Tāwhirimātea

Tāwhirimātea is a child of Ranginui (the Sky Father) and Papatūānuku (the Earth Mother). When his brothers separated their parents, Tāwhirimātea reacted in anger: he gathered an army of his children (winds, clouds and rain-entities) and attacked his siblings, razing forests, driving Tangaroa and marine offspring into the sea, pursuing Rongo and Haumia into their mother's refuge, and entering an ongoing enmity with Tūmatauenga. His actions during this Divine War are given as the mythic origin of storms, floods and many forms of weather.

Primary traditional sources emphasize Tāwhirimātea's actions and progeny rather than a single canonical anthropomorphic form. Modern visual representations vary; one mural depicts him struggling to control his children shown as blue spiral forms alongside sun and moon. Traditional narratives present him as the ancestral personification of weather phenomena rather than focusing on a detailed corporeal description.

Tāwhirimātea commands and personifies atmospheric phenomena through named offspring: winds and cloud-forms (for example Apū-hau 'fierce squall', Apū-matangi, Ao-nui, Ao-roa, Ao-pōuri, Ao-pōtango and others) and rains/mists (for example Ua-nui 'great rain', Ua-roa, Ua-whatu, Ua-nganga; Hau-maringi, Hau-marotoroto, Tōmairangi). In myth he unleashes storms and floods that alter landscapes and challenge the domains of his siblings. His ongoing conflict with Tūmatauenga is portrayed as a mythic limit on his effects, with Tūmatauenga described as moderating storms into weather suitable for humans.