Warg
d warg  
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 8 |
| Attacks | |
| Base level | 7 |
| Base experience | 92 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 4 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | -5 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 850 |
| Nutritional value | 350 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
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A warg:
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| Reference | NetHack 5.0.0 - include/monsters.h, line 283 |
A warg, d, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The warg is a medium-sized and carnivorous canine animal that has a similar appearance and behavior to the wolf, but is larger with darker fur, and can be seen via infravision. Female wargs in the default tileset have slightly shorter tails than the males.
A warg has a single bite attack.
Eating wargs is considered cannibalism for a hero that has lycanthropy from a werewolf.[1][2]
Contents
Generation
Randomly generated wargs are always created hostile, and may appear in small groups.
Werewolves that call for help and summon hostile monsters have a roughly 1⁄10 chance of generating a warg per summoned monster[3]—a hero that contracts lycanthropy from a werewolf can spend 10 power to summon tame wargs with the same odds by using the #monster extended command.
Wargs appear among the random d that are part of the first quest monster class for Samurai and make up 24⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Samurai quest.
Strategy
While they are no faster or better in terms of AC than wolves, wargs still pose much of the same hurdles in the mid-game: a lone warg can be handled with some care by a prepared hero, but packs of wargs and their bite attacks can spell serious trouble if you are slow, underpowered or else inattentive, and werewolves can surround you with wargs and other wolf-like monsters unless handled wisely.
On top of the usual melee and area-of-effect strategies for handling groups of monsters, wargs lack any MR score much like the weaker canines, leaving them quite vulnerable to magic and elemental attacks. Take out werewolves as soon as possible to ensure that they cannot overwhelm you with hordes of wargs and other lupine threats.
History
The warg first appears in NetHack 3.0.0. From this version to NetHack 3.6.7, including some variants based on those versions, the warg shares its tile between genders and uses the d glyph, which it shares with the wolf—NetHack 5.0.0 gives the warg its current glyph via commit 3b2d3eab, which also changes the warg's default tileset appearance to have a darker fur color.
The ability of werewolves to summon allied wargs is introduced in NetHack 3.6.1 via commit 1f4574b6, which also makes it cannibalism to eat wargs while the hero has lycanthropy from a werewolf.[4][5][6]
Origin
The warg is derived from the Middle-Earth setting of J.R.R. Tolkien, where it is a particularly large and malevolent wolf-like being that is used as a mount by orcs. The name and spelling are a cross of Old Norse vargr and Old English wearh: the latter refers to an outcast or an outlaw in Old English, while the former arose as a non-taboo name for úlfr (normal Old Norse for "wolf"), and is used in particular to describe massive wolves such as Fenrir, who destroyed the god Odin in the battle of Ragnarök, and the wolves Sköll and Hati, Fenrir's children who perpetually chase the Sun and Moon.
In the setting of Middle-Earth, wargs actively ally themselves with the Orcs, whom they permit to ride on their backs into battle and share any resulting spoils with. They are also one of many animals within the world of Middle-Earth that are anthropomorphized and made at least semi-intelligent, alongside other examples such as the giant Mirkwood spiders—The Hobbit in particular indicates that wargs are capable of speech, as seen when they plan their part in "a great goblin-raid" on the woodmen's villages.
Creatures similar to wargs also appear in other forms of media, and are sometimes an offshoot or relative of the much-larger-than-normal "dire wolves": Dungeons & Dragons feature the near-identical worgs as a form of intelligent and evil-natured neo-dire wolf. Worgs are much more intelligent than wolves and often cooperate with orcs, goblins and hobgoblins, who use the beasts as attack dogs and mounts similar to the orcs of Middle-Earth; worgs are also capable of speaking Common and Goblin along with their own language.
Variants
Some NetHack variants based on NetHack 3.4.3 and earlier versions may not include the ability to summon allied wargs for werewolves or count eating them as cannibalism for heroes given lycanthropy by a werewolf.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, wargs do not randomly generate in Gehennom and cannot be summoned by werewolves. Eating wargs is not counted as cannibalism for heroes with lycanthropy from werewolves.
