Discovered Tricksters

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From: Bryan J. Maloney (jacobus@sonata.cc.purdue.edu)
Date: Wed 20 Apr 1994 - 07:03:25 EEST

Here's how I tend to run what happens when people discover that somebody is a Trickster:

  1. They become community whipping boys. Whenever the young toughs want to show how macho they are, they go pick on the Trickster. (This makes life for Uzko Tricksters VERY rough.)
  2. They become convenient scapegoats. If something goes wrong beat the shit out of the Trickster.
  3. They are almost never, ever killed out of hand. Why? Everybody knows that it's bad luck to kill a Trickster, so you just kick him in the head.

Why would any sane person want to be a Trickster, given the above? Well, most Tricksters AREN'T sane. Also, they do have important ritual functions within some religions (particularly the Orlanthi religion). After all, Orlanth's High Holy Day just isn't the same without the Trickster leading Orlanth to Death, is it? And who else would have the gall (or the social permission) to tell the chief's sadistic brute of a son how much of a pompous ass he was, and then puke all over him?

I'm not sure where I came across this approach, but it makes sense--the "acceptable outcast" who is able to ignore convention (within limits).

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