NetHack/Characters

'''Important Note: Spoilers are easily accessible via the wiki and IRC, but there is always the difference between knowing of something and experiencing it for the first time; even so, in the spirit of being as new player friendly as possible, spoiler tags are used on this page. The NetHack community defines "spoilers" as not just including plotline spoilers, but gameplay-related ones as well. The plot itself usually has far less direct impact on the game than its various mechanics, so if you wish to experience as much of the challenge as possible, read with caution and mind the spoiler tags and links.'''

As a long-running roguelike, NetHack has a very relatively loose plot to accommodate the high levels of randomization. That said, there are at least a few characters that will always appear in every game, all listed below.

You
"It is written in the book of (god X):

After the creation, the cruel god Moloch rebelled against the authority of Marduk the Creator. Moloch stole from Marduk the most powerful of all the artifacts of the gods, the Amulet of Yendor, and he hid it in the dark cavities of Gehennom, the Under World, where he now lurks, and bides his time.

Your god (god X) seeks to possess the Amulet, and with it to gain deserved ascendance over the other gods.

You, a newly trained (title X), have been heralded from birth as the instrument of (god X). You are destined to recover the Amulet for your deity, or die in the attempt. Your hour of destiny has come. For the sake of us all:

Go bravely with (god X)!"

- The introductory text shown after creating your NetHack character.

...Yes, you. Now quit gawking at the screen and pay attention!

In the context of NetHack, you can either mean "you, the adventurer/player character/hero/etc." or "you, the physical player"; the former is generally preferred for the in-game character and will be used as such for this section.

You can be any one of 13 character roles from one of five races (human, elf, dwarf, gnome, or orc) and three alignments (lawful, neutral or chaotic). The available race-and-alignment combinations are dependent on the role you pick.

Tropes listed here apply to the player character across all "incarnations"; for a look at the actual roles races and alignments, along with any consistent tropes they exhibit, see the setting page.


 * All There in the Manual: The Guidebook that comes with local installs gives you more context about why you're there in the Mazes of Menace.
 * Big Eater: Unless you're doing specific diet-based conducts, you'll likely be going through a lot of corpses by the time you're even close to a third of the way done.
 * Bottomless Bladder: You never have to sleep, and can recover HP and magical energy without explicitly resting, provided you're not carrying too much.
 * Wizard Needs Food Badly: You still need to eat, all that said, though you can circumvent even most of those processes if you're creative and willing enough.
 * The Chew Toy: You may become this if your luck (not always including your Luck, mind) goes badly enough.
 * Chosen One: As indicated by the quoted introductory text, and it would certainly explain the strange dreams you've had according to the Guidebook.
 * Critical Existence Failure: Unless you're heavily encumbered, you're still just as capable at 1 HP as you are at maximum, but the second you hit 0... DYWYPI?
 * Featureless Protagonist: Played with. You can pick your role, race, gender, and alignment - each role also has distinct starting armor, weapons and the like - but between NetHack being an ASCII game and a not-very-plot-heavy one, what you actually look like (and any other characterization not given by the game itself) is entirely left to your imagination. Using tiles can also guide your impression of your appearance, depending on the set you choose.
 * Final Death: Any death you suffer in-game will be this... unless you're in wizard/explore mode or.
 * Glory Seeker: One of your primary motivations for entering the Dungeons of Doom, according to the introduction in the Guide.
 * Guile Hero(ine): Even at your most Lawful Good, you'll still be pulling quite a few tricks out of your hat in order to achieve your objective.
 * Mission From God: Your primary motivation, as stated by the text at the start of a game.
 * Regenerating Health: Occurs passively and depending on your nutrition and encumberment levels.
 * Tomato in the Mirror: Specific interactions on the final level of the game reveal that
 * "Who do you think you are, ?"

The Oracle
The Oracle is a unique human monster who resides on her own special level, which she calls Delphi. She is guaranteed to appear in every game (outside of shenanigans involving bones files), and can provide the player consultations for a fee.


