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In its long and efficient history, the great Mechanus only had one single malfunction. Due to a preposteriously small rounding error, there’d been a very slight systemic flaw from the start and it built up to the fabled Malfunction of Mechanus that caused untold bafflement and much hard work for the modrons. The Malfunction was just a single mortal soul getting stuck inside instead of being sent to his proper outer plane. There has never been any other problems or issues with the running of Mechanus before or since, distribution of dead mortal souls to outer planes in a balanced manner continues unabated and Ethereal Plane hasn't had any dangerous buildup of ghosts heavy enough to break down planar barriers ever since it came online, but that single error's existence was Serious Business. Primus the Prime Modron ordered the offending soul to be investigated, just in case there was something special with it that triggered the mishap. At first there wasn’t, it was a perfectly ordinary halfling soul by the name of Brandobaris who’d lived and died a mostly uneventful life and probably would’ve gone on to have a mostly uneventful eternity in Bytopia. But as the modrons were ordered to observe and investigate him and his mortal life, they came to the conclusion that there had to be something special about him that they somehow couldn’t detect, otherwise why would this one soul out of trillions to pass through Mechanus get special treatment? Brandobaris had to have caused the Malfunction in a way that no modron measurement could detect. This was belief (to the best of modrons’ ability) and, modron hivemind being what it is, it was the greatest surge of belief in a thing in the history of ever.
So, Brandobaris ascended to godhood. It was an undeniable case of observation affecting the observee, it was all very quantum.
He was pretty confused about the strange clockwork creatures but, being a helpful guy, he offered to help them with their machine. He used to tinker with things as a hobby when alive and liked to think himself with some aptitude for machinery. Of course, an amateur interest grandfather clocks and water pumps didn’t really help with intricacies of the great Mechanus, but Brandobaris still offered some advice to show willing. Modrons wrote down everything he said (and would calculate effects of each later on to be certain) but it was clear doing anything he suggested would range from useless to catastrophic. As there’s no such thing as deceit or miscommunication on Nirvana, modrons knew he meant everything he said and his intentions were wholly helpful. Ignorance or incompetence being completely alien concepts to modrons, they concluded this ability to genuinely believe that things would do something despite the fact that they won’t is chaos and therefore Brandobaris was a god of chaos. Which had to be the cause of the Malfunction, Mechanus had accidentally sucked in a chaotic deity from Ethereal Plane instead of a mortal soul. This sent the modron race on a centuries long calibration spree to make certain such things can’t happen again. Brandobaris was unceremoniously thrown out on Primus’ order.
This was the first in a long, loooooong list of misadventures the newly minted god of trickery and chaos would go on to have. The stories of Brandobaris’ misadventures are too many to count, containing such episodes as the time he made off with Lord Asmodeus’ pocket watch, the time he got barred from Moradin’s court for sneaking into his closet to wear his pants, his failed attempt at trying to steal the cloak off of Thaun’s back as she fought Bane, his brief imprisonment by and romance with the Frostmaiden, the time he barely survived Hextor’s wrath for his unwitting seducing of Beshaba by triggering Heironeous’ resurgence, the ill advised and embarrassing attempt at stealing the magnificent hat of the Demon Princess of Fungi (what hat?!?), the time he tricked Baghtru (no great feat admittedly) to agree to teach Arvoreen to be a better warrior so he could impress Eilistraee (kickstarting their famous romance), the gripping tale of his escape from Demonwebs of Lolth, the time he snuck into Myrkul’s castle and traded erotically shaped chocolate for the imprisoned halfling souls* and whatever other ridiculous stories DM cares to think of. Brandobaris is good natured and always gets off of any and all troubles, he likes getting into it as much as getting away with it and takes special care to never seriously harm anyone (even evil exemplars of lower planes or submarine abominations of Water).
Brandobaris doesn’t have official worshippers or clergy, he’s usually too busy having adventures. But he’s well known to listen when tales of his exploits are told and more than a few adventurers got unexpected divine help when they prayed to him in desperation (assuming they were on the sort of rousing or amusing adventure that’d make a fun story). He wants you to stop talking about it and just do it, make your dreams come true. Brandobaris likes to grant his blessing to many mortals who’re about to do something foolhardy just for the thrill of it and he likes playing deus ex machina for especially tricksy folks when they’re in over their head. He’s a patron of rogues who’re in it for excitement and artists whose aim is to amuse and thrill. He dislikes greed, order and harming sentient beings and will sometimes hinder evil and/or greedy adventurers and servants of malicious deities. Occasionally Brandobaris goes so far as to take a mortal guise and join ventures that promise to be fun or especially humiliating to the sort of beings he dislikes.
He’s known to have the occasional dalliance with exciting mortals and various goddesses (Tymora is one of his closer allies with many benefits, Sune throws herself on him at every chance she gets, Diancastra would be chasing him all over the planes if she wasn’t imprisoned in Jotunheim, Auril’s still sore about getting played and been trying in vain to reconnect with him so she can be the one who dumps this time, even Lolth tries to trick the trickster by disguising herself as a mortal woman to seduce him [to conclusively determine the better trickster she'd claim, not that anyone can prove she's been doing it]) but unlike most trickster deities, Brandobaris lusts only for more adventures. He’s pretty friendly with most deities of good and chaos, even primordial daddies think he’s all right (for a souped up mortal). On the rare occasions Brandobaris needs help, his bro Arvie (who hates that name) and Eilie (who also hates that name) usually got his back. One thing he doesn’t realize is the lengths Yondalla goes behind the scenes to make certain nothing truly bad will happen to his favorite son (every halfling is her child but modrons were right, there is something special about him, even if it was just a self actualizing quantum prophecy thing). She’s had to seal a lot of secret deals and send Arvoreen to bash the occasional head to prevent many a revenge scheme from harming Brando. Very few beings are aware of the extent of Yondalla's protectiveness over him, most everyone else think he’s just lucky (which is true from a certain point of view).
Modrons still believe he’s a god of chaos, so despite not having many mortal worshippers or a church, Brandobaris gets by. He’s also surprisingly popular among goblinoids (a very rare occurance for any deity of humanoid origins), Arborean eladrins and Beastlander guardinals (who rarely give time of the day to anyone except Moradin).
*totally canon from totally canonic sources
Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods
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