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[DS]

In one sitting? I'm impressed!

[Taupe]

Well, I was under the false impression that this wasn't an actual full story, just a thread touring the fortress and presenting the map. When you posted the anouncement in Roomcarnage about the entire story being now in a single document, I realised i was wrong and decided to check the thing out again. I've been spending my week in bed being sick, so I just grabbed the link on my phone and spent 5 hours looking at the thing.

My biggest regret is for the Plump Helmet Men. Before the final confrontation, i was ready to watch the dwarves disappear one by one, leaving behind a peaceful race of misunderstood pacifist philosophers who would inherit this cursed dome. I was like, ''what a strange yet fitting end'' and I was ready to settle on that. Clearly I failed to grasp how cursed and soul-crushing the dome truly was. Sometimes, you think there's a finite amount of misery to be had, but nope, there's always more.

[bool1989]

I'm not a huge fan of necroing threads, but in this case it seemed like a better alternative to starting an entirely new one. If I offend anyone with my forum necromancy, please forgive me.

it's your thread to necro, if you're the OP. necroing is only frowned upon if you're not the OP.

[bool1989]

[Crosspost from r/dwarffortress]

Here is why I like "The Saga of Weatherwires: The Doom of the Diamond Cloisters" more than "The Rise and Fall of Roomcarnage"

Consider Roomcarnage; the story starts at the founding of the fortress, and the first few years consist of running from disaster to disaster, or attempting to preempt disasters. most of which are caused by undead or the threat of undead. then Rith Craftportant arrives and causes a lot of havoc unseen by the inhabitants of the fortress in her conspiracy to bring about the doom of Roomcarnage. I think it has all the makings of a classic horror story, with a bit of thriller mixed in.

Contrast Weatherwires; the story starts, not at the founding, but rather, at the beginning of the end. Weatherwires already has a long and rich history at the beginning, which, as you have said, serves as a back-drop in which the story is told. This is not, as some might think, to the story's detriment, but rather, is an advantage that Roomcarnage does not have. the reason being, the fact that it survived for so long as to even have a history adds an aura of mystery to it, which is compounded by the facts that Weatherwires is the last mountainhome of Its civilization, and that the very first entry notes that no new children have been born in more than two decades. This is cosmic horror at its best.

The best cosmic horror is not about Eldritch Abominations that drive people insane. It is about the inescapable futility and struggle of life, and how that means that even the greatest of nations will eventually crumble to their doom. It is about how mortal beings can never find purpose, not because there is no purpose, but because there is purpose, but it is so far above and beyond a mortal's comprehension that they can never hope to attain it. Mortals being the playthings of gods just make it interesting.

This is not to say that Roomcarnage is not good. It is good. Its a great story that I love to read. But I just think that Weatherwires is superior. And I'm sad that that I probably won't read a story quite like it again.