Loki

"The Provoker"
Pantheon:	Norse
AoC:	Mischief, Strife
Symbol:	Red and black boots
Home P/L/R:	Pandemonium/Pa- ndesmos/Winter's Hall; Ysgard/ Ysgard/Asgard

Loki serves many purposes within the Norse pantheon. First off, he's the blood brother of Odin, a status he gained by proving instrumental in holding the Aesir together back in the early days of the gods. It's a fact he likes to bring up whenever he's pushed the Aesir to their limits - see, Loki's a god of trouble, and he's spout enough half-truths and lies to make a berk barmy with anger. That's why he keeps a realm in Pandemonium, a place to wait out the pantheon's fury when he goes a step too far. He's a seducer of goddesses, too, but not because he enjoys their company - it's because he's proud of the fact he can slide between a husband and wife.

Basically, Loki's a proud and vainglorious god. He's convinced that there's nothing another power can do that he cannot, and he does his utmost to prove that he's smarter than the rest of his pantheon. This may well be why he turned from a benevolent trickster into the sworn enemy of the Aesir. The blood he hates most, however, is Heimdall, who often exposes Loki's plans and catches the troublemaker in various schemes.

Loki usually turns elsewhere for help. He's made alliances with various powers of other pantheons, but he uses them only as leverage and tools, not as deities in their own right. And because he's always got to show he's better than the rest, his alliances are usually short-lived.

Loki's proxies are thieves and giants. He has none of the traditional Asgardian hatred for the huge bashers; chant is he's even got giantish blood himself. The proxy he leaves in charge of Winter's Hall is Starkad the Gnawer, a singing cutter who's so concerned with the hedonistic pleasures of life that he rarely gives a toss about running the realm. In return, Loki makes sure that Starkad has no special powers.