What reasons would Loki have for not answering Hilgya's prayers sooner?

I got to wondering about this from another thread this morning: Hilgya had been "praying every night to learn the location of Thundershield, and last night Loki finally answered" so that she could help them stop Hel's scheme. But why did it take him so long?

This is just a discussion post, not a "gotcha" observation, because the obvious answer is that Loki is "in it for the lulz" and would do whatever amuses him the most. And gods aren't required to answer their followers' prayers - we see Thor admit to never answering Durkon either.

However, I like exploring hypotheticals, so let's spin some. What do people think? I have several ideas:

1. Answering prayers is tedious and he was too lazy to do it.
2. Clerics of Thor and Loki having a baby together is a really amusing thing to him (unlikely, given how the initial premise made him sick) and he wanted them both to live for maximum hilarity when they finally met.
3. For most of the time, Hilgya would've found Durkon amidst the entire Order, and probably gotten herself obliterated even if she successfully killed him, which would put Loki down 1 high-level cleric.
4. After Loki & Thor found out about D&H hooking up, and were subsequently horrified, they agreed not to mess with the other's cleric out of shared trauma.
5. Thor asked him directly to not mess with Durkon and Loki either obliged or got a quid pro quo.
6. Loki knew the meeting would end with Durkon proposing and then getting Fire Strike-d and that would be hilarious, so he was saving it for a rainy day like you or I might save a delicious cake or a nice bottle of scotch.
7. Loki had his Prayer Alert set on silent until the Godsmoot.
8. Loki has a soft spot for the Order.

9. Loki knows the Order is questing to save the world from the rifts and doesn't want to mess with that.
10. Loki knows the Order is questing to save the world and won't send Hilgya into all those messes they stumble into on the way, like the Siege of Azure City, for example

True: Loki has been very pragmatic about keeping the world safe even above his personal desires. I really liked his "tidal wave of dead dwarves" speech to Thor - it's a fun insight on his character.

My answer is a variant of 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, and 10:

Loki answered when he believed his answer would result in her doing what he wanted done.

There was never a time he was going to answer simply because she asked. He's not that kind of god. (If that kind of god exists in the OotS universe, it's not Loki.)

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Originally Posted by Kish

Loki answered when he believed his answer would result in her doing what he wanted done.

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Yep. I was going to write something like "Loki waited until giving Hilgya the information would contribute to an outcome he wanted; namely, her helping to defeat vampire!Durkon and stopping Hel's scheme."

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Originally Posted by Ruck

Yep. I was going to write something like "Loki waited until giving Hilgya the information would contribute to an outcome he wanted; namely, her helping to defeat vampire!Durkon and stopping Hel's scheme."

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"Rook to Queen's Knight Seven. Touchdown!"

A variant of 3 might be that, rather than purely practical concerns, Loki actually really likes Hilgya because of how closely she follows his tenets and so steered her away from the Order (to prevent her getting killed).

Getting answer from your god has to be something special, if Loki answer every prayer that would make clerics overpowered.

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Originally Posted by Precure

if Loki answer every prayer that would make clerics overpowered.

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*Cough* tier 1 *cough*

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Originally Posted by Tzardok

9. Loki knows the Order is questing to save the world from the rifts and doesn't want to mess with that.

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Originally Posted by Ruck

Yep. I was going to write something like "Loki waited until giving Hilgya the information would contribute to an outcome he wanted; namely, her helping to defeat vampire!Durkon and stopping Hel's scheme."

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Originally Posted by Precure

Getting answer from your god has to be something special, if Loki answer every prayer that would make clerics overpowered.

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More or less what I was going to say. Loki is looking after his own self-interests, and until recently, Hilgya's concerns about her baby daddy did not meet that, so answering a prayer wasn't called for.

Or, Hilgya just wasn't high-enough level to cast a spell strong enough to do it? I guess it depends on how literal "prayers" we're talking about. Near as I can tell, in D&D, deities don't just answer prayers with epic-level magic because they feel like it. A random first-level farmer can't divinely empower their fields/crops with the equivalent of a fifth-level spell (or whatever) just because they're devout. I don't have the 3.5 cleric spell list memorized, but I'm guessing even a Loki-based flame cleric doesn't have access to Tindr.

Or When she was looking for Thundershield, he was Vampire!Durkon aka Greg. and therefore Greg's location is not an answer to where is Thundershield.

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Originally Posted by archon_huskie

Or When she was looking for Thundershield, he was Vampire!Durkon aka Greg. and therefore Greg's location is not an answer to where is Thundershield.

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But that was still true when she did get her answer.

Not to mention the body of Durkon Thundershield and the soul of Durkon Thundershield still occupied the same physical space during that whole span anyway, so no matter how you cut it, it could always have been answered while the vampire was running around.

Because, knowing the heart of his greatest Dwarf Cleric, Loki knew if he told her when Durkin was hundreds of miles away, Hilgya would just say 'well screw it' and go do something else. He wanted to be sure she'd take vengeance against a Priest of Thor rather than, say, going swimming.

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Originally Posted by Riftwolf

Because, knowing the heart of his greatest Dwarf Cleric, Loki knew if he told her when Durkin was hundreds of miles away, Hilgya would just say 'well screw it' and go do something else. He wanted to be sure she'd take vengeance against a Priest of Thor rather than, say, going swimming.

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She has adopted his creed of “do whatever the hell you want” with quite alarming fervor!

Haha thank you for the chuckle, this honestly is the answer that resonates with me the most :D

1) Because he was waiting for a half-page panel opportunity to introduce Kudzu.

2) He didn't have a good joke to go with the info at the time.

3) She kept calling while he was in the shower.

4) His girlfriend found out Hilgya was calling, got super-jealous, and made him ghost her. You know how ice giant princesses are.

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Originally Posted by brian 333

3) She kept calling while he was in the shower.

4) His girlfriend found out Hilgya was calling, got super-jealous, and made him ghost her. You know how ice giant princesses are.

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This right here. :smallsmile: