Beogh

Version 0.16: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

"Drown the unbelievers in a sea of blood!"

Beogh is an evil deity, worshipped by the cave orcs native to the dungeon. Only orcs may devote their service to Beogh, and they must prove their devotion with bloodshed. Especially fervent devotees of Beogh will find orcish followers flocking to their banner: it is an age of signs and portents, and the orcs have become increasingly certain that the coming of their Messiah is nigh. Followers of Beogh can smite their foes, and will even gain orcish followers of their own, who may be blessed by Beogh in battle and can be recalled as needed. Eventually, followers will gain the power to walk on water. Beogh will sometimes directly intervene to save a follower's life. Beogh likes it when you bless dead orcs (by standing over their remains and praying), you or your allied orcs kill living beings, you or your allied orcs kill the undead, you or your allied orcs kill demons and you or your allied orcs kill holy beings. Beogh especially likes it when you kill the priests of other religions. Beogh strongly dislikes it when you perform cannibalism, you attack allied orcs, you desecrate orcish remains or you destroy orcish idols.

Beogh the Brigand is a deity worshiped by the cave orcs native to the Dungeon. Only orcs may devote their service to Beogh, and must prove their devotion by bloodshed and sacrifice. Devout followers of Beogh can smite their foes, and especially fervent devotees of Beogh may even gain followers of their own, for the orcs still await their Messiah. There is no altar to Beogh in the Ecumenical Temple, but orc priests, orc high priests, and Saint Roka will offer hill orc characters the opportunity to convert. Altars to him can often be found in the Orcish Mines.

Beogh is considered an evil god.

Racial Restrictions

Beogh only tolerates hill orcs as worshipers.

Appreciates

• You or your allies killing a living, holy, undead, or demonic creature.
• You killing a hostile priest.
• Blessing the corpse of an orc (praying while standing on an orc corpse).

Deprecates

Regardless of your behavior, you lose on average 1 piety every 320 turns. If you drop to 0 piety, you'll be excommunicated. You will also lose piety (or incur penance) for the following:

• Desecrating orcish remains (using orc corpses for any purpose, like Animate Dead or Sublimation of Blood).
• Butchering an orc corpse or cannibalism (eating chunks from orc corpses).
• Destroying an Orcish Idol.
• Attacking an orcish ally. (Be careful if you are confused!)

Given Abilities

Piety level -: "Messenger"

• Protection from harm - If you receive damage that should kill you, there's a 10 + (Piety/10) % chance to cancel all damage (instead, your Piety is reduced by 20 + 1d20). Unlike with good gods, this protection is canceled if you are under penance.
• Spread experience - Each time you gain some experience, Beogh will give an additional half of that amount among the orcish followers in your line of sight. Those experience points are not taken from those you would be receiving: the player doesn't lose any XP points.

Piety level *: "Proselytiser"

• Bonuses to armour - The AC bonus of your armour and the SH of your shield is increased by an amount based on your piety. The larger the equipment's base AC or SH, the greater the bonus.

Piety level **: "Priest"

• Smiting - You can smite any monster in view for around 6 + 1d(5 + Invocation Skill) HP. This is unavoidable, and cannot be reduced by any factor except deep dwarf damage shaving. (3 MP, 80-160 Food, 3 Piety)

Piety level ***: "Missionary"

• Gain orcish followers - Non-summoned, shapeshifted, sleeping, confused or paralyzed orcs (even uniques, eg. Blork) around you may recognize you as their Messiah and turn friendly. The chance depends on your piety and experience level (the higher, the better) and the hit dice of the orc (the lower, the better). Conversions may happen when:
  • A hostile orc notices you for the first time (including because you hit it or cast a spell on it)
  • A hostile orc becomes significantly wounded (best not use poison!)
  • You or one of your allies kill a non-ordinary orc (in this case, the monster will survive the killing blow, unless it was reduced under its max HP in negative). This works best on higher level orcs.
• Bless your orcish followers - Beogh may bless one of your followers when it kills an enemy or otherwise gains experience. The chance is 1d(Piety) >= 30, or one at random when you kill an enemy (10% chance). The blessing has one of the following effects:
  • 10%: An ordinary orc becomes an orc priest, otherwise 25% chance to add +1 to their weapon's accuracy, 25% chance to add +1 to their weapon's damage, 50% chance to add +1 to their armour's AC.
  • 90%: 50% chance to remove poison, sickness, confusion, rotting, slowing, or exhaustion (if they are so afflicted), otherwise heals 25% of the follower's HP.
  • Beogh may also improve your followers' equipment and gift weapons, armour, and ammo to those who lack them.

Piety level ****: "Evangelist"

• Recall your orcish followers - You can recall your orcish allies, as per the Recall spell (but only for orcs): all your orcish followers in the dungeon are teleported close to you over a number of turns. (2 MP, 50-100 Food)

• Orc reinforcements - If you have no followers on this level, there's a small chance that Beogh will give several permanent, friendly orcs to you.

Piety level *****: "Apostle"

• Walk on water - You can cross deep water as if it was normal floor. Be careful not to let your piety drop under 120 or incur penance while you're walking over deep water!
• Give Item to Named Follower: You have the ability to provide a one-time gift to a named follower of your choice. This will not work for unnamed orc followers, and once they receive a gift, it cannot be relinquished unless they die.

Piety level ******: "Messiah"

• No new abilities.

Punishments

Beogh does not appreciate abandonment, and will call down fearful punishments on disloyal followers! Blasphemers against the word of Beogh find themselves confronted with direct and physical opposition. Those who still worship Beogh find their followers regularly deserting them; they, and others, are further assaulted by waves of orcish warriors. When working through intermediaries fails, Beogh hurls dancing electric weapons at offenders, or simply smites them - and when smiting true sinners, Beogh has a heavy hand indeed!

During penance or following desertion, you'll occasionally experience one of the following forms of divine retribution:

• 25%: Beogh smites you, potentially dealing very significant damage. If you are worshiping another god at this point, there is a piety/4 % chance that the new god will protect you from this.
• 13%: Durably summons 1d2 hostile dancing weapons. These weapon will be +1d3-1/+1d3-1 and branded with electrocution. They will vanish when defeated.
• 25%: Followers around you have a chance to turn hostile (only if you're still a follower of Beogh).
• 37% (62% if you changed religion): Sends forth an army of durably summoned orcs, led by a stronger, occasionally named orc, whose type depends on your experience level.

Strategy

• Your orc recall ability tends to recall your strongest orcs first, gradually followed by your weaker orcs. You can effectively use this to summon a small band of elite reinforcements and quickly cancel the recall through the abilities menu, saving the fodder for particularly dangerous battles.
• Hang on to any particularly powerful randarts that you may find, as they are potentially very useful gifts for your stronger followers. Remember that you can only ever gift one item, and that item can only be obtained again by picking it off your dead follower's corpse!
• Strangely enough, he greatly appreciates it when you kill hostile orc priests. Take advantage of this for piety.

Trivia

In very ancient versions of Crawl, comments in the code referring to orc priest smiting stated that they were channeling the wrath of B.O.G. (Brian's Orc God). This eventually evolved into the name, "Beogh."

History

Prior to 0.15, players could not gift equipment to followers, and Beogh did not gift random gear to followers with empty equipment slots.

Prior to 0.14, orcish versions of gear existed, and Beogh only granted bonuses for wearing orcish armour (as well as wielding orcish melee weapons).

Prior to 0.13, hill orc priests started with this religion.

Prior to 0.12, recalling orcish followers did not have any delay, but it was not able to recall orcish followers from other levels. Shared experience was added in 0.12.