Uenuku — Atua of the Rainbow and War
Māori tradition · Rainbow · War · Omens · Chiefly authority · Celestial signs
Uenuku is an atua associated with the rainbow and with war. Māori traditions do not reduce the rainbow to decoration: it can be an atua piko, a curved divine sign, and Uenuku belongs among the powers whose appearance in the heavens can be read as omen, authority and warning.
Uenuku at a Glance
| Tradition | Māori, with strong Tainui associations among other traditions |
|---|---|
| Divine role | Rainbow, war, omens, chiefly authority and signs in the heavens |
| Game alignment | Lawful Neutral |
| Suggested domains | War, Light, Knowledge |
| Sacred signs | Rainbows, coloured light after storms, distant lightning, sudden clearings in cloud and unusual sky omens |
| Pantheon plane | Hawaiki — The Ancestral Isles, within Ossa — The Living and Remembering Sea in Arborea |
Divine Mechanics
Encounter role: Skirmisher / omen-controller. Each edition is standalone; use only the rules tab for your table.
Uenuku, Greater Deity — Large Celestial, Lawful Neutral; suggested CR 31.
| Armor Class | 24 | Hit Points | 590 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | 50 ft., fly 120 ft. | Proficiency Bonus | +9 |
| STR | 27 (+8) | DEX | 24 (+7) |
| CON | 28 (+9) | INT | 26 (+8) |
| WIS | 29 (+9) | CHA | 30 (+10) |
Saving Throws Dex +16, Con +18, Wis +18, Cha +19. Damage Immunities radiant; bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks. Condition Immunities charmed, frightened. Senses truesight 240 ft., passive Perception 28. Languages all languages he chooses, telepathy 240 ft.
Legendary Resistance (4/Day). If Uenuku fails a saving throw, he can choose to succeed instead.
Atua Piko. When a rainbow is visible within 1 mile, Uenuku can teleport between any two points touched by that rainbow as a bonus action.
Read the Sign. Uenuku cannot be surprised. At the start of combat he chooses up to six allies who gain advantage on initiative and on their first saving throw.
Multiattack. Uenuku makes three Spear of the Coloured Sky attacks: +18 to hit, reach 15 ft.; 31 (4d10 + 9) piercing plus 22 (4d10) radiant damage.
Sevenfold Arc (Recharge 5–6). Uenuku releases seven bands of divine light in a 120-foot cone. Creatures make a DC 26 Dexterity saving throw, taking 70 (20d6) radiant damage on a failure or half on a success. A creature that fails is also Blinded until the end of its next turn.
Omen of Defeat (Recharge 6). Uenuku marks up to three hostile creatures he can see. Until the end of his next turn, attacks against them have advantage and they have disadvantage on saving throws against fear.
Mythic Trait — The Sign Returns. The first time Uenuku is reduced to 0 hit points, he becomes a band of coloured light and reforms at a point within 300 feet with 295 hit points. He immediately uses Sevenfold Arc.
Intermediate deity; alignment LN. Suggested divine encounter CR 30. Domains: Glory, Sun, War, Weather. Subdomains: Heroism, Light, Tactics, Storms. Favoured weapon: spear.
Battle Omen (Su). Once per day, allies who witness Uenuku’s sign gain a +4 sacred bonus on initiative, Perception and saves against fear for 1 hour.
Rainbow Passage (Su). Three times per day Uenuku may teleport as greater teleport between two visible points under the open sky.
Complete Pathfinder 1e Statistics
Init +11; Aura divine presence 120 ft.; Perception +34.
DEFENSE AC 53, touch 31, flat-footed 46; hp 620; Fort +36, Ref +34, Will +36; defensive abilities divine resilience, freedom of movement; DR 25/epic; SR 44; immune disease, fear, poison; resist acid 20, cold 20, electricity 20, fire 20.
OFFENSE Speed 50 ft.; Melee Legendary Resistance (4/Day) +54/+49/+44/+39 (divine weapon damage plus portfolio energy); Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.; Special Attacks divine aura, mythic surge, portfolio powers.
STATISTICS Str 27, Dex 24, Con 28, Int 26, Wis 29, Cha 30; Base Atk +43; CMB +52; CMD 69; Feats Combat Reflexes, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Critical (Legendary Resistance (4/Day)), Weapon Focus (Legendary Resistance (4/Day)), Greater Weapon Focus (Legendary Resistance (4/Day)), Quicken Spell-Like Ability; Skills Acrobatics +32, Diplomacy +35, Intimidate +35, Knowledge (planes) +33, Knowledge (religion) +33, Perception +34, Sense Motive +34, Spellcraft +33, Survival +34; Languages all, telepathy 1 mile; SQ divine rank 14, immortality, portfolio sense, remote communication.
Intermediate deity; Divine Rank 14; alignment LN. Portfolio: rainbow, war omens, celestial signs and chiefly authority. Domains: Glory, Sun, War, Weather. Favoured weapon: spear.
Appropriate salient divine abilities include Alter Reality, Divine Radiance, Divine Inspiration, Know Secrets, Power of Truth and Travel.
Complete D&D 3.5e Statistics
Initiative +11; Speed 50 ft.; Armor Class 53, touch 31, flat-footed 46; Base Attack/Grapple +43/+55; Attack divine spear +54 melee; Full Attack divine spear +54/+49/+44/+39; 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 45, immortality, remote sensing, portfolio sense.
