# God

Religion in NetHack

priests
alignment
alignment record
altars
atheism
anger
gods
sacrifice
prayer
turn undead

This article is about NetHack's deities. For the item known as “GoD”, see gauntlets of dexterity.
In NetHack, the role of your adventurer determines the pantheon of gods that appear during the game. Each role's pantheon contains one lawful, one neutral, and one chaotic god; there is no functional difference in gameplay between gods of different alignments outside of which one you serve and which ones oppose you. These divine pantheons are listed as follows:

Lawful
Neutral
Chaotic

Archaeologist

Quetzalcoatl
Camaxtli
Huhetotl

Barbarian

Mitra
Crom
Set

Caveman

Anu
Ishtar
Anshar

Healer

Athena
Hermes
Poseidon

Knight

Lugh
Brigit
Manannan Mac Lir

Monk

Shan Lai Ching
Chih Sung-tzu
Huan Ti

Priest

random
random
random

Ranger

Mercury
Venus
Mars

Rogue

Issek
Mog
Kos

Samurai

Amaterasu Omikami
Raijin
Susanowo

Tourist

Blind Io
The Lady
Offler

Valkyrie

Tyr
Odin
Loki

Wizard

Ptah
Thoth
Anhur

Unaligned

Marduk · Moloch · Elbereth · Arioch

Your task is to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor for the god of your alignment - to ascend and win the game, you must sacrifice the amulet at your god's high altar, and you can sometimes #pray to your god in times of need. The pantheon for a priest(ess) is randomly selected from another single role; if a priest's lawful god is Blind Io, the neutral god is always going to be The Lady.

Contents

1 Unaligned gods
2 Origin

2.1 Other deities

3 Variants

3.1 SLASH'EM
3.2 Convict patch
3.3 Pirate patch
3.4 SpliceHack

4 Encyclopaedia entry

Unaligned gods
The unaligned god is always Moloch, who holds dominion over prayers and altars in Gehennom.
Of the other "unaligned" gods, Marduk is described in the introductory text as the Creator, from whom Moloch stole the Amulet of Yendor. Elbereth is the name of an elf-goddess that can be #engraved to frighten most monsters, not including humans or elves.
Atheist conduct tries to avoid actions directly involving the gods and other aspects of religion.

Origin
The NetHack pantheons (and related quests) for each role are derived from a mix of real-world and fictional sources:

Archeologist:  Aztec mythology
Barbarian:  Robert E. Howard's Conan mythos
Caveman:  Mesopotamian mythology
Healer:  Greek mythology
Knight:  Celtic mythology
Monk:  Chinese mythology
Ranger:  Roman mythology
Rogue:  Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser mythos
Samurai:  Japanese mythology
Tourist:  Terry Pratchett's Discworld mythos
Valkyrie:  Norse mythology
Wizard:  Egyptian mythology
Other deities
Marduk: Babylonian mythology
Moloch: Ammonite mythology (in the Bible in the form "Molech," q.v. 1 Kings 11:7; Moloch is the Greek form of the Hebrew מֹּֽלֶךְ found in LXX in 2 Kings 23:10)
Elbereth: J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth mythos
Arioch: Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné mythos
Variants
SLASH'EM

Lawful

Neutral

Chaotic

Undead Slayer

Seeker

Osiris

Seth

Flame Mage

Earth

Fire

Ash

Ice Mage

Air

Frost

Smoke

Yeoman

His Majesty

His Holiness

The Commons

Necromancer

Nharlotep

Zuggothobal

Gothuulbe

Convict patch
The Convict patch adds the Convict as a new role with its own pantheon, based on the Forgotten Realms mythology.

Lawful

Neutral

Chaotic

Convict

Ilmater

Grumbar

Tymora

Pirate patch
The Pirate patch adds the Pirate as a new role with its own pantheon

Lawful

Neutral

Chaotic

Pirate

Davy Jones

the deep blue sea

the storm

SpliceHack
SpliceHack incorporates the Convict patch and Pirate patch. It has some original roles with their own pantheons.

Role

Lawful

Neutral

Chaotic

Source

Cartomancer
Johnny
Spike
Timmy
Magic the Gathering archetypes

Dragon rider
Enki
Enlil
Ereshkigal
Sumerian

Encyclopaedia entry

Goddesses and Gods operate in ones, threesomes, or whole
pantheons of nine or more (see Religion).  Most of them claim
to have made the world, and this is indeed a likely claim in
the case of threesomes or pantheons:  Fantasyland does have
the air of having been made by a committee.  But all Goddesses
and Gods, whether they say they made the world or not, have
very detailed short-term plans for it which they are determined
to carry out.  Consequently they tend to push people into the
required actions by the use of coincidence or Prophecy, or just
by narrowing down your available choices of what to do next:
if a deity is pushing you, things will go miserably badly until
there is only one choice left to you.

[ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ] 