Xan
x xan 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 9 |
| Attacks |
Sting 1d4 scratching, targets legs |
| Base level | 7 |
| Base experience | 120 |
| Speed | 18 |
| Base AC | −4 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 3 (Rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 300 |
| Nutritional value | 300 |
| Size | Tiny |
| Resistances | poison |
| Resistances conveyed | poison (47%) |
|
A xan:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line943 |
A xan, x, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. Xans are a type of mythical insect that are capable of flight and have poison resistance. They possess a unique sting attack that targets your legs, wounding them if the attack succeeds.
Xan corpses are poisonous to eat, but eating their corpse or tin has a 47% chance of conveying poison resistance.
Strategy
Boots can protect your legs from the xan's attacks - worn iron shoes or low boots protect you 40% of the time, and any other boots protect you 80% of the time.[1] Cancelling a xan prevents its sting from damaging your legs.[2]
History
The xan first appears in Hack 1.0.
In NetHack 3.6.2 and earlier versions, including variants based on these versions, riding, flying, or levitation would prevent a xan from wounding your legs, despite xans possessing flight; this was fixed in NetHack 3.6.3 via commit 564dcd6.
Origin
The xan is a creature based on a tale from the Popol Vuh, a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people - the Kʼicheʼ inhabit Guatemala as well as the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo, along with areas of Belize, Honduras and El Salvador. Popol Vuh is translated as "Book of the Community" or "Book of Counsel", and literally means "Book that pertains to the mat": a woven mat was used as a royal throne in ancient Kʼicheʼ society and symbolised the unity of the community; the document is one of many that survived Spanish conquest. Among its many tales are the exploits of Hunahpu and Xbalanque, known as the Maya Hero Twins.
The Hero Twins were conceived when Xquic, one of the daughters of the Lords of the Mayan underworld Xibalba, spoke with Hun-Hunahpu's severed head: he spat upon the maiden's hand, causing them to be conceived in her womb. The twins come across the ballgame equipment of Hun-Hunahpu and his brother Vucub-Hunahpu, who had disturbed the Lords of Xibalba with the noise they made playing on the court; the Lords summoned the two men to play ball in their own court, using it as a pretext to subject the pair to many treacherous trials - the duo eventually failed and were executed.
The Hero Twins began to play ball in the court and once again disturb the Lords of Xibalba, who send summons to the boys to come to Xibalba and play in their court. Their grandmother, who had hidden the ballgame equipment fearing the twins would suffer the same fate, relayed the message as indirectly as possible; despite her best efforts, the boys received the message and set off to Xibalba. Fortunately, the younger twins did not fall victim to the same tricks, and sent the mosquito - translated as "xan", as shown in the excerpt that provides the encyclopedia entry - ahead to scout for them. The mosquito stung the Lords of Xibalba to uncover the real ones and learn their names, allowing the twins to address and identify them by name when they arrived at Xibalba, and would proceed to outwit the Lords and eventually bring about Xibalba's downfall.
Encyclopedia entry
They sent their friend the mosquito [xan] ahead of them to find out what lay ahead. "Since you are the one who sucks the blood of men walking along paths," they told the mosquito, "go and sting the men of Xibalba." The mosquito flew down the dark road to the Underworld. Entering the house of the Lords of Death, he stung the first person that he saw...
The mosquito stung this man as well, and when he yelled, the man next to him asked, "Gathered Blood, what's wrong?" So he flew along the row stinging all the seated men until he knew the names of all twelve.
