# Weeping angel

Wikipedia has an article about:
Weeping Angel

Weeping angels are monsters originally added in UnNetHack. They also appear in dNetHack and SlashTHEM. UnNetHack also includes a more powerful form, the weeping archangel.

Contents

1 UnNetHack

1.1 Weeping archangel

2 dNetHack
3 Mythology
4 Encyclopedia entry
5 References

UnNetHack

A weeping angel 

Difficulty

unknown

Attacks

Gaze 0d0 blink, claw 2d4 drain energy, claw 2d4 drain life, touch 2d3 levelport

A weeping angel 

Difficulty

Attacks

Gaze 0d0 blink, claw 2d4 drain energy, claw 2d4 drain life, touch 2d3 levelport

Base level

12

Base experience

Speed

16

Base AC

−5

Base MR

70

Alignment

−7 (chaotic)

Frequency (by normal means)

2 (quite rare)

Genocidable

Yes

Weight

1450

Nutritional value

0

Size

Medium

Resistances

Fire, cold, sleep, disintegration, poison, acid, stoning

Resistances conveyed

None

A weeping angel:

 does not breathe.

 has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso.

 regenerates HP quickly.
 can see invisible creatures.

 does not eat. (*)
 is not a valid polymorphable form.

 is neither male nor female.
 is normally generated hostile.

 is nasty.

 can pick up magical items.

 has infravision.

 appears only in Gehennom.

 may appear in Sheol.

 normally appears in small groups.

 never leaves a corpse.

Reference

[1]

In UnNetHack, weeping angels have attacks that drain spellcasting energy, drain experience levels, and teleport the victim to another dungeon level. All these attacks are affected by magic cancellation.
If two Weeping Angels attack each other under conflict, they will turn to stone ("The weeping angel and the weeping angel are permanently quantum-locked!")
Weeping angels' gaze attack continues even locked in place. It causes d4 damage and exercises intelligence (the weeping angel's "reflection in your mind weakens you"), but is completely nullified by reflection (the weeping angel "is covering its face").[2]

Weeping archangel

A weeping archangel File:Weeping archangel.png

Difficulty

unknown

Attacks

Gaze 0d0 blink, claw 2d8 drain energy, claw 2d8 drain life, touch 2d6 levelport

A weeping archangel File:Weeping archangel.png

Difficulty

Attacks

Gaze 0d0 blink, claw 2d8 drain energy, claw 2d8 drain life, touch 2d6 levelport

Base level

17

Base experience

Speed

18

Base AC

−5

Base MR

80

Alignment

−10 (chaotic)

Frequency (by normal means)

1 (very rare)

Genocidable

Yes

Weight

1450

Nutritional value

0

Size

Medium

Resistances

Fire, cold, sleep, disintegration, poison, acid, stoning

Resistances conveyed

None

A weeping archangel:

 does not breathe.

 has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso.

 regenerates HP quickly.
 can see invisible creatures.

 does not eat. (*)
 is not a valid polymorphable form.

 is neither male nor female.
 is normally generated hostile.

 is nasty.

 can pick up magical items.

 has infravision.

 appears only in Gehennom.

 may appear in Sheol.

 never leaves a corpse.

Reference

[3]

UnNetHack also includes weeping archangels, which are more powerful than ordinary weeping angels. They are only generated in Gehennom and Sheol.[4]
Weeping archangels become extinct after seven have been generated.[5] This is a likely reference to the seven archangels in some Christian traditions.

dNetHack

A weeping angel 

Difficulty

19

Attacks

Gaze attack 0d0 blink, Touch 2d20 energy drain, Touch 2d4 angel's touch, Claw 2d6 physical

A weeping angel 

Difficulty

19

Attacks

Gaze attack 0d0 blink, Touch 2d20 energy drain, Touch 2d4 angel's touch, Claw 2d6 physical

Base level

12

Base experience

317

Speed

48

Base AC

−5

Base MR

70

Alignment

−7 (chaotic)

Frequency (by normal means)

2 (Quite rare)

Genocidable

No

Weight

1450

Nutritional value

0

Size

medium

Resistances

fire, cold, sleep, disintegration, poison, acid, petrification

Resistances conveyed

A weeping angel:

 can survive underwater.
 does not breathe.

 has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso.

 has a thick hide.

 regenerates HP quickly.

 does not eat. (*)
 is not a valid polymorphable form.

 is neither male nor female.
 is normally generated hostile.

 can pick up magical items.

 does not appear in Gehennom.

 never leaves a corpse.

 cannot be tamed.

In dNetHack, weeping angels won't move while the player character can see them, but move exceedingly fast when unobserved. Despite their fast speed, they make at most one attack per game turn. While they are immobilized from observation, their AC is greatly amplified. They will stay in rooms and not venture into corridors, to avoid forcing the player into a permanent standoff in a dead-end corridor.
Their angel's touch attack teleports the character to a higher dungeon level, and drains experience levels based on how many dungeon levels up the character is moved. The angel's touch attack can be blocked by both teleportation control and drain resistance.
Weeping angels are dangerous to look at, however. Viewing a weeping angel without reflection may inflict weeping angel contamination, in which the remembered image of a weeping angel begins taking over the characters mind, eventually converting them into a new weeping angel. Characters contaminated by a weeping angel gradually lose wisdom to abuse. Once wisdom goes below 3, the character dies and rises from the grave as a new weeping angel.
Weeping angel contamination can be removed by:

any means of curse removal, such as a scroll, the spell, or an effigy. Using an effigy to remove weeping angel contamination will create another weeping angel next to you.
a source of amnesia (though this of course has significant drawbacks and should only be used as a last resort)
praying on a coaligned altar while in good standing with your deity. Weeping angel contamination is considered a major trouble, but only while praying on an altar.
During the endgame, weeping angels will enter corridors. Their touch attack also no longer teleports you and is no longer resisted by teleport control.

Mythology
Weeping angels are inspired by a race of creatures from the BBC television series Doctor Who, which disguise themselves as inanimate statues in order to prey on the energy of other living creatures. A common method of feeding involves sending their prey into the past. To keep up their disguise, weeping angels in Doctor Who do not move while observed, but can move rapidly when not being observed.
The weeping angel's method of feeding, and avoidance of moving when observed, have been incorporated into its NetHack counterparts in various ways.

Encyclopedia entry

Lonely assassins they used to be called. No one quite knows
	where they came from, but they're as old as the universe. Or
	very nearly, and they have survived this long because they
	have the most perfect defense system ever evolved. They're
	quantum locked. They don't exist when they're being observed,
	in the moment they are seen by any other living creature
	they freeze into rock. No choice, it's a fact that their
	biology, in the sight of any other living thing they literally
	turn to stone. And you can't kill a stone. 'Course a stone
	can't kill you either, but then you turn your head away.
	Then you blink. And oh yes it can.

Doctor Who, "Blink" 

"This whole book, it's a warning about the weeping angels, so
	why no pictures? Why not show us what to look out for?"
	"There was a bit about images. What was that?"
	"Yes. Hang on.... 'That which holds the image of an angel
	becomes itself an angel.'"

Doctor Who, "The Time of Angels" 

References

↑ src/monst.c in UnNetHack revision 1986, line 1191

↑ https://sourceforge.net/p/unnethack/git/ci/master/tree/src/mhitu.c#l2202

↑ src/monst.c in UnNetHack revision 1986, line 1201

↑ src/monst.c in UnNetHack revision 1202, line 1201

↑ src/makemon.c in UnNetHack revision 1986, line 1273