Holy wafer
A holy wafer is a type of comestible that appears in SLASH'EM, SlashTHEM and Hack'EM. It is veggy and considered vegan.
Generation
Tourists may start with holy wafers among their random food items.[1] Undead Slayers start each game with 4-8 holy wafers, and chaotic Undead Slayers will have them replaced with lembas wafers.[2][3]
Holy wafers are rare and make up 7⁄1000 of all comestibles randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops. Delicatessens and health food stores can also stock holy wafers.
Description
Eating a holy wafer takes one action and grants 150 nutrition, and it cures sickness and lycanthropy upon finishing the meal, returning the hero to normal form from their were-animal form if applicable.[4] A lawful hero eating a holy wafer also regains 20-39 HP up to their maximum HP, while a chaotic hero loses 10-19 HP to a minimum of 1 HP.[5][6]
Strategy
Holy wafers are a more filling option to cure sickness and lycanthropy compared to either the eucalyptus leaf (for sickness) or the sprig of wolfsbane (for lycanthropy), and can even be used to substantially heal lawful heroes in the early game, but they are still fairly rare with the exception of starting inventories. Even a chaotic hero may consider using it to cure sickness or lycanthropy in a tight spot; this is not advisable if they are at low health, but doing so will never be directly fatal. Eucalyptus and wolfsbane may also be preferable as cures for their lower nutrition if a hero is nearing (over)satiation.
Origin
Sacramental bread, also informally known as "holy wafers", Communion bread, Communion wafer, Sacred host, Eucharistic bread, the Lamb, or simply the host (Latin: hostia, lit. 'sacrificial victim'), is the bread used in the Christian ritual of the Eucharist, where it is one of the two main elements along with sacramental wine—this bread may be either leavened or unleavened, depending on tradition. Catholic theology generally teaches that at the Words of Institution the bread's substance is changed into the Body of Christ, a process known as transubstantiation. Conversely, Eastern Christian theology generally views the epiclesis as the point at which the change occurs.
The effects of a holy wafer when eaten are based on the commonplace conflation between the alignments of Dungeons & Dragons and holiness (or lack thereof), with lawful typically being considered the holiest of alignments and chaotic being the unholiest—this is despite, the fact that even within both Dungeons & Dragons and NetHack (or its other variants) alike, the alignment system is not so strictly correlated with whether or not a given being is good or evil, let alone holy or unholy.