 * Classical Mythology: She's explicitly based on the Pythia, the priestess who presided over the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi, and even welcomes you to "Delphi" when you first arrive in her room. The random messages generated on the level while outside the Oracle's room also allude to the Oracle of Jupiter at Dodona ("You hear a strange wind") and the Oracle of Æsculapius at Epidaurus ("You hear snoring snakes").
 * Mad Oracle: Downplayed. At worst, her minor consultations are a bit obtuse, and even that is justified since her purpose is to reveal mechanics of the games to the player. One of the random messages that occur while you are elsewhere on her level also mentions "conclusive ravings".
 * Shout-Out: In addition to the Greek Oracles, she is also partially based on The Internet Oracle. Both of them were even introduced in the same year (1989)!
 * Trial and Error Gameplay: The Oracle's purpose is to help avert this.
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential/Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Attacking the Oracle in melee will get you showered with magic missiles, which can be blocked via magic resistance. Attacking or killing her is generally a bad idea anyway, as it will rob you of the ability to get consultations for the rest of the game, on top of murder penalties for the latter. There is no penalty if a high-enough level pet attacks her, however, so you'll likely want to keep your pet from killing her by accident.

Croesus
The owner of all the vaults scattered across the Dungeons of Doom, and the employer of its guards. He also commands a pretty sizable army of mercenaries, and has a chance to be found waiting in Fort Ludios.


 * Badass Normal: Croesus is effectively a normal human... a human who has solid base AC and is damn skilled with a zweihander.
 * Blade of Fearsome Size: Croesus is always generated with a two-handed sword.
 * The Guards Must Be Crazy: If any of his guards finds you in one of his vaults, they'll promptly leave if unable to speak at the moment. You can also fool them simply by
 * On the other hand, if you try the above after, they'll immediately try to kill you.
 * King Mook: Of a sort - he's generated on a throne like most other examples in the game, and commands legions of soldiers.
 * Optional Boss: Not only can you skip Fort Ludios completely, but the portal to the branch may not even appear.
 * Orcus on His Throne: Subverted - he starts "asleep" and occupying the throne square in his dwelling as with any other throne room, but the moment you enter the branch, the alarms will sound and he'll immediately spring into action along with everyone else.
 * Properly Paranoid:
 * Croesus has several enclaves of monsters you'll have to fight through to get to him, and a set of alarms will trigger the second you step through the portal - which is entirely sensible for someone who owns as much as he does.
 * Every floor with a vault has it blocked off from the rest of the dungeon, though it's possible to dig your way to one. Some floors have a hidden door with the phrase "ad aerarium" (Latin "to the treasure") in front of it; this door hides a closet with a vault-connected teleporter inside... or, on deeper levels, a level teleporter that sends you upward. Similar closets marked with "Vlad was here" have trap doors behind them instead.
 * His guards will attempt to kill you if.
 * Rich Bastard: Those vaults you find in the dungeon? All his. He also has truckloads of gold along with hidden caches of gems in his castle.
 * Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The guards regard you as one if you take certain actions prior to them entering the vault.

Medusa
A boss that needs very little introduction. You must pass through her islands on the path to the Castle.


 * Back from the Dead: One possible interpretation, given that her domain has a statue of Perseus around. See the Classical Mythology entry below for more details.
 * Brown Note: Her typical stoning gaze.
 * Classical Mythology: Draws primarily from her usual myth. She has a statue of Perseus in her domain, which has a chance of containing analogues to the items he used to defeat her in the tale.
 * One of the four possible maps for her island has several snakes, nagas, and even a yellow dragon and their eggs - these likely allude to/represent Amphisbaena and the Sahara vipers, which were created from the blood spilling out of her decapitated head.
 * Public Domain Character
 * Taken for Granite: Inflicted by her gaze, of course. Her dwelling has many statues, implied to be created from miscellaneous victims (and outright confirmed by a comment within the code).
 * Weaksauce Weakness: If you know the myth, you know exactly what can make short work of her.

Spoiler Characters
Demon Lords and Princes

The demon lords and princes of Gehennom are among some of the biggest major obstacles you'll potentially face on your way down through the literal hellscape.


 * Demon Lords and Archdevils
 * Never Found the Body: None of them leave corpses upon their death,
 * Optional Bosses: Played With - you technically don't have to fight any of them at all.
 * Asmodeus and Baalzebub in particular can potentially be bribed to leave you alone, and Juiblex and Yeenoghu can be summoned early via same-race sacrifice (though this is normally inadvisable - unless you're chaotic, which ensures they'll be peaceful). Of the guaranteed demon rulers - Asmodeus, Baalzebub, Juiblex and Orcus - Orcus is the only one that cannot be bribed or summoned, and it is still possible to bypass him to a degree. The rest will only appear if summoned via the above method or called in by another sufficiently powerful demon and/or spellcaster.
 * Even so, you'll probably want to dispose of as many of them as possible to make life easier, and their loot will often make it worthwhile.

