Loki

Loki was an interloper deity of mischief and strife who originated from another plane of existence. There was no evidence that this deity was directly worshiped in the Realms.There were no known worshipers of Loki in the Realms. However, Loki is mentioned in Desert of Desolation, a 1st-edition adventure. And is stated in Planes of Chaos as having interacted with Selûne.
==Avatar==
Loki's avatar was typically that of a handsome man, dressed in red and black. However, he often took on a variety of forms, most often that of a woman. But no matter what guise he took, he sported red and black clothing.
==Personality==
Loki had a rather conceited and greatly vain nature to him, being convinced that there was nothing any deity could do that he couldn't. He strove to prove himself as being smarter than the rest of his pantheon.
He excelled at subverting the natural order and finding solutions or answers that his fellow gods had not considered, his craftiness rivaling that of Odin. Loki was also quite restless, impulsive, talkative, and easily bored. He often resorted to amusing himself by playing practical jokes on other deities.
==Abilities==
Loki was capable of creating magic items related to assassins and rogues. He was also proficient in spellcasting, being capable of casting a number of spells innately and as a sorcerer. The spell-like abilities that Loki was capable of casting innately included:
:animate objects, blasphemy, change self, chaos hammer, circle of doom, cloak of chaos, confusion, contagion, create undead, desecrate, disintegrate, dispel good, dispel law, earthquake, false vision, harm, implosion, inflict critical wounds, inflict light wounds, invisibility, magic circle against good, magic circle against law, mislead, nondetection, polymorph any object, protection from good, protection from law, screen, shatter, summon monster IX, time stop, unholy aura. unholy blight, word of chaos, shapechange, suggestion, plane shift, and teleport without error.
The actual spells that Loki was capable of casting as a sorcerer included:
:animate dead, arcane eye, arcane mark, bestow curse, cause fear, charm monster, charm person, circle of death, comprehend languages, confusion, contact other plane, dancing lights, daze, detect magic, detect poison, dream, erase, flesh to stone, gate, geas/quest, hypnotism, mage hand, mass charm, misdirection, nightmare, obscure object, open/close, Otto's irresistible dance, prestidigitation, read magic, rope trick, secret page, see invisibility, shadow walk, shrink item, simulacrum, suggestion, Tasha's hideous laughter, temporal stasis, trap the soul, vampiric touch, vanish, and wish.
==Possessions==
Loki wielded a dagger of venom +3, with an endless supply of venom, and possessed a pair of boots that were enchanted with the powers of flying, speed, and water walking.Deities & Demigods and Encyclopedia Magica Volume I both state that the full powers of these boots are flying, speed, travelling, and water walking. This third term likely refers to boots of travelling and leaping, an item found only in OD&D and that was part of the powers that Loki's boots had in that edition. Considering that this term was likely copied over in error, it has been left out of this article.
==History==
Some myths claimed that Loki had the blood of giants flowing through him, being born to giants named Farbauti and Laufey, while others claimed he was born alongside Odin.
In the early days of the pantheon, he used his wits to the benefit the Norse powers. Proving instrumental in saving the pantheon from certain death and destruction on a number of occasions, earning him the title of Odin's blood brother. When he later become more of a trickster, Loki would bring up these past exploits whenever he pushed the Norse powers to their limits.
Over the years, Loki often turned to the Ysgardian dwarves for help in his schemes. At some point, Loki's trickery caused the Norse goddess Sif to lose her hair and he was forced to replace it. Loki approached a pair of Ysgardian dwarves for this task, who made locks from gold that grew like real hair. Flushed by their success, and challenged by Loki to outdo their success with that hair, the dwarves went on to construct many of the legendary weapons and equipment of the Norse pantheon.
