The Eyes of the Overworld
( The Eyes of the Overworld 
| |
|---|---|
| Base item | pair of lenses |
| Affiliation | |
| When carried | (none) |
| When worn |
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| When invoked | |
| Base price | 2500 zm |
| Weight | 3 |
The Eyes of the Overworld is the Monk quest artifact. It is the prize for completing the Monk quest, and its default alignment is neutral. Its base item type is a pair of lenses.
Contents
Generation
For Monks, The Eyes of the Overworld always generate blessed on the Monk quest goal level, where it is always placed on the square of Master Kaen at level creation.
Description
While worn, The Eyes of the Overworld grant magic resistance and astral vision along with the usual effects of worn lenses: unless the hero is on the Rogue level, the squares around the hero are illuminated as if lit by a lamp, ignoring obstructions such as walls, doors, solid rock; far looking objects seen through astral vision describes the items' appearance (including type-names) as if the hero is personally handling them, similar to a blessed potion of object detection. The Eyes of the Overworld also suppress and override the effects of blindness from any source for the duration of the status.
Invoking The Eyes of the Overworld grants enlightenment.
Strategy
- For optimized invocation, see Invoke#Optimum invocation schedule.
The Eyes of the Overworld are a solid magic resistance source for Monks that allows them to keep other slots free, such as the cloak slot for a robe or other cloak of choice; this includes a cloak of magic resistance for Monks that are not as concerned with spellcasting and/or else want a reliable backup in case the Wizard of Yendor steals them. Players attempting the zen conduct should not wear The Eyes of the Overworld under any circumstances, as it will instantly break the conduct - they may elect to stash it or keep it in a container within their inventory in order to avoid accidentally applying and wearing them.
Astral vision is highly useful for navigating Gehennom without magic mapping, but requires the use of the eye slot - furthermore, NetHack assumes that line-of-sight between monsters is symmetrical, i.e. monsters that the hero has a clear line of sight to can see them too. This makes the wearer vulnerable to gaze attacks such as those of umber hulks, especially if the attacker is behind an undiggable or phasing-proof wall: most importantly, seeing Medusa while wearing The Eyes has lethally tragic consequences, with the wearer being turned into a statue by her stoning gaze. Heroes that obtain the Eyes before clearing Medusa's Island will want to keep them off so they can blind themselves and have room for a blindfold or towel when confronting Medusa herself.
The enlightenment from invoking the Eyes is useful to informally identify useful rings and amulets.
History
The Eyes of the Overworld first appears in NetHack 3.3.0, which introduces the Monk role to NetHack. From this version to NetHack 3.4.3, including variants based on those versions, The Eyes provide magic resistance while carried - Master Kaen gains magic resistance from The Eyes upon picking them up, preventing Monks from using a wand of death on him.
Origin
The Eyes of the Overworld is a 1966 novel in the Dying Earth series by Jack Vance. The anti-hero Cugel, a resourceful but amoral rogue, is tasked by a wizard to obtain the titular artifact from a squalid village whose "aristocracy" wears the Eyes, which allow them to see everything around them as though it were opulent luxury - fittingly, the Eyes in the novel are depicted as literal rose-tinted contact lenses.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, The Eyes of the Overworld replaces The Mantle of Knowledge, which serves as the Monk quest artifact in ancestor variants NetHack Plus and SLASH 6.
The Eyes of the Overworld grant magic resistance while carried, as in NetHack 3.4.3: this makes Master Kaen immune to death magic and magic missiles once he picks it up, though this is not a concern since Monks in SLASH'EM can make short work of him with their techniques.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, the artifact's name is changed to The Eye of the Overworld, and its base item is changed to a morganite soul-lens.
The Eye of the Overworld grants magic resistance while carried, and while worn it also grants x-ray vision and fully protects the wearer from blindness and gaze attacks, in addition to the regular effects of soul-lenses. Monks wearing the Eye gain a spellcasting bonus equal to their armor modifier (24) if they have an alignment record of at least 20 and the artifact is non-cursed, compared to half the bonus from regular soul-lenses - this bonus becomes a penalty if the Monk's alignment is negative, or else if The Eye is cursed.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, The Eyes of the Overworld protect the wearer against most gaze attacks, with partial protection against the cancellation, disintegration and stoning gazes of beholders (which deal varying amounts of physical damage instead) - Medusa's petrifying gaze is too powerful for the Eyes to block, and the fiery gaze, cold gaze and luck-draining gazes of magical eyes ignore the Eyes since they are considered area-of-effect attacks. Monks wearing The Eyes of the Overworld have a 2⁄3 chance of resisting all cancellation effects.
If The Eyes of the Overworld are wished for by a non-Monk hero, there is a 1⁄x chance (where x is the amount of previous artifact wishes) of it being created successfully, and an effective x⁄(x+1)² chance of a hostile Master Po generating adjacent to the hero, with the artifact in his possession.
All of the above information also applies to Hack'EM.
Encyclopedia entry
... and finally there is "the Eyes of the Overworld". This obscure artifact pushes the wearer's view sense into the "overworld" -- another name for a segment of the Astral Plane. Usually, there is nothing to be seen. However, the wearer is also able to look back and see the area around herself, much like looking on a map. Why anyone would want to ...
