Ilsensine
| Religion in NetHack |
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Ilsensine is a being associated with the mind flayers that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack.
dNetHack
Below this point, there are major spoilers for the Anachrononaut and Android roles. They can be accessed by selecting the "Role spoiler" tab.
In the "age before ages", the mind flayers discovered and worshipped an eldritch "nascent thought" who came to be known as Ilsensine - in bringing knowledge of Ilsensine back to the past, they set off a chain of events that caused the end of the world: the mind flayer empires were overthrown and brought low, but the gods of Law discovered Ilsensine and were consumed, followed by the other gods of the heavens. As a result, Anachrononauts and Androids do not worship gods and cannot pray or make use of altars, and attempting to pray will print a message stating that Ilsensine is the sole god of the future and is not prayed to; their starting pantheon is also selected at random, similar to the Priest.
An Anachrononaut that accepts their quest becomes aware of Ilsensine's identity as the Banished One and their guise as the lawful god of their pantheon, and Ilsensine will in turn become aware of them - conversely, the Android begins the game already aware of Ilsensine (and vice versa). While in the guise of a lawful deity, Ilsensine will summon the same minions as the real deity would; once the Anachrononaut becomes aware of Ilsensine, it acts as an unholy deity, and its minions consist of mind flayers, master mind flayers, brain golems, and semblances.
In order to change the future and gain a full-scoring ascension, an Anachrononaut or Android must gain access to their quest from the quest leader Sara before she is killed, then retrieve the Annulus and obtain the Amulet of Yendor, bring both items to the Astral Plane and invoke the Annulus on the lawful high altar to purge Ilsensine's influence once and for all - once done, the Anachrononaut can then offer the Amulet on their god's high altar to attain a full-scoring ascension with the future saved.
Shopkeepers on the Anachrononaut quest will call upon Ilsensine instead of the Keter Sephiroth if they are robbed or angered: this will generate two changed, a warrior changed, a mind flayer, a master mind flayer, and an umber hulk on adjacent squares to the shopkeeper, followed by that shopkeeper dying (which is flavored as Ilsensine killing them).
notdNetHack
Below this point, there are major spoilers for the Illithanachronounbinder role. They can be accessed by selecting the "spoiler" tabs.
The Illithanachronounbinder comes from a future in which Ilsensine (who is referred to as "she" and "her") was successfully thwarted and erased, with the goal of undoing what the Anachrononauts achieved in order to save their goddess and restore the Illithid Empire. Ilsensine is the lawful deity for the Illithanachronounbinder pantheon in notdNetHack, and has the same basic qualities and selection of minions for Illithanachronounbinders as she does for Anachrononauts: she cannot be prayed to by an Illithanachronounbinder, and doing so in the Illithanachronounbinder quest also prints a message related to their goal in restoring her. ("You wouldn't want to change the future.")
In order to change the future and gain a full-scoring ascension, an Illithanachronounbinder must invoke The Illithid Staff with The Elder Cerebral Fluid affixed to it while standing atop the high altar to the Void on the Astral Plane, which takes the place of the usual lawful high altar. This grants them access to the Void as a branch, where they encounter all the spirits they previously bound and killed, with Numina serving as the final boss: the Illithanachronounbinder must defeat whatever spirits stand in their way and reach Ilsensine within the depths of the Void, then offer the Amulet on her altar there - this restores Ilsensine to her former glory and earns the character the title of Maanzecorian, and they will ascend having saved the Illithid Empire.| 7 Ilsensine The Fallen (No tile) | |
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| Difficulty | 51 |
| Attacks |
passive 10d10 magic missiles |
| Base level | 105 |
| Base experience | 12369 |
| Speed | 15 |
| Base AC | -8 |
| Base MR | 100 |
| Alignment | 12 (lawful) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 2550 |
| Nutritional value | 500 |
| Size | huge |
| Resistances | fire, sleep, poison, petrification
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Ilsensine The Fallen:
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Ilsensine The Fallen, 7, appears as a monster that Illithanachronounbinders can encounter. She is a humanoid lawful angelic being that is strong, will seek out and pick up items, can be seen via infravision, and is considered human.
Ilsensine the Fallen has a powerful passive magic missile attack similar to the Oracle, and possesses fire resistance, sleep resistance, poison resistance, and stoning resistance.
Ilsensine is always generated as peaceful, and will only appear on the final level of the Void, where she is placed to the immediate left of her altar at level creation. She is not a valid form for polymorph.
Of note is that there are currently no consequences for killing her outside of the usual penalties.
Origin
Ilsensine originates from Dungeons & Dragons, and debuts in the 2nd Edition as the the patron deity and creator of the illithids - this Ilsensine is referred to as "it" or "he", and his name means "great brain" or "powerful brain" in Undercommon. Also known as the Tentacled Lord and the God-Brain (not to be confused with a particular elder brain), Ilsensine embodied the illithids' ideals of mental prowess, unlimited knowledge and willful dominion over all other lifeforms; he was also the patron of all beings that enslaved the thoughts of others. Ilsensine's incarnation is a cohesive thought that takes the shape of a gigantic, pulsing mass of cerebral matter with a countless number of ganglionic tendrils radiating out in all directions; when incarnating in an avatar, his floating form is that of a spectral 8-foot (2.4 meter) glowing-green brain with only two tentacles.
Alien and elusive, elven myths attest that Ilsensine surpassed its divine peers in subversive intent, always striving to undo what others accomplish and defy established convention; to this end, it allegedly set loose the mind flayers as a counter-creation after mortals came into existence. The name Ilsensine is only used by the sages and scholars of most races: illithids identify it using a series of telepathic visual images and symbolic denotations, and Ilsensine itself lacks a physical body.
Ilsensine only believes in power, which to it is represented by raw psionic force, superior knowledge, and the mental capacity and force of mind required to both wield it and dominate others: this naturally makes its illithid creations the supreme race in its eyes, most worthy to conquer all planes and eventually all of reality while using all other life forms as "cattle". Ilsensine's psionics are such that any non-mindless being approaching its true form can sense its energy, creating a "brain burn" that afflicts those entering its realm; furthermore, other psionic powers within its proximity are nulled, and no secrets can stay hidden from its. Despite these strengths, omnipresence and practically limitless (though distinctly not omniscient) knowledge, Ilsensine is not infallible: it is supremely arrogant and vulnerable to emotion, which can overtake the deity and drive it towards problematic behavior.
