Scrapeknee's page

About Scrapeknee

Name: Scrapeknee
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Titles: Prince of Chaos, Harbinger of Change, The Mad Shaper, The Lucky Arrow
Symbols: A slightly bent arrow in flight, An Asymmetrical Spiral, A moth over the horns of a moon
Philosophy: Change and chance are the only truths, for even truths can change and may do so by chance. Within every thinking being is the urge to transform that which is before him or her; be it to create art, or ground it down. Chaos maybe an adversary, but is not the enemy. Chaos is the unpredicted, and the unpredicted challenges! It is by such challenges a chance comes to better yourself, or even embrace a better you. Fight it, ride it, flee it, embrace it, but you cannot ignore it! Today's wiseman maybe yesterday's fool, a life may start out in ignominy and rise to greatness. - From a holy tract outside of a church dedicated to Scrapeknee
Personality: Scrapeknee is whimsical and mercurial. While some could call him a trickster god, he probably too blatant, too overt, for that designator. He often is eager to perform miracles upon request, but it rarely turns out the way petitioners planned. Example: A man might wish for his homely bride to be more appealing, more sexual. And lo he might find that Scrapeknee has heard his plea and now his wife is a true beauty few men can resist. He might also find that her old loyalties were seized in payment for her new looks and she now has many lovers on the side or that he himself can now deny her nothing. Innocent people from a village being raided might ask for speed for their horses, only to find them merging with them as they become a new tribe of swift centaurs! Often the changes are not on the surface. The dour might find themselves becoming more free spirited and wild by nature! Most likely Scrapeknee would recognize the hypocrisy in forcing someone to be "free", but that would amuse him all the more.
Sometimes he creates opportunities to either make their own situation better, or worse. An previously unseen passage may appear to someone seeking escape, but will the passage be his salvation or lead to greater danger still? He is a god of luck, but the luck is not always good.
Scrapeknee does not go around changing things constantly. Changing things always would be as much a status quo as no change at all. While not a patient deity, the world is big enough for him to play with that he can afford to leave one project alone for a time while turning to another. Scrapeknee has his vices as well, like many male gods in other universes, he is quite the lech. The difference being that since he can sculpt shape with a thought, he often finds the homely, the elderly, or other women most would consider undesirable, and then transforms them for their mutual pleasure. Sometimes he forgets to turn them back in the morning. Scrapeknee is also lazy and sometimes too easily bored; if another deity has claimed a specific individual as his favored or such, Scrapeknee might leave that person alone, mostly because it's just not worth being locked in a cosmic struggle when there are so many other games to be had!

Scrapeknee is not without his merits however. He often supports heroes who face great odds. Mortals that work change, be it through simple craft, or by swaying the hearts and minds of their fellows, often gain his respect. He is imaginative, and abruptly kind. Individuals who matter to no one else in the world may sometimes move him to use his powers to present them a chance to better their lot.

Appearance: Like all the gods, Scrapeknee can take any form but given his nature, the forms he has taken are really too numerous to list. Of late, he has grown to like a handsome man with slightly asymmetrical horns crowning his head. But he has appeared as a golden skinned woman with flames for hair, as a dragon whose scales keep changing color, and as a sprite in almost comical finery (He is rather fond of the fey). The one thing that appears to be constant is a hobble in his walk. Sometimes he has an obviously deformed leg, and other times it's just a strange hitch in his gait. It is this that has earned him the name Scrapeknee.

A multitude of stories abound on how it got that way. Some say a god of law caught him and threw him from a great height causing him to sustain an injury he never recovered from. Others say he had a sinew stolen from one of his legs by a trickster god far more clever than he. And still others say he lost the ability on a bet. It's possible he can walk just fine, but prefers to do this to encourage a good story.

Worshipers: Scrapeknee is in an odd situation with mortals. Those who have health, wealth, and respectable station often want nothing to do with him for fear he shall come to plague them for whim's sake. Those who have nothing, and/or feel they have nothing to lose might be eager to call on him with the idea that any change must be good change for them. Of course, one can worship out of fear rather than love, and some do placate him (or try to) in order to keep him away rather than ask for his eyes on them.

While not a true god of craft, some craftsmen do say a quick prayer to Scrapeknee when working. A glassblower might call on the Mad Shaper as sand is turned into a beautiful work of art, for example. Some artists do ask for inspiration despite the warnings of others! Thus, sometimes Scrapeknee's influence actually inspires great things in the hands of the skilled.
Obviously, many gamblers consider him their fickle patron god, and some small idols to him maybe found in certain gaming dens where they are rubbed 'for luck'.
Still, in henothestic societies, he is rarely the primary god of anyone. His worship is infrequent and quite scattered for the most part but it is pervasive. Those that do take him as their primary god are quite dedicated, fiercely so, and his clerics are not to be trifled with. He has no single concentration or 'stronghold' of his faith. However, there is a wizard school that specializes in transmutation magics which incorporates some of his philosophy into their secular arcane teachings. It is said that more than one tribe of monsters began as human, and they honor him for their rebirth. And there is a great bowl of a valley of lush wilds that he is said to treasure that is known to most as "Scrapeknee's Cauldron".

Favored Weapon: The Shortbow (because change, like an arrow in the chest, can happen from far away and rather abruptly)

Domains Of Divine Casters Chaos, Destruction, Luck, Madness, Trickery

Planar Domain: Spiral Haven is, as the name suggests, basically in the form of a spiral, admittedly one that does not stay even at all times. Most often it appears as a great grand forest, dotted with towering spires that rise over those trees! Cobble stone paths wind amid what should be wilderness. The true power of the place is that here, Scrapeknee's worshipers make take any form of their choosing effortlessly! He rewards his followers in this after life by letting them shape themselves for having indulged his need to shape them in their pre-death existence.