Rongo-mā-Tāne — Atua of Cultivated Food and Peace
Māori tradition · Cultivated food · Kūmara · Peace · Planting · Harvest
Rongo-mā-Tāne is the atua of cultivated food and peace. He is closely associated with kūmara and the disciplined work that turns cleared soil, planting, protection, harvest and storage into food that can sustain a community through winter.
Rongo-mā-Tāne at a Glance
| Tradition | Māori |
|---|---|
| Divine standing | Major atua |
| Campaign alignment | Neutral Good |
| Portfolio | Cultivated food, kūmara, gardens, harvest, storage, peace and settled abundance |
| Parents | Ranginui and Papatūānuku |
| Sacred signs | Unexpectedly healthy crops, first shoots surviving frost, storage pits remaining dry, quarrels quieting during shared meals and kūmara appearing where none were planted |
| Pantheon plane | Hawaiki — The Ancestral Isles, within Ossa — The Living and Remembering Sea in Arborea |
| Campaign present | Active around planting, harvest, famine relief, negotiated peace and the protection of food stores |
Divine Mechanics
Encounter role: Support / battlefield controller. These are campaign-scale divine manifestations. Each edition tab is standalone.
Rongo-mā-Tāne
Large Celestial (Deity), Neutral Good
Epic CR 32 (campaign-scale; PB +10)
AC 24 · HP 620 · Speed 40 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 (+7) | 20 (+5) | 30 (+10) | 26 (+8) | 32 (+11) | 30 (+10) |
Saving Throws Con +20, Int +18, Wis +21, Cha +20. Skills Insight +21, Medicine +21, Nature +18, Persuasion +20.
Damage Resistances radiant, poison; bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks. Condition Immunities Charmed, Frightened, Poisoned.
Senses Truesight 240 ft., Passive Perception 21. Languages all; telepathy 1 mile.
Traits
Peace of the Garden. A creature within 120 feet that willingly begins its turn without attacking gains 15 temporary hit points. A creature loses these temporary hit points if it attacks before its next turn.
Stored Abundance. Food and drink within 1 mile do not spoil naturally. Rongo always knows when stores in that area are being deliberately destroyed or poisoned.
Harvest Without Waste. Healing received by Rongo’s allies restores the maximum possible amount while they are within 60 feet of him.
Actions
Multiattack. Rongo makes three Staff of the Cultivated Field attacks.
Staff of the Cultivated Field. +20 to hit, reach 15 ft.; 29 (4d8 + 11) bludgeoning plus 18 (4d8) radiant damage.
Field of Restraint (Recharge 5–6). Cultivated vines and roots fill a 90-foot square within 180 feet. Hostile creatures make a DC 27 Strength save or become Restrained and take 36 (8d8) bludgeoning damage. A creature can repeat the save at the end of each turn.
Feast of Peace (1/Day). Up to twelve creatures Rongo can see regain 60 hit points, end Frightened and Charmed, and cannot make opportunity attacks against one another for 1 minute.
Legendary Actions
- Nourish. One ally within 60 feet regains 20 hit points.
- Bind the Quarrel. One creature within 60 feet cannot take Reactions until its next turn.
- Raise the Crop (Costs 2). A 20-foot-square area becomes difficult terrain for enemies until the next round.
Mythic Trait — The First Harvest Returns. The first time Rongo reaches 0 hit points, he instead regains 310 hit points. Edible plants erupt across the ground in a 120-foot radius, allies regain 30 hit points and hostile creatures are Restrained until the end of their next turn, Strength DC 27 negates.
Rongo-mā-Tāne — Pathfinder 1e
CR 31; NG Large outsider (divine, extraplanar, good)
Init +8; Senses true seeing 240 ft.; Perception +47. AC 54; hp 630.
Fort +37, Ref +30, Will +40; DR 20/epic and evil; SR 44.
Domains Community, Good, Plant, Protection. Subdomains Family, Growth, Restoration, Defense.
Peace of the Garden (Su). Creatures within 60 feet gain +4 on saves against fear and compulsion. A creature that has not attacked since its last turn gains fast healing 10.
Abundant Stores (Su). Food within 1 mile does not spoil or become diseased by non-divine means.
Spell-Like Abilities CL 31st. At will—create food and water, plant growth, sanctuary; 3/day—heroes’ feast, heal, wall of thorns; 1/day—miracle.
Complete Pathfinder 1e Statistics
Init +9; Aura divine presence 120 ft.; Perception +36.
