Question: It says that the gods are busy running the Titan war and that they don't all have time to go down and perform the Visitation; so there are others there that can help them out. Hermes does that as part of his job for the Greeks, you have Odin's ravens, Poseidon could send his son Triton, Athena her owl or snake-son; but what sort of things could the Amatsukami use to visit their kids? I know there are a lot of dragons in Japanese myth, but not every god should have one in their pocket. Any ideas?
There are a plethora of possibilities for a Japanese critter to come visit a Scion; it really just depends on the flavor you want for your Visitation. Just like every other mythology, the legends of Japan include absolute hordes of minor demons, fairies, ogres, lesser gods and other possibilities for messengers. While it's fun to use a figure specifically associated with a particular god, it certainly isn't a requirement; gods are awesome, powerful beings, and they can get pretty much any lesser immortal or legendary creature to go do their bidding for at least a little while.
Dragons are an easy option, especially those that aren't too high in Legend (but then again, they're mostly water-bound and don't make for very subtle messengers, so probably only Ryujin causes his new Scions to star in a Godzilla film when he wants them to wake up). You could use souls of the dead for the underworld gods, watery creatures like kappa or wani could provide Visitations for Susanoo or Ryujin, kitsune or tanuki could visit for parents with a sense of humor, and so on. The range of mythical creatures in Japanese mythology is so vast that the possibilities are practically endless.
If you'd like to go spelunking in the annals of weird Japanese creatures for that perfect fit, we suggest giving The Obakemono Project, an excellent online resource for Japanese creatures, ghosties and weird beings, a look. We can pretty much guarantee there will be at least one or two crazy folkloric critters in there that you've never heard of.
I thought Athena was a virgin? Like, she's never had sex at all, like Artemis. How does she have a kid?
ReplyDeleteThey are! Gods or goddesses that don't want to procreate the old-fashioned way can still have Scions by means of the Scion Adoption Rite spell, which lets them become the fully-functioning divine parent of an adopted Scion.
DeleteIt would also probably be a pretty simple thing for some gods to use the high-level powers of the Health purview to impregnate a mortal without even touching them, similar to how Surya fathered Karna on the princess Kunti merely by looking at her.