Evil eye
| e evil eye (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 12 |
| Attacks | |
| Base level | 10
|
| Speed | 3 |
| Base AC | 4 |
| Base MR | 30 |
| Alignment | -11 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 10 |
| Nutritional value | 0 |
| Size | Small |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed | alters luck |
|
An evil eye:
| |
| Reference | UnNetHack commit 4b5df73 - src/monst.c, line 362 |
An evil eye, e, is a type of monster that appears in UnNetHack. The evil eye is a form of eye monster that is mindless, unbreathing and capable of flight. Ravens grudge evil eyes and will attack any that they come across.
Evil eyes possess a unique gaze attack that can lower the hero's luck by 1: a hero that has a blessed luckstone will block this effect 3⁄4 of the time, and a hero that wields a non-cursed luck item (e.g., Luck Blade or The Tsurugi of Muramasa) can completely resist this effect. An evil eye's gaze will inflict confusion if used against another monster in combat. Luck items used as weapons also have unusual effects on an evil eye: hitting an evil eye with a cursed luck item will heal it for 4d6 HP, while hitting one with a blessed luck item will instantly kill it.
Applying a mirror to an evil eye to turn its gaze upon itself (i.e., it is not blind, invisible, asleep, or cancelled) will cancel it and cause it to flee, and the same will occur if it gazes at a hero wielding a blessed mirror.
Eating an evil eye corpse grants no nutrition (so it cannot have a tinning kit applied to make a tin out of it), and causes the hero's luck to change based on its beatitude: a blessed evil eye corpse increases luck by up to 3 points, while a cursed one decreases it by up to 3 points, and an uncursed one will change it by a value ranging from -1 to +2 (including zero).
Generation
Evil eyes are only randomly generated in Gehennom and Sheol, and normally-created evil eyes are always hostile. They are not a valid polymorph form.
Hostile evil eyes can be generated by the summon nasties monster spell. Evil eyes can also appear among the monsters generated by a hero breaking the zen conduct.
An evil eye is generated on the Plane of Air at level creation.
History
The evil eye is first added in UnNetHack version 5 via commit aeb48fd, where its corpse gives the minimum 10 nutrition when eaten and can thus have a tinning kit applied to it. This is changed in version 5.2.0 via commit f835ee0, which reduces their nutrition to 0 as with the wraith, making them too insubstantial to tin.
Origin
The evil eye is a supernatural belief that curses can be brought about by a malevolent glare, usually inspired by envy—the nature of this glare varies, with some believing that receiving the evil eye will cause misfortune or injury, while others believe it to be a kind of supernatural force that casts or reflects a malevolent gaze back upon those who wish harm upon others (especially innocents). These beliefs have a long, varied and widespread history that spans many cultures and religions across many periods, all around the world to the modern day: the Sumerians and ancient Mesopotamians; ancient Egypt; Persia and ancient India; classical antiquity in ancient Greece and Rome, as well as the Balkans; various Arabic and West Asian cultures, such as Arabia, Phoenicia, and the Ottomans; Jewish rabbinic literature, the Bible and the Christian Gospels; the various cultures of Africa; and the Caribbean and Latin America.
Various cultures have also pursued measures to protect against the evil eye, with some of the most famous talismans against the evil eye including the nazar amulet (which itself depicts an eye) and the hand-shaped amulet known as the hamsa. Illyrians used objects with the shape of phallus, hand, leg, and animal teeth against the evil eye. Ancient Romans used representations of phallus, such as the fascinus, to protect against the evil eye, while in modern-day Southern Italy a variety of amulets and gestures are used for protection, including the cornicello, the cimaruta, and the sign of the horns. In Arab culture, saying the phrase "Masha'Allah" (ما شاء الله, "God has willed it") alongside a compliment prevents the compliment from attracting the evil eye, and in some countries such as Iran, rue and other certain specific plants are considered prone to protecting against the evil eye.
Similarly, folklore itself is full of various creatures and beings capable of inflicting harm, misfortune or even death with their gaze: the evil eye of UnNetHack is not based on any one such creature in particular, and is meant to be a form of metaphysical being that embodies the concept.
Messages
- <The evil eye> screams at the touch of your <luck item>!
- You hit an evil eye with a blessed luck item and instantly killed it.
- Your <luck item> passes harmlessly through <the evil eye>.
- You "hit" an evil eye with a cursed luck item and healed it.
- You feel more fortunate.
- You ate a blessed evil eye corpse.
- You feel your fortunes in flux.
- You ate an uncursed evil eye corpse.
- You feel less fortunate.
- You ate a cursed evil eye corpse.
Encyclopedia entry
Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye,
neither desire thou his dainty meats.
