The Shining One

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

"Lead the forces of light to victory!"

Followers of the Shining One are bound to the code of the honourable warrior, soldiers in their god's eternal crusade against evil. For forsaking dark magic and underhanded tactics, the Shining One rewards them and their allies with the power they need to slay demons and the undead. Especially devout warriors can even call upon angels in times of need. The Shining One's followers can convert to Elyvilon or Zin while keeping some piety. Followers of the Shining One are surrounded by a halo that reveals their enemies to them. Followers will gain power by killing evil beings, and with growing piety their life force will be protected. The Shining One will keep summoned and charmed allies on their side longer, should the allies prove worthy of the crusade. Followers will gain use of a divine shield to protect them in battle. Later, they can channel blasts of cleansing flame that are particularly damaging to unholy beings, and can call upon powerful divine beings as temporary allies. Highly pious followers may request the Shining One's blessing upon a weapon. The Shining One may occasionally directly intervene to save a follower's life. The Shining One likes it when you kill the undead, you kill demons, you kill evil beings and you encounter other hostile creatures. The Shining One strongly dislikes it when you use evil magic or items, you attack non-hostile holy beings, you attack neutral beings, you attack allies or you kill non-hostile holy beings.

Racial Restrictions

• Like the other good gods, The Shining One does not accept demonspawn or undead species (ghouls, vampires, or mummies) as followers.
• Demigods may not worship The Shining One (or any other god).

Appreciates

• You or your allies killing the undead, demons, or evil creatures (such as followers of evil gods). Chance of +1 piety, higher chance for creatures with high HD.
• Encountering non-evil monsters you've never encountered before.

Prevents

• The Shining One prevents you from attacking in unchivalrous manner - ie, stabbing. Your attack will still take place, but you will receive no stabbing benefit.
• While not a direct conduct, worshippers are given a halo, which prevents the ability to go invisible.

Deprecates

• Inactivity: You lose 1 piety per 700 turns, on average (1/35 chance every 20 turns).

The Shining One strongly dislikes it (i.e. penance) when:

• You use Necromancy. Casting Necromutation causes instant excommunication.
• You use unholy magic or items.
• You attack neutral beings.
• You attack allies.

Note that equipment that violates the Shining One's commandments will be printed in red, be labeled in its (in-game) description, and you'll receive a warning before doing a transgression. Also, the Shining One will forgive accidental transgressions (i.e. performing a forbidden action via an unidentified item).

Given Abilities

Piety level -: "Acolyte"

• Protection from harm - If you receive lethal damage, there's a piety-based chance that the Shining One may nullify the damage (at the cost of reducing your piety). This is possible even if you're under penance. (Passive)
• Divine Halo - You are surrounded by a halo. It starts off only illuminating you, but it grows in size every Piety/20 tiles, extending to your full line of sight. You receive an accuracy bonus when fighting creatures inside your halo, and neither they nor you can be invisible. Monsters are twice as likely to notice you when they are inside the halo. (Passive)
• Protection from negative energy - The Shining One provides negative energy resistance. This improves as piety rises, up to rN+++ at full piety. (Passive)

In addition, the Shining One protects your allies:

• Protection against abjuration - When Abjuration is cast against your summoned servants, the power (duration reduction) is reduced, depending on your servant's HD. (Passive)
• Bless Allies - The Shining One may bless one of your allies when it kills an enemy or gains experience. The chance for this rises with your piety. The following blessings are possible:
  • 10%: Give the ally's weapon increased accuracy, damage, and the holy wrath brand OR give the ally's armour increased AC and negative energy resistance.
  • 90%: Increase the duration of your ally's stay, with a 50% chance to remove poison, sickness, confusion, slowing, or exhaustion. If none apply, heals 25% of its HP.

Piety level *: "Righteous"

• Gain power from killing - You sometimes regain HP and MP whenever you kill demons, the undead, and evil creatures. You have a (piety - 30)/200 chance of healing 1d(2*HD + 1) - 1 HP HP and 1d(2 + HD/3) - 1 MP MP when killing valid monsters. (Passive)
• Divine Shield - Grants a divine shield, providing 6 + Invocations * 2/5 SH. Duration is also controlled by Invocations. This shield is controlled by The Shining One, so it stacks with any other shield and does not interfere with two-handed weapons. (3 MP and 2-3 piety)

Piety level **: "Unflinching"

• No new abilities.

Piety level ***: "Holy Warrior"

• Cleansing Flame - Creates a large burst of holy energy centered on yourself, dealing unavoidable holy damage to all monsters around you. This affects all monsters within two spaces of you. Your Invocations skill increases damage dealt and chance of success. Because this ability emits holy energy, it does double damage to demons and undead, normal damage to other creatures, and no damage to holy beings, neutral creatures, or allies. (5 MP and 2-3 piety)

Piety level ****: "Exorcist"

• No new abilities.

Piety level *****: "Demon Slayer"

• Summon Divine Warrior - Summons a friendly Angel or Daeva. (8 MP and 6-9 piety)

Piety level ******: "Bringer of Light"

• Brand Weapon With Holy Wrath - the Shining One can bless a non-artifact weapon. This will add +2 to its enchantment level and add the holy wrath brand (replacing any existing brand). Demon whips will become sacred scourges, demon blades will become eudemon blades, and demon tridents will become trishulas. Holy Word is cast when you bless a weapon. Doing this has no cost, but it can only be invoked once per game.