DEFENSE AC 54, touch 28, flat-footed 49; hp 630; Fort +37, Ref +32, Will +38; defensive abilities divine resilience, freedom of movement; DR 25/epic; SR 45; immune disease, fear, poison; resist acid 20, cold 20, electricity 20, fire 20.
OFFENSE Speed 50 ft.; Melee Staff of the Cultivated Field +52/+47/+42/+37 (divine weapon damage plus portfolio energy); Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.; Special Attacks divine aura, mythic surge, portfolio powers.
STATISTICS Str 24, Dex 20, Con 30, Int 26, Wis 32, Cha 30; Base Atk +42; CMB +50; CMD 65; Feats Combat Reflexes, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Critical (Staff of the Cultivated Field), Weapon Focus (Staff of the Cultivated Field), Greater Weapon Focus (Staff of the Cultivated Field), Quicken Spell-Like Ability; Skills Acrobatics +30, Diplomacy +35, Intimidate +35, Knowledge (planes) +33, Knowledge (religion) +33, Perception +36, Sense Motive +36, Spellcraft +33, Survival +36; Languages all, telepathy 1 mile; SQ divine rank 13, immortality, portfolio sense, remote communication.
Rongo-mā-Tāne — D&D 3.5e
Intermediate Deity; Divine Rank 13; NG Large Outsider (Extraplanar, Good)
CR 32; Hit Dice 42d8+462; AC 56.
Portfolio cultivated food, peace, gardens, harvest and stored abundance. Domains Community, Good, Plant, Protection.
Salient Divine Abilities. Alter Reality, Divine Inspiration, Divine Shield, Gift of Life.
Portfolio Sense. Rongo senses famines, harvest failures, peace settlements and destruction of food stores within his portfolio as they occur, and can look back through the previous thirteen weeks. Divine Rank 13 does not grant future portfolio sense.
Spell-Like Abilities. At will—create food and water, plant growth, sanctuary; 3/day—heroes’ feast, heal, wall of thorns; 1/day—miracle. Caster level 32nd.
Complete D&D 3.5e Statistics
Initiative +9; Speed 50 ft.; Armor Class 54, touch 28, flat-footed 49; Base Attack/Grapple +42/+53; Attack Staff of the Cultivated Field +52 melee; Full Attack Staff of the Cultivated Field +52/+47/+42/+37; Space/Reach 10 ft./10 ft..
Special Attacks salient divine abilities, portfolio powers, spell-like abilities; Special Qualities divine aura 1 mile, divine immunities, DR 25/epic, fire/cold/electricity resistance 20, SR 46, immortality, remote sensing, portfolio sense.
Saves Fort +37, Ref +32, Will +38; Abilities Str 24, Dex 20, Con 30, Int 26, Wis 32, Cha 30; Skills Acrobatics +30, Diplomacy +35, Intimidate +35, Knowledge (planes) +33, Knowledge (religion) +33, Perception +36, Sense Motive +36, Spellcraft +33, Survival +36; Feats Combat Reflexes, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Critical (Staff of the Cultivated Field), Weapon Focus (Staff of the Cultivated Field), Greater Weapon Focus (Staff of the Cultivated Field), Quicken Spell-Like Ability, Epic Prowess, Overwhelming Critical.
Environment divine realm and portfolio-aligned sites; Organization unique; Challenge Rating 32; Treasure divine relics; Alignment as listed; Advancement —.
Worship in the Living World
Te Ara records Rongo or Rongomātāne as the protector of cultivated crops and the atua of peace, with particular importance attached to kūmara. Planting and harvest could involve prayer, tapu and offerings, because a successful crop was not treated as a purely mechanical result of labour.
For play, Rongo’s sacred sphere is where peace becomes practical: fields must be planted, fences repaired, food stored and neighbours trusted long enough for a crop to mature.
Mythic Identity
Rongo belongs among the children of Ranginui and Papatūānuku and is named in creation genealogies as the atua of cultivated food. In the conflict after the separation of the primal parents, Tūmatauenga defeats Rongo’s domain by digging cultivated food from the earth.
That connection gives Rongo a productive tension with Tū: cultivation requires organised human effort, but war can consume the very stores and labour peace makes possible.
Pantheon Plane: Hawaiki and Ossa
In Hawaiki — The Ancestral Isles, gardens can preserve remembered cultivars and planting traditions along islands reached through genealogy as much as navigation. The surrounding Ossa carries seeds, stories and people between those islands.
Hawaiki is the pantheon’s ancestral realm, not a single universal farm. Rongo’s mortal worship remains rooted in actual gardens, food stores, seasonal labour and peace between people who must live together.
