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[Syndic]

I have a dwarven necromancer, courtesy of my first immigration wave. To avoid undead animals in the refuse pile, I walled him off.

I would like to have him write scrolls in the hope that one of them may contain the secrets of life and death, so I built him his own little library. It has a table, a chair, a bookcase (empty) and a coffer (currently containing 3 empty scrolls). There's also a zone designated as active meeting area over all that.

Now I'm not sure what else to do - left to his own devices, he's just pondering reproductive behaviour in green. If I set him as a scholar for that library zone, he's pondering reproductive behaviour in pink. Scribe? green pondering.

Do I have some sort of requirement not met? Or does he just need more time? And if it's the latter - is it better to have him set as scholar, or to hope he does it in his free time?

[PatrikLundell]

I'm not aware of anyone writing anything unless they're a scholar, but I could be wrong. The scribe task is to copy existing "books", so that's not what you want.

I believe he'll continue with reproductive behavior until he eventually writes something, at which time he'll switch (possibly to the same topic).

[Thisfox]

That pondering is him thinking. Eventually he'll write about the stuff he's pondering about, if he's a scribe and has access to the tools, the table and chair, and the library.

It took one of my scribes about three years of pondering to finally get the first book out, so be prepared to just leave him alone to think. I thought I needed to have a lot of scrolls ready, before any of my scribes came up with the idea to put anything down on paper, but I think that was mostly a side effect of the waiting time meaning I made more scrolls while waiting, I don't think it was a scroll amount threshold number actually holding them back.

[delphonso]

I'm not aware of anyone writing anything unless they're a scholar, but I could be wrong.

This is correct in every fort I've had. Scholars will write new books, Scribes will copy.

It takes a long time - probably to stop the fort from overflowing with false artifacts. Eventually they will write a book as long as a scroll or quire is available. The topic of the book will be anything they have access to - for this Necromancer they surely have "Secrets of Life and Death", "Reproductive Behavior", and a few poetic forms - not to mention a couple historic events they're interested in. It could take a very long time for one necromancer to produce a manual on the secrets of life and death.

However - if you raid a tower and find a book with the secrets, a Scribe will quickly make copies and you'll have necrodwarves in no time. Alternatively, adventure mode to find such knowledge, then write a few manuals until you get the secrets and drop them off in the fort. There's a few ways to it.

You may want to check on their mental state occasionally - I know necromancers don't need food or drink, but am unsure if they can't go insane. You might also want to give them booze occasionally if they become unfocused and slow. That certainly needs double checking - as I have no idea.

[anewaname]

If he has friends and family in your fort, consider including them in the prison and adding a tavern and temple for all.

When you are checking their mental state, the Needs summary that reads like "Overall, she is unfocused by unmet needs." is probably more important than their current Stress level.

[Syndic]

He immigrated without any family, sadly. And yes, he does get unfocused - I gave him a 5x5 temple so he can pray, but guess I should shove a stack of bone and a rock to make a craftsdwarf's workshop in there so he can at least be creative and such.

But good to know that setting him as scholar is the right thing to do - I didn't PLAN to have a necromancer fortress here, so I'm in no particular hurry. He can just "ponder reproductive behaviour" until his palms get hairy and his eyesight lessens, as long as he starts writing at some point. The rest of the fort will do their thing while he's behind the walls.

/e: he immigrated without family, but he does *have* family. which is why he misses them, inconveniently.

[Thisfox]

Personally I would give the necromancer a hobby that didn't involve stuff he could mistakenly resurrect, like gem cutting or something. With a steady supply of bones, it could suddenly be a very Fun fortress if the elkbirds get loose and startle him or something.

[PatrikLundell]

I didn't think necros could reanimate anything that couldn't be reanimated by a reanimating biome, i.e. things that have bite and/or grasp ability? If that's correct, skulls for totems would be a bad idea, while bones for crafting would be safe as they're no longer parts of arms (which would have had a grasp ability before decaying into stacks of bones).

