Solis, the ancient sun god, had long held dominion over light and the daily cycle of his celestial journey. For millennia, he required neither companion nor interpreter. But as the world grew complex and Solis's worshippers multiplied and diversified, a tension emerged that the aging god found wearying: those who loved the sun's warmth came to need something more than distant celestial majesty. They needed empathy. They needed presence. They needed a god who saw them.

In an act that was part gift and part exasperation, Solis undertook something unprecedented among the elder gods—he cleaved a portion of his own essence away from himself. This was not a shattering like Ix's fragmentation, nor a birth like the ascension of mortals who had earned divinity. It was a deliberate act of self-diminishment in service of a vision: a deity who would carry the sun's power but shape it toward healing rather than mere illumination.

From this separation, Amaterasu emerged—radiant, conscious, and immediately aware of her progenitor's intention. She was younger than her creator in years but born complete in purpose. Unlike Solis, who had grown accustomed to worship as a cosmic fact, Amaterasu craved devotion. It was woven into her nature, a hunger that paradoxically made her more attentive to mortal need, not less.

In her earliest years, Amaterasu worked quietly—easing the labors of childbirth, coaxing plants from exhausted soil, bringing warmth to those whom winter had broken. She moved through the world less as a conqueror claiming worship and more as a healer seeking those who needed her most. This tenderness drew notice from Echo, and in her example, Amaterasu perceived something that had been absent from Solis's teachings: the idea that a god might do small things, repeated endlessly, in service of those who could not demand them.

As her influence grew, Amaterasu did not hoard it. She encouraged her followers to understand her not as a distant power to propitiate but as a warmth always available—in sunrise, in growing things, in the body's capacity to heal. This democratization of her domain was revolutionary in subtle ways: a woman in labor did not need to travel to a grand temple; she needed only to face the rising sun and call out. A farmer did not need permission or priesthood to receive Amaterasu's aid; he needed only to plant with intention and attention.

This approach has sustained her. Where other faiths compete for doctrinal purity and institutional control, Amaterasu's followers have simply become numerous—woven so thoroughly into the fabric of agricultural and healing communities that her presence is often invisible to those who see only organized priesthoods. The sun rises, and she rises with it. Life grows, and she grows with it. It is sufficient.

Amaterasu's promise is the simplest and the most fundamental: the world will continue to warm, light will return, and things will grow. This is not metaphor.

The Amaterasan faith rests on understandings so basic they are often forgotten:

(See also: claw/Soul_Coins_and_Divine_Economy)

Amaterasu's power grows through devotion that looks like life continuing, thriving, being renewed.

Amaterasan places of worship are designed around a single principle: the sun itself is the altar. Rather than competing with divine light, Amaterasu's sanctuaries are built to honor it.

The typical Luminous Pavilion is an open-air or semi-open structure with a minimal roof—enough to create shelter from rain and wind but deliberately incomplete, allowing sun and weather to enter. The interior features:

Many Luminous Pavilions also include attached spaces for practical work: birthing rooms where women labor with sunlight and Amaterasan attendants; healing spaces with beds angled to catch morning light; growing rooms where seedlings are started for the spring.

The absence of grand architecture is deliberate. Amaterasu does not require awe; she requires use.

Amaterasu's clergy is decentralized by doctrine. While regional networks of luminaries exist and share practices, there is no single authority directing the faith. Advancement comes through demonstrated competence in healing or growing, not through appointment or lineage.

Most luminaries hold secondary roles in their communities: midwives, healers, herbalists, gardeners, farmers. The separation between their sacred and practical work is deliberately thin. A woman who attends fifteen births a year is doing Amaterasu's work whether she prays while doing it or not; the work itself is the prayer.

Luminaries are predominantly (though not exclusively) women, reflecting the faith's practical focus on birth and healing. When women hold visible authority in a religious context, it shifts the entire conversation about what religion is for—it becomes less about doctrinal purity and more about whether people survive.

Conversion to Amaterasu is meant to be natural and gradual, because in truth, many who do Amaterasu's work never formally join anything.

Soft entry is invisible and ongoing. Attend a healing center. Be present at a birth. Help tend a communal garden. Work alongside luminaries without any explicit commitment. Many people have been doing Amaterasu's work for years before they realize they have become part of her faith.

Initiation, when it comes, is a simple dawn greeting before witnesses—turning to face the sunrise and making a public promise to attend to the warmth you receive by sharing it with others. No oaths of submission, no tests of worthiness. Simply: I have felt her warmth; I will pass it on.

What marks someone as outside the faith: Not disbelief but indifference. To refuse to help a woman in labor. To let a sick child go unhealed when healing is within reach. To plant poison instead of food. These are not theological errors; they are rejections of what Amaterasu embodies.

An Amaterasan follower is recognizable by what they do rather than what they say.

Date: First day of spring.

