Loki

**Loki** is a trickster Jötunn, ex-honorary Norse god. While treated as a nominal member of the Aesir tribe, he was known to switch his allegiance very often. He is, as of now, destined to ultimately side with the Jötnar and lead them in battle against the gods during Ragnarök.

## History

### Birth

Loki was born to the jötnar Farbauti and Laufey. At some point in his life, Loki became Odin's blood brother and was made a nominal member of the Aesir.

During his time in Asgard, Loki was as much an ally as he was a hindrance; although his sly and mischievous personality often got him into trouble with the gods, he just as often helped them out when they were in need.

At one point, he found Thor's wife asleep with her hair flowing behind her. He knew Sif prized her hair above anything else and so he cast a spell on her to keep her from waking up and in an act of pure cruelty, he shored off every strand of her golden hair. Thor was enraged upon learning this and was about to annihilate Loki when the trickster god promised a new head of hair for his wife, even more beautiful than the original. In addition, to sweeten the deal, Loki also had Ivaldi forge three other masterpieces: Skidbladnir, a great ship that belongs to Frey and can be folded up and put into one’s pocket, Gungnir, the deadliest of all spears, given to Odin, and a hammer called Mjölnir which would become the mightiest force in the Nine Worlds for Thor.

### Death of Balder and Punishment

One day he tricked Hod into throwing a mistletoe-dart at his brother Balder, the only thing that could harm him, and killed him.

As punishment he was bound to a slab of rock with the entrails of his sons Vali and Narvi. A snake was placed over him that dripped venom onto his face. His wife Sigyn was present to catch the venom with a cup, but when it had to be emptied he would be burned by the venom and cause earthquakes as he writhed in pain.

## Personality

Loki is sly, manipulative, charming, humorous, mischievous, quick to anger, and cruel (demonstrated when he burned Randolph Chase's face as punishment for failing him). Rick Riordan says he wrote Loki as he was in the myths: "[...] clever, funny, capricious, silver-tongued and quick to anger,". Loki is also extremely persuasive, to the point that he once successfully convinced Ran to lend him her magic net.

At times, he almost appears to be a textbook psychopath with a lack of remorse and any form of empathy. Even his wife, Sigyn, who has been loyally at his side for centuries was at the mercy of his temper, and he wasted no time in calling her a "stupid woman" when she slipped and dripped poison on him. When Blitzen had been stabbed, Loki seemed to take great pleasure in it, even going so far as to make jokes at the dwarf's expense.

Given that many of the pranks he pulls involve harming others and seems as crafty as he is crazy, he often comes across as a Norse version of the Joker from "the Batman" series. Many of his tricks border beyond cruelty, such as when he shore off the original hair of Sif.

Despite his negative traits, Loki does harbour affection for some of his children, especially Vali and Narvi. When speaking to Magnus on Naglfar, Loki is visibly upset and grieved about the shocking fate that his sons Vali and Narfi suffered as part of Loki's punishment for killing Balder - with them being slain by the gods, and their entrails used instead of ropes to bind Loki to a slab of rock under a serpent.

However, his affection for his kids may be an act. He didn't think twice about attempting to murder his other kids, Sam and Alex in *The Hammer of Thor,* and nor did he think twice about using force to manipulate them against their free will, going as far as to tease and jeer at them as well as even willing them to die. He was also plenty willing to treat his children as tools in his schemes, as exemplified by his using Sam as a bargaining chip to get the Skofnung sword.

Loki has actively put a lot of effort into ruining his demigod children's lives. He even succeeded in doing so with Alex's life by ruining her home stability and turning her family against her. He attempted the same thing with Sam by trying to ruin her relationship with Amir and her grandparents. Thankfully, Sam was able to resolve the situation.

On the other hand, this hostile behaviour towards his other children may actually be an act as well. Loki could be purposely making his own children hate him and keeping up the image that he views them as nothing, so that the gods do not go after them like they did with Vali and Narfi, thus sparing them the same gruesome fate.