Loki gradually grew envious of the beautiful, near-invulnerable Norse power Balder and the attention that was placed upon him, Loki planned to kill him one day with a spear made of his one weakness, mistletoe. Some claimed that he had tricked his blind twin Hod the Blind into throwing a sharpened dart of the plant at Balder's heart. In other accounts it was a spear or wand. According to some the Norns had foreseen this future and Hod was exiled from Asgard to prevent it. But according to others, Loki's scheme had been a success and it started him down a path towards greater evil. Finally, there were some accounts that said Balder was indeed dead, but that his death was not the cause of Loki.
Some centuries prior to the Time of Troubles, a group of Norse worshipers from another world brought their faith to the Raurin Desert of Toril and formed cities, such as Medinat Muskawoon. Though they did not worship Loki, they were aware of him in the stories they had of Balder, a Norse power who they did construct a temple to.
Later he would visit the Gates of the Moon on several occasions, trying to woo the Faerûnian goddess Selûne.
==Activities==
Loki was sometimes sent by Odin on missions to cause mischief among the Celtic and Olympian pantheons.
While in his divine realm on the plane of Pandemonium, Loki worked on his sorcery and plotted schemes, often plotting ways in which he could mess with the Blood War. Occasionally siding with the tanar'ri of the Abyss, but more often sending fire giant and frost giant servitors to mess with both sides.
==Realm==
Loki maintained several small houses in Asgard and had many hideaways in both Jotunheim and Pandemonium, which he hid away in when he had drawn the ire of other powers. He was most often exiled into hiding in Pandemonium after causing strife among the Norse pantheon's deities and in fact only resided there when not on good terms with them. While there he resided in Winter's Hall, a divine realm shared with the Faerûnian goddess Auril.
He was also one of a number of Norse powers that sometimes took to hiding in Merratet, the divine realm of Bast.
==Relationships==
Loki was quite sociable among the Norse pantheon when in their good graces, for like the rest of the Norse gods he enjoyed human company, but he didn't care for being sociable when inside Winter's Hall. Despite his mischievous ways, Loki was largely tolerated by the Norse pantheon because of his status as a blood brother to Odin.
Among the Norse powers he was sworn enemies with Heimdall, partly because of Loki being unable to stand his self-righteous nature and partly because Heimdall often caught him in the midst of schemes and exposed his plans. And according to some prophetic legends, he was destined to die at Heimdall's hand some day.
Lacking the aid of his fellow Norse powers, Loki made short-term alliances with deities across various pantheons, mainly treating them as pawns or tools in his schemes. One such deity was the greater titan Cronus. He was also one of the few gods that the Olympian power Ares considered a friend, even though Loki enjoyed embarrassing him at any chance he got.
==Worshipers==
The priests of his faith typically wore a leather vest and wolf helmet as part of their priestly vestments. They had to access spells from the all, charm, combat, creation, divination, elemental, healing, plant, and summoning spheres. They particularly had access to the spells shapechange and mass suggestion. Many of priests were, in addition to being clerics, rogues and sorcerers.
Unlike other Norse deities, Loki did not require his followers to perform any particular religious services or rituals. His cults were at times allied with worshipers of Surtur and Thrym, though it as more common for cults of Thrym to hold a grudge against those of Loki. Giants in general were typically welcomed in his temples, which in many worlds were hidden in either a cave or building. These were often stocked with supplies for causing mayhem, including poison and weapons.
He most attracted the worship of assassins, rogues, and in some worlds the yuan-ti.
==Appendix==
===Notes===
===External Links===
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===References===
===Connections===
Category:Greater deities
Category:Intermediate deities
Category:Chaotic evil deities
Category:Chaos domain deities
Category:Destruction domain deities
Category:Evil domain deities
Category:Trickery domain deities
Category:Norse pantheon
Category:Eusdrian pantheon
Category:Inhabitants of Asgard
Category:Inhabitants of Ysgard
Category:Inhabitants of Ysgard (layer)
Category:Inhabitants of Winter's Hall
Category:Inhabitants of Pandesmos
Category:Inhabitants of Pandemonium
Category:Inhabitants of the Outer Planes
Category:Inhabitants of the Great Wheel planes
Category:Inhabitants of Mystara