"A Fistful of Gods" - Finagle

A bit quiet here at the moments, so I thought I might post the
specs of a few gods. Strange gods often come in useful to DMs!
[grin]

Some would say that Finagle only comes into his own in a rational
age, once the power of most gods, and the faith in them, has
faded. He has even be called a post-modern god!


The God Finagle - ROM, 27/Dec/04

Finagle is also called Murphy, Sodd (Sod), Cooke, and many other
names, and tends to be more cursed than worshipped, but seeing as
he is the God of Perversity (not Perversion, more the perversity
of reality), that is good enough!

Finagle is usually represented as a stocky Irishman, of generally
varying appearance, though he is often seen wearing bright yellow
winged wellington boots, and with a pig under one arm (tail to
the front). He is noted for doing things that most gods don't,
like hanging around in bars frequented by adventurers, drinking
Guinness (one of his holy drinks). It is claimed that the Pink
Panther (see cartoon character) is the sacred beast of Finagle,
but there seems little evidence to back this up.

((If you want to know more about Finagle's Pig, which is
generally smarter than most adventurers, ask me! ))

In the universe of Tim Deacon's "Gods" campaign, the strangely
humourous paladinic horse (of the paladin of Krishna, Damien
Hellbane), "Trickster", is alleged to have become Finagle, just
as almost all the other gods were made from adventurers, or their
companions. This is a circumstance unique to this universe, and
may be the reason that the term "Horse Laugh" can cause people
native to this universe to look worried.

Other things holy to Finagle are the drink Heiniken (there were a
long series of perverse UK adverts for this, frequently involving
the "refreshing of pirates (i.e. parts) other drinks don't
reach"), and the sort of holy fool who can walk through totally
deadly situations and survive without a scratch. Then there is at
least one Welly Tree, on which grow strangely perverse magical
wellington boots, the least of which just leave smoking foot-
prints (Smoking Wellies) - for details of this see John Dallman,
and possibly John Drake.

Priests of Finagle tend to be strange people, and it has been
noticed that they tend to mix outragously good, and bad, luck,
that never quite makes their life perfect, or kills them. It is
not clear why someone would want to become a priest of Finagle,
in the first place, but some people have very strange senses of
humour, and can be fascinated by the perverse. Some priests claim
that worship of Finagle is about being ready for the strange
situations that life puts people in, and not believing that there
is anything quite certain. They claim that they aim to help
people. Some even hand-out free food and healing. Others are
almost certainly in it for the darkly humourous laughs. It is
said that a few did not set out to worship Finagle, but, somehow,
ended up doing it.

Being a priest of Finagle means that you know for certain that
the statement, "Things cannot get any worse than this!", is
false, but you also know that, "We're Doomed!", and, "There's No
Hope!", are almost certainly wrong as well. You know there is
going to be trouble when the High Priest of Finagle is grinning.
Or, if he starts whistling and looking innocent. Some people
think that just being around such a priest is almost certain
trouble.

It is claimed that priests of Finagle have the advantage of being
better able to avoid the extreme perversity of life, but evidence
shows that things seem to get more "interesting" around them.
Strangely enough, very few seem to go insane, or if they do, no
one notices. Of course, most people consider such priests to be
insane in the first place!

No guarantees are made about the effect of introducing this god
into your campaign on your sanity! Or, the effect on anyone
else's, either!

Note: "Finagle's Law" exists in real life ("Anything that can go
wrong, will", and, "The perversity of the universe tends towards
a maximum"), and the science fiction author Larry Niven mentioned
him in some of his Known Space books, along with his prophet,
Murphy.

--
Dreamer
dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk
http://www.romsys.demon.co.uk/