Trickster Shell Game

Question: In Scion: Hero, Eshu is listed as another name for Legba, but I feel that there are enough differences between the two gods for them to be separate deities. Am I wrong in this view? If not, would Eshu be high enough Legend to be a PC god, and what would his associated purviews be? (I'm not very familiar with the Loa of Voodoo or Orisha of Yoruba, so sorry if this question seems silly.)

Don't be sorry! We love the orisha and we love it when other people do, too.

Eshu and Legba are basically the same person in African myth; they're both crazy trickster gods with large phalluses and an inclination toward making everyone's lives more difficult in order to teach them a lesson (though, of course, both also have the power to open doorways and provide communication between gods and mankind). The real difference is just where you are geographically, as Eshu is a prominent figure in the Yoruba religion, while Legba/Elegba is more often found further east and north. Functionally and story-wise, they're the same person; the Yoruba just happen to call him something different.

However, I'd note that most of the confusion probably comes from the figure of Papa Legba in Haitian and New Orleans voudun; he's quite different in character, as the new world syncretic beliefs have basically left him with all his crossroads and message-bearing connotations but removed all his traditional trickster and virility associations (which have been relocated to the New-World-only figure of Kalfu). In essence, the New World splits Eshu into two parts - the benevolent Legba and the malevolent Kalfu - whereas in Africa he's a single figure, capable of being helpful or mischievous as the mood takes him. So really, voudun (and Scion) have already done the work for you - if you want Legba and Eshu to be separate beings, just use Legba and Kalfu as they exist in the west, and you're pretty close already.

If you're trying to get back to some African roots, however, I wouldn't separate Eshu and Legba; they're pretty much identical, with some of their stories even being ascribed to one or the other verbatim depending on the origin of the storyteller. For the opener of the way and trickster extraordinaire of African myth, I'd probably associate Eshu with Epic Manipulation, Chaos, Magic and Psychopomp as the strongest facets of his character.

Trying to figure out what to use with all the differences between African gods as they exist in their traditional religions, orisha as they exist in South and Central American worship, and loa as they exist in Cuba and the United States is a crazy mish-mash of a journey that most games just have to arrive at based on what the PCs and ST have in mind (are we going to set most of this stuff in Louisiana? Great, we're using the voudun version. Are we actually going to Africa and planning story arcs set there? Might want to use the orisha of the Yoruba religion, then). We'll tackle it one day in our Great Loa Rewrite, but for the moment, we're in the same limbo. We salute your efforts; carry on, sir or madam.