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JellyPooga
2008-03-11, 08:44 AM
O.k. so I'm making a new character and I'm having some trouble with his backstory, mostly on account of his deity, which is one that I am creating...

To summarise the Deity:

Name: [I don't know], Lesser Deity
Nick-names: The Laughing Ghost, The Eternal Trickster
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Portfolio: Incorporeal Undead, Dreams, Pranks (through fear)
Domains: Chaos, Dream (CompDiv), Luck, Trickery, Undeath (Libris Mortis)
Favoured Weapon: Whip

[the deity] is all about playing pranks on people, especially those that involve scaring them. His favoured medium is dreams; he'll send a weird or unsettling dream to a potential victim before sending one of his followers to follow up on it, whether that be to scare the bejeebers out of them straight away or to spend some time further wigging them out before the big finale. He does not do this out of any particular malice, but simply for the fun of seeing someone scared out of their wits. As such, his pranks rarely leave any lasting damage and indeed [the deity] often frowns upon those of his followers that go that take it beyond a joke. His symbol is a ghostly face contorted with laughter, encircled by a knotted rope. Though he counts all incorporeal undead as part of his flock, many are too influenced by their undead nature to be suitable agents; especially shadows and wraiths, who despise the living and seeks only to destroy it.

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Now, as you can see, aside from the name the actual deity itself is not so much of a problem, but what I am having a problem with is the character and his interaction/devotion to his deity.

I have already decided that this character will be a Bard who goes Cleric (if only for Rebuke Undead), then Favoured Soul before hitting the Master of Shrouds PrC...oh and he's a Half-Ogre.

To summarise what I have so far:

- As a half-ogre, raised by humans, he was subject to ridicule and ostracisation by his peers. Despite his best efforts to get along, including learning to play several musical instruments in an attempt to placate them through music, they always saw him as a hulking ugly brute that they could not bully because of his size.

- Eventually giving up on trying to make friends, he decided to entertain himself by playing tricks on those that rejected him, using his size and intimidating countenance to scare them and his sharp wits to devise cunning practical jokes.

- Though there was rarely, if ever, any malice in these pranks and they were usually harmless, he started getting a bad reputation (as would be expected). Then one day, one of his pranks went horribly wrong and the intended victim was seriously hurt by it. If he had not had the bad reputation, this might have been forgiven, but the people started muttering about his parentage and the inevatibility that he would eventually revert to the brutish nature of his ogre father and that this was only the start.

- As such, he was exiled from his village, forced to wander the world an outcast, begging or robbing to survive.

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That takes care of his upbringing, but I'm having trouble thinking of how to get him into the clergy/favour of his (future) deity. If you have any ideas that might help, it would be most appreciated.

Oh and if you have any ideas on what I could call his deity, that would be cool as well.

Cheers,

JP

The Glyphstone
2008-03-11, 09:49 AM
So....someone worships this deity, and in exchange he/she harrasses and scares them all the time? Why exactly would anyone WANT to worship them? It seems like a God of Masochists right now.

JellyPooga
2008-03-11, 11:20 AM
So....someone worships this deity, and in exchange he/she harrasses and scares them all the time? Why exactly would anyone WANT to worship them? It seems like a God of Masochists right now.

No no no, it's like any deity of something that is otherwise deemed unbeneficial...clerics of hextor aren't the ones getting tortured or beat upon, they're the ones doing the torture/beating in the name of Hextor, followers of Olidamarra don't get stuff thieved from them; they do the thieving, etc....likewise, followers of this deity are the ones playing pranks/weirding others out in the name of the deity

Ninjalitude
2008-03-11, 12:13 PM
It seems like an evil version of Oldimara unless I'm missing something......
Although i do like the dream bit, that has a lot of scary potential :smallamused:

Kurald Galain
2008-03-11, 12:28 PM
This may be useful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote_%28mythology%29

Also, the Nuwisha (from World of Darkness) have a good trickster spirit.