The Magic Mirror of Merlin
| ( The Magic Mirror of Merlin (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Base item | mirror |
| Affiliation | |
| When carried |
|
| When applied |
|
| When invoked | (none) |
| Base price | 1500 zm |
| Weight | 13 |
The Magic Mirror of Merlin is the Knight quest artifact. It is the prize for completing the Knight quest, and its default alignment is lawful. Its base item type is a mirror.
Contents
Generation
For Knights, The Magic Mirror of Merlin always generates blessed on the Knight quest goal level, where it is always placed on the square of Ixoth at level creation.
Description
While carried, The Magic Mirror of Merlin grants magic resistance and telepathy, and Knights carrying the artifact deal double damage to their enemies with some wands and most spells.
When applied or wielded, the Mirror speaks and gives a random rumor: the rumor is true if the Mirror is blessed, false if cursed and either if uncursed. It shares this property with The Master Key of Thievery.
Double damage
A Knight carrying the Magic Mirror of Merlin in open inventory deals double damage to monsters when using the following wands or spells:[1][2]
- wand of striking, spell of force bolt
- wand of undead turning, spell of turn undead
- spell of sleep (0, doubled)
- spell of drain life
- spell of magic missile
- spell of cone of cold (at Basic or lower skill)
- spell of fireball (at Basic or lower skill)
- spell of finger of death
The other effects of these spells (such as the number of levels drained by drain life or the duration of sleep) are not changed.
Strategy
- For optimized invocation, see Invoke#Optimum invocation schedule.
For Knights, spellcasting tends to become difficult until the mid-game or later, where they can reliably boost their mental stats and swap into armor that is non-metallic or else does not interfere with spellcasting. Knights that want to work towards a mix of magical and physical offense are rewarded with massive gains from completing the quest: the magic missile spell in particular does enormous damage, with an average of 112 when cast by a level thirty Knight with the Magic Mirror.[3]
The Magic Mirror of Merlin is a worthwhile choice for other lawful heroes making an artifact wish, due to the slotless magic resistance and telepathy it provides.
History
The Magic Mirror of Merlin is introduced along with most other quest artifacts in NetHack 3.1.0.
Origin
Merlin (Welsh: Myrddin, Cornish: Merdhyn, Breton: Merzhin) is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a magician, with several other main roles. The most familiar depiction of Merlin, based on an amalgamation of historical and legendary figures, was introduced by the 12th-century British pseudo-historical author Geoffrey of Monmouth: Geoffrey gives him the full name of Merlinus Ambrosius and likely formed the character from a composite of Myrddin and Ambrosius, who are prominent figures in earlier Welsh tales; the character of Merlin was then built on by the French poet Robert de Boron and prose successors in the 13th century. Later chronicle and romance writers in France and elsewhere expanded the account to produce a more full, multifaceted character, creating one of the most important figures in the imagination and literature of the Middle Ages.
Merlin's traditional biography casts him as an often-mad cambion born of a mortal woman and an incubus, from whom he inherits his supernatural powers and abilities, most notably including prophecy and shapeshifting. Merlin matures to an ascendant sagehood and engineers the birth of Arthur through magic and intrigue, and later stories have him serve as advisor and mentor to the young king until he disappears from the tale, leaving behind a series of prophecies foretelling events to come.
A popular version from the French prose cycles tells of Merlin being bewitched and forever sealed up or killed by his student, the Lady of the Lake, after he fell in love with her; other texts variously describe his death or his retirement, mundane or supernatural. One such text in late Welsh legend depicts Merlin as voluntarily retreating to an underground house on Bardsey Island that is invisible and made of glass, where he guards the Thirteen Treasures of Britain along with the True Throne of the Realm - it is possible that the "Magic Mirror" was one of these thirteen treasures.
Variants
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack, and notnotdNetHack, the effects of binding the spirit Naberius stack with the double damage effect from a Knight carrying The Magic Mirror of Merlin.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, The Magic Mirror of Merlin grants reflection and half spell damage in place of magic resistance, and its double damage still applies for Knights carrying it.
If The Magic Mirror of Merlin is wished for by a non-Knight hero, there is a 1⁄x chance (where x is the amount of previous artifact wishes) of it being created successfully, and an effective x⁄(x+1)² chance of a hostile King Arthur generating adjacent to the character with the artifact in his possession.
All of the above information also applies to Hack'EM.
Encyclopedia entry
This powerful mirror was created by Merlin, the druid, in ages past, when trees sang and rocks danced. It protects all who carry it from magic missiles, and gives them ESP.
