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[Joemit]

Hi everyone,
Have you been annoyed about dwarves that have spinal damage and can't move?
Well here's a solution!
Cyborg Dwarves!
Well, not actual cyborgs, that wouldn't fit with the fantasy theme. Instead people would gather the corpses of dead bronze colossuses and iron men and use them as shells to transplant disabled dwarves into. First you would go out and kill one, then take the corpse back to a metalsmith's workshop (they wouldn't turn into statues), where it is converted into the correct sort of shell for a disabled dwarf. Then you would be able to select the dwarf to be converted in the hospital screen. A dwarf with the "Surgeon" labour assigned to it would be able to operate on the dwarf, putting his head and internal organs inside the shell and throwing away limbs.

The dwarf would be good for military (acts like always wearing a full set of iron/bronze armour) and would have high strength but this would be balanced by not be able to be happier than "Fine" (due to being trapped in a cold metal shell). Rampaging cyborg dwarves are not good.

So what do you think of my idea? Is it too sci-fi? If it is it would always make a good mod.

[NW_Kohaku]

If you look on the old devpages, it's Bloat 35.  Threetoe also mentioned it in a short story.

I've also seen about a half-dozen threads on this topic in the past, and generally, anything "Steampunk" is a no - Toady doesn't want Steampunk dwarves.  If it's peglegs and hooks, it's probably happening eventually.

Also note that we already have crutches and traction benches and such, so it's not like this isn't already partially addressed.

[Joemit]

Hah. I would have never thought people had this idea before. Amazing how many ideas you get that you'd think no one had thought of before. Wheelchairs it is then. Also, that idea is more prosthetic limbs and less full transformation. My idea is also less steampunk, I was thinking using the magic that keeps iron men and bronze colossi running to keep dwarves running too.

[GreatWyrmGold]

First off, thanks for helping dig up those old threads, NW. My search-FU is terrible, I've never really been able to do that part of Footkerchief's burden well.

Second off...well, to start, iron men and bronze colossi wouldn't be good choices for limbs. Iron men are hollow, BCs are colossal, and neither shows any signs of animation after being "killed."

Third off, while magical prosthetics are possible (a certain minion in the Harry Potter series comes to mind as an example), I wouldn't bet on much more than pegs and hooks for most dwarves.

[Joemit]

No problem. Maybe capture the iron men and stuff a bit of metal or something in there to fill them in and then stuff the dwarves in?

[NW_Kohaku]

It really depends on how Toady ultimately comes down on how and if dwarves do magic for anything other than an occasional artifact. 

That's not something that's settled at all, and Toady seems to be content to just put making any sort of decision on the matter for as long as possible.

And this is the sort of thing I think would be better suited to an alchemy/magic construction, not to just cannibalizing an amethyst man or something.

...

Just as a total side-note, though, I think some of my favorite fantasy elements on the concept were seeing some images of creatures like fairies that have what appears to be glass prosthetics. 

A semi-transparent material that flexes fluidly would be a sight to see.  A sort of T-2000 prosthetic.

[Joemit]

An alchemy-magic construction... Like using the alchemy to make juices for the organs to float in and magic for the rest?

[NW_Kohaku]

Alchemy is generally held in fantasy as chemistry for magic materials and engineering for magic devices.

But really, I think that dwarves wouldn't have trouble coming up with things like hinged legs and the like from a mechanical standpoint, it's all just a matter of coming up with the method of actually interpreting signals from the nervous system into actual actions of a prosthetic.  That's something that's beyond modern science.

It would take magic of the sort that basically enables a layperson to have at least some slight psychokinetic force that could be used to operate the mechanism of a claw-hand or bend an elbow joint, for example.  If it were too slight for outright control, the prosthetic would also need some sort of stored power and engine to operate, as well, but that would be a far less spectacular feat.

[Joemit]

Ah right, I get it now.