Faded altar
| An ancient altar, stripped of all identifying characteristics by the passage of aeons. Praying at it will convert you to an unknown god, and the altar's deity will greatly appreciate conversion at so ancient a site of worship. |
Praying at a faded altar allows the player to convert to a randomly selected god. There is no way to know which god the altar will select for you, but it will be one your character is normally eligible to worship. Selecting a god at random is far from optimal, but doing so via a faded altar rewards you with a bonus +20 piety. After use, the altar will become a normal altar of the given god.
If you already worship a god, using a faded altar will most likely result in you angering your former god when you convert. However, the conversion allowances offered by the good gods still apply as normal, and it is possible (though unlikely) that the randomly selected god will be the one you currently worship, in which case the only effect of your actions is the immediate gain of 20 piety.
Strategy
If you want a good chance of winning your game, praying at a faded altar is nearly always a bad idea. For any given character, there are usually two or three gods that will make life very difficult. A caster will not do well worshipping Trog, a troll worshipping Gozag will likely starve, and so on.
However, if you're optimizing for fun and not too worried about the possibility of dying or being severely inconvenienced, faded altars can provide you with an early power boost or at least create a very interesting situation to deal with.
History
Faded altars were added in 0.17. They were called "ecumenical" altars during development.
