God

Version 0.16: 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 22 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, god of divinations and curses.
• Beogh the Brigand, evil god of the orcs.
• Cheibriados the Contemplative, the slow god.
• Dithmenos the Shadowed, god of darkness.
• Elyvilon the Healer, good god of healing.
• Fedhas Madash, god of plants.
• Gozag Ym Sagoz the Greedy, god of mercantilism and gold.
• Jiyva the Shapeless, chaotic god of slimes.
• Kikubaaqudgha, an evil demon-god of necromantic magic.
• Lugonu the Unformed, chaotic evil god of the Abyss.
• Makhleb the Destroyer, an evil god of slaughter and bloodshed.
• Nemelex Xobeh, the trickster god of cards.
• Okawaru the Warmaster, god of battle.
• Qazlal Stormbringer, god of storms.
• Ru the Awakened, god of sacrifice and inner power.
• 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, evil 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 in a number of ways. You can begin with a religious background (Berserker, worshiping Trog; Abyssal Knight, worshiping Lugonu; or Chaos Knight, worshiping Xom). Otherwise, you may pray at a god's altar, where you will be shown a description of the god (and their commandments) and are given the option to worship them.

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

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.

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, and Yredelemnul will excommunicate you for casting Statue Form.

Abandoning a god will always incur penance and usually results in divine retribution, with a few exceptions. Leaving a good gods will incur penance, but they will not exhibit wrath upon you unless you begin worshiping an evil god (Beogh, Yredelemnul, Lugonu, Kikubaaqugdgha, or Makhleb). Additionally, Zin will punish you for joining Jiyva or Xom, who are chaotic gods (along with Lugonu). Bear in mind that the good gods never forget about you; even if you join an evil god 100,000 turns later, you will still incur their wrath for doing so.

Switching between good gods (Zin, Elyvilon, or The Shining One) will not result in any divine retribution. In fact, half of your piety will carry over from one god to the other upon conversion. Note that switching back to the first god will not restore piety; the number is simply halved again.

Ru will never inflict divine retribution for abandonment, but any sacrifices that the player makes are permanent.

Altars

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

Altars for every god (except Lugonu, Jiyva, and Beogh) are guaranteed to appear either in the Temple or in the main Dungeon between level 1 and level 9. You can find additional altars in various other locations.

Lugonu's altars may be found in the Abyss or in the rare corrupted version of the Ecumenical Temple. Jiyva's altars 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 entrance to the Orcish Mines.

See also

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

History

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) of your former gods.

Gozag Ym Sagoz the Greedy and Ru the Awakened were added in 0.16.

Qazlal Stormbringer was added in 0.15.

Dithmenos was introduced in 0.14.

In 0.8 instant divine retribution was removed. You could also find altars in the main Dungeon at level 1.

Prior to 0.6, altars were not always guaranteed to appear in the Ecumenical Temple or between Dungeon levels 2-9.