Punishments

The Shining One forgives followers for abandonment; however, those who later take up the worship of an evil god will be punished. (Kikubaaqudgha, Yredelemnul, Makhleb, Lugonu, Beogh and Dithmenos are evil gods.) The Shining One's wrath is straightforward and unmistakable. Its victims find themselves smote with holy fire and beset with holy warriors. Sinners will be silenced, and the Shining One will also shout to alert the victim's foes. The Shining One's wrath lasts for a relatively short duration.

The Shining One will never actively punish you while you are under penance unless you convert to an evil god (Beogh, Dithmenos, Kikubaaqudgha, Lugonu, Makhleb, or Yredelemnul). Switching to other gods will not result in any wrath, and converting to Elyvilon or Zin will transfer half of your piety to them.

The possible forms of divine retribution include:

• Summoning hostile, durably summoned angels or daevas.
• Triggering a Cleansing Flame against you.
• Making a loud noise at your location.
• Silencing you for 10-35 turns.

Strategy

The Shining One is most powerful in the extended game, where evil monsters (demons/undead) are incredibly common. With so many evil creatures, piety gain is rapid. Your healing on kills makes it easy to recover - especially in the Pandemonium, which has random areas and respawning monsters. Cleansing Flame is very powerful against demons if you have high Invocations skill. It hits a 2-radius area with 100% accuracy, ensuring monsters like tormentors die on the next turn. The rN+++ frees up equipment slots, and ensures that you do have rN by the time it matters. Finally, the holy wrath brand is the strongest weapon brand against evil monsters.

Players will often switch to TSO once they reach the extended part of the game; common gods to switch from include Okawaru, Trog, and Yredelemnul. You can deal with your old god's wrath by going to places like the Crypt and the Abyss (both rife with evil monsters).

It is also a decent god in the earlier areas of the game. The halo increases accuracy - both yours and your allies - against monsters. Divine Shield and Divine Warriors are helpful active abilities, even against non-evil monsters.

However, TSO is often considered a weaker choice there. You'll have worse piety gain, and arguably worse abilities, than comparable gods. TSO is still a passible god, just not the greatest. Keep in mind that TSO itself is safe to abandon; you won't get wrath unless you switch to an evil god later. So if you get TSO from a faded altar, no need to fret.

The downsides of worshipping TSO are the various conducts. You won't be able to stab opponents or go invisible, and the halo lowers your stealth significantly. Additionally, you are not allowed to use evil spells (Necromancy, Call Imp, Malign Gateway, Summon Horrible Things), which can be helpful throughout the game.

Tips & Tricks

When worshipping the Shining One, keep the following in mind:

• Make sure you bless a weapon before taking on the Hells or Pandemonium. The best choice is usually either a broad axe, executioner's axe, bardiche, demon trident, demon whip, eveningstar, or demon blade. Ranged weapon users can do quite well by blessing their best ranged weapon, from longbow, hand crossbow, or triple crossbow.
• Don't underestimate the Cleansing Flame ability; it can deal very respectable area-of-effect damage once you reach high Invocations. When surrounded by demons, one or two uses will quickly clear out the weaker pests, provide quick healing, pay for its own MP/piety cost, and deal significant unavoidable damage to any Fiends or worse that are in range. A hasted TSO worshiper spamming full power Cleansing Flames can take down all but the hardiest end-game bosses.
• TSO's Bless Allies effect doesn't just affect the angels and daevas TSO sends your way; any ally will be protected from Abjuration and blessed when it gets kills.
• One of the more annoying aspects of being a worshiper of the Shining One is fighting in a chivalrous manner. Fortunately, all situations that don't outright prevent you from acting unchivalrous will warn you if you attempt them (such as trying to act while confused when it might cause you to attack an ally).

History

• Prior to 0.28, Divine Shield was available at 2* piety, and Cleaning Flame, 4* piety.
• Prior to 0.27, branding a weapon with holy wrath would un-curse it.
• Prior to 0.26, the three good gods forbid cannibalism.
• Prior to 0.20, TSO disapproved of poison and stabbing intelligent monsters (with stabbing not outright prevented). Cleansing Flame was also weaker and did half damage to non-evil monsters.
• Prior to 0.19, the Shining One would inflict penance if the player desecrated holy corpses or committed cannibalism; these were not outright forbidden.
• Prior to 0.16, the Shining One could create enhanced-stat versions of Long Blades with max piety (called blessed blades). TSO's Divine Shield also used to benefit from training in the Shields skill.
• Prior to 0.15, followers of the Shining One were occasionally seen as allies by holy monsters. The chance of this recognition rose with piety. Also, blessing a weapon would affect it as though you'd just read a scroll of enchant weapon III rather than giving it a flat +2 enchantment level.
• Prior to 0.10, followers of the Shining One gained piety passively, up to a limit, and piety did not decay.
• Prior to 0.8, the paladin background started the game worshiping the Shining One.
• Prior to 0.4, TSO would occasionally gift permanent allies.