God

Version 0.15: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Gods are a central concept to Dungeon Crawl. The game's pantheon features 18 distinct deities, and they provide increasingly powerful abilities to their worshipers, but punish them for any violation of their individual commandments. Your character may only worship a single god at once, and most gods punish followers for abandoning them, so choose wisely.

The pantheon

• Ashenzari the Shackled, shackled god of divinations.
• Beogh the Brigand, god of the orcs.
• Cheibriados the Contemplative, the slow god.
• Dithmenos the Shadowed, god of darkness.
• Elyvilon the Healer, god of healing.
• Fedhas Madash, a god of plants.
• Jiyva the Shapeless, god of slimes.
• Kikubaaqudgha, an evil demon-god of necromantic magic.
• Lugonu the Unformed, god of the Abyss.
• Makhleb the Destroyer, an evil god of slaughter and bloodshed.
• Nemelex Xobeh, the trickster god.
• Warmaster Okawaru, god of battle.
• Qazlal Stormbringer, god of storms.
• Sif Muna the Loreminder, god of magic and mystical secrets.
• The Shining One, a good god of honourable crusade against evil.
• Trog the Wrathful, a violent god of rage.
• Vehumet, god of destructive magic.
• Xom the Unpredictable, god of chaos.
• Yredelemnul the Dark, god of death.
• Zin the Law-Giver, a good god of law and purity.

Joining a god

You may become a follower of a god either by starting with a religious background (Berserker, Abyssal Knight, Chaos Knight, Death Knight, or Healer), or by praying at a god's altar. In the latter case, you will be shown a description of the god (and their commandments) before being asked if you want to worship them.

Some species have religious restrictions on which gods they may worship.

• Demigods may not worship any god.
• Only Hill Orcs may worship Beogh.
• Evil or undead races (Demonspawn, Ghouls, Mummies, and Vampires) may not worship good-aligned gods (Zin, Elyvilon, and the Shining One).
• Undead races also may not worship Fedhas Madash.
• Gargoyles may not worship Yredelemnul.

Orc priests, orc high priests and Saint Roka may offer hill orcs the opportunity to convert to Beogh (guaranteed the first they see one of these monsters). This conversion can be done by using the special 'a'bility Convert to Beogh. All the orcs in the LoS of the player will be pacified the first time the player uses this ability in a game.

Changing or renouncing gods

You can abandon your god for another by praying at your new god's altar, or by renouncing your faith with the "Renounce Religion" ability. The latter can be done at any time as a special ability (command a). In addition, good gods will excommunicate you for casting the spell Necromutation.

Abandoning will always incur penance, and usually result in divine retribution. The only exceptions to this are the good gods: leaving them will incur penance, but they will not exhibit wrath upon you unless you are currently serving an evil god: Beogh, Yredelemnul, Lugonu, Kikubaaqugdgha, or Makhleb. Additionally, Zin will smite you for joining Jiyva. Bear in mind that the good gods do not forget you: even if you join an evil god 100000 turns later, they will still hit you with wrath.

In older versions, one did not incur penance by switching from one good god to another. This was removed in 0.9, since it allowed for Zin worshipers to safely switch to Jiyva by momentarily switching to TSO or Elyvilon. Switching between good gods is still safe, since no wrath will be exhibited, but if you leave for an evil god you will be facing the wrath of both (or all) your former gods.

Altars

Altars can be found in the Ecumenical Temple (which randomly contains 6-14 altars), as well as scattered around the Dungeon.

Since version 0.6.0, altars for every god (except Lugonu, Jiyva, and Beogh) are guaranteed to appear either in the Temple or in the main Dungeon between level 2 and level 9. You can find additional altars in various other locations. Since 0.8, you can also find altars in the main Dungeon at level 1.

Lugonu's altar may be found in the Abyss. Jiyva's altar may found at the entrance to or inside the Slime Pits, and, very rarely, early in the main dungeon. Finally, altars to Beogh can appear in the Orcish Mines, or more rarely in the main dungeon, most commonly near the Mines entrance.

See also

• Choosing a god
• Piety
• Divine retribution
• God comparison
• Prayer

History

In 0.8 instant divine retribution was removed.

Dithmenos was introduced in 0.14.

Qazlal Stormbringer was added in 0.15.