Lilitu
| & lilitu (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 16 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 1d6 physical, offhand weapon 1d6 physical, sting 1d12 agnosis, sting 1d12 agnosis, spellcast 0d6 clerical |
| Base level | 9 |
| Base experience | 342 |
| Speed | 18 |
| Base AC | -8 |
| Base MR | 70 |
| Alignment | -9 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | medium |
| Resistances | fire resistance, poison resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | none |
|
A lilitu:
| |
A lilitu, &, is a type of monster that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. The lilitu is an always-female type of eyeless humanoid major demon that has flight, catsight and infravision, and she can be seen via infravision. Lilitu can follow a hero to other levels if they are close enough, and can reach level 30. Tame lilitu may turn traitor. Lilitu have an effective AC of -8, along with DR that covers several slots: 2 points of natural AC, 10 points of 'dodge' AC, 6 points of 'special' AC, 4 points of natural DR each for the legs and arms, and 9 points of 'special' DR.
Lilitu have a weapon attack and an offhand weapon attack, the ability to cast one clerical monster spell per round, and are very unique among demons for their special sting attacks: these two sting attacks can cause "agnosis", or doubt, in their victims that suppresses their connection to the gods and causes them to lose any clerical spellcasting ability—for the hero, this disables their spellcasting if it uses the wisdom attribute, and renders them unable to pray. The effect lasts 20 turns for each point of damage dealt by the sting attack, and further hits will increase the timer.
Lilitu have basic prowess in martial combat, and they possess fire resistance, poison resistance, drain resistance, death resistance, and a weakness to silver like other major demons.
Lilitu can be warded by a fully-reinforced Elder Elemental Eye.
Contents
Generation
Lilitu are normally generated hostile, and they are not a valid genocide target.
Y-cultist monsters can generate with lilitu masks.
Lilitu can be generated among the plague victims that are carried within sacks by hill giants on the Healer quest and Drow Healer quest, as well as those that are seen in bedrolls within the Healer quest and chained down on the goal level of that quest.
Lilitu may appear among the court of throne rooms ruled by a Y-cultist patron, where each monster has a 1⁄10 chance of being a lilitu. Lilitu also can appear among the default pool of random prisoners (i.e. before ruler-specific rules are applied) that are kept in throne rooms, as well as throne rooms ruled by any of the following monsters: a titan, Aurumach Rilmani, Elvenking, Elvenqueen, embraced drowess, rival Y-cultist patron, or the Necromancer.
Githzerai Kensei in Gehennom or the Elemental Planes have a 1⁄250 chance of a large group of lilitu occurring during normal monster creation.
The aligned priest that is found tending to a coaligned temple in the lair of the Avatar of Lolth (if it appears as the second Abyss level in Gehennom) will transform into a lilitu upon the hero entering the temple's space: this transformation will inflict 888 turns of doubt and also cause two lilitu, an incubus, a succubus, a yochlol and an unearthly drow to appear.
Six lilitu are placed randomly around the central structure within the lair of Malcanthet during level creation if it appears as the second Abyss level in Gehennom.
Lilitu are generated with various items depending on the circumstances they are created in.
- Lilitu that are aligned with the Black Mother will be given a +6 four-headed acid-coated bone viperwhip with three charges of the acidic 'poison', as well as +4 bone plate mail and a +4 bone roundshield. If the hero's insight is above a randomly-rolled threshold from 1 to 20, she will be created with the "mistweaver" template—otherwise, she is given a +4 bone war hat.
- Lilitu that are generated in the Convict quest have a roughly equal probability of two equipment sets:
- An iron ball; a +4 spoon; a +4 cursed striped shirt; and a cursed +4 iron pair of shoes
- An iron club; a cursed +4 buckler; armored boots; gloves that will be either a pair of gloves (2⁄3 chance) or a pair of gauntlets (1⁄3 chance); a roughly 1⁄2 chance of a robe; and body armor—this body armor can be plate mail (4⁄5 chance), splint mail (8⁄75 chance), banded mail (4⁄75 chance), ring mail (8⁄375 chance), studded leather armor (4⁄375 chance), or leather armor (1⁄625 chance)
- Lilitu that are generated in Gehennom or slated for "good" equipment will be given one of six kits, with kits that include weapons making them cursed, +6 and erosion-proofed along with a 1⁄100 chance of it being mercurial in material:
- A mace and a cursed +4 cloak that has a 6⁄7 chance of being a robe, a 2⁄21 chance of being a cloak of protection, and a 1⁄21 chance of being a cloak of magic resistance
- An iron khakkhara and a cursed +4 cloak that has a 6⁄7 chance of being a robe, a 2⁄21 chance of being a cloak of protection, and a 1⁄21 chance of being a cloak of magic resistance
- A quarterstaff and a cursed +4 healer uniform
- No weapon, a cursed +4 orange robe and a cursed +4 sedge hat
- An athame, a cursed +4 black-colored cloak, a cursed +4 plain dress, and a cursed +4 witch hat
- A small golden shepherd's crook, a golden flail, a cursed golden mask of a succubus, cursed +4 golden scale mail, and a cursed golden amulet that will be one of drain resistance, ESP, life saving, versus poison, versus curses, unchanging, nullify magic, reflection, magical breathing, wound closure, or versus evil eyes
- The crook is made cursed, +6 and erosion-proofed independently of the flail, which is handled the same as the other weapons above and thus can be made mercurial.
