Enter the Kami
In the upcoming posts, we will be discussing the various spirits introduced in the upcoming Kami and Mahou expansion for the Era of the Ninja board game.
The kami are spirits of the world. They vary in powers and abilities and their relationship with the world. Some are helpful, some are harmful, it just depends on the situation.
The spirits in Kami in Mahou are watchers over the domains of mankind. Each with their own objectives.
At the start of each round before the Lead Ninja phase, the current Lead Ninja will draw a kami from the deck and place the spirit into play dependent on the current spirits watching.
Each kami card has a unique game effect. Some of the spirits affect play directly while others will request resources before helping the players. More details on this in the weeks to come.
Izanagi - Father of the World
Enter the kami of the heavens and one of the creators of the world as we know it. Izanagi married Izanami, and with her help, created the lands, creatures, and many of the other spirits.
Izanagi lives in the heavens protecting the celestial laws and maintaining order. He abhors the realm of Hell and especially detests dead things.
While in play, no kami of the type Hell may enter.
Most of the beneficial kami are of type Heaven, but some of these celestial kami favor samurai, which could cause some issues with Ninja players in the area.
Izanami - Mother of the World
Once a kami of the heavens, Inzami helped create the world and gave birth to many of the named kami.
Unfortunately, she died giving birth and was sent to the Hell realm to exist. Izanagi wanting to rescue his wife, went to the Hell realm. Upon finding her, he quickly realized that she was now a rotting corpse. Unable to deal with this matter, Izanagi fled to the heavens, leaving behind his beloved.
While Izanami is in play, no kami of the Heavens may enter play.
More of the harmful or detrimental kami are of type Hell, but there are some willing to help crafty players that are able to show them power or follow their will.
Due to the natures of Izanagi and Izanami, only one of them will ever be in play. If one of them is already in play, and another is drawn, then the original spirit will retreat from play, leaving the other to impose their will upon the play area.
Next time we will go into more detail about the play mechanics for the kami and introduce players to several of the common spirits of the realm.
