Yredelemnul

Version 0.32: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

"Carry the black torch! Rouse the idle dead!"

Cast down by the good gods eons ago, Yredelemnul seeks to despoil their creations and chain all living souls within their inexorable grip. Followers who would conquer in their name are granted the power to reap an army of the dead and bind powerful souls into eternal service - provided they can sweep across the land in a tide as inexorable as the god themself. Followers of Yredelemnul carry the Black Torch, allowing them to gather souls and surround themselves in darkness. They can raise foes who die in the light of the torch as mindless servants, hurl torchlight to scour the living and empower the dead, and bind especially noteworthy souls to fight for them in death with the full capacities they held in life. Especially devout worshippers can even call down the inescapable grip of the Fallen directly, binding foes helplessly in place as the very life is sucked from them. Yredelemnul will also dispatch undead servants to aid their followers at the start of each new conquest. Yredelemnul likes it when you kill living or demonic beings while their torch is lit. Yredelemnul especially likes it when you kill holy or unique beings while their torch is lit.! Yredelemnul strongly dislikes it when you use holy magic or items.

Racial Restrictions

• Demigods cannot worship Yredelemnul (or any other god). Also, characters who sacrificed love under Ru cannot join Yredelemnul.

Appreciates

• Killing living or demonic beings on a floor while the Torch status is active.
  • Especially appreciates killing holy beings or uniques while the Torch status is active.

Deprecates

• Abandonment. (Penance)
• Attacking with a weapon of holy wrath. (Penance)

Given Abilities

Piety level -: "Torchbearer"

• Umbra - You are surrounded by an umbra, increasing stealth and reducing the accuracy of your enemies. The radius starts at 2, increasing to 4 by 5*.
• Reaping - When living and demonic creatures die inside your umbra, there is a chance that their souls will rise as derived undead: in most cases, you'll get zombies, but corpseless monsters or monsters who had their bodies destroyed will rise as spectral things instead. Reaped monsters will drop whatever items they were carrying, but not corpses or their associated death drops. The chance to reap increases with piety and decreases with the total HD of derived undead you already have.
  • Note that killing monsters outside of your umbra will generate corpses and appropriate death drops.
• Light the Black Torch - Activates piety gain for the current floor, and usable once per floor. Also blocks exploration shafts. The effect ends when you leave the floor for the first time after using this ability. This is indicated by the Torch status:
  • Dark grey (inactive) when you have not yet used Light the Black Torch on the current floor
  • Magenta (active)
  • Not present (inactive) once you have left the floor having already activated the black torch.
• Recall Undead Harvest - Instantly teleports your undead servants to your current location. (2 MP)
• In addition, Yredelemnul makes you immune to Spectral Clouds so allied revenants won't impede you.

Piety level *: "Despoiler"

• Gain temporary allies with Light the Black Torch - Yredelemnul will gift you summoned undead allies when you use Light the Black Torch. The allies gain in strength with your piety and XL, from wights and necrophages initially, up to profane servitors and bone dragons at experience level 27.
  • In order of ascending power, eligible servants include:

n Necrophage	W Phantom	F Marrowcuda	z Wight
W Shadowghast	W Wraith	V Vampire	W Freezing wraith
z Skeletal warrior	W Shadow wraith	W Phantasmal warrior	W Flayed ghost
z Laughing skull	n Bog body	V Jiangshi	W Eidolon
V Vampire knight	n Ghoul	z Revenant	z Death cob
z Ancient champion	n Searing wretch	A Profane servitor	D Bone dragon

Piety level **: "Black Crusader"

• Hurl Torchlight - Hurl a 3x3 blast of torchlight, dealing damage to living, holy and demonic creatures. You and your undead allies are immune. (4 MP, 2-3 piety, 1 Torch charge)
  • Uses are limited, from 2 per floor at 2* up to 5 per floor at 5*, indicated by the number next to the Torch status. Killing a unique gains one charge of Hurl Torchlight for the current floor.

Piety level ***: "Fallen Foo"

• No new abilities.

Piety level ****: "Harbinger of Doom"

• Bind Soul - You can convert a single enemy into a permanent undead slave upon its death. Eligible monsters include Natural, Demonic, or Holy enemies of at least normal (animal) intelligence, which must have more than 80% of their health remaining. Using this ability immediately costs you a third of your current HP, which will be restored upon killing the victim. If the victim is killed without leaving your sight, it becomes a permanent soul version of its former self, allied to you and still capable of casting its spells and equipped with all of its gear. You may only have one enslaved soul at a time; binding a new one will destroy the old. (6 MP, 8-12 piety)

Piety level *****: "Inexorable Tide"

• Fathomless Shackles - A corrupted version of Zin's sanctuary, which binds in place all enemies within a 4x4 radius (decreasing over time). All living monsters caught in the shackles will take damage over time, and you are healed for a portion of this damage.

Piety level ******: "Bringer of Blasphemy"

• No new abilities.

Punishments

Yredelemnul strongly dislikes it when you use holy magic or items. Yredelemnul does not appreciate abandonment, and will call down fearful punishments on disloyal followers! Those who anger Yredelemnul find themselves beset by legions of the dead. Sometimes, the god will also intervene directly, binding the unfaithful in inescapable chains as their dark army demonstrates the price of betrayal. Yredelemnul's wrath lasts for a relatively short duration.

