Divine retribution

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

Divine retribution (wrath) is the consequence of having incurred penance, divine disfavor, with a god.

Penance

Penance is increased by violating a god's conducts. All gods except Ru incur penance for abandoning them.

Penance and retribution are usually synonymous; penance can cause retribution. The three good gods (Elyvilon, Zin, TSO) can incur "penance", but don't inflict punishments unless you worship a disliked god (all good gods hate evil gods; Zin also hates Xom and Jiyva).

Divine Retribution

Every time you gain XP with penance, a counter is decreased. When it reaches 0, there's a 5% chance (per angry god) that you'll suffer wrath within the next 30 decaAut. On average, the wrath counter reaches 0 once every 0.5% of an experience level; that's 10 retributions per XL per god. Owing penance to multiple gods means you will suffer wrath more frequently, but it will not last any longer.

Some gods inflict passive effects while under penance. Ashenzari reduces your skills and makes enemy AI stronger, while Vehumet gives you a 5% chance to fail Conjurations spells. These effects are entirely separate from the wrath counter.

Reduction

For most gods, penance is reduced by:

• Piety gain - if you still worship a god with penance, gaining piety reduces penance.
• XP gain. Every time the wrath counter reaches 0, penance is reduced by 1-3 (even if no punishment happens).
  • Certain gods' punishments can reduce penance by a greater amount.
• If you leave and re-worship the god, penance will be reset (though your piety is reset, too).

For Ashenzari, Elyvilon Gozag, and Hepliakqana, their wrath is considered entirely of passive effects. They do not use the wrath counter; only direct XP gain (or piety, for Elyvilon) will end penance.

If the penance is reduced to zero, you will see the following message:

<god> seems mollified.

Overwhelming Retribution

When a god's retribution is unleashed on you, it is possible for it to be "overwhelming". If retribution is potentially overwhelming, there is a chance given by

one_chance_in(5) && (you.experience_level < random2(37))

that you will either (resistibly) be confused for 5-7 turns, or be slowed for an additional 0-19 turns if your outstanding Slowing duration is less than 180 turns.

Estimating Penance Counter

You can estimate your penance counter by looking at the Favour description on your religion screen (command ^).

Favour	Penance
Godly wrath is upon you!	50+
You've transgressed heavily! Be penitent!	20+
You are under penance.	5+
You should show more discipline.	4 or less

This will only be visible for a god you are currently worshiping, which means that unless you are intentionally incurring penance with your current god, you will probably never see anything but "You should show more discipline." on the ^ screen.

You can also pray at the altar of a god you no longer worship to get an estimate of your penance counter with that god, which message depends on the initial penance counter. The initial penance counter is 50 for Ashenzari, Beogh, Elyvilon, Goazag, Helpliaklqana, Lugonu, Nemelex Xobeh, Trog, and Xom – all of whose wrath is described as lasting a relatively long duration. The initial penance counter is 30 for Fedhas, Kikubaaqudgha, Jiyva, The Shining One, Sif Muna, and Yredelemnul; it is 25 for the remainder of the pantheon.

Favour	Penance Remaining
... wrath is upon you!	greater than 75%
... well remembers your sins.	greater than 50%
... wrath is beginning to fade.	greater than 25%
... is almost ready to forgive your sins.	less than 25%
... is neutral towards you.	0%

History

• Prior to 0.14, divine wrath was applied approximately once every 2000 turns, and could be waited out.

• Prior to 0.11, the check for retribution every 20 turns would first pick a god whose penance you were under, then determine if that god would exact vengeance upon you. Thus, when you were under penance from multiple gods, you would be under penance for longer, but you would experience a given angry god's wrath less often. This could be exploited to "dilute" particularly nasty god retributions in the early game, such as Lugonu's, by joining and abandoning multiple gods with more manageable retributions (such as Xom or Zin).

• Prior to 0.9, good gods would not place under penance followers who abandoned them for another good god. This was removed because it allowed players to choose which good god would exact retribution if they wanted to join an evil god. This technique was usually used to avoid the Shining One's wrath.