The Shining One

"Lead the forces of light to victory!"

The Shining One is a powerful deity on a crusade against all evil. Followers and their allies may be granted various blessings upon mercilessly slaying evil and unholy beings. Worshippers must never use unholy or evil magic, and are expected to prove their moral superiority by fighting honourably. The god demands followers scour the world, examining all of its inhabitants for traces of evil that must be eradicated. The Shining one does not mind shifting worship to Elyvilon or Zin.

The Shining One is a good god. No background starts with this religion.

Racial Restrictions

As usual, Demigods cannot worship the Shining One (or anyone else). The Shining One also refuses demonspawn and undead species (ghouls, mummies, or vampires) as worshipers.

Appreciates

• You or your allies killing the undead, demons, or evil creatures (such as followers of evil gods). Chance of +1 piety, higher chance for creatures with high HD.
• Spotting non-evil monsters.

Deprecates

The Shining One strongly dislikes it (i.e. penance) when:

• You perform cannibalism.
• You desecrate holy remains.
• You drink blood from a potion of blood or a potion of coagulated blood.
• You use Necromancy. Casting Necromutation instead causes excommunication.
• You use unholy magic or items.
• You attack non-hostile holy beings.
• You or your allies kill non-hostile holy beings.
• You attack neutral beings.
• You attack allies.
• You poison monsters.
• You attack intelligent monsters in an unchivalric manner. This includes attacking a fleeing, confused, distracted, held, petrifying, petrified, paralysed, or sleeping monster, or any monster while you're invisible. This restriction is lifted against demons, undead, evil creatures (spellcasters mostly), and low intelligence monsters (animals and insects mostly).

Note that equipment that violates the Shining One's commandments will be labeled as such in its (in-game) description, so inexperienced players can check there if they're not sure an item is kosher. They will also have their names printed in red in your inventory or stash. Lastly, you'll receive a warning when you equip a weapon you shouldn't be using. Also, the Shining One will forgive accidental transgressions (i.e. performing a forbidden action via an unidentified item) but only once.

On average, your piety will decay naturally by 1 every 700 turns.

Given Abilities

Piety level -: "Acolyte"

• Protection from harm - If you receive lethal damage, there's a piety-based chance that the Shining One may nullify the damage (at the cost of reducing your piety). This is possible even if you're under penance. (Passive)
• Protection from negative energy - The Shining One provides life protection against negative energy attacks. This improves as piety rises, up to rN+++. (Passive)

Piety level *: "Righteous"

• Gain power from killing - You sometimes gain HP and MP whenever you kill demons, the undead, and evil creatures. The gain depends on the creature's HD, and cannot exceed your normal max. As piety rises, so does the chance of this effect triggering. (Passive)
• Divine Halo - You are surrounded by a halo (up to your line of sight or Piety/20 tiles). You receive an accuracy bonus when fighting creatures inside your halo, and neither they nor you can be invisible. The halo will also reveal the presence of monsters hiding in water. Monsters are twice as likely to notice you when they are inside the halo, which is actually good because the Shining One doesn't appreciate sneak attacks. (Passive)

Piety level **: "Unflinching"

• Divine Shield - Grants a divine shield whose duration depends on your Invocations skill, and whose blocking value depends on your Shields skill. This shield is controlled by The Shining One himself, and thus won't interfere with your wielding of a two-handed weapon, for example. The shield will stack with other physical and magical shields. (Costs 3 MP, 50-100 food, and 2-3 piety)

Piety level ***: "Holy Warrior"

• No new abilities.

Piety level ****: "Exorcist"

• Cleansing Flame - Creates a large burst of holy energy centered on yourself, dealing unavoidable holy damage to all monsters around you. This affects all monsters within two spaces of you, except for the corners. Your Invocations skill increases damage dealt and your chance of success. Because this ability emits holy energy, it does double damage to demons and undead, normal damage to other evil creatures, half damage to other monsters, and no damage to holy beings, neutral creatures, or allies. (Costs 5 MP, 100-200 food, and 2-3 piety)

Piety level *****: "Demon Slayer"

• Summon Divine Warrior - Summons a friendly Angel or Daeva. (Costs 8 MP, 150-300 food, and 6-9 piety)

In addition, the Shining One provides the following:

• Protection against abjuration - When abjuration is cast against your summoned servants, the power (duration reduction) is reduced, depending on your servant's HD. (Passive)
• Hostile angels and daevas may be peaceful toward you. The chance of this happening rises with piety. (Passive)
• Bless Allies - The Shining One may bless one of your allies when it kills an enemy or gains experience. The chance for this rises with your piety. The following blessings are possible:
  • 10%: Give the ally's weapon increased accuracy, damage, and the holy wrath brand OR give the ally's armour increased AC and negative energy resistance.
  • 90%: Increase the duration of your ally's stay, with a 50% chance to remove poison, sickness, confusion, rotting, slowing, or exhaustion. If none apply, heals 25% of its HP.
• Bless Weapon - If you pray on the Shining One's altar while your Piety is >= 160 and you are wielding a non-artifact weapon, the Shining One can bless it. This will un-curse it, apply a scroll of enchant weapon III, and add the holy wrath brand (replacing any existing brand). If it is a long blade, it will become a blessed blade. Demon whips will become sacred scourges, demon blades will become eudemon blades, and demon tridents will become trishulas. Holy Word is cast when you bless a weapon. Doing this has no cost, but it can only be invoked once per game.

