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[em1LL]

Hi all!

What can I do to avoid unhappy thoughts like "horrified after seeing a troll die" for the military dwarves?

Thanks in advance.

[SyrusLD]

Kill more trolls/goblins/sentient creatures.

Seriously, they will get used to it and stop caring. The problem is, you need to make sure not to have any "can't handle stress" (or worse)-soldiers though.
Obviously you should also look that they got nice stuff around them in their barracks/rooms/training-area...I even put some nice stuff where they are stationed in case of defense (my "security room" at the special "invader's" fortress entrance). Also, make sure to dispose of corpses as fast as possible after a siege. While they get used to seeing death over time, if old corpses still lie around, they will constantly get bad thoughts from them - even if they will "not feel anything" upon seeing new deaths!


I still think a dead goblin/hippie should rather give a thought of "triumph/joy/bliss/relief/thrill/lust(?! well...you never know )/etc." to most normal non-whimpy dwarves...

[Callista]

Most dwarves (except the ones who are particularly bloodthirsty or sociopathic) should still be horrified to see their first few enemy deaths. After they get over that, they're fine.

But that initial horror should still be there, even though battle is admittedly a very dwarfy pursuit. Because otherwise, our dwarves might be born ruthless cold-blooded killers who'd as soon eat somebody as look at them... and that's what the elves do.

Besides which, what's battle without the thrill of fear and the serious business of killing sentient creatures? Without that, you might as well just become a butcher instead and avoid the long hours of training.

But, yeah, all in-world explanations aside, just get some dwarves who don't have any traits that suggest they'll crack under pressure, and let them get some experience in battle. Seeing someone else kill a goblin helps; killing one themselves is even better. Killing a hostile animal isn't going to help much, but there are some monsters in the caves that are intelligent and will help get your soldiers used to killing things. Animal-men are decent too. You just want them to be used to battle to some degree before they get into serious fights where they might see their friends die.