Susano'o

Susano-O is the youngest of the three sibling rulers of the Kami, and it shows. He cried for his mother, Izanami, demanding to see her, even though she had died and traveled to Yomi. He challenged Amaterasu to a dual of creation, to see who could create the best offspring. His crazy luck, natural talent, or his sister’s good graces led him to declare himself the winner. His subsequent celebration across the Heavenly Plane caused much death and destruction. Amaterasu put an end to Susano-O’s bad manners, banished him from heaven, and ordered him to the unenviable job of watching over the entrance to Yomi-no-kuni in the Izumo province.

To win himself back into his sister’s good graces Susano-O decided to complete epic quests to impress her. He wandered the seas, discovered new plants, defeated a great dragon through trickery, and discovered a sword in its tail. He brought stories of his adventures, the plants, and the famous sword Kusanagi as gifts to his sister. She forgave him, but did not let him relinquish his job as guardian between life and death.

Ages later, one of his Scions, Ōkuninushi, was frustrated that the living and dead were so separated. Ōkuninushi snuck into Susano-O’s realm, and over a series of days tricked Susano-O and stole from him multiple times. Instead of being angry with his Scion, he was delighted that Ōkuninushi had bested him and promoted him to the rank of Kami. He even gave him his hall, he didn’t want it anyway. Then he opened up the pass between Yomi and Izumo so that honored ancestors could speak to their descendants.

These days, Susano-O spends as little time as possible doing his job. He is technically in charge of the dead and the seas, but he’d much rather be out at surfing extreme waves while knife hunting massive sea dragons or heli-snowboarding with a bunch of his Scions in Yukiguni (snow country) while searching for elusive snow monsters.

His Scions crave adventure, extreme challenges, and the subsequent parties as much as he does. What are a few trashed hotel rooms between friends if you’re celebrating something epic? Of course, they’ll pay their bill the next day, and leave a great tip, trouble seems to just slide off them like water off a duck’s back.