Anshar
| Religion in NetHack |
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In NetHack, Anshar is the chaotic god of the Caveman pantheon.
Origin
Anshar (Neo-Assyrian: "whole sky") is a Mesopotamian god that was regarded as a primordial king of the gods and not actively worshiped. Anshar is considered the father of Anu and similarly represents the sky, with his spouse Kishar representing the earth as Anu's does. Anshar's role in the conventional genealogy of Anu is the basis for his incorporation into the Enūma Eliš: though the text does not explicitly state if Anu and Kishar are the children of Lahmu and Lahamu or another pair of Apsu's and Tiamat's children, the former option is considered the correct interpretation. In the first millennium BCE, Anshar's name came to be used as a logographic representation of Ashur, the head god in the Assyrian state pantheon.
In the Enūma Eliš, set during Anshar's tenure as the king of the gods, when his grandson Ea informs him about Tiamat plotting against the younger deities, Anshar blames Ea and tasks him with finding a solution. Both Ea and Anu are unsuccessful, and Ea eventually convinces Anshar that the only god who can defeat Tiamat is his own son, Marduk - indeed, Marduk overcomes both Tiamat and her champion Kingu, and replaces Anshar as the new king of the gods, with Anshar, Lahmu and Lahamu christening Marduk with new names.
Variants
dNetHack
In dNetHack and notdNetHack, Anshar is a chaotic god of neutral holiness, and his minions consist of standard chaotic demons: manes, quasits, vrocks, hezrou, nalfeshnees, mariliths, and balrogs.
Encyclopedia entry
A primordial Babylonian-Akkadian deity, Anshar is mentioned
in the Babylonian creation epic _Enuma Elish_ as one of a
pair of offspring (with Kishar) of Lahmu and Lahamu. Anshar
is linked with heaven while Kishar is identified with earth.