[Syndic]

well, he would have the bones in his walled-off section where no other living thing is (I built an "airlock" to bring him things, which is walled off with stone blocks on both sides. I only open the outside part to put things in, and the inside part to let him take things out). And I too am under the impression that something needs a graspy bit to be able to get reanimated (no more aggressive cartilage!), so a stack of bones should be safe?

Anyway, he's unfocused for SO many reasons, I'm not sure it's even worth trying to fulfill his needs right now. I mean...

- away from people (I don't want to wall anyone else in while my population is restricted to 30 dwarves so I can get set up without being overwhelmed)
- unoccupied (maybe the bone crafting could fix that?)
- doing nothing creative (bone crafting?)
- unexciting life (I dunno... maybe I should shove a captured goblin in there?)
- unable to acquire something (shove some crafts in there?)
- kept from alcohol (don't think he'll drink without a bartender...)
- lack of decent meals (doesn't eat, so natch)
- unable to fight (he really wants that captured goblin, huh)
- lack of trouble-making (erh... guess whomever I could put in there with him would not have it easy? random goblins aside?)
- unable to argue (...)
- unable to be extravagant (ok, that one would be easy. maybe I'll shove a random piece of armor with a quality in there)
- unable to help anybody (don't see this one happening, unless his desire to argue, make trouble, and fight results in some other dwarf I put in there getting injured)
- (fulfilled: thinking abstractly)
- unable to make merry (guess he could do that bit once he has a friend in there?)
- unable to admire art (ok, could fix that one)
- unable to practice a craft (could be fixed with the bone crafting)
- away from friends (needs at least one more dwarf in there. One who tolerates him despite his not so nice tendencies...)
- unable to practice a martial art (again, another dwarf)
- unable to take it easy ()
- unable to pray to <two different gods> (you have a temple! but you only pray when I remove your scholar job! sheesh!)

In summary... it would be a lot of effort, and I'd probably have to un-scholar him periodically to make him fulfill his needs. WAY too much effort, especially since it would take away from his scholaring time. And since I don't particularly care about the quality of the books he produces, all that his distractedness does for me is lower his work speed - which, again, partially compensated by not spending time on all that above stuff.

[Thisfox]

"Make merry" is definitely drink alcohol. He wants a piss up!
A lot of those things could be corrected with a few live pets. Stick a kitten in there for him to play with and talk to and argue with and care for. Why do you think a goblin would be better than a pet wardog or a cat, or a goose?

If your population is restricted to only 30, you are unlikely to have much happen to startle and upset the necromancer. I mean, goblins won't attack at such a low population, for example. Have you considered just returning him to normal fortress life for a few months? It's not like this guy is going to turn into a contagious killing machine once a month.

Make sure his temple doesn't overlap with another zone, or an inactive zone, or something. Incidentally, I was told if your dorfs worship with singing and dancing and music, it's possible he's waiting for another seven dwarfs to dance an 8-dorf dance (or four more for a five-dorf dance or whatever) or something before he can do the type of praying he wants? Or is this wrong? Please correct if wrong.

[Syndic]

Huh, I wasn't aware dwarves would fulfill their social needs with pets. I do have spare cats in a cage for when my current pair of food-stockpile-guards die of old age... (I let them reproduce freely, but any new kittens go in the cuddle cage)

My map has giant bluejays startling my dwarves when they haul in pears or wood logs, so my paranoia says "are you SUUUUURE?"

His temple doesn't have any other zones overlapping (made that mistake with the public temple earlier in this fort). He prays just fine when he's not assigned as scholar, but making him the scholar causes him to just stick with pink "pondering reproductive behaviour". So he CAN pray, and the temple DOES work, he just doesn't want to stop his months-long wank pondering for worship.

[Thisfox]

That pink pondering is him working on the book in his head. You keep stopping him from being able to do that task, so he can't do the next task, which is to write said book. Stop jostling his elbow and he'll get it done.

[Syndic]

Well, he did finish his pondering on that topic by now. He wrote a manual on reproduction, an essay on some historical event, and is now pondering the next topic - foraging behaviour of creatures.

But it works, I'll keep him supplied with scrolls, and one day I'll check his private library to find something !!Fun!! in there.