Hemargyos
Hemargyos is an object material found in dNetHack, notdNetHack, and notnotdNetHack. It is a non-metallic material very similar to silver, although hemargyos items still valid targets for object properties granted by The Silver Flame.
The names of objects made out of hemargyos will state that they are "silver", and they will appear as being made out of strangely-liquid silver when inspected. When temporarily made of hemargyos, a Chikage's name will state it is "bloody"—blood-egged in the case of the sky reflected—and it will appear as being made out of strangely-tarnished blood. Columnar crystals will instead appear as being made out of strangely-cancellous silver when inspected.
Generation
No randomly generated items are made of hemargyos, and it is not an eligible material for hell vault items. Items whose base material is hemargyos, such as blood-spears, may be wished for, but items whose base material isn't hemargyos cannot be wished for as hemargyos. With the exception of the chikage, no items can be turned into hemargyos.
The following items are made out of hemargyos:
- Blood-bullets
- Blood-spears
- Columnar crystals
- A Chikage, while it is bloodied
Description
Items made of hemargyos share a few common traits:
- Hitting a monster with a weapon made of hemargyos will stun them, if they attacked the hero on their last turn. This includes hemargyos projectiles like the blood-bullet
- Hemargyos items will deal searing silver damage, as a normal silver item would
- Bullets that are converted into hemargyos will be turned into blood-bullets instead, though this is not currently possible
The chikage is a special weapon, which has some traits that only manifest while it is made of hemargyos:
- gains double base-dice while bloodied
- gains +1 bonus "enchantment" for every 3 experience levels
- gains +1 bonus strength-based attribute damage for every 2 points of impurity
- gains +1 bonus unholy damage for every 2 points of impurity
- when bloodied with less than 20 insight counts as poisoned
- at 20 insight it instead becomes filth-crusted and gains 1 blood-slash
- at 36 insight, it gains an additional blood slash
- at 50 insight instead becomes dire-poisoned
- drains at least 1 hit-point every turn
Hemargyos is a material whose physical characteristics are almost identical to silver, being only slightly heavier.
| Hemargyos | Color | Density | Cost | Defense multiplier | Flat DR bonus | Flat AC bonus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Silver | 100 | 30 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
Origin
The blood-silver seen in dNetHack is a concept loosely lifted from the 2015 videogame Bloodborne. The most prominent example of an item made of "silvery blood" is the quicksilver bullet, and while the chikage and rakuyo are also closely tied to blood, operating on the wielder's lifeblood, they aren't directly tied to silver in any way. The term "quickisilver", another common name for the element mercury, derives from its apparent liveliness, due to its liquid form at room temperature—with "quick" as in "the quick and the dead"—for which it was also called "argentum vivum", or living silver. Mercury is a highly toxic substance to the human nervous system, and accumulation of high quantities of it will accumulate, unable to be eliminated by the body. While not directly mentioned within Bloodborne, mercury is often found in cinnabar, a mineral compound mainly composed of mercury-sulfide, which gives it a characteristic blood-red hue, and was consequently historically often used in the production of paints. The columnar crystals items in dNetHack, which originate from the blood stones, appear as "strangely-cancellous silver", hinting at it being made of a monster's crytalized bone marrow taking on the form of a column-shaped crystal.