- The "false priest" lilitu that is encountered in Lolth's lair will always be created at level 18 with 136-143 HP, and will be given a set of crystal equipment: crystal boots, crystal plate mail, crystal gauntlets, a crystal helm, and a pair of crystal swords.
Lilitu never leave a corpse upon death.
Strategy
Effigies are a useful tool for clearing any doubt caused by the stings of lilitu, though in many cases it is possible to wait out the effects as well—one major exception is the lilitu that appears as part of the trap in Lolth's lair, which inflicts several hundred turns of doubt that should be cleared as soon as possible if you are reliant on clerical casting for critical parts of your offense.
History
The lilitu first appears in dNetHack 3.21.3.1.
Origin
In the Akkadian language of Assyria and Babylonia, the terms līlītu is a feminine variant of the masculine lilû that refers to a type of spirit: "Lilû" and its root word lil- also show wider meanings linked to spirits, desolation, and wild creatures. the lil- root is shared by the Hebrew word lilit appearing in Isaiah 34:14, which is thought to be a night bird by modern scholars such as Judit M. Blair. This root is also the genesis of the name Lilith, which is well-associated with the feminine figure in Mesopotamian and Jewish mythology that is regarded as a primordial she-demon in the latter, and many have also connected her to the Mesopotamian demon Lamashtu, who shares similar traits and a similar position in mythology.
In Mesopotamian religion according to the cuneiform texts of Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia, lilû (the masculine word from which līlītu derives) are a class of demonic spirits that the ancient Mesopotamians believed emerged from the unfulfilled spirits of adolescents who died before marriage or conceiving children. Similarly, cuneiform inscriptions from Mesopotamia exist where Līlīt and Līlītu refers to disease-bearing wind spirits. Contrasting this, a common literal translation for these terms is "female night being/demon", which is commonly used to connect the beings with the aforementioned Lilith: though recent scholarship has disputed the relevance of the Gilgamesh appendix and the Arslan Tash amulets, which were previously used to connect the Jewish lilith to an Akkadian lilītu, this has influenced the portrayal of both the līlīt and līlītu as well as Lilith herself in pop culture and various forms of media.
The lilitu of dNetHack and its derivatives are derived from a mixture of both Pathfinder and Dungeons & Dragons, which both feature the lilitu in their various settings. The lilitu of Pathfinder are shapechanging demonic outsiders with eyeless faces that have chaotic evil natures, with the physical traits of dNetHack's lilitu based on their appearance—these lilitu also prefer to achieve their vile ends through subtle manipulation and corruption from within, contrasting them with most Pathfinder demons. Ironically, such a tendency is shared with the lilitus of Dungeons & Dragons, tanar'ri demons that are quite literally born to corrupt religious groups and subsist on such corruption: these lilitu are created when a succubus fools the congregation of a "good deity" into worshiping a demonic power, then performs a hedonistic ritual that opens a portal to the deepest levels of the Abyss—this releases a blast of fire that consumes the congregation, their church, and the succubus herself, and a lilitu will rise from those ashes.
Lilitus in Dungeons & Dragons retain their former selves' seductive charms and have many innate magical abilities, including flight and illusive disguises as well as access to specific domains of divine magic aligned with demons and trickery: their heretical natures make them particularly vulnerable to divine magic in turn, and thus they fight from a distance using magic in combat, while they also favor disarming paladins, clerics and other divine spellcasters that can otherwise do severe damage. Lilitus share little in the way of culture with each other despite working well with other demons, and in fact view each other as competition to the point of actively sabotaging or attacking each other at every given opportunity—succubi are also subjected to similar ire due to representing a potential future lilitu, and some lilitu will even hire goodly mortal adventurers in order to have them destroyed (while actively enjoying the irony of the situation).
Many of these aspects from D&D and Pathfinder are partly mirrored by the abilities of dNetHack's lilitu with their agnosis-inducing stings that disable prayer and clerical casting, as well as the coaligned temple trap featuring a lilitu disguised as a priest. However, the lilitu of dNetHack are much less averse to melee combat than their counterparts and are more willing in general to work with other lilitu and succubi (although they still occasionally appear in the court of a Y-cultist patron that has taken other lilitu prisoner). The lilitu found in the lair of Malcanthet may also be based on the Radiant Sisters, a group of thirteen lilitu bards in D&D that serve Malcanthet and notable for both being incredibly loyal and not fighting among themselves.
