What Fools These Mortals
by Leonard Richardson (leonardr@segfault.org)

The Story:

 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.

 All gods crave the Amulet. For ages you and your kind have sent heroes
 to die in the cave complex that connects Gehennom to the mortal
 world. You devised strategies and wards to help your own heroes,
 horrible traps to halt your rivals' progress. New caves were hollowed
 out, the races multiplied, gods died and were born, and still the
 struggle continued.

 Now the Mazes of Menace are overrun with monsters sent by one god to
 destroy another's champion, choked with magical objects destined for
 long-dead favorites. Mortals live as they always have, oblivious to
 the great battle that rages just beyond their world. The gods tire;
 the current situation cannot long endure. Perhaps this time your
 chosen one will return with the Amulet. Perhaps...

The Game:

 What Fools These Mortals (WFTM) is a game based on the popular game
 of NetHack. Instead of playing a mortal on a quest, you portray one
 of the long-suffering deities who preside over your games of
 NetHack. If your champion pleases you with sacrifices, you can show
 your appreciation by means of a magical reward; if instead, you tire
 of his or her constant requests for help, the lightning bolts are
 always within easy reach. Win the amulet from Moloch, and you will
 have achieved what no other god has done since the beginning of time!

 WFTM is written in Python. It will run on both Unix and Windows, and
 will run with minor display problems on other platforms.

Gameplay:

 WFTM gameplay is very simple. Occasionally you'll be asked a question
 and prompted to enter a one-character response. At any such prompt
 you can type one of the given letters, or 'q' to quit the game. You
 may also be prompted with '--More--', which is an invitation to hit
 any key. Eventually your champion will die, quit, or sacrifice the
 Amulet to you. The game ends when any of those things happen.

Command-line options:

 There are two command-line options which let you skip the initial
 questions that determine which deity you will play:

  -a ('alignment') controls your ethical outlook. This can be [l]awful,
   [n]eutral, or [c]haotic. Your champion will always be of your
   alignment.

  -p ('profession', or role) determines what type of person tends to
   worship you. For instance: Ptah, Thoth, and Anhur are all worshiped
   by wizards.
 
   Your champion may be of your chosen profession, or may be a priest
   who devotes him- or herself full time to spreading your gospel. If
   your specified alignment conflicts with the alignment requirements
   of your specified profession (as with Issek, the rather
   underemployed god of lawful rogues), your champion will always be a
   priest.

  For example, specifying the arguments "-pw -an" will let you play
  Thoth, the neutral god of wizards.

 There is also a '-D' option, which puts your champion into discovery
 mode. A champion in discovery mode cannot die, but may still quit.