## Appearance

Loki has dirty blonde feathery hair (with red, blonde, and yellow as tints), tousled and he is seen wearing a Red Sox jersey, jeans, and white tennis shoes. Loki is considered shockingly handsome, though his appearance is somewhat ruined by his scars. Burn tissue is splashed across the bridge of his nose and his cheekbones (caused by the snake venom dripping onto his face), like impact lines on the moon's surface. Loki's lips are marred by a row of welts all the way around his mouth, much like many piercing holes that had closed over (marks from the time his lips used to be sewn together by the dwarves).

In *name* Loki's true, grotesque appearance is revealed. When projecting, Loki is able to manipulate himself to appear extremely handsome. In reality, Loki's hair is bleached white from centuries of toxins, his face is no more than a melted mask of scar tissue, and he is sickly-thin.

In *name*, his appearance now matches his illusions. Whether he had himself healed or is masking his true appearance is unknown.

In female form, Loki appears as a young woman with long red hair and dazzling eyes.

Loki's eyes have an intense glow to them, much like those of his daughter Jasmine, with his gaze flitting restlessly, like fire in a hearth, pushed by the wind, looking for anything it could set ablaze.

## Abilities

Despite not being the strongest or the most powerful, Loki's manipulative nature and his knowledge of magic makes him a force to be reckoned with.

* **Hallucikinesis**: Loki can send illusions of himself from his prison. However, Loki's illusions cannot get magic weapons such as the Skofnung Stone.
* **Shapeshifting:** As a powerful giant, Loki is able to change his shape at his will as well into various forms including, but not limited to, a salmon, a mare (in this form he even gave birth to the colt Sleipnir), a seal, a fly, and an elderly woman called Thokk.
* **Enhanced Strength**: When Loki grabs Magnus' wrist, the latter claims that his grip was "*like steel*."
* **Pain Transferal**: While touching Randolph Chase's face in *The Sword of Summer*, Loki was able to make the latter feel the extreme pain that the serpent venom causes when it drips onto the trapped god's face from time to time. As revealed in *The Hammer of Thor*, Loki can transfer his pain to any close relatives of his victims, as he did with Randolph and Magnus.
* **Consciousness Splintering**: Despite being securely imprisoned by the gods, Loki can still make part of his consciousness materialize into another physical body from time to time, like when he visits Randolph in the epilogue of *The Sword of Summer*. If done incorrectly, however, this process can cause him intense pain.
* **Pyrokinesis:** As the God of Fire, he has divine authority and absolute control over fire, Loki can create and control fire, as shown when he created images of Randolph's wife and daughters out of fire within his hand in *The Sword of Summer* epilogue.
* **Offspring Manipulation**: As revealed in *The Hammer of Thor*, Loki has control over his demigod children's bodies. He has displayed this ability by stopping Samirah from breathing and threatening to put her in a permanent coma. However they can resist his commands, even ignore them entirely, by training with their shapeshifting.
* **Alf Sign Language**: Loki is able to understand ASL, as seen by his doing so to tell Magnus and company where the Skofnung Stone is.
* **Enhanced Agility**: In *The Hammer of Thor*, Loki demonstrated a certain agility when he quickly held Magnus's hand and escaped to the hole in his cave at the end of the book.
* **Charmspeak:** Loki could be much persuasive, like his son, Fenrir, which is one of the reasons why Gunilla suspected Samirah of being a spy of her father. That ability is shown in *The Sword of Summer* with all his stronger children: Fenrir, Jormungandr (hypnotists/attractive eyes) and Hel.
* **Mystiokinesis**: As the God of Magic, he has divine authority and absolute control over magic.
	+ **Telumkinesis**: In *The Hammer of Thor*, his child Alex mentioned that Loki knows a spell to turn anything into a weapon which he taught her.