Piety level ******: "Bringer of Light"

• No new abilities.

Punishments

• Summons hostile Angels or Daevas.
• Triggers a Cleansing Flame against you.
• Makes a loud noise at your location.
• Silences you for 10-35 turns.

Note that the Shining One will never actively punish you while you're under penance, even if you left the religion, unless you converted to an evil religion (Kikubaaqudgha, Makhleb, Yredelemnul, Beogh, or Lugonu) or if you kill a friendly angel or a daeva (even through an ally). TSO doesn't care if you kill hostile angels or daevas.

Strategy

Early Game Vs. Late Game

The Shining One is a more defensive-minded god for melee-oriented characters who shines late-game but provides little to help you survive the early game.

• The main method for gaining piety with the Shining One is to kill demons, undead, and evil creatures, which are plentiful in late-game branches (e.g. the Abyss, Hell, Pandemonium and Tomb) but rare early. Not only that, but you'll gain HP/MP from killing them, and be better equipped to do so thanks to the free holy wrath brand, Cleansing Flame, and divine warriors. The piety gain from spotting monsters is comparatively much lower.
• The divine halo, which is more or less equivalent to see invisible plus a heavy slaying accuracy bonus, and the free rN+++ from piety allow for more flexible gearing late-game. Although crucial later on, these benefits are rarely vital in the early game.
• Holy beings you encounter will also be peaceful at high piety.
• Most damningly, the Shining One doesn't provide a whole lot of help early. The first abilities you'll be able to use, the halo and Divine Shield, are defensive in nature and relatively weak at that moment of the game. Furthermore, the Shining One prohibits the use of poison, negative energy (such as wands of draining), and striking someone who's confused, paralyzed, or asleep. This takes away a lot of wands and weapons and makes you a lot more vulnerable to early out of depth monsters that you could otherwise deal with using the above methods.

Converting to the Shining One

Because of the above, one of the more popular paths is to pick another god for the early game, then convert to the Shining One in the mid/late game. Popular choices include:

• Elyvilon or Zin: Both allow training Invocations and you won't suffer divine retribution after switching to the Shining One. Their code of conduct is also similar, preparing you for life as a crusading zealot.
• Okawaru: Trains Invocations and gifts you weapons and armour you'll be able to continue using after switching. His wrath isn't too difficult to deal with.
• Makhleb: Trains Invocations by letting you fire magical bolts and summon demons, and heals you on kills. His wrath is pretty weak, considering you'll now be following a god who specializes in dispatching demons.
• Trog: Doesn't train Invocations, but is the early-game god for melee characters, letting you go berserk and summon similarly irate monsters. He'll also gift you weapons. Wrath is manageable.

You should train Invocations to 8-10 in the last levels before you do Crypt (if your skill isn't already that high), then switch to the Shining One and go to maximum piety in the Crypt. Once you can summon divine warriors to your aid you should be set for the rest of the game; just keep an eye out for good weapons to bless (see below).

Tips & Tricks

When worshipping the Shining One, keep the following in mind:

• Make sure you bless a weapon before taking on the Hells or Pandemonium. The best choice is usually either a broad axe, executioner's axe, bardiche, demon whip, or demon blade. A blessed demon whip (holy scourge) is the best one-handed weapon in the game against demons (except for weapons of speed). If you are playing an ogre, bless a giant spiked club instead. Ranged weapon users can do quite well with blessing longbows/crossbows.
• Don't underestimate the Cleansing Flame ability; it can deal very respectable area-of-effect damage once you reach high Invocations. When surrounded by demons, one or two uses will quickly clear out the weaker pests, provide quick healing, pay for its own MP / piety cost, and deal unavoidable damage to any fiends or worse that are in range. A hasted TSO worshiper spamming full power Cleansing Flames can take down all but the hardiest end-game bosses.
• One of the hardest aspects to manage as a worshipper of the Shining One is fighting in a chivalric manner. Any number of misteps may incur penance. Keep the following in mind:
  • Miscast effects can sometimes harm your allies or poison your enemies. Air Magic miscasts can generate poisonous gas clouds that will happily ruin your day in the middle of a big battle.
  • Trying to act while confused may cause you to attack an ally (or an enemy in an unchivalric manner). Wait out the confusion, remove it with a potion of curing, or prevent it entirely with an amulet of clarity.
  • There is a risk of accidentally casting a spell or using an item, such as Regeneration or wand of draining, that the Shining One dislikes if you have an old macro bound to the spell/item. Use a scroll of amnesia to clean out forbidden spells, and throw away contraband items.
  • Shields of reflection are risky: they can reflect a bolt of poison or negative energy, which the Shining One will interpret as your creation.
  • Area of effect spells can damage unaware or sleeping enemies unintentionally.
  • While fighting with angels and daevas at your side, they will sometimes "aggro" monsters, causing them to ignore you: in this state attacking them is considered unchivalric. While the Shining One won't mind if you attack a demon distracted by your heavenly brothers in arms, he'll be ticked off if it's a mere orc.

History

• Prior to 0.10, followers of the Shining One gained piety passively, up to a limit, and piety did not decay.
• Prior to 0.8, the paladin background started the game worshiping the Shining One.
• Prior to 0.4, TSO would occasionally gift permanent allies.