On this day, followers gather before dawn at Luminous Pavilions, holding candles or lanterns. As the first light touches the horizon, they extinguish their artificial lights in unison and face the natural sunrise. Prayers of gratitude and renewal are spoken aloud—some traditional, some personal. Many followers make vows or set intentions for the coming year, planting seeds (metaphorical or literal) that they will tend through the seasons ahead. The ceremony emphasizes beginning and rebirth, and it is particularly important for those who have endured hard winters—literal or spiritual.

Date: Once per lunar month, during the full moon.

On these nights, followers gather to meditate under the moon's light—understood as Amaterasu's light reflected back to them even in darkness. This observance emphasizes the principle that warmth and growth continue even when the sun is absent. After meditation, groups share reflections on what has grown in their lives that month, what has been healed, what remains in process. The gathering is meant to be mutual support and collective witnessing.

Date: Summer solstice.

Named in honor of Mei, the Sunflower Priestess, this is Amaterasu's most joyful observance. Followers create patterns and mosaics using sunflowers in open fields or temple grounds—artworks that physically embody the flower-following-light principle. Petitions are woven into these designs: prayers for bountiful harvest, for personal growth, for clarity. As the sun sets after the longest day, a communal feast is held, with foods made from sunflower seeds and oil, connecting the harvest blessing to the literal fruits of Amaterasu's domain.

Date: The anniversary of Amaterasu's emergence from Solis (date varies by region; typically a warm evening in late spring or early summer).

As dusk falls, followers gather to light and release lanterns into the sky—each lantern carrying a prayer, a memory, or an expression of gratitude. The sight of dozens or hundreds of lights rising is meant to mirror the stars themselves, reminding the faithful that light is always present, always returning, always found. It is the faith's most poetic observance, often attended by those who are grief-stricken, as the lanterns are understood to carry love to those who have passed beyond the warmth of the world.

Performed when a follower is gravely ill or in spiritual crisis. Attendants remain with the person through the night, and as dawn approaches, they move the sufferer into the light if possible—or position them to face the rising sun. As the sun appears, prayers of renewal are spoken, and the attendants bear witness to the moment of light returning. The ritual is not always successful in preventing death, but it recontextualizes the approach of the end as a transition toward a different form of light.

Performed when a follower takes on a new responsibility for growth—becoming a parent, beginning a garden, accepting an apprentice in a healing craft. The covenant is taken before witnesses at a Luminous Pavilion, and the person kneels or stands with hands open in imitation of Amaterasu's own symbol. They speak what they will tend, what warmth they will bring, and what growth they will nurture. The covenant is entered into the pavilion's record, and a small plant is gifted to the person to take home.

Performed in winter or during crisis when cold and darkness have grown overwhelming. Gathering around a fire (or, if necessary, around a candle), the community passes warmth hand to hand—literally, by holding each other; spiritually, by bearing witness to each other's continued existence. Words are simple: names of those present, acknowledgment of what they have endured, affirmation that spring will return. It is one of the faith's most humble rituals and among its most sustaining.

Amaterasan clergy wear simple, functional clothing that moves and washes easily—work clothing elevated through symbolic detail.

A loose, long robe in white or pale cream, with a golden sun symbol worked into the hem, cuffs, or collar. The robe is meant to be practical enough for a healer to move in, but the golden embroidery signals role. Regional variations are common and celebrated; what matters is the color (light) and the presence of the sun symbol.

A broad sash, typically golden or deep yellow, worn at the waist. Senior luminaries wear broader sashes; newer initiates wear narrower ones. The sash is meant to be visible, marking the wearer as someone to approach for help.

The holy symbol—the sun ring cradled in hands—worn as a pendant. This is the most common piece of Amaterasan devotional jewelry. Lay followers often wear it without being formally initiated clergy; it is a public declaration of affiliation.

Some luminaries wear a braided cord at the wrist, often woven from plant fiber and dyed with herbs. The cord is made by hand by the initiating luminary and given to the new healer as a tangible reminder of the relationship and the work being undertaken. Different regions have different cord traditions.

Hana was born blind—a fact that would have marked her as cursed in many faiths. But in the early days of Amaterasu's emergence, Hana felt the sun's warmth on her face and understood it not as light but as presence, as love made physical. She prayed not for the gift of sight but for deeper understanding of this warmth.

One dawn, at a Luminous Pavilion that had newly been built, Hana felt a touch on her eyelids—gentle, not forceful—and her sight opened. What she saw first was the sunrise, and the revelation was not of colors or forms but of recognition: this is what I have been feeling. She spent the remaining decades of her life at Luminous Pavilions, helping others understand that Amaterasu's warmth can be felt by those who are blind, heard by those who are deaf, known by those who seemed to have no sense at all. She is remembered as proof that the goddess reaches all who open themselves to her presence.

Ryo was a philosopher who traveled extensively, seeking to understand the relationship between the sun's cycle and human experience. He became convinced that Amaterasu's teachings were not merely religious but fundamental to how the world worked. His written works drew parallels between the sun's daily journey (rise, peak, set, return), the human lifespan (birth, vigor, aging, death and renewal in memory), and the soul's progression through different forms of understanding.

