So the Queen and King Consort finally showed up at my fortress, bringing their advisor (the King's aunt), four Royal Guards, and a Hammerer. The King had a long and dwarfly history of killing wildlife, but unfortunately had no legs. Fair enough; he was carried to the barracks to rest, and soon found himself ecstatic. The first thing the Hammerer did (and I tried various things to stop her) was to hunt down and beat to death three of my dwarves. Fair enough. Eventually she went to sleep and was locked in to starve.
Now the Queen wouldn't choose herself a bedroom, despite there being various Royal and Grand bedrooms unoccupied. Fair enough (yeah, I know, I'd probably have to assign her one myself, but I was curious as to whether she might pick one that matched her 'status'). Upshot was, she got unhappy, and started a fight.
Bam! out of the blue, "Geshud Dakosttishis, Queen has bled to death." Fair enough. A little surprising that they'd just up and kill her, but quite gratifying.
And then...
"Litast Oddomtaron, Advisor has been struck down."
"Obok Gimrakust, Planter has been struck down."
"Kol Shigosvabok, Planter has been struck down."
"Rith Urvadginet, Stoneworker has been struck down."
By the time Obok bit the dust, I was watching. One of the Champions (whose emotions were "Ecstatic" throughout and who had no wounds or "unhappy" state indicators) just switched onto a killing spree, running round the meeting area just randomly targetting people and killing them.
He was eventually brought down by another Champion (funnily enough, a much weaker one).
What on earth? One minute everything running smoothly, the next, the hallways are covered in bits of dwarf and sprays of blood*.
I don't believe the Advisor flipped over the death of the Queen - she wasn't even her friend, oddly, just a "passing acquaintance", she was the King Consort's aunt. There's nothing about starting fights or smashing things in her bio.
Any ideas? What made a normal, perfectly healthy, long-standing member of the fort who was (and remained) "ecstatic" go all Flippy? He was a "passing acquaintance" of the Queen, and no relationship at all with the Advisor.
On a happy note, the King Consort is still "ecstatic" in his barracks sickbed. He doesn't have any rooms or furniture either, but doesn't care.
*I realise these are often synonymous, but not in this case.