deities
Bristlebane, King of Thieves
The trickster-god of mischief and freedom, patron of halflings and the joy of the unexpected.
Bristlebane is the god of mischief, trickery, and the freedom of the unexpected. He is the patron of the Halflings of Rivervale, the Gnomes of Ak'Anon (alongside Brell Serilis), and the rogue and bard orders that value cleverness over force. His doctrine is not chaos for its own sake — Bristlebane teaches that pomp, hierarchy, and dignity are themselves jokes that the world plays on those who take them too seriously, and his followers are encouraged to reveal that joke whenever the opportunity arises.
His realm is the Plane of Mischief, opened in the Planes of Power expansion as a chaotically reshuffling landscape that delights in confounding the pious. He is allied broadly with Brell Serilis (their domains overlap on the Halflings and Gnomes), with Erollisi Marr (whose joy-domain shares ground with his), and is opposed by deities of rigid hierarchy — the Tribunal in particular, though without active conflict.
Lore
Bristlebane is named in the myths as a god whose origin is deliberately obscured. The clergy maintains that the King of Thieves stole his own divinity from another deity whose name has been forgotten — an account the Tribunal categorically rejects but cannot disprove. What is consistent across tellings is that Bristlebane treats godhood itself as a joke he is playing on the pantheon, and that the joke is funniest when the other gods take themselves seriously.
His worship is concentrated in Rivervale, where the Halfling civilization runs more or less directly on his doctrine, and in Ak'Anon, where the Gnomish engineers borrow his trickster sensibility for their inventions. His clergy across the human and elven cities is small but vibrant, and his Bard and Rogue followers form some of the most respected entertainment and intelligence networks of the era. The Plane of Mischief itself is the doctrinal expression of his teaching: a planar landscape whose layout shifts deliberately whenever a visitor begins to take it seriously.
Class and race access
Canonical EQ deity restrictions on Bristlebane cover Bard, Rogue, Warrior, Druid, Ranger, Magician, Enchanter, and Wizard. He is the canonical Halfling and Gnome trickster-patron, with Bards and Rogues as his most-direct followers across all races. He does not accept Paladins, Clerics, Monks, Shamans, Necromancers, Shadow Knights, or Beastlords in the playable canon.
On The Last Camp the any-race-class doctrine unlocks racial combinations — an Ogre Bard of Bristlebane, a Dark Elf Rogue of Bristlebane — but the canonical deity-on-class restrictions remain. Bristlebane's domain accepts the playable race that chose his class regardless of where they were born, and the racial-faction starts will reflect the racial origin separately.
Realm and epic ties
The Plane of Mischief is Bristlebane's seat, and its continually-shifting layout is the most direct expression of his doctrine in playable form. The Bard epic 1.0 — Singing Short Sword — has cultural resonance with his patronage of the Bard class, and the Rogue epic — Ragebringer — is similarly informed by his trickster doctrine. Neither is forged exclusively in his service, but his shadow falls across both, and the Plane of Mischief raid encounters surface his lieutenants as questgivers for several era-cap progression lines.
Notable followers and quests
The Halfling racial progression in Rivervale, the Gnome racial progression in Ak'Anon, and the Bard and Rogue guildmasters across the human cities all reference Bristlebane directly. The Plane of Mischief's named encounters — King Xorbb's allies and the various pranksters of the court — are the era's most direct interaction with his court. The Halfling and Gnome cultural-tradeskill quest lines incorporate his doctrine through prank-themed component requirements that are very much in his style.
The Last Camp-specific notes
The any-race-class doctrine produces some of the most fun lore-coherent Bristlebane characters — Ogre Bards, Troll Rogues, Dark Elf Rangers — and the deity's doctrine actively rewards the unusual choice. Faction starts will reflect race; the deity choice will register favorably with the Halfling and Gnome populations regardless of player race, and the Bristlebane clergy across the eastern cities will tend to read the unusual deity-race combination as the joke working as intended.
Worship and observance
Bristlebane's calendar is a moving target by deliberate design — the clergy schedules its high observances on dates that change yearly to keep them genuinely surprising. The April Fools holiday in the era's calendar is the closest thing to a public Bristlebane observance, and Halfling and Gnome cities run extended festival sequences around it. His temples are typically combined with theaters or taverns, and the canonical Bristlebane shrine is one indistinguishable from a Halfling pub at first glance. Initiation involves a prank successfully played on a member of the senior clergy, and the joke must work for the candidate to be accepted.