Asmodeus

Asmodeus is the first of the demon rulers you'll likely encounter, and the first whose lair you'll have to get through. He's probably also the most fearsome of that quartet, too. Asmodeus awaits in a square segmented room next to the level's downstair, situated at the center of a maze.


 * An Ice Person: He has a special cold ray attack: at a distance, it's functionally identical to the cone of cold spell, but in melee range it does devastating cold damage - upwards of 180 points, which is potentially enough to kill all but the most powerful characters in one strike. And it completely bypasses magic resistance and reflection! Fortunately, half spell damage can blunt the impact, and cold resistance completely nullifies the attack.
 * Bribing Your Way to Victory: Asmodeus will demand a payment for safe passage upon noticing your presence and warping to you (unless you're wielding Excalibur or Demonbane, which will turn him hostile if he senses it upon your entrance). Given that you likely have a bag by that point, it's easy to stash most of the gold you actually care about (or donate it to the priest in the Valley of the Dead beforehand) and simply let Asmodeus make off with as much of the rest as he pleases, allowing you to continue on unharmed.
 * Character Alignment: Lawful Evil.
 * Grave Humor: A possible epitaph for randomly-generated graves is "Postman, please note forwarding address: Gehennom, Asmodeus's Fortress, fifth lemure on the left".
 * Weapon of Choice: He always generates with a wand of cold and a wand of fire, and the latter is likely meant to represent his Ruby Rod from 1st edition Dungeons & Dragons.

Baalzebub

Baalzebub is the next of the demon rulers whose lair you'll encounter. Like Asmodeus, he waits in the center of a maze - Baalzebub's lair is fly-shaped, with the demon prince himself waiting at the back end of the "fly".


 * Bribing Your Way to Victory: Baalzebub will demand a payment for safe passage upon noticing your presence and warping to you (unless you're wielding Excalibur or Demonbane, which will turn him hostile if he senses it). As with Asmodeus, you can stash most of your gold and accept Baalzebub's bribe, causing him to leave you be while you progress on relatively unharmed.
 * Character Alignment: Lawful Evil.

Vlad the Impaler
A boss that also needs very little introduction.


 * Anticlimax Boss: Pre-3.6.1, Vlad was considered an absolute joke. Was.
 * Adaptational Badass: Subjected to this in most (if not all) variants, as many of them came out prior to 3.6.1. This version would upgrade Vlad proper, reversing his Badass Decay and turning him into one of the fastest and most fearsome bosses in the game.
 * Evil Tower of Ominousness: Lives in a three-tier one.
 * Interface Spoiler: Vlad's presence in the game is hinted at early by closets with the phrase "Vlad was here" written in dust in front of them. Then again, it's Vlad - there's not that much to spoil.
 * King Mook: Rules over vampires, and is found with several vampires and vampire lords at the top floor of his tower.
 * Lightning Bruiser: Hits hard and often? Check. Hits real fast? Check. Drains health and even levels? Boy oh boy, check.
 * Optional Boss: Was one until version 3.1.0.
 * Public Domain Character
 * Teleport Spam: His speed allows him to constantly warp back and forth between the stairs and your position, usually tagging you at least couple of times and potentially draining levels in the process.

The Wizard of Yendor
The primary Big Bad of the game, and the one who seeks to make use of the Amulet of Yendor's power for unknown ends.


 * Bandit Mook: Rodney can steal quest artifacts, the Amulet of Yendor, and the Book of the Dead from you upon a successful attack if any of them are in your open inventory.
 * Big Bad Triumvirate: Forms one with the High Priest of Moloch and Vlad the Impaler. Also technically forms a Big Bad Quartet with your quest nemesis:
 * Doppelganger Attack:
 * Enemy Summoner: Can summon nasties like many other high-level spellcasters, and.
 * Evil Tower of Ominousness: Has several towers in Gehennom, only one of which actually has him inside.
 * Final Boss: Served as the final obstacle of the original Hack from version 1.02 until NetHack 3.1.0; in versions after that, he is effectively the last boss you're guaranteed to fight.
 * Interface Spoiler: Certain messages generated by fortune cookies, crystal balls, etc. will indicate that the Wizard is watching you.
 * Resurrective Immortality:
 * Sdrawkcab Name: The Wizard of Yendor is referred to as Rodney for this reason.
 * Sorcerous Overlord: A powerful wizard with a massive army, which the in-game encyclopedia indicates he had a hand in training and possibly brainwashing.
 * Super-Persistent Predator/You Will Not Evade Me: The Wizard of Yendor can and will follow you to the ends of the earth.
 * Touch of Death: One of the many spells in Rodney's arsenal.
 * Weaksauce Weakness: Rodney is easily dispatched by a wand of death.

