According to myths, Hawaii, known as the Big Island of the archipelago, was shaped when two drastically different forces of nature - the volcanoes of the island and the ocean surrounding it - engaged in a fight. How it had come to this?
On the Big Island there lived a goddess of volcanoes and fire, Pele, whose "real" (sacred) name was Ka-ula-o-ke-ahi ("the redness of the fire"); she was known for her fiery temper and love for the land that she tried to expand continuously.
There was also a certain demi-god called Kamapua'a, that in his human form was a handsome, strong man with black eyes, and had not as proper etiquette as Pele, often engaging in quick romances and loving to eat. He had shaved his head once, and after that he had grown a short black bristle on both head and chin. Kamapua'a's life was the ocean, the rain, the water; the opposite of Pele's passions.
Both gods had their helpers: Pele - her many brothers and gods of the land and the sun, Kamapua'a - fellow men that he had found himself and gods of the rain.
Pele and Kamapua'a met for the first time on the top of the Kilauea volcano and then the strangest thing happened: Kamapua'a fell in love.
But things got out of control and the gods taunted each other, got in a fight, and soon began a war of the land and the sea, that was nothing more than an overblown argument. Pele struck first with her fire and lava, and Kamapua'a replied with waves and rain. Seeing how disastrous this conflict was, other gods were trying to tell Pele to stop her doings, and eventually she obeyed; Kamapua'a did stop as well.
What happened afterwards with the two gods, the exact opposites and foes? They became lovers. Not very good with telling each other out, sure, and arguing a lot, in a lot of tellings breaking up soon, but they could certainly work together when they wanted to.
To this day their rule is this: Pele cares for the land and volcanoes in the west, and Kamapua'a's domain is the ocean and lakes in the east, and they come together to make plants grow and all the other life on the Big Island exist.
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(Yep, definite context for hardenshipping. It matches the plot of Emerald quite well. When we consider the slash canon. All we need now is for Pele to be a guy, which is funny, because that's exactly what the editors of the polish Wikipedia assumed. HOW can one mistake a not-exactly-unknown goddess for a man, I have no idea. Maybe it's like with the Pokemon translators and poor Tabitha, only it's the other way around now).
