To Master Thread

[Fanmade Touhou Character]
To the extent of having been able to cause floods...
Stage EXTRA~
—Boss; BGM: Source of the Starry River, Dragon of the Grass-Mowing Sword
Spell Card: Nine-Headed Dragon "Midgard Form"
The type of person who used to be notable. A legendary serpent at that.
The Reproachful Hydra

"Don't underestimate me just because my form is incomplete.
I'll gobble you up as a side dish for my Eightfold-Brewed Sake!
[...]
A while ago, I figured out that it's easier to drink if I add some honey.
I think I'll call it 'Golden Kushinada'.
Even with just one head, I'm always evolving!
You can't just look back
and say things were better in the old days!"
~Yamata no Yato
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"You're treatin' me like a moron!
I'm not gonna get minced any more, you hear me?!
My eight heads might've been cut up,
but I only need 1/8 of my power to deal with you brats!"
~Yamata no Yato
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"Don't underestimate me, you swine!
The yato-no-kami aren't gods of "yato"
in the sense of simple valleys.
They're the gods of yato swords, flashing in the dark night and stealing lives!"
~Yamata no Yato

"Cut and paste bit for anyone else who wants to do this
Feel free to discus stuff like character design, headcanons, theories, opinions and the sort.
Feel free to post favorite fan art or character specific themes, or whatever so long it's relevant to the topic subject.
To spread these out so we has some steady discussion, these are gonna spread out, each new character thread will be made 2-3 days from the last one(rule not set in stone. Flexible if needed) Feel free to bump up old threads.
Fan Art: Try and make it SFW as far as content and hosting site, though if you need to just add (Gore), (NSFW) or whatever is needed. Safebooru is an alternative to Danbooru. if you want to find a particular piece on another site, go here Click on the camera and paste the direct image link , hopefully another link to it should turn up.
Copy paste end."

A being separated from her one-time glory, seeking to regain it and to conquer this world with the heaven-searing sword.

Species: Snake god
Ability: Capable of causing floods and so forth (in her past form)

One of the eight severed heads of an ancient snake god who was chopped to pieces by Susanoo-no-Mikoto. It seems that each of the snake god's heads went off to various regions after its death, becoming worshipped as local gods at times, or feared and exterminated at others. Those are all stories for another time, though. Since Yato lost the sword Kusanagi, which can be said to be her main body, she was unable to re-unite with her remaining fellow heads. As such, in these modern times where faith in gods has long since been lost, her power has sunk to that of a slightly above-average youkai, which she's quite troubled by.

Thus, she decided to join up with the Tougenkyuu group, plotting to use Suitenguu no Himemiko's ability to resonate with the sword in order to find and reclaim it. Despite how far she'd fallen, Yato had still been an immensely powerful snake god, and she had enough power and intel to know how to pry open Gensokyo's barrier from outside. She created a similar object to the "keys" that Reimu and co. had, and used it to move the Tougenkyuu into Gensokyo, under the provision that they would search for the sword with Himemiko's power and return it to her afterward. Himemiko herself was also determined to find the sword as soon as possible, in order to free Momohime. Everything went exactly as Yato had planned. Unfortunately, thanks to Yukari and the fierce efforts of the far-from-human humans that she was guiding, the plan was brought to a halt in the end. When Momohime lost the danmaku battle, Yato made her escape from the Tougenkyuu, and just barely avoided getting rounded up with the others. If they didn't know about her to begin with, there was no reason to be cautious. All she had to do was wait until Yukari and Reimu dropped their guard the next day, make contact with Himemiko again, and ask her where Kusanagi was located...

However, though she may have tried to act like a mastermind, Yato was simple and trusting at heart. After all, as the legend goes, she guzzled down all the Eightfold-Brewed Sake in front of her without a second thought. She didn't once suspect that Himemiko and friends would confess everything after being captured, or that the incident resolvers would set a trap for her to stamp out any remnants of her plot. She was captured by Yukari, Reimu and co., pummeled with danmaku, and thoroughly punished. She's behaving herself now.

In the end, since Gensokyo suffered from a lack of any rivers or streams in which she could live, she decided to live as a new constellation up in the sky for a while. Thus, the constellation of "Ophiuchus", which had recently become a brief issue of debate in the outside world, became visible in Gensokyo as well. Perhaps because they're fellow snake gods, she seems to have gotten messed around with by Mumumu Mikaboshi (aka Ame-no-Kagaseo, aka Lucifer), the totally-overpowered demon lord watching over Gensokyo. That, though, is another story for another time. It's a story that probably won't get told.