Loa
Loa (also called dakina) were a type of spirit or god found in voodoo/vodoun religions. They differed from other gods and angels in that they didn't exist far above people. Instead of being worshipped, the loa were treated as friends who could be talked to, who could dance with priests and priestesses, and who were capable of becoming drunk and angry like anyone else. They could be used as symbols that were both real and not quite real. (PROSE: Interference - Book One)
When Faction Paradox initiated Fitz Kreiner into their group, he was said to have been touched by the loa. The Faction noticed that the concept of a celebrity was similar in that they could be viewed by transmissions but remained apart from people and they could become the face of their ideas. On the human colony world Ordifica, the Faction fully infiltrated the media-obsessed culture within a couple years to create loa in the medianet. The Remote carried on a belief in loa. They referred to powers that Rassilon barred from entering N-Space as loa, including the Cold. In their dramatisation of a group of beings breaking into N-Space, the Engineer referred to them as loa. Rassilon, however said they weren't spirits. (PROSE: Interference - Book One)
From the perspective of the Great Houses, who saw history as a quantifiable string of equations, loa did not exist. (PROSE: Weapons Grade Snake Oil) When Mother Tarra invoked the loa among a coven of young Gallifreyans, Kellen preferred to refer to them as equations. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell) However, Faction Paradox rebelled against this formulation by defining history as an ever-changing pattern, and just as shapes can be seen in clouds in the sky, the loa could be seen in time.
Godmother Kumo wrote on loa evocation for The Book of the Truce, comparing stage-hypnosis to the Faction's use of ritual to appease, communicate, and bargain with the loa: as long as the volunteer is playing along (whether for fun, to avoid embarrassment, out of a sense of duty, or due to genuine hypnosis), the task will be performed, and the desired action will result. (PROSE: Weapons Grade Snake Oil)
Godfather Avatar was a loa, and was capable of riding a human psyche. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...)
The Native Americans called the loa spirits dakina. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
The loa of Haitian vodoun were one of the few groups of Immortals still acting as gods well into the 20th century. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion) They consisted of the Rada Loa and the Petro gods, good and bad spirits that included Baron Samedi and Catholic saints such as Saint Patrick. Cthulhu was honoured by a small group whose Great Old One worship originated in Dahomey. (PROSE: White Darkness) The revolutionary Mackandal and his followers paid homage to the Catholic saints. Mackandal himself was believed to have underwent some kind of transformation at the moment of his death. His followers expected him to return one day as a messianic figure. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)
Dreekan voodoo had Treeka'dwra, a messianic beast-god. (PROSE: Storm Harvest)