Wargs can appear among the random d that are part of the second quest monster class for Yeomen and make up 6⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Yeoman quest.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, wargs are strong and capable of tracking the hero and other targets through their normal vision and scent. Wargs cannot be summoned by werewolves, but mist wolves and the index wolf have a 1⁄3 chance of summoning a warg per summoned monster when calling for help (including the mist wolf's cloud form). Eating wargs is not counted as cannibalism for heroes with lycanthropy that turns them into a werewolf.
Orcish heroes can saddle and ride wargs as steeds.
Wargs can be warded by a Toustefna stave that is carved into a wooden weapon and placed on the hero's square, and that weapon will also warn of wargs and other canines while wielded.
Wargs can appear among the d that make up 1⁄10 of monsters randomly generated in the Windowless Tower branch.
Randomly-created wargs have a 3⁄5 chance of being generated with armor: they have a 1⁄10 chance of generating with orcish chain mail, then a 2⁄9 chance of generating with orcish ring mail if the chain mail is not given, and a 3⁄7 chance of generating with leather armor if the ring mail is not given. If they receive any body armor, they will also generate with an orcish helm. Wargs also have a 1⁄20 chance of generating with a saddle.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, wargs can be summoned by werewolves, and eating wargs is counted as cannibalism for heroes with lycanthropy from werewolves.
Orcish heroes are the only race of hero that can tame wargs as domestic animals, and are also the only race that can apply saddles and barding to wargs and ride them as steeds without immediately un-taming them.
Vampire royals and vampire mages are capable of shapeshifting into wargs, including heroes that are polymorphed into of either monster.
Wargs can appear among the random d that are part of the first quest monster class for Infidels and make up 24⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Infidel quest.
Goblin-captains always generate with warg mounts, while Uruk-hai have a 1⁄7 chance of generating with warg mounts, and orc-captains have a 1⁄4 chance of generating with a warg mount. Wargs generated as steeds for monsters are always generated with saddles, while wargs generated normally have a 1⁄2000 chance of generating with a saddle. Saddled wargs have a 1⁄100 chance of generating with barding, which has a 3⁄4 chance of being standard barding, a 1⁄6 chance of being spiked barding and a 1⁄6 chance of being barding of reflection.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, wargs can appear among the random d that are part of the first quest monster class for Ninjas and make up 24⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Ninja quest.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, wargs cannot be summoned by werewolves, but eating wargs is still counted as cannibalism for heroes with lycanthropy from werewolves. Wargs can also randomly generate in Gehennom, unlike in SLASH'EM.
As in EvilHack, orcish heroes can domestically tame wargs, apply saddles and barding to them and ride them as steeds. Similarly, vampire royals and mages also retain the ability to shapeshift into wargs.
Wargs can appear among the random d that are part of the second quest monster class for Yeomen and make up 6⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Yeoman quest, as they do in SLASH'EM. Similarly, wargs can also appear among the random d that are part of the first quest monster class for Infidels and make up 24⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Infidel quest, as in EvilHack.
Encyclopedia entry
Suddenly Aragorn leapt to his feet. "How the wind howls!" he cried. "It is howling with wolf-voices. The Wargs have come west of the Mountains!"
"Need we wait until morning then?" said Gandalf. "It is as I said. The hunt is up! Even if we live to see the dawn, who now will wish to journey south by night with the wild wolves on his trail?"
"How far is Moria?" asked Boromir.
"There was a door south-west of Caradhras, some fifteen miles as the crow flies, and maybe twenty as the wolf runs," answered Gandalf grimly.
"Then let us start as soon as it is light tomorrow, if we can," said Boromir. "The wolf that one hears is worse than the orc that one fears."
"True!" said Aragorn, loosening his sword in its sheath. "But where the warg howls, there also the orc prowls."