* **Geokinesis** (limited): When the poison touches one's face, Loki can make earthquakes, and he can open holes on the ground. It is possible that Loki could make these things cause he's the son of the King of the Giants so he would probably have all of his species' power, (ice, fire and earth) as is demonstrated in *The Hammer of Thor*.
* **Monster Sense**: In *The Sword of Summer*, his daughter Samirah demonstrated that she could feel monsters and their location. As his daughter is capable of this, then it would probably be one of Loki's powers as well.
* **Erponkinesis**: In *The Hammer of Thor,* his daughter Alex suspected that he sent an ancient lindworm to her. This is very possible on account of the fact that Loki is the god of snakes, serpents, dragons, lindworms and wyrms of fire (sometimes) and is capable of controlling them, too.
* **Lies Lordship**: As the God of Lies, he has divine authority and absolute control over lies and the ability of lying, possibly knowing when someone is lying and prevent someone of lying.
* **Stories Lordship**: As the God of Stories, Loki has divine authority and absolute control over stories, both mentally and in some physical states.
	+ **Past Knowledge**: As the God of Stories, he possibly has the ability to "see" the past as way to "know the history".
	+ **Mnemokinesis**: As the God of Stories, he possibly has the ability to manipulate the memories of others.

## Trivia

* During Ragnarök, Loki and Heimdall are destined to kill each other.
	+ As he doesn't think that Heimdall can kill him (as Loki is assumed a powerful god even if he hasn't been shown fighting), it is still possible that Heimdall would kill him indirectly, maybe by a hit in some specific place or by battle wounds, like Thor & Jormungandr.
* He was the one who tricked dwarves into making Odin's spear, Gungnir, and Thor's hammer, Mjolnir.
* According to Utgard-Loki, the name *Loki* is a common one among the jotnar.
* A joke was made in *The Sword of Summer* about Loki's name being similar to the English phrase "low-key."
* In some versions, Loki was represented as the god of fire. This is a mistake stemming from him being confused with Logi, the actual personification of fire in Norse mythology.
	+ The two figures share similarities in that they are both highly intelligent trickster figures, both sought to undermine the pantheons they were a part of and were eventually imprisoned by said pantheons and made to endure horrific suffering.
	+ However, in the myths, Prometheus did not help the titans, and Loki led the giants.
* Loki is the only main antagonist of Riordan's book series that doesn't have any sort of army that attacks the protagonists throughout their own series.
* At some point in history, Loki was made the king of Giants, which is a possible reason for him having the power to control ice, fire and ground/earth. No one knows if being king is the reason for having these abilities or if he became king for having these abilities.
* ReadRiordan.com has an interview of Loki and Sigyn. It reveals that Loki calls Skadi's snake Beatrice, that Sigyn empties the cup for the venom every few hours, Loki doesn't think Heimdall can actually defeat him, and he'd rather stick to the family of the giants instead of the Aesir gods.
* Loki appears on the American cover of two of the three books in the series; *The Hammer of Thor* and *The Ship of the Dead*.
* It's possible that he could control serpents and other reptiles since he is their god, as Alex suspected that Loki was the one who sent her a lindworm. If that's true, it is also possible that Loki, as the god of snakes, serpents, dragons, lindworms and wyrms of fire (sometimes), can control them as well.
	+ However, even though Loki is the god of serpents and other reptiles, he is supposedly not immune to their venom as he would not be scarred by the venom's acidity during the time he was chained in his cave. Another possibility is that the venom of the snake above his head was created specifically to hurt him.
* Loki is the first LGBTQ+ antagonist in any of Rick Riordan's books, being bisexual and genderfluid. The second is Commodus.
* Loki is actually the only Norse god who has more powers and abilities than any of the others.
* It is unknown how strong Loki is, as he never been demonstrated fighting, even in the myths, since he usually uses the mind and manipulation to win, (only in Ragnarök by using force), but is assumed that he is a very powerful god. However it is implied that he has some connection or control over the earth, or has immense strength, or even both.
* The rune that represents him is Kenaz or Kaunan ("kee-naz"), that corresponds to the [*k*] sound, and symbolizes "torch", "passion", "inspiration", and "creativity." It also has use for Rune Magic.
* As the god of fire, he was possibly able to burn down the ice in *The Ship of the Dead*, although is unknown why he didn't do it.
* In mythology, his father Fárbauti has been identified as a jötunn, while his mother Laufey/Nál is either a jötunn or a goddess.
* His Greek equivalent is Prometheus and Dolos.
* His Egyptian counterpart is Set.