortal peoples on behalf of the spirits.
Their small settlement within the Forest of Spirits, Kihime, seamlessly blends their brightly colored buildings into the surrounding forest. It is one of the few townships that exist within the forest and is filled with shrines to the kami and the sounds of kitsune learning the ways of the kami and engaging in their penchant for practical jokes. While the residents of Kihime have no need for money they are often the recipients of gifts from grateful communities that they have helped and it is these gifts that supply the town with trade goods and tools to utilize in the day-to-day maintenance of the town itself.
Kihime operates more like a spiritual retreat and artist commune than a proper town. There is no need for laws or political posturing beyond those of the Laws of Golden Perfection, though heavily watered down for the mortals to understand. While the Souko tend to strongly separate their internal and outwardly expressed feelings, this is not the case when they are at home in Kihime, here they are able to live as they wish and grow their bonds with the kami and the members of their community.
Souko kitsune are encouraged to travel and interact with both mortals and kami. They are not given any specific tasks or routes when they travel, they simply follow their own whims looking for signs of potential conflicts between the mortal communities and the kami they come across. Areas of known conflict are often prioritized over newer regions, however. When they feel the need to return to Kihime, they will insure they have plenty of tales and information to bring with them.
Though an uncommon occurrence, there are times when the Souko are given specific tasks by a kami, whether this happens while they are in Kihime or when they encounter a kami in their travels, the kitsune who are given this task immediately prioritize it over anything else they may have been doing at the time. These tasks are never predictable and which kitsune is approached with the task is just as unknowable, though a Souko kitsune is far more likely to be the one selected over any other.
quote:
Younger Sister:
Very infrequent messenger for the kami, more often found performing in towns around their Angen settlements; getting to know the native races like humans or elves. Mother isn't pleased with her lax attitude toward serving as a messenger, but at least has sympathy for the Angen's goals and permits the performances. Sister is saddened that Elde Kon split off to do his own thing, but understands the need to be alone sometimes.
Angen are a kitsune culture that only exists in the nation of Taldor. Did she travel with you?
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:03, Sat 29 Oct 2022.
