Kaladesh is done, so off I go to Amonkhet. There’s a glorybringer now. After that, I went with the dragons from C17. There’s a boneyard scourge and then there are the legendary dragons: Wasitora, Ramos, and O-Kagachi.
With these the new tile count is at 7, so I need at least three more to make two columns of five. That, or I rearrange the collection. Probably the latter.
It was the twentieth year of the Kami War. For nineteen years, the mortals held against the kami onslaught. Takeshi Konda's realm has almost been reduced to rubble, but his stronghold Eiganjo still stands. The arrival of one kami, however, shook the kingdom and the world to its foundations.
"The clashing warriors turned to face O-Kagachi, the greatest kami, and their sigh of awe was their last breath." —Great Battles of Kamigawa
Final Judgment by Kev Walker
On the twentieth year of the Kami War, more than a thousand of Konda's finest mounted retainers were devoured by jaws that encompassed the earth and sky. O-Kagachi, kami of the barrier, has arrived.
Great Old Serpent
At his behest the Kami War began to regain That Which Was Taken.
O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami by Daarken
O-Kagachi was the Kami of the Barrier that divided the utsushiyo (material realm) and the kakuriyo (spiritual realm) of Kamigawa. It was the oldest kami whose divinity was stolen by Takeshi Konda and whose fury of this theft moved the kami to take back That Which Was Taken.
At the night of Michiko Konda's birth, with the help of his allies and the outpouring of spiritual energy during the event, Takeshi Konda opened a portal to the spiritual realm and took something in order to ensure his eternal rule. As he pulled out his target, a roar broke out, and eyes as bright as suns glared back. Konda pulled his target, O-Kagachi's divinity formed into a stone disk, to the other side and the portal closed. This crime started the Kami War.
O-Kagachi did not manifest during the war until the twentieth year. The daimyo's forces rode to rescue Princess Michiko until the ground started shaking. Twin suns appeared and then stared at them as what looked like teeth and jaws slammed downward from the skies and rose upward from below their feet. In one bite, O-Kagachi took the lives of three full companies, leaving a canyon behind and shaking the entire kingdom.
With the tide of war against them, Konda summoned the dragon spirit Yosei to defend Eiganjo. The night came when O-Kagachi arrived at Eiganjo Castle. Yosei intercepted it as it tore through a tower, but could not fully incapacitate it. O-Kagachi's heads proved too much for the dragon spirit and tore Yosei apart. It didn't kill the other dragon, but it forced Yosei to escape.
With Yosei gone, the supreme kami continued. Eiganjo's enchanted walls didn't last against the serpent's repeated hammerings. It crushed Konda's soldiers effortlessly as it moved towards where the disk is. O-Kagachi peered inside the tower where Konda tried to fight off Toshiro Umezawa, and after the latter took the disk, the serpent went away.
At some point Toshiro left the Taken One at Minamo. O-Kagachi reappeared at Minamo and was met by Konda and his spectral army, and the All-Consuming Oni of Chaos - the three parties all trying to get the stone disk. As O-Kagachi drew nearer, the All-Consuming focused on it and attacked, but to no avail. The serpent retaliated, splitting the oni and devouring one of its halves. Once it felt that the Taken One is nowhere nearby, once again spirited away by Toshiro, O-Kagachi left and headed in a new direction.
In Jukai Forest, Michiko has released the Taken One from its stone form. The being took her form, and the princess named her Kyodai. O-Kagachi materialized above them and slowly descended, bent on taking back Kyodai. After sharing her power with Michiko, the two confronted the serpent. O-Kagachi fought viciously, its gigantic mass twisting and turning, but the sisters took out its heads one by one until only two remained. They shrunk the serpent, small enough for the two women to each bite off one head, and so the mightiest of kami was no more.
O-Kagachi in its full form was an unimaginably colossal serpent with eight heads whose eyes shone like suns. Its form had a large, horned central head surrounded by seven smaller snake-like heads.
Dangers
"This god held prisoner in human hands has put all humanity in the hands of angry gods." —Masako the Humorless
That Which Was Taken by Adam Rex
O-Kagachi was not just any kami - it was Kamigawa made manifest, the kami of the utsushiyo, kakuriyo, and the barrier separating them. It was steadfast in keeping the material and spiritual realms of Kamigawa separate, and will stop at nothing to enforce that schism. It exerted great influence over all other kami, and its rage moved them to attack the mortals. The moon kami Mochi claimed that, unless order was restored, O-Kagachi will even destroy Kamigawa itself.
... the Great Old Serpent O-Kagachi finally reached the tower of Eiganjo. A great and terrible wind rose. The ground shook so hard only the sturdiest dwellings survived. The horizon went yellow, then purple, then black as a hot, wet mass of stifling air descended and multicolored lightning filled the sky. All over the world, the inanimate trembled, and living things held their breath. (from Heretic: Betrayers of Kamigawa by Scott McGough)
In retaking the Taken One, O-Kagachi was relentless. The great serpent was always said to take up a large portion of the sky as it manifested, appearing so huge eyewitnesses doubt if it was even possible to see it fully. Covering its coils were sharp, impenetrable scales, making it impervious to weapons. Its eyes shone like suns, burning every creature that basked in its light if it so chose. Its movements shook the world. The Great Old Serpent was a force of nature, stopping only whenever the Taken One disappeared and it had to look somewhere else for it.
The Myojin of Night's Reach claimed that O-Kagachi was never meant to appear on the material plane. Its mere presence on the utsushiyo disturbed the fabric of reality. After O-Kagachi left Eiganjo, the soldiers it killed didn't remain dead - they returned as spirits, many of them deformed and broken. When it left the kakuriyo, not only did the barrier between realms weaken, but also the barrier between planes. This was the reason Night's Reach was able to travel from Kamigawa to other planes.
Many attempted to challenge O-Kagachi as it rampaged across Kamigawa. Yosei and General Takeno‘s soldiers tried and failed. Even the All-Consuming Oni of Chaos didn't leave a scratch on the serpent's scales. These were truly a testament to how immensely powerful O-Kagachi was: a kami without divinity and immortality, yet resilient nonetheless.
The only time O-Kagachi had trouble was during the battle before his destruction, at the hands of Michiko Konda and Kyodai. While it had the upper hand at first, the serpent was not able to keep up with the sisters. They punctured its flesh and sliced through his scales. Michiko's arrows petrified the serpent's heads one by one and Kyodai shattered them.
Michiko and Kyodai, the Sisters of Flesh and Spirit, have taken O-Kagachi's place as guardians of the barrier. After all was done, after Daimyo Konda has been punished, the two have discussed of letting the two realms blend, hoping that each would benefit from the other. It paved way for regrowth and rebuilding. It was a departure from the ways of the Great Old Serpent, but as they have said, "the old must give way to the new".