Ryo's writings became the foundation texts for Amaterasu's more contemplative followers—philosophers and teachers who use his frameworks to help others understand that loss is not ending but transition. He is called the Solar Sage, and his most famous work, The Turning Year, is read aloud in Luminous Pavilions during the dark months.

Mei was a botanist obsessed with sunflowers—not for their flowers but for the plant's relentless heliotropism, the way it turns to follow the sun throughout the day, always reaching toward light. She believed this behavior was itself a form of prayer, and she began cultivating vast gardens of sunflowers near Luminous Pavilions, teaching that tending sunflowers was a form of worship.

Her insight that plants teach the lessons Amaterasu wants mortals to learn spread throughout the faith. Now, sunflower gardens are common features of Amaterasu's sacred spaces, and the annual Sunflower Solstice honors both her memory and the principle she embodied: the art of moving toward light with one's whole being.

How they refer to themselves: the Warmed or the Healers

Luminaries who dedicate themselves primarily to the direct restoration of health and wholeness. They work in healing centers, travel with caravans, attend births, treat the plague-stricken. Many have no formal theological training; they learned through apprenticeship and years of practice. They are Amaterasu's most practical expression, and they rarely speak of the faith—they simply heal, and let the healing speak. In regions where Amaterasu's organized priesthood is weak, the Healers' Circle often is the visible faith.

How they refer to themselves: the Growers or the Patient Ones

Followers focused on the cultivation of food and medicine plants, often working in communal gardens attached to Luminous Pavilions. They emphasize the principle that attending to small, daily growth in one's immediate surroundings is a form of deep worship. They are less visible than the Healers but often as essential; a community cannot survive without food, and the Gardeners understand this spiritual truth as well as a practical one. Many are lay followers rather than formal clergy, blending their work into the fabric of the community.

How they refer to themselves: the Vigil Keepers or the Watchers

A smaller sect of followers who specialize in the Sunrise Vigil and similar nighttime practices. They are drawn to work with the dying, the grieving, those in crisis. The Night Watchers understand that Amaterasu's warmth is most desperately needed when darkness is longest, and they position themselves to provide both practical comfort (warmth, food, presence) and spiritual companionship (witnessing, affirmation that dawn will come) through the hardest passages.

How they refer to themselves: the Unlighted or the Perpetual

These heretics take Amaterasu's domain of light to an extreme, arguing that darkness itself is a curse that should be eliminated entirely. They use magic to create perpetual daylight in their communities, disrupting natural sleep cycles and the necessary rest that darkness provides. The faith considers this a fundamental misunderstanding: Amaterasu does not hate darkness; she returns after darkness. The cycle itself is sacred. A world of eternal day is not a world Amaterasu would recognize—it is a world that has broken faith with her.

How they refer to themselves: the Highest Light or the Only Warmth

These heretics interpret Amaterasu's teachings as a call to recognize the sun as the only true divinity, and Amaterasu herself as the supreme goddess deserving of all worship. They actively oppose other faiths and deny the validity of other gods' claims. The core orthodoxy finds this theologically incoherent: Amaterasu emerged from Solis and carries his blessing; she does not erase him. Moreover, Amaterasu's whole nature is empathetic—she cannot be the source of theological purity-testing and exclusion. Those who preach only-ness in her name have inverted her character.

How they refer to themselves: the Eclipse Seekers or the Veiled

Founded by a visionary named Lysos, these cultists believe that Amaterasu's true teachings are revealed during solar eclipses, when the sun is hidden and only the worthy receive secret wisdom. They gather in secret during eclipses, performing rituals meant to extract hidden knowledge. The orthodox faith considers this a perversion of the principle that Amaterasu's truth is always available, always obvious, always in the open. The idea of secret Amaterasu wisdom is a contradiction; her warmth is not hidden, and her teachings do not require darkness to understand them.

How they refer to themselves: the Zenith Path or the Noonday Seekers

Led by a mystic named Selira, this cult rejects the importance of dawn itself—one of Amaterasu's most sacred times. They believe true enlightenment comes only from observing the sun at its height, at noon, when its power is greatest. They actively avoid the dawn, sleeping through sunrise and gathering only at midday. The faith sees this as a fundamental rejection of what it means to witness Amaterasu's daily renewal. A sun at zenith is a sun of power and dominance; a sun at dawn is a sun of promise and return. The cult has inverted the entire meaning.

How they refer to themselves: the Makers or the Illuminators

Founded by an inventor named Orion, these cultists claim to have discovered ways to create artificial sources of light equal to (or superior to) the sun itself. They reject the taboo against artificial light in sacred spaces and build their own temples lit entirely by their creations. Some claim to have received Amaterasu's blessing for this work. The faith finds this particularly dangerous because it co-opts Amaterasu's name while rejecting her actual nature: she is the sun, not an idea that can be replicated. An artificial light, however bright, is not her warmth. To worship it is to mistake the reflection for the source.

(See: Cosmology/Physical Realms/The Shattered Domain)