Trick or Treat

Question: Why do almost all the trickster gods have Manipulation and Wits?

Because those are the stats used for trickstering, my friend, and they demonstrate them on the daily!

We've had lots of discussions about how not everybody with Manipulation or Wits is a trickster, and that is still true. You can have one or the other - or both - and be a perfectly upright and unimpeachable example of law-abiding citizenship. I gotta tell you, Eztli has ten dots of Epic Wits, but nobody in her band is worried about her pranking them any time soon.

Basically, Manipulation is the measure of your ability to hide what you're doing or convince others of something, which means that anyone who is famously good at lying, disguise, political dealings or playing tricks on others probably has a lot of it. Without Manipulation, Loki wouldn't be able to convince Hod to throw mistletoe at Baldur and Tezcatlipoca wouldn't be able to make Quetzalcoatl think he had suddenly turned into a hideous ogre without noticing; Horus would never have been able to pull off tricking Set into losing all the contests between them, and Stribog would never have been able to fool Chors into thinking he was someone else. That doesn't mean that everybody who ever lies has Ultimate Manipulation - that would be kind of bananas, considering how many gods can't seem to tell the truth even when caught red-handed - but it does mean that gods who are famous for being able to smooth-talk their way out of things or confusticate their fellows into making hilarious mistakes are probably rocking that Ultimate.

Wits, on the other hand, is about reaction time, quick thinking and improvisation; it's the stat you need to pull a solution out of nowhere at the last possible second or to be able to jump at a new idea in time to keep from getting burnt by the old one. Without Wits, Loki wouldn't have been able to avoid punishment on several occasions by jumping in and offering to fix the problems he caused, Quetzalcoatl wouldn't have been able to pull off a desperate improvised gambit to steal from Mictlantecuhtli and Enki wouldn't have been able to quick-think his way around Enlil's rules and save humanity from the great flood. Tricksters tend to have Wits because they need them to survive; their stories usually feature them being able to think on their feet even in the worst situations, often narrowly saving their skins (usually from something they themselves did that is now backfiring on them). They also use the stat to make sure that they're quick enough to seize any opportunity for their own favored brand of mischief.

We don't just hand Manipulation and Wits to everyone who's a trickster, of course - like all other associations, it's based as much as possible on what they do in their stories rather than just saying, "Eh, he's a shenanigans guy, give him both." Some tricksters, including Eshu, Hermes, Horus, Loki, Manannan mac Lir and Odin do have both because they consistently exemplify both qualities; others, including Enki, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca have only one or the other, illustrating that they're very strong in one area but not necessarily the highest level of skilled in the other. And, of course, there are non-trickster gods like Ishtar, Isis or Parvati that have both without really fitting the archetype at all; like all stats, Manipulation and Wits can be used for different kinds of purposes and representations across different gods.

Incidentally, you don't need both as a PC to be an effective trickster, either, if that's what you're aiming for. They're both helpful, but you can also find ways to manage with just one; Manipulation-only tricksters usually have to lay their plans far in advance and watch them trigger like dominos falling, while Wits-only tricksters always fly by the seat of their pants and just have to keep moving so quickly that nobody will have the time or wherewithal to figure out what they're doing. Having neither is pretty challenging, especially since a famous career as a trickster will probably get you Fatebound to one or the other, but you still might be able to pull off your divine pranksterism in other ways. After all, there are gods with neither associated who have definitely pulled some shit in their time, so you can always decide to blaze your own trail the way they did.