TL;DR version at the endI generated a new world for a certain project i had in mind (31.25, vanilla, no custom tilesets, medium region, 12 titans, endyear 200, 500 scarcity, levels above layer 1: 10). I was looking through the five dwarven civs playable, and i noticed something
weird.
Out of the five civilizations, by the year 200 only 2 are officially alive, of which only one is flourishing with a mountainhome and a couple of colonies. The other has no capital and an exiled royal couple. But i won't talk about these two, i'll talk about one of the three seemingly dead ones.
Veludil, the Lined Lantern.
Details and chronology for those interested in them:
1 - Foundation of Lucidtrades (mountainhome) and Tradepatterns, king Kogsak Lostfurnace is the first monarch.
4 - Foundation of Tribewire.
6 - First wave of starvation in Tribewire.
From year 7 to 32 rampages and onslaughts from various beasts/underground fauna/megabeasts. In the late winter of 31 most of Lucidtrades (royals included) starve, after a named jaguar and a named tigerman feasted on a whole page of livestock.
32- New ruler (Kol Tradedsinged) and new general, Tribewire is the new mountainhome. With becoming the capital, comes all of the attention from unwanted guests.
53- The general Lokum Chamberwebbed, who tamed elk birds some years before, gets killed and devoured by a roc.
54- The new general Unib Tongsfountain is slain by the minotaur Alen Spikeswhispered the Thrower of Mines, who is daughter of Rulac Lancedkey the Scraped Gore of Hurricanes.
84- King Kol starves in Tribewire.
85- The new ruler is queen Limul Wheelmorning.
86- The new general, who tamed cave swallows and voracious cave crawlers, starves in Tribewire.
88- Queen Limul starves in Tribewire.
89- New ruler, king Zan Shockbooks, married to the general Endok Esteemboat, is crowned in Lucidtrades. The only dwarven monarch with heirs, he survived the attacks of the cyclops Epeve Oilesteem the Superior Torch and the minotaur Rulac twice.
103- Kung Buriedumbra the Ashen Phantom of Dying, an extremely resilient and successful night creature (horror of evil, still alive by the end of worldgen), rampages through the capital: she kills the fourth eldest daughter, smashes the left ear of the third eldest daughter, rips the upper right leg of the second eldest daughter.
104- The second eldest son, who began wandering the wilds a year ago, confronts Kung and gets killed.
105- The cyclops Epeve Oilesteem the Superior Torch kills the third eldest daughter, the third eldest son, the eldest son and the second eldest daughter, who survived having one leg ripped off by Kung.
The eldest daughter of Zan and Endok, who escaped the onslaught of Kung, began wandering the wilds.
107- The fifth eldest daughter, survivor of the rampage of the cyclops Epeve, is slain by Rulac.
107- Foundation of Pointtrades.
109- Zan and Endok starve in Lucidtrades. They survived 7 of their 10 children, and unbeknownst to them, the remaining 3 will die shortly after. Starting with their eldest daughter who settled in the young colony of Pointtrades and decided to confront a dragon, who roasted her shortly after the death of her parents.
110- The new king is Tosid Budcopper, who starves in 111 in Tradepatterns. Kung attacks the last two remaining siblings, too young to rule, but they survive.
112- New ruler, queen Onol Shakenclasp, starves in Tradepatterns the autumn of the same year.
113- New ruler, king Likot Tattooedpulleys, starves in Tribewire the winter of the same year.
114- New ruler, king Ral Amusedcanyon, starves in Lucidtrades the autumn of the same year. The general, who was married to the late Tosid Budcopper and moved to Lucidtrades, starves as well, with the youngest son and daughter of Zan and Endok.
116- New ruler, king Goden Towersubmerge, starves in Lucidtrades the autumn of 117.
118- New ruler, queen Kol Wringpost, she survives a couple of onslaughts from Kung and another horror of evil, but she ends up starving in Pointtrades in the winter of 119.
120- New ruler, and last dwarven ruler, king Tholtig Laborblunts, starves in Pointtrades the autumn of the same year, with his wife Cerol, the last dwarven general.
Silence long 57 years in which there's no more mention of anything from any mountain hall of the Lined Lantern.
The Lined Lantern is your typical underdog civilization that the rare times when it isn't struggling against famine, it is promptly getting thrashed around by (semi)(mega)beasts and night creatures, who in turn weaken it for the next famine. Its members never rose to be a threat to other civilizations, they never conquered or got conquered, yet suffered a lot. By the year 120 it was virtually nonexistent, with its four mountain halls, close together and perched on the same small massif (called The Sunny Spine of Knights) near the low center of the map, apparently devoid of life.
