Amulet of Yendor

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In several computer games, the Amulet of Yendor ("Rodney" spelled backwards) is the object the player needs to retrieve from the bottom of the dungeon in order to win. It first appeared in Rogue and its sequels UltraRogue and Advanced Rogue; later Hack, Magebane and NetHack also featured it, but with the added condition that it must be brought to the "Astral Plane" and sacrificed for the player to ascend (win).

The origin of the name Yendor is unclear. The name might allude to the Witch of Endor, a biblical character who owned a talisman with magical powers. One Rogue author has a vague memory of it simply being chosen because it sounded "fantasy-like" (cf. Mordor, Gondor, and other similar place names in J. R. R. Tolkien's books) and was amusing because it was Rodney spelled backwards.

This derivation gives rise to the question "Well, who was Rodney, then?" (usually asked about the nickname of the Wizard of Yendor, but that's a re-reversal, and the Amulet long pre-dates his appearance in the game); the answer is simply that "Michael [Toy, one of the authors of Rogue] thought it was a funny name and sounded sort of neat backwards", and so named the Amulet accordingly. Some microcomputer ports of Rogue (but possibly not the original UNIX version) had 'Rodney' as the default player name.

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