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[Felix the Cat]

Have you ever had your dwarves "comment" on current events through their artifact names?

Mine are. It's pretty impressive/creepy...

I stumble into a chasm while mining. A couple of months later a bone carver goes fey and produces Umomrerras "Darkfissures" the turtle bone chain. I suppose he was pretty impressed by the chasm.

Next, there's a goblin ambush, and a couple dwarves are injured. My fort straddles the end of a mountain range, with badlands on one side and a desert on the other - so there's not much water to be had; a couple pools in the desert that are usually dry. There's no water to be had at this point in time, so the injured dwarves die of thirst. Next thing I know, a stone carver withdraws from society... and produces Fashbekom "Parchedsprings" the limonite crown.

And then comes the saga of the Elves. I'm pretty sure my dwarves are not too fond of the Elves. From their first caravan on, they were tough bargainers - I'd offer a quite fair deal and they'd demand thousands of dwarfbucks more worth of mugs. I guess their bargaining tactics are frowned upon in the local religion... because my mechanic is taken by a fey mood and creates Dasellelum Lanerasmel, "Heavenwarned the Sly Merchants". The next year, the Elven caravan comes, and a goblin ambush arrives on its tail, killing all the hippies. An engraver duly goes fey and makes Notlithidath, "Ruinedamused" - I suppose he found the rather ruinous Elven deaths rather amusing; I know I did! But wait, there's more... a bone carver has rather strong opinions on the Elven choice of lifestyle and the deaths of the merchants, withdraws from society, and brings forth Keshshakcagith Gethust Lemlor "Swelteredcry the Harshness of Fanciness" - presumably, they were rather harshly killed by the goblins, their cries were lost in the sweltering heat of the desert, and it was all brought about because the Elves are "fancy". Awesome!

[magikarcher]

It sounds like some of those were thought about a bit too hard... Its like seeing an Austin Powers movie, then hearing someone mention algebra, you think about it for a few moments and decide that: powers are used in math, algebra is a type of math, hence the person was referring to the movie. Now those would be more notable if 'Parchedsprings' had had engravings of dwarves surrounded by goblins in a desert. This is just my opinion though, and opinions are just like onions, but with pi. 

[Felix the Cat]

Oh, of course... but if the names vaguely connect to actual events in some way or another, it's much more fun to make the connection than to dismiss it as the randomness that it is!

I'd much rather have artifact names that are like these than some of the others I have... "Daggerworked the Null Yor"... ones that are just "wtf could that possibly mean?"

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Well, I like the idea of interpreting the randomness as deliberate thought. It helps give the game an edge.

However, I personally feel that the artifacts are a bit too vague if you just connect them to recent events. With artifacts, I usually find it amusing if the name comments on the nature of the artifact.

For historic events and other things, I strongly recommend you check the engravings. They can be really awesome. I haven't written anything down and don't have any running games right now (still world genning after a mishap during world gen), but they can be quite hillarious with some imagination - especially if dwarf A makes an image of dwarf B embracing some creature(s) and the title indicating folly or something :) :) :) :) :)

Deathworks

[Captain Xenon]

in my current fort, the first wave of immigrants brough a clothier... he was possesed, and demanded cloth thread. my farms hadnt grown any pigtails yet, as i had a LOT of cave spider silk thread lying just outside (chasm that opens to aboveground). he went insane, and died melancolony. soon after, a mason was possessed, and made an obsidian coffin, "Adoreshadow the mindful Incense". it has an image of a trout in turtle bone, and bands of hematite. an image of this coffin was engraved in my dining hall. so obviously, he was impacted by the death of this other crafter, whos body had to lay in a graveyard stockpile in plain view (the stink rolling into the hallway as i was short on doors), for i had no tombs yet. heck, i had no coffins yet. so this guy makes a proper resting place for his fellow crafter to spend eternity (saving the artifact for nobility, gave the clothier a nice obsidion coffin in a small tomb on the lowest of levels).

2 more possesions since then- an iron idol "Craftedlovely the sandaled dimensions"  made over at the magma forge with iron and spider silk, and a turtle shell mask "The Certainty of Releif". now, i see the idol (which references itself) as being a metalcrafter happy to see the magma put to good use and happy about his craft.

the mask... turtle shell, donkey leather, green glass, and hematite. clearly, this was a migrant who was happy to be alive and in a pleasant fortress. only one death, avenged with an artifact, and the wine flows freely alongside the barrel of Sunsine and the sunberries (im gonna start farming that stuff soon, when the garden wall is ready.).

im at that middle-zone of a fortress, where im waiting for the other shoe to drop. the humans are arriving for the first time, and i still need to build a LOT more traps before my fortress is anywhere near ready for goblins.

[MC Dirty]

For historic events and other things, I strongly recommend you check the engravings. They can be really awesome.

That's totally true! I was really impressed when I found out that my dwarves knew more than I did.  I had a bunch of masterful engravings and nearly all of them showed humans and elves fighting against each other, an elf devouring a human and similar things. They were obviously referring to a war between humans and elves, although it was happening outside the map!