Saves Fort +36, Ref +34, Will +36; Abilities Str 27, Dex 24, Con 28, Int 26, Wis 29, Cha 30; Skills Acrobatics +32, Diplomacy +35, Intimidate +35, Knowledge (planes) +33, Knowledge (religion) +33, Perception +34, Sense Motive +34, Spellcraft +33, Survival +34; Feats Combat Reflexes, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Critical (Legendary Resistance (4/Day)), Weapon Focus (Legendary Resistance (4/Day)), Greater Weapon Focus (Legendary Resistance (4/Day)), Quicken Spell-Like Ability, Epic Prowess, Overwhelming Critical.
Environment divine realm and portfolio-aligned sites; Organization unique; Challenge Rating 31; Treasure divine relics; Alignment as listed; Advancement —.
Uenuku in the Living World
Uenuku is one of the personified forms of the rainbow recorded in Māori tradition. He is also named among important war atua. These roles belong together: the sky can be read before conflict, and weather signs may become part of the spiritual preparation surrounding a campaign.
Te Ara records an ancient representation of Uenuku as one of the great taonga of the Tainui people, thought to date from around 1400. That history gives Uenuku a particularly powerful material presence in the campaign world. He is not only an abstract rainbow in the sky; carved forms, treasured objects and inherited ritual relationships can carry his mana across generations.
Signs Before Battle
Accounts associated with Uenuku and Kahukura preserve the interpretation of lightning and other atmospheric signs in relation to warfare. In play, this makes Uenuku especially important before decisions rather than during slaughter itself. A rainbow over the enemy camp, lightning on the wrong ridge or coloured light appearing in clear weather can alter an entire war council.
Worship in the Living World
Uenuku is approached through signs, inherited taonga, war preparation and the reading of weather rather than through a generic battlefield cult. His presence matters before irreversible decisions: when a chief must decide whether a sign favours action, warns against it or exposes a false certainty.
Communities with inherited relationships to Uenuku preserve those relationships through genealogy and ritual authority. A rainbow over a fortified place may be beautiful, but it may also be a message whose meaning depends on who sees it, when it appears and what obligation is already in motion.
Pantheon Plane: Hawaiki and Ossa
The wider Māori and Polynesian divine network reaches into Hawaiki — The Ancestral Isles, an independent ancestral archipelago within Ossa — The Living and Remembering Sea, Arborea’s second layer. Hawaiki is a realm of origin, voyage, ancestral return and remembered routes across the living sea.
Within the wider pantheon, Hawaiki provides the ancestral islands and remembered routes through Ossa. Uenuku’s celestial signs can appear above those seas just as they appear above the mortal world, linking omen, voyage, lineage and return.
What Is Uenuku Doing Now?
Rainbows have begun appearing without rain above several fortified settlements. In each case the arc touches the ground outside the pā rather than beyond the horizon.
At the same time, an old carved representation of Uenuku has begun casting coloured reflections even in darkness. Warriors sleeping near it dream of battles they have not yet fought, but the dreams do not agree on who wins.
Some tohunga believe Uenuku is warning against an unnecessary war. Others believe he is revealing that the true enemy has not yet been recognised.
Domain Spells and Divine Gifts
1st: guiding bolt, heroism · 2nd: augury, branding smite · 3rd: daylight, crusader’s mantle · 4th: divination, staggering smite · 5th: commune, dawn · 6th: sunbeam, true seeing · 7th: divine word, prismatic spray · 8th: sunburst, control weather · 9th: foresight, prismatic wall.
Divine Relic — Te Kōpere o Uenuku
The Bow of Uenuku is an original game relic of dark wood that shows seven colours only when drawn. It grants advantage on initiative and cannot be used to attack a creature whose bearer has knowingly broken a truce with.
Once per week the bow can fire an arrow of light into the sky, producing a rainbow visible for 20 miles. Allies who can see it cannot be frightened for 1 hour.
Use Uenuku Tonight
- The Rainbow over the Pā: a rainbow appears every dawn with one end touching the same gate.
- The Wrong Omen: two rival tohunga interpret the same celestial sign in opposite ways before war begins.
- The Silent Taonga: a sacred carving associated with Uenuku loses all colour and warmth overnight.
- Lightning on the Right: battlefield lightning points toward a chief who insists the sign concerns someone else.
- The War That Must Not Start: Uenuku repeatedly sends signs to both sides, but neither faction will admit the warning applies to them.
Relationships
Kahukura: both are associated with rainbows and war, but they remain distinct atua with different traditions and signs.
Tāwhirimātea: weather creates the conditions in which Uenuku’s rainbow and lightning omens appear.
Tūmatauenga: Tū embodies war and humankind more broadly; Uenuku is especially associated with celestial signs, omens and war authority.
Deep Link Dive
Hawaiki and Ossa
Enter the pantheon’s ancestral isles within Arborea’s living and remembering sea.
Polynesian Gods & Sacred Traditions
Return to the wider Polynesian and Māori god cluster.
Kahukura
Compare the other major rainbow-associated war atua without merging their traditions.
Cleric
Build divine characters around omen-reading, authority and war.
Augury
A direct mechanical link for reading signs before action.
Divination
Push omen-reading into stronger divine counsel.
Foresight
Connect warning signs to high-level predictive magic.
Salient Divine Abilities
Continue into deity-scale powers.
Lawful Neutral
Read the alignment framework used for his mechanics.
Sources and Licensing
Uenuku’s identity as a rainbow atua and war god, the interpretation of weather signs in warfare, and the existence of an important Tainui taonga representing Uenuku derive from documented Māori traditions. The statistics, relic, supernatural events and adventure situations above are original fantasy roleplaying adaptations.
Te Ara — Atua and the origins of wars · Te Ara — Uenuku carving · Te Ara — Rainbows
The cultural and mythological material is presented from the cited sources. Encounter statistics, relics, domain selections and adventure material are original fantasy-RPG adaptations. Edition names identify rules compatibility; they do not claim the traditional narratives originate in those systems.