Light source

Bringing the light where there was none before, illuminating and enlightening all that was dark, the first thing you will need in all the pitch black dungeons of IVAN will be a light source.

Lantern

A wall-mounted lantern and a lantern on the floor.

Lanterns are the most common light source - generated in all dungeon rooms, you will usually find them mounted on walls.

Unfortunately, they shatter rather easily, being especially vulnerable to explosions. Ditch them as soon as possible for a light crystal, crystal skull, or a flaming weapon.

In a pinch, lanterns can make for effective weapons and have a surprisingly high block rate due to high roundness. This makes them suitable for battle in the earliest stages of the Underwater Tunnels, especially against hedgehogs should the player be lacking an actual weapon.

Also note that glass hardens directly into illithium, making an early scroll of hraden material an option how to both raise the damage and overcome the fragility of your bloodstained lantern.

Oil Lamp

Oil lamps are better known for their association with genies. However, they can also be used as an indestructible light source.

An oil lamp emits light similar to a lantern when held in your inventory, although not quite as bright. It is also quite heavy, being made of gold.

Light Crystal

An indestructible and very light stone made of light crystal, they are the most common replacement for the fragile lantern you start with. They are extremely rarely found in the dungeons, so that it's much more convenient to visit the Crystal Cave and destroy one of the large crystal shards (or golems) found there to get one.

Crystal Skull

Crystal skulls are basically in the shape of skulls - and they have all the same properties, including invulnerability, only the crystal skull looks much more badass than any glowing stone can ever hope.

All Necromancers have a chance to be generated with a crystal skull instead of the normal one they are mostly carrying. Also, you can make your own with a skull from a destroyed skeleton and a Scroll of Change Material; but that is the worst way you could possibly waste this precious scroll.

Others

• Flaming Sword - Emits an orange glow due to being on fire. Continues to emit light when broken.
• Thunder Hammer - Emits a bright white-blue glow. Continues to emit light when broken.
• Holy Banana - Also emits an orange glow due to being on fire.
• Justifier - Emits bright white light.
• Left Nut of Petrus - Emits an orange light.
• Shirt of the Golden Eagle - Emits a blue light.

History of Lanterns

Fiction: This page is a work of fiction by Dark-Star2018

Many are the names in the common tongues for the great blessing which holy Legifer hath bestowed on us: "Lumes", "Glims", "Lanthorns", "Little-stars", "Twinkleboxes" and countless others in the tongue of Man alone. Many more exist in the languages of Dwarven-kind or the Elvish kindred and even the barbaric blabber of the Orcs, far more than could be mentioned.

Yet how poor and pitiful is the gratitude returned to the lord of Order for these daily wonders despite the great benefit that they provide! Little do we seem to think of what should happen if His blessing were to be withdrawn across the world, leaving us all groping in the dark. So for the further enlightenment of the reader (in every meaning of the term) here is the known history of His generosity:

In ages long past when cities had not begun and villages were but rudely built of straw-daubed walls with hide rooves, all except the highest of nobles lit torches for their homes within and without. Often naught else could be had: rushes burned but would only grow on the banks of warm rivers while coal mining scarce existed past tiny pits. Immeasurable was the amount of labor to keep the fickle fires of countless torches fed well enough to burn brightly but also guard them from catching aflame to everything else!

Of all the torments of the forces of Chaos in those hard days, few were of greater delight in their loathesome eyes than to set a feeble spirit to flitter about a torch or luchina so that it leaned closely to a curtain to set it ablaze, or topple a poorly fixed oil lamp to the floor to spread flaming liquid all about. Such wicked conjurations gained the name chandl-wyghts (or "candle devils" in more modern speech). in time the more devious servants of darkness learnt to use the mere threat of the spirits for extortion that proved of greater effect than the wanton destructiveness of the spirits themselves. Sigils of protection began to be sold by such merchants who would trade in them that offered a tenday or a month or a season's worth of respite despite furious efforts to quell such round-about funding of evil. Even these sigils in turn became targets for a few bold charlatans, selling counterfeit sigils that held no magic protection at all. However these forgeries were especially dangerous; risking fates far worse than death for the makers unfortunate enough to be caught by the 'true' salers.

At length this ville traffic reached the household of a leader of an early guild of chandlers whose name has been lost to the ages. He apparently found one morning a threat scribbled upon a scrap of parchment to pay his tithe to the temple instead for 'insuring' the safety of his family and home. As his very life's work was the proper making of lights and fire-guarding, his rage was so kindled that he at once ran to the temple to shout with such a voice that half the village heard his oaths, demanding some means of the Lawful gods to stop his tormentors. Such had been his devotion to that no less than Iustitia herself appeared on the threshold of the temple. With a voice of thunder she proclaimed a call to holy war upon evil to last until the sun had set that day.

Of what events transpired that day we know little, save that every man and strong boy for miles around grabbed such arms and armor that were at hand to answer Iustitia's summon to go forth putting a great many dens of evil to the sword. As the last flickers of daylight vanished over the horizon, the mighty archangel vanished to leave behind something most wondrous. A massive tablet stood where she had been, made of a material like glass yet far stronger that no man had ever seen the like of before. It would at some length be given the name "illithium" by learned men of the time. The lengthy canticle of holy words the tablet bore wove a spell that lit a brilliant white glow from within a vessel held by the one with the patience to complete the wearisome chant. As if this gift were not great enough, so amazing was Legifer's grace that even a simple-minded apprentice was able to complete it so long as his attention stayed unbroken.

As quickly as they could be made, skilled smiths began fashioning more vessels for these blessed lights out of tin or brass with many piercings to let out the light from within. But the tradesman who had first begged Legifer's aid crafted the first true lantern encompassed with glass, knowing its affinity to the god. By the time the pious man went to his eternal reward he claimed to have fashioned at least a hundred-score lanterns with his own hands - and likely so!

With the dispersal of these blessed lights all across the lands, not only were the ruinous powers sorely hurt but also many who would have perished in some firey tragedy hath lived full lives instead. Countless hearths and halls came to be lit without smoke or a pence's worth of tinder. To say nothing of the relief to forest-wardens when the common man needed far less wood throughout the year.

Now let thy mind be enlightened by the full truth of Legifer's beneficence, that you may reflect upon his gift to the full measure.