In
Legend of the Five Rings, Amaterasu was the female half of the first
man and wife pair, her husband
Onnotangu being the other side. During the first age when she and her husband were
naming the world, she quickly fell in love with the things that the two of them had created.
Onnotangu, however, was less than pleased that she wasn't paying attention to him and chased her around the heavens, finally catching up to her one day. She would give birth to the
Kami nine months later.
When
Onnotangu decided to devour them in another fit of
jealousy, she was understandably miffed. In a story similar to the
Rhea/
Zeus/
Cronos mix-up, she slowly poisoned him as he ate the children, switching her last child,
Hantei, with a rock, spiriting him away to the newly-created earth that he might become strong enough to defeat his father in the future.
The battle between
Hantei and
Onnotangu was messy to say the least. When
Hantei was able to deal the final, victorious stroke, Amaterasu, realizing that her children would never be able to return to the Celestial Heavens when they touched the earth, wept for her lost ones. Her tears would eventually become
jade stones.
After the creation of the
Emerald Empire, Amaterasu was worshipped as a merciful goddess. Many a
samurai would invoke her name as a sort of blessing on an arduous undertaking. Like her
husband, though, nobody would create an image of her- there was more often than not simply an
altar with a mirror to reflect her brilliance. The
Hantei dynasty ruled with her blessing.
However, the same events that would spell the death of
Onnotangu would eventually result in her own departure. In the
twenty-seven days of darkness that followed
Mirumoto Hitomi's victory, she was wracked with grief and would not show her face in the sky. Only later, during the
Battle of Volturnum would she emerge, committing
jigai to atone for her crime of selfishness, and paving the way for
Hida Yakamo to take her place as the Sun.