God

Version 0.25: 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 25 distinct deities; each of them provides increasingly powerful abilities to their worshipers, but will punish followers for any violation of their individual commandments. Your character may only worship a single god at a time 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, evil god of darkness.
• Elyvilon the Healer, good god of healing.
• Fedhas Madash, god of plants.
• Gozag Ym Sagoz the Greedy, god of gold and mercantilism.
• Hepliaklqana the Forgotten, god of ancestry and memory.
• Jiyva the Shapeless, chaotic god of slimes.
• Kikubaaqudgha, evil demon-god of necromancy.
• Lugonu the Unformed, chaotic evil god of the Abyss.
• Makhleb the Destroyer, evil god of slaughter and bloodshed.
• Nemelex Xobeh, god of cards.
• Okawaru the Warmaster, god of battle and physical combat.
• Qazlal Stormbringer, god of storms.
• Ru the Awakened, god of sacrifice and inner power.
• Sif Muna the Loreminder, god of magic and mystical secrets.
• Trog the Wrathful, god of violent rage.
• Uskayaw the Reveler, god of dancing and revelry.
• Vehumet, god of destructive magic.
• The Wu Jian Council, a council of formerly mortal martial artists.
• Xom the Unpredictable, chaotic god of chaos.
• Yredelemnul the Dark, evil god of death and undeath.
• Zin the Law-Giver, good god of law and purity.
• The Shining One, good god of honourable crusades against evil.

Joining a god

You may become a follower of a god in a number of ways. You can begin with one of the religious backgrounds:

• Berserker, worshiping Trog
• Abyssal Knight, worshiping Lugonu
• Chaos Knight, worshiping Xom

Otherwise, you may pray ('p' in 0.18 and older, > as of 0.19) at a god's altar, where you will be shown a description of the god and their commandments as well as given the option to convert to their religion.

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 become neutral the first time the player uses this ability in a game.

Monks do not start worshiping a god, but their pious lifestyle prior to entering the Dungeon will gain them additional favor; the first time they begin worshiping a god, they gain a significant amount of bonus piety.

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 species (Demonspawn, Ghouls, Mummies, and Vampires) may not worship good-aligned gods (Zin, Elyvilon, and the Shining One).
• 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, most gods will excommunicate you if your piety ever reaches 0, the good gods will excommunicate you for casting the spell Necromutation, and Yredelemnul will excommunicate you for casting Statue Form.

Abandoning a god (or being excommunicated) will always incur penance and usually results in divine retribution, with a few exceptions. Leaving a good god will incur penance, but they will not exhibit wrath upon you unless you begin worshiping an evil god (Beogh, Yredelemnul, Lugonu, Kikubaaqudgha, Makhleb, or Dithmenos). Additionally, Zin will punish you for joining Jiyva or Xom, who are chaotic gods (along with Lugonu and Makhleb). 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 to it are permanent.

Altars

Altars for most gods (except Lugonu, Jiyva, and Beogh) are likely to appear in the Ecumenical Temple, which holds anywhere from 6 to 14 altars. Any altars not found in the Temple are guaranteed to appear in the main Dungeon between level 1 and level 9. Additional altars may be found in various other locations deeper into the Dungeon and its sub-branches.

Lugonu's altars may be found in the Abyss or in rare corrupted versions of the Ecumenical Temple. Jiyva's altars may found at the entrance to or inside the Slime Pits, in rare corrupted versions of the Temple, 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.

Players may also find one or more faded altars in the early Dungeon. Praying at a faded altar allows the player to convert to a randomly selected god with additional piety.

0.20 introduced transporter vaults, which have a chance of an altar to Lugonu or Jiyva, as well as other gods.

See also

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

History

• Prior to 0.24, the undead could not worship Fedhas.
• Prior to 0.23, Dithmenos was not evil.
• The Wu Jian Council was added in 0.21.
• In 0.19, Uskayaw the Reveler and Hepliaklqana the Forgotten joined the pantheon, and Pakellas was removed.
• Pakellas the Inventive, the engineer god of magical devices, joined the pantheon in 0.18.
• Faded altars were introduced in 0.17.
• 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.
• Prior to version 0.9, one did not incur penance by switching from one good god to another. This was removed, 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.
• 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.