If you leave or are excommunicated from Yredelemnul's service, all your undead allies immediately vanish.

While under penance, Yredelemnul will sometimes punish you (about once every 2000 turns). Possible punishments include:

• Bolt of Draining (100% if your experience level is <= 4, less likely as your experience level increases)
• Hostile branch- and XL-dependent zombies are summoned against you.
• Hostile undead are summoned against you from the following list: mummy, wight, flying skull, wraith, freezing wraith, phantasmal warrior, flayed ghost, skeletal warrior, ghoul, death cob, bone dragon, or profane servitor.

On average, it will take 25 such punishments to burn through the 50 penance you have incurred.

Strategy

Yredelemnul is the god of choice for melee characters who want backup, and a powerful emergency option in Fathomless Shackles. This applies most to "monstrous" species, who lack the magical aptitudes to easily learn Necromancy. Yred tends to snowball; once you have a few zombies, the rest of the floor tends to succumb to your swarm (all the while, creating more zombies). This will eventually get big enough where you can bind souls -- to get a single, permanent, extremely powerful enslaved version of a single living monster. This requires a fairly high Invocations skill, but it can even enslave Tiamat! Then, the process begins anew on another floor.

You can be selective with when you use Light the Black Torch, to make sure you are confident you are ready to remain on the floor until completion, and to gain Yredelemnul's powerful temporary allies at a convenient time, from 1*. Remember, once you leave the floor after lighting the torch, you can no longer gain piety or use Hurl Torchlight on that floor.

Note that, unlike Hepliaklqana's ancestor, your bound soul won't respawn. If you have to teleport away, your bound soul might die, forcing you to start from scratch.

Regardless of the drawbacks, many characters can appreciate and use the roused undead to their advantage. At the very worst, Yred is equivalent to being atheist with a permanent (slightly weaker) Animate Dead buff. You can swap places with your zombies to avoid attacks of opportunity, and you get that buff as soon as you worship Yred.

Tips & Tricks

• In the early game, most zombified monsters will be weak. The best use for weak zombies is to help you retreat. Zombies can block the way from monsters, and if you swap places with a zombie, you can prevent attacks of opportunity.
• Note that bound souls will keep their old gear.
• Monsters that summon allies, like Mlioglotl, Mara, and Zenata, tend to be strong as bound souls.
• Trolls and other oddly sized species might not want to worship Yred; you can't skin zombies, reducing your access to various dragon scales.
• A scroll of immolation can turn even the weakest zombies into ticking time bombs. When something dies, it explodes. Of course, don't let yourself be hit by the explosions.
  • Also, don't let your bound soul get hit. If the bound soul is currently on your level, strongly consider not using immolation.
• Your allies can be attacked in fights you don't know about. Consider Recalling them from time to time.

History

• Prior to 0.32, Yredelemnul's piety depended entirely on the number of derived undead you had in your line of sight. Yredelemnul did not give an umbra, and the chance to reap did not depend on HD of current undead. The 2* ability Dark Bargain allowed trading in derived undead for one of Yredelemnul's stronger allies (which are now given by Light the Black Torch), 4* ability Drain Life allowed regaining HP by dealing damage to all living, holy and demonic creatures in sight, and Bind Soul was available at 5*. Bind Soul was a timed effect rather than requiring remaining in sight of the monster, and did not temporarily cost a third of your max HP.
• Prior to 0.29, Yredelemnul zombies could attack from outside line of sight. Also, reading the now removed scroll of holy word would incur penance.
• In 0.28, Yredelemnul was overhauled. Prior to this change:
  • Yred had a regular piety system, which increased when you killed natural, holy, and nonliving (not demonic!) monsters.
  • You had to invoke necromancy; available at 1* and acting like Animate Dead at 3*. (This means that Yred did not limit death drops).
  • As you gained piety, you got permanent ally gifts, maxing out at profane servitors and bone dragons. Gifts, along with umbra immunity, came at 3*.
  • Bind Soul was called Enslave Soul, which only worked on intelligent monsters, and souls were generally weaker.
  • Injury Mirror, unlocked at 2*, mirrored damage to attackers in exchange for piety. Replaced by Dark Bargain.
• Prior to 0.27, Yredelemnul forbid Gargoyles and the use of Statue Form.
• Prior to 0.25, Yredelemnul would inflict Necromancy miscasts instead of Bolts of Draining as a punishment.
• In 0.22, Enslave Soul became smite-targeted.
• Prior to 0.18, Yredelemnul's Enslave Soul could not affect demons & holy beings. Abandoning Yredelemnul now destroys your zombie minions.
• Prior to 0.16, players could start the game worshipping Yredelemnul as a death knight.
• Prior to 0.14, there was no cap on the number of bone dragons and profane servitors you could have at once. Also, you would receive freezing wraiths in place of vampires, and desecrating holy remains gave piety. Also, read-IDing a scroll of holy word would have angered Yredelemnul's servants.
• Prior to 0.13, you could be gifted rotting hulks and plague shamblers.
• Prior to 0.12, recalling undead slaves did not have any delay, but it was not able to recall any undead servants from other levels.
• Prior to 0.10, the undead servant gift roll's results were based on piety.
• Prior to 0.6.0, Yredelemnul's random undead gifts could not follow you between floors.