Ammit
| z ammit (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 22 |
| Attacks |
Bite 8d2 life drain, claw 6d4 physical, claw 6d4 physical |
| Base level | 18 |
| Base experience | 648 |
| Speed | 16 |
| Base AC | -4 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 3000 |
| Nutritional value | 600 |
| Size | large |
| Resistances | none |
| Resistances conveyed | none |
|
An ammit:
| |
An ammit, z, is a type of monster that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. The ammit is an always-female species of zruty-like minion that are strong and carnivorous animals with elongated heads and quadrupedal body shapes, and they can be seen via infravision. Ammits have 14 points of natural AC.
An ammit has a life-draining bite attack and two claw attacks.
Generation
Ammits are always created hostile, and only appear randomly in Gehennom.
Ammits may be generated as minions of Anhur and Offler.
An ammit may be one of the monsters generated within a magic item vault.
Strategy
Ammits are not especially threatening for a hero that can reach Gehennom, but their movement speed of 16 and decently strong attacks can make quite unwelcome surprises for unfortunate early-game heroes that attempt to convert an altar belonging to Anhur or Offler—Binders, Priests, Tourists, and Wizards are the primary roles that will have to be extremely careful when attempting sacrifices at such altars. A lack of drain resistance is especially likely to seal that character's doom in these scenarios, unless they are capable of immediately creating distance between them and the ammit.
While the same generally holds true if a foolhardy player tries to blitz their magic vault with an under-prepared hero of any role, ammits are actually one of the more welcome options to encounter: a hero that creates an opening into the vault and avoids crossing the surrounding water can freely pick apart the beast at range with whatever options they have on hand.
Origin
Ammit (/ˈæmɪt/; Ancient Egyptian: ꜥm-mwt, "Devourer of the Dead"; also rendered Ammut or Ahemait) was an ancient Egyptian goddess with the forequarters of a lion, the hindquarters of a hippopotamus, and the head of a crocodile—in ancient Egyptian religion, rather than being worshipped, Ammit was a funerary deity that was feared and believed to be a demon, due to playing an important role during the Judgment of the Dead within the Egyptian underworld of Duat.
The Book of the Dead was a collection of funerary texts used to guide the dead to Duat, including descriptions of the Judgment of the Dead: Osiris, the ruler of Duat, presided over judgment as the jackal-headed guardian Anubis conducted the dead towards the weighing scale, where the deceased would each have their heart weighed against the feather of Ma'at, the goddess of truth; this feather at symbolized the balance and truthfulness expected of a mortal during their lifetime, while the heart (Ib) represented the individual's soul. The deceased recites The Declaration of Innocence, a list of 42 sins the deceased was innocent of committing, as well as The Declaration to the Forty-two Gods and The Address to the Gods proclaiming the deceased's purity and loyalty.
After the declarations are recited, the deceased's heart is weighed, and Thoth recorded the result: if the heart weighed less than the feather of Ma'at, they were ruled to be pure, and Osiris would allow the deceased to continue their voyage toward Aaru and immortality; if the heart was heavier, the deceased was deemed impure and their heart would be devoured by Ammit, leaving them soulless and trapping them in Duat as a form of "second death". In the Old Kingdom, this role was performed by Khonsu, the god of the moon, and Ammit did not have as large a presence in the culture's religion—during the era of the New Kingdom, Ammit took over this role, and Ancient Egyptians were buried with a copy of the Book of the Dead, which contained a copy of the necessary Declarations and would thus keep her hungry by 'guaranteeing' them success in their judgment.
Encyclopedia entry
Ammit ("devourer" or "soul-eater"; also spelled Ammut or Ahemait)
was a female demon in ancient Egyptian religion with a body that
was part lion, hippopotamus and crocodile-the three largest
"man-eating" animals known to ancient Egyptians. A funerary deity,
her titles included "Devourer of the Dead", "Eater of Hearts", and
"Great of Death".