What Is Rongo-mā-Tāne Doing Now?
Several communities report the same impossible harvest: one perfectly healthy kūmara in a field otherwise damaged by weather or pests. Each surviving tuber bears a faint spiral of pale skin.
Those who plant it again receive a rich crop—but only if no blood is deliberately shed within sight of the field between planting and harvest.
Rongo appears to be offering abundance and testing whether peace can be maintained long enough to deserve it.
Domain Spells and Divine Gifts
Suggested 5.5e domains: Life, Nature, Peace. PF1e / 3.5e domains: Community, Good, Plant, Protection.
1st: sanctuary, goodberry · 2nd: aid, lesser restoration · 3rd: plant growth, create food and water · 4th: aura of life · 5th: greater restoration · 6th: heroes’ feast, heal · 7th: regenerate · 8th: control weather · 9th: mass heal.
Divine Relic — Te Kete o te Hauhake
The Harvest Basket is an original relic that never spoils food placed within it. Once per day it can produce enough simple food for twenty people. Once per season, food shared from the basket during a sincere peace meeting gives all participants advantage on checks made to negotiate that settlement for the next 24 hours.
Regional Effects
- First Shoots Endure. Newly planted food crops gain unusual resistance to ordinary cold, wind and pests.
- Stores Stay Sound. Properly prepared food stores remain dry and free of mundane spoilage.
- Shared Food Lowers Voices. Creatures eating together at a sacred site have advantage on their first check to de-escalate a dispute.
Relationships
Haumia-tiketike: cultivated and uncultivated foods form complementary paths to survival rather than competing portfolios.
Tūmatauenga: human warfare and human cultivation both transform the world, but peace is what allows Rongo’s work to mature.
Rūaumoko: earthquakes can destroy gardens and storage pits, while volcanic soils can renew future fertility.
Use Rongo-mā-Tāne Tonight
The One Surviving Tuber
A village must decide whether to plant, eat or guard a miraculous kūmara after a failed harvest.
Peace Until Harvest
Two enemies must keep a truce for an entire growing season or lose the only crop able to survive a spreading blight.
The Empty Storehouse
Food vanishes without broken locks, but reappears in the homes of families who had nothing left.
The Garden in Hawaiki
An ancestral cultivar lost from the mortal world still grows on an island that appears only to voyagers carrying seed from home.
Deep Link Dive
Polynesian Gods & Sacred Traditions
Return to the full pantheon hub and move across the related Māori, Hawaiian and wider Polynesian divine traditions.
Ranginui & Papatūānuku
Follow Rongo’s genealogy through Ranginui and Papatūānuku, the primal parents at the centre of the creation genealogy.
Haumia-tiketike
Compare cultivated food with the atua of wild and uncultivated foods, gathering and survival beyond the garden.
Tūmatauenga
Follow the tension between cultivation and warfare: the same human communities that plant and store food can also consume and destroy it.
Tāne Mahuta
Move from cultivated gardens into forests, birds and the wider living world sustained beyond cleared fields.
Tāwhirimātea
Connect harvest success to wind, storms and weather—the forces that can nourish a crop or destroy it before gathering.
Hawaiki and Ossa
Follow ancestral agriculture, remembered cultivars and voyaging into the pantheon’s principal ancestral realm.
Plant Growth
Open the spell most directly tied to Rongo’s cultivated-food portfolio and the enrichment of living crops.
Create Food and Water
Take famine relief, provisioning and sacred abundance directly from divine portfolio into play.
Heroes’ Feast
Use shared food as healing, protection and a ritual expression of community before danger.
Cleric Domains
Continue through the Community, Plant and Protection domains used by Rongo’s legacy mechanics.
Salient Divine Abilities
Continue into the deity-scale rules behind Alter Reality, Divine Inspiration, Divine Shield and Gift of Life.
Playable Followers
Build a Cleric centred on peace and provision or a Druid tied to crop cycles, weather and living land.
Neutral Good
Read the campaign alignment framework used for this divine manifestation and its behaviour in play.
Sources and Licensing
Te Ara identifies Rongo or Rongomātāne as a major atua of agriculture, especially kūmara and other cultivated plants, and as atua of peace. It also records ritual attention to kūmara planting, protection and harvest.
Te Ara — Rural mythologies: first traditions · Te Ara — Kūmara: religious aspects · Te Ara — Whakapapa of creation
The cultural and mythological material is presented from the cited sources. Encounter statistics, relics, regional effects and adventure material are original fantasy-RPG adaptations. Edition names identify rules compatibility; they do not claim the traditional narratives originate in those game systems.
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