Spoiler Characters
The Riders

Also known as the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. , Pestilence and Famine await players who successfully make it to the last of the Elemental Planes - the Astral Plane. Interacting with them or applying certain other items on the Astral Plane reveals that you are the Fourth Horseman, War.


 * Contractual Boss Immunity: All three of the Riders cannot be Taken for Granite and have every elemental resistance, along with full monster magic resistance. They are also capable of reviving from most forms of Instant Kill that they aren't outright immune to; disintegration causes them to re-integrate instantly, and if killed in any other way they have a 1⁄3 chance of reviving each turn, starting 12 turns after. Their corpses cannot be polymorphed and will instantly revive if you try to dispose of them; trying to engulf and digest them or else eat the corpses will instantly kill the schmuck in question and leave the Rider unharmed.
 * Subverted with regards to Death Rays, which can instantly drop both Pestilence and Famine, though as above Resurrective Immortality ensures they won't be down for long. Death, on the other hand, is healed by them.
 * Cool Horse: Averted. Despite their name, none of the Riders actually ride anything - this is justified, as hostiles riding other monsters has yet to be implemented.
 * Elemental Embodiment: They seem to serve as this for their respective aspects due to their individual traits; additionally, their Character Alignment is neutral, much like other Elemental Embodiments and "force of nature"-style creatures in-game.
 * Finger-Poke of Doom: The Riders' touch attacks are among the most lethal in the game, and they use them twice per attacking turn; the second attack is converted into a stunning touch if the first one lands.
 * Foe-Tossing Charge: The Riders can actively shove aside and displace other monsters in their path to get to you.
 * Glass Cannon: Subverted - they have a solid base AC of -5, but that's not likely to be trouble for any player good enough to reach the Astral Plane to begin with, and their powerful touch attacks are several factors more worrisome. However, the highest roll possible for their maximum HP is a measly 80, meaning that if you can hit them reliably you'll (hopefully) put them down quickly.
 * Optional Bosses: It's more than possible to make your way to the high altar without encountering any of your brethren, but you'll have to fight at least one of them if your search takes too long (especially on "grand tours").
 * Resurrective Immortality: The three Riders can revive from their corpses at any moment after you kill them - you on the other hand aren't so lucky. It's possible to get rid of them "permanently", but very, very difficult to do so.
 * Walking Spoiler: They're exclusively encountered on the Astral Plane, which as the last level lands them solidly in this territory.
 * You Will Not Evade Me: An unusual variant. Zapping them or their corpses with a wand of teleportation only has a 1/13 change of actually getting them away&mdash;and the rest of the time they'll end up on a square next to you and revive from their corpse if applicable.


 * Plaguemaster: Naturally. Pestilence's touch attack can render you seriously ill, which leaves you a few turns to cure it before killing you outright.
 * Poisonous Person: The incarnation of this trope, to the point that they're even healed by potions of sickness (which they helpfully generate with a small stock of).
 * Revive Kills Zombie: Healing spells actually hurt Pestilence, though the guaranteed monster magic resistance (i.e. 100, which is the most possible) they possess will always halve the damage. Healing potions can have the same effect, but Pestilence will completely resist those unless they are severely level-drained first.


 * Wizard Needs Food Badly: Famine can inflict this on you by draining your nutrition with their touch attacks. Fainting of hunger on the Astral Plane is a surprisingly good way to end up dead.


 * Canon Immigrant: Of a sort. The 3.6.0 update is a tribute to Terry Pratchett, which among other things added Discworld novels to the game and gives Death his trademark style of text; additional Easter Egg messages also occur if you chat to him while carrying one.
 * Painting the Fourth Wall: As of 3.6.0,
 * Shout-Out: One of many to the late Sir Terry Pratchett. He even gives a special message if spoken to while carrying a Discworld novel.
 * Touch of Death: But of course, he is Death. As such, his touch is far more potent than the melee-range spell used by other enemy casters, and can drain your maximum HP as well even with magic resistance.

