Yredelemnul

Version 0.28: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

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

Yredelemnul the Dark is a god worshipped by those who seek powers over death and the soul. Followers can reap legions of servile undead, and gain a number of other useful powers with which to make better use of the souls of the living. Yredelemnul especially favours those who would surround themselves with a bounty of collected souls. Yredelemnul strongly dislikes it when you use holy magic or items.

Racial Restrictions

• Demigods cannot worship Yredelemnul (or any other god).

Appreciates

• Rousing the idle dead. Having more and stronger derived undead in your line of sight increases your piety.

Deprecates

• Having your derived undead leave your line of sight.
• Abandonment. (Penance)
• Attacking with a weapon of holy wrath. (Penance)
• Voluntarily reading a scroll of holy word. (Penance)

Given Abilities

Piety level -: "Tainted"

• You can reap souls: When killing living and demonic creatures, their corpses will automatically rise into derived undead: zombies normally, or spectres for corpseless monsters or monsters who had their bodies destroyed. Monsters like dragons will still drop items on death. These zombies are used for Yred's other abilities, and will rot if you leave your current floor.
• Recall Undead: Progressively teleports your undead slaves to your current location. (2 MP)

Piety level *: "Torchbearer"

• No new abilities.

Piety level **: "Fey [Species Name]"

• Dark Bargain: Summon a temporary servant of Yredelemnul. Eligible monsters are all ghoul, skeleton, vampire, and wraith genus monsters, barring vampire mages (monsters with glyphs n, z, V, and W). (2 Souls, 4 MP)

Piety level ***: "Black Crusader"

• No new abilities.

Piety level ****: "Sculptor of Flesh"

• Drain Life: You can drain life from all living (non- demonic, undead, holy or life-protected) beings in sight. You drain 1 + 1d7 + 1d(Invocations) HP from each creature, and gain half of that damage back as healing, up to a maximum of Invocations*2. (3 Souls, 6 MP)

Piety level *****: "Harbinger of Death"

• Bind Soul: This ability allows you to convert a single enemy into a permanent undead slave upon its death. First, you must use the ability on a Natural, Demonic, or Holy enemy of at least normal intelligence anywhere in your line of sight, which must have more than 80% of its health remaining. Once this is done, the caster will have 2 + (Invocations * 0.75) turns to kill the victim. If the victim is successfully killed in time, 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. (4 Souls, 8 MP)

Piety level ******: "Grim Reaper"

• 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. Novice adventurers will be assaulted by zombies and skeletons; veterans by the strongest of Yredelemnul's undead servants. The victims' own undead servants desert them and crumble into dust. A variety of necromantic maladies also afflict those stricken by Yredelemnul's wrath. Yredelemnul's wrath lasts for a relatively short duration.

If you leave or are excommunicated from Yredelemnul, all derived undead immediately rot.

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

Possible punishments are:

• Bolt of Draining (100% if your experience level is <= 4, less likely as your experience level increases)
• Cast (hostile) Animate Dead
• 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, as well as a powerful emergency options in zombie distraction and drain life. Yredelemnul is also viable for "monstrous" species who might want access to undead slaves, but lack the magical aptitudes to easily learn Necromancy.

• Yredelemnul's ability to permanently Bind Souls enables you to get a single extremely powerful undead version of a single living monsters. This requires a fairly high Invocations skill, but it can even enslave Tiamat! Also note that when used properly, the resulting spectral horror keeps its old gear on it.
• Your allies like to get into, and get killed in, fights you don't know about. Consider routinely Recalling your allies before resting, and editing your options to stop resting, e.g., when missiles come from out of your range of vision.
• The amulet of faith will increase the reap chance, but will take away zombies (if any) if removed.

History

• Prior to 0.28, Yredelemnul had a regular piety system, which increased when you killed natural/holy/nonliving monsters. You had invocable necromancy; available at 1* and acting like Animate Dead at 3*. Yred would also provide permanent ally gifts, maxing out at profane servitors and bone dragons. Bind Soul was called Enslave Soul, and souls were generally weaker. Injury Mirror was removed, which mirrored damage to attackers in exchange for a high piety cost per hit. Drain Life and Enslave Soul also had a regular piety cost.
• 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.