Apparently.
In the year 177, after a silence long 57 years, began the Crazed Conflict, 'Amativesifa'.
The Autumn of Growths, a belligerent elven civilization that flourished in the jungles north east of the Sunny Spine of Knights, decided to attack Pointtrades of the Lined Lanterns for a dispute over truthfulness, the treatment of plants and animals (whenever i check the reason of the conflict in legends it cycles among these three).
The attackers were led by the princess Cimathi Roundlions (who will get killed the next year by a cyclops), and the defenders.. well, there was nobody to lead them. It got called Palothi Utha, 'the Onslaught of Crushing': 343 creatures (9 killed) against 11 humans (?), 5 elves (!?), all lost. The 'dwarves' got defeated and Pointtrades pillaged.
The next year, 178, after 58 years of silence, the new ruler is the human queen Etur Inkylantern. The appointed general is human as well, Deduk Wheeledblazed, whose husband is Milo Armorconvents, one of the lords of the Homely Kingdoms since 175 (he'll die the next year to a dusk freak).
The Homely Kingdoms is a human civilization that got attacked and warred several times against the Autumn of Growths plus another elven civ and a goblin one, since year 2. They lost several cities and got pillaged many times, but they always managed to fight back, recover and expand. As a result of its history, around one quarter to half of its members are elves.
Both queen Etur and general Deduk are listed as belonging to the Lined Lantern and the Homely Kingdoms, and the group that founded Pointtrades in 107, the Mysterious Rack; while Milo is listed as belonging only to the human civ.
Year 180- Palothi Tima, 'the Onslaught of Sieging', the second and last part of the Crazed Conflict, who will culminate in the destruction of Pointtrades. This time 347 creatures (no losses) against 15 humans and 17 elves, all slain.
Romimi Slinghides, male elf princess since 179 (will get killed in 190 by a dusk horror) led the attack, and Deduk Wheeledblazed the defense.
Queen Etur and the general got devoured respectively by a giant jaguar and a giant leopard. Dunem Knightsung, 1 year old daughter of Deduk and Milo, got drowned by Mame Beakcudgels, who will become the druid of the Autumn of Growths next year (he'll starve two seasons later). Dunem's brother, Meng Praiseclasps, born in 179 as well (perhaps they were twins?) managed to flee in the nearby Swamp of Showers.
In the midwinter of the same year the elves of the Autumn of Growths rejected the offer of peace from the Lined Lantern.
Year 191- Meng Praiseclasps, who survived in the swamp for 11 years, comes of age and become the new general.
===================
Questions and considerations:
-Is the occupation of abandoned sites implemented somehow?
At least some, but probably all, of the human and elven inhabitants listed among the defenders of Pointtrades were culturally dwarves, with dwarven names, worshipping dwarven deities. How did this happen, when the Lined Lantern never even waged war over other civilizations, let alone conquered any of their outposts?
Obviously they weren't snatched and reformed. I doubt too Etur's and Deduk's parents got such an amazing foresight to choose a dwarven name for their daughters, decades before they and their group decided to take over the deserted Pointtrades. Their pages in legends lists unknown parentage, they could even be born in Pointtrades, but what prompted in first place those human and elves from the Homely Kingdoms to settle there?
-Mother and son (Deduk Kolsakrith, Meng Libaddodok) biologically human, but culturally dwarven. Father and daughter (Milo Stalconellum, Dunem Ranethruni) biologically and culturally human. Why and how the game decided to split the family cultural background this way?
-Shouldn't the civilization, indeed playable, still be at war with the elves?
-When did the elves learn about dogbombing? They aren't even listed between the attackers, only as leaders behind the scenes, unleashing hundreds of big cats like some proactive damnatio ad bestias, ready to get directly involved only when it's needed that personal touch to drown a toddler?!
Please note, i'm not used to legends mode. I know about Cacame, and the recent human queen thread, and the male princess bug, so perhaps all of this is pretty normal and standard, but it seemed unusual to me, and i apologize if this isn't the right section of the forum to post about this. What do you think?
TL;DR : An empty mountain hall (whose founding, technically dead, dwarven civ never interacted with anybody) gets spontaneously defended by a group of members from a human civ, who adopts the local dwarven culture.
Edit: uploaded on
Dwarf Fortress File Depot.