Ilsensine
| Religion in NetHack |
|---|
Ilsensine is a being associated with the mind flayers that appears in dNetHack and notdNetHack.
dNetHack
Below this point, there are major spoilers for the Anachrononaut role. They can be accessed by selecting the "Role spoiler" tab.
In the "age before ages", the mind flayers discovered and woshipped 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 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.
In order to change the future and gain a full-scoring ascension, an Anachrononaut 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 ascend as normal, with the future saved.
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. Ilsensine is an unholy deity, and its minions consist of mind flayers, master mind flayers, brain golems, and semblances - while in the guise of a lawful deity, it will summon the same minions as the real deity would. 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; this 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 "Role spoiler" tab.
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. As a deity, Ilsensine has the same basic qualities 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. 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: they 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.
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