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[TerribleTy27]

So, I'm adventuring along when I come across an army marching. Curious, I ask what they're up to. They refuse to answer, but based on their direction, they seem to be the army I'd heard about heading towards a nearby fortress. For whatever reason, they get angry and start shooting me up. Like the boss I am, I kick butt using the power of full-heal legendary swordsmanship.

Anyway, I notice that when one of the dudes is mangled, he wasn't carrying a sword or anything. He had the gear, but he was attacking me with the book he was reading. Curious, I flip through said book.

It was called - and I joke not - Secrets of Cuttingage

It was apparently some kind of expośe on the secret stuff going on in the fortress. Checking out the other dead bodies, it was the same story. A weird mix of propaganda and stories about the fortress they going to seige.

Has anyone else seen anything like this?

[DG]

No, but I haven't played the game properly for a few versions now. It's pretty cool that they have what might be propaganda, less cool that they currently use them to physically fight with.

[PlumpHelmetMan]

Hate to be a party-pooper: but I'm pretty sure books are still randomly generated, so it could just be that the procgen title lined up with the stories the book contained in a way that came to coincidentally resemble propaganda.

Then again, I'd have to see the book. Do you have any screencaps?

[voliol]

I'm not sure much research has been done on the impact on writing in worldgen, but if I recall correctly it should be bigger than it is after. Not all things are shown in the legends mode either, so it could be some secret feature or just a few others lining up in a nice way, like the world gen actors preferring to both write books about and conquer economically important sites, and books being written by an enemy of the current holder of a site being more likely to showcase a negative view of the subject. The latter hypothesis is very speculative though, even more than the former.

[Loam]

My guess (which could be verified with Legends Mode): the army already attacked the fortress and stole books from its library (if it has one), or from visiting scholars/poets. Folks like to take "artifacts" from defeated opponents, and artifacts currently include books. I've had mercs show up at my fortress carrying books they'd stolen in world-gen. I don't think propaganda is implemented yet, and if you can check I'll wager these soldiers didn't write those books.

I'm pretty sure books are still randomly generated

Books have never been "randomly generated" to my knowledge (depends on what you mean by that) - they're all "artifacts" created during world-gen by historical figures, and their histories are tracked.
Unless you mean that the content is randomly generated, which is somewhat true. Writers (of histories at least) seem to pull their content more-or-less at random from world events, which results in a lot of books about celebrations and wrestling competitions rather than wars or other important events.

[TerribleTy27]

Hate to be a party-pooper: but I'm pretty sure books are still randomly generated, so it could just be that the procgen title lined up with the stories the book contained in a way that came to coincidentally resemble propaganda.

Then again, I'd have to see the book. Do you have any screencaps?

Argh. Unfortunately, I forgot about the incident for a day or two before I decided to ask bay12. Never took any screenshots.

[CaptainArchmage]

Incidentally, propaganda is a topic that can be researched in the library in both a historical and philosophical sense. The latter produces books that can shift the readers' values...

Source: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Topic