The Mikokami

Mikokami

The Rokugani term "mikokami" meant "little god", and was used to speak of any of the deities or animistic spirits collectively called Fortunes throughout Rokugan. The different Fortunes within the faith of kami no michi were divided into several different echelons (Sun and Moon at the top, then the Great Fortunes, Minor Fortunes, and lastly the spirits that dwell in everything in the world).

Animism

Rokugani believed that the world was an animistic place populated by countless spirits and deities, and that these beings had the power to affect reality and the course of their lives. These spirits ranged from beings who embodied such powerful and universal forces as Romantic Love and Strength like the Fortunes Benten and Bishamon, respectively, to those that embodied far more limited and parochial concerns, such as Kenro-ji-jin, the Fortune of Soil. Such divine beings also included mortals deified by the Emperor posthumously such as Osano-Wo who was declared the Fortune of Fire and Thunder after his death (in the canon timeline), to the individual spirits of the elements residing in the natural world all around. Every rock, river, tree, and mountain had its own mikokami -- "little god" -- protecting and watching over it. When someone is said to follow the religious path of the Mikokami, it refers to the animism-worship of the "little gods" in the natural world around them. 

These spirits, or Fortunes, each had two distinct natures. Their beneficial natures bestowed blessings on those who had earned their favor, whereas their wrathful natures cursed those who had earned their ire. Rokugani were very careful to stay within the good graces of all of the Fortunes, no matter how inconsequential the Fortune's position and divine portfolio might be. No one -- peasant nor emperor -- wanted to draw the wrath of any of the Fortunes.

Occasionally the Fortunes took human form. The appetites of the divine were similar to a mortal's, and sometimes children were born as a result of their desires. These children were mortal, born as they were from a divine parent who had taken on a mortal form, but they often possessed unusual abilities related to their divine parent's portfolio or fundamental nature.

Origin

When the Moon and Sun named the shapeless world, the life began. The Fortunes were born in the dreams of the creatures who slept in Ningen-do. Their first worshipers were the Naga race.

The primitive tribes of humans lived in the lands that would one day become Rokugan discovered the presence of powerful nature spirits. These spirits, denizens of Tengoku, held tremendous stay over events in the mortal world. These spirits come to be known as Fortunes and were worshiped in shrines and temples across the land.


Prior to the Fall of the Kami, most human tribes worshipped one or two of the Fortunes, and only the Tribe of Isawa venerated all of the Fortunes equally.