The Gods
There are 3 gods in the pantheons corresponding to each of the 13 roles (minus the Priest, who can serve any of the pantheons at random). The "main" set of 36 gods are all roughly interchangeable with one another - as only one pantheon will be a factor in terms of any given playthrough - but each alignment's god still has different standards for their servants. In addition, there are other gods mentioned alongside them, usually as part of the game's backstory.


 * A Day In The Limelight: The gods get one to themselves in the parody text adventure game, What Fools These Mortals.
 * Bolt of Divine Retribution: Standard for any sufficiently displeased god.
 * There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
 * Crossover Cosmology: Multiple pantheons, real-world and otherwise, all occurring in the same world.
 * Aztec Mythology: Quetzalcoatl, Camaxtli and Huhetotl.
 * Babylonian Mythology: Ishtar, Anhur and Anshar
 * Celtic Mythology: Lugh, Brigid and Manannan Mac Lir.
 * Chinese Mythology: Shan Lai Ching, Chih Sung-tzu and Huan Ti.
 * Classical Mythology: Athena, Hermes and Poseidon.
 * Conan the Barbarian/Hindu Mythology/Zoroastrianism: Mitra (based on Mithra), Set, and Crom.
 * Discworld: Blind Io, The Lady and Offler.
 * Egyptian Mythology: Ptah, Thoth, and Anhur.
 * Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser: Issek, Mog and Kos.
 * Japanese Mythology: Amaterasu Omikami, Raijin and Susanowo.
 * Norse Mythology: Tyr, Odin and Loki.
 * Roman Mythology: Mercury, Venus and Mars.
 * Curse: Will throw these at you if angered enough.
 * Divine Assistance: Their role and main purpose (from a standpoint of mechanics) is to help the player character that serves them in return for them adhering to certain standards that vary based on alignment and/or role. "Well-behaved" players are rewarded with blessings for their weapons and sometimes other items, stat restoration, full HP if at low health, curing fatal status problems, and more - all the way up to and including rare artifact weapons.
 * Everyone Has Standards: Do not try to kill your pets or sacrifice them to the gods, and do not offer a unicorn that matches your alignment or that of the altar's god.
 * Gods Need Prayer Badly: Seemingly averted and also inverted - while prayer is your main form of interaction with deities, they do not require them to live necessarily, and you'll piss your god off if you pray to them too often.
 * Human Sacrifice: Unless you're chaotic or else not human, they do not approve of this at all. More specifically, any sacrifice that isn't of your species (again, unless you're chaotic) OR one of your pets is fine with them.
 * Kick the Dog: Directly killing your pets is a quick way to get on their bad side.
 * Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Also a part of their purpose in the game, as directly killing peaceful monsters and abusing pets will hamper your alignment.
 * Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Also a part of their purpose in the game, as directly killing peaceful monsters and abusing pets will hamper your alignment.

Marduk
The creator god mentioned in the introductory text at the start of each game... which is about the extent of their involvement.


 * Babylonian Mythology: Named for the creator figure.
 * Flat Character: Ultimately serves to create the MacGuffin that's the focus of the game's sparse plot.

Moloch
The only unambiguously evil deity of the bunch, and one of the few unaligned gods. He is responsible for stealing the Amulet of Yendor from the chief creator god, Marduk, and spiriting it away to Gehennom. His high priest keeps the Amulet of Yendor in their temple.


 * Bigger Bad: Ultimately responsible for the events of the game.
 * Blue and Orange Morality: Somewhat implied. He is the enemy of all three alignments' gods, and doesn't seem to care much for anyone except his priests and minions - and in some cases outside of his high priest, not even then. Notably, he seems to take little issue with Rodney holing up in his domain.
 * Bolt of Divine Retribution: Gehennom is his domain, and if you attract his attention by praying or else trying to convert one of his altars while in there... He'll also fire rays of lightning at you during your battle against the high priest.
 * The Dragon: The high priest of Moloch keeps watch over the Amulet, and is who you must fight to retrieve it and begin the ascension run.
 * Expy: A god molded after the Luciferian/Satanic archetype and named for the ancient Ammonite god.
 * Fire and Brimstone Hell: Gehennom, which Moloch uses as his domain.
 * God of Evil
 * Non-Action Big Bad: Is explicitly said to be biding his time in Gehennom at the start of the game.
 * Nonstandard Game Over:
 * Religion of Evil: Moloch has a dedicated priesthood.
 * The Unfought: You can never really confront Moloch, directly or otherwise - only thwart his plans for the Amulet. It's his high priest that holds the main MacGuffin you seek; before version 3.1.0, that honor went to Rodney himself.