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[darkflagrance]

The real solution is to set ethics ranges the same way we currently have ranges for personalities.

This way, the average dwarf will detest cannibalism, but a small minority will be willing to do it in desperation, and very very few will have an uncontrollable urge to do it.

[Dragula]

What if a majority have this uncontrollable urge to do it, due to the rest dying in starvation or whatnot. Will this then form the culture of this fort? So when new immigrants arrive they will have to adapt.

[Arrkhal]

There should really be a line drawn between cultural ethics (which should have ranges and a weighted average, like personality traits), and species instinct (which once again, should be like personality traits).  Most of the time, the two will match (humans tend to have an instinctive aversion to killing in cold blood, and most cultures' ethics say that murder is wrong).  Every once in awhile, though, you get a crazy person.  And sometimes, you end up with a crazy culture, too.

[Dragula]

Yes, though there should be some way of steering towards that crazy culture if you intervene a lot, FE not allowing any other food/bone sources.

[Astramancer]

I must be thinking of PERSONAL_MATTER wrong then.  I thought it was up to the individual whether they did it or not, and that others would react based on their personal views, and thus some dwarves would be like "well, you did what you had to do" and some would be "wow, you're a friggin monster"

In any case, I'm pretty sure Urist McSnack's friends would find the whole thing quite horrifying, even if they found EAT_SAPIENT_KILL:DESPARATE acceptable.

[Dragula]

"Fell
<dwarf> looses a roaring laughter, fell and terrible!
Has a horrible fell look!

A dwarf that goes into a fell mood will always take over a butcher's shop or a tanner's shop. The dwarf will then murder the nearest dwarf, drag the corpse into the shop and make some sort of object out of dwarf leather or bone. Once the artifact is completed, the fell dwarf will become a legendary bone carver or leatherworker. Strangely, none of the other dwarves seem to mind the murder. Only unhappy dwarves may enter a fell mood.

Aside from the potential loss of an important dwarf in the wrong place at the wrong time, there doesn't seem to be any downside to a fell mood. The end result is always an artifact and a legendary craftsdwarf. Since the only ingredient used (a dwarf) is available in abundance, a fell mood will only fail if the fell dwarf is completely isolated from other dwarves, or if the proper workshop does not exist."

At least this is possible, but it's so seldom, and he actually MURDERS one dwarf without any reaction from the others, which I find quite strange.

[Thanshin]

Reasons for cannibalism:

- Hunger.
- Tantrum?
- Madness.
- Cook Fell Mood.
- Butcher Fell Mood.

[Grendus]

About different civs - civilizations that have wildly different cultures, such as New Guinea cannibal tribes vs Western European countries, are separated by thousands to millions of years of culture. In the short time spans you see in DF world gens, culture would vary about as much as, say, USA vs Great Britain. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of different culture between the two countries, but a large portion of the ethics between the two countries is either similar or the same. World gen would either have to run much longer or ethics would have to change absurdly fast in order for different dwarf kingdoms to develop wildly different cultures.

However, if every world gen randomized dwarf culture somewhat, that would make more sense. Starting with cannibal dwarves and then having one isolated kingdom where cannibalism was [IF_DESPERATE] would be very fun^tm