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[FantasticDorf]

Hello, a long time ago when nightbeasts were introduced there was a hosted dev talk by toady detailing how a greater cast of night creatures may well be coming in via development in the future. A comprehensive list of the ones detailed by Toady (in this DF talk) and on the DFwiki - Night creatures, where the coloured tiles are provided for viewing.

Given the new development progress on the construction of artisan worldgen artifacts, im assuming now would be a good time to suggest a way of perverting (naturally thats the first thing any DF player can think of, "how can i pervert/exploit this game mechanic") that development to bring into being the much promised loosely stitched together monstrosities at the hands of very bored and [strange mood] prone bunch of death obsessed necromancers.

Outlining points of constructed horrors.

> Frankensteinian monsters are complex creations by necromancers who bulk up the armies and serve as personal servants and often close guards (at the top of the tower surrounding their masters and traveling with them as companions much like a adventurer, how much intelligence they have is speculative, unless it is forced to speak and be intelligent regardless)

• These monsters are a advanced threat to civilizations rather than the normally easy to put down shambling dead, being (usually) physically and mentally impressive, and would pose a challenge to adventurers looking to steal slabs as their varied appearance may cause problems slightly more important that hacking off its head if it has three stitched on ones.

> In DFtalk 14 where 'constructed undead' crop up in the discussion, they are described as mismatched monstrosities with usually disproportionate appendages (like gorlak heads) as per larger arms being sown onto smaller bodies etc. Toady also details additional aspects such as piecing together weapons into the anatomy of the creature.

• In current 'world activation' game mechanic terms, this would mean out of the surrounding lands where necromancers practice within a radius of their site like usual 'taming' (biomes covering the premises of the site and also 1 tile around a site) rules they can source bodies, also accruing them from invaders/defenders and local entities

• Again with world activation, stealing slabs as a adventurer as per the new artifact rules on declaring to reclaim may cause conflicts to explode when existing tower civs act upon it as a declaration of war and travel great distances outside of their usual radiuses, picking up bodies from battles as they travel along, bringing potentially great ruin to civs and nerfing exploits of taking slabs (your curse to take a slab of a necromancer without first earning it in apprenticeship is to be chased by the dead forever) and dropping them off in settlements to have new owners.

> Possibly via use of a alchemist skill/surgeon (/necromantic spell ability skill?) and a some kind of alchemical bench workshop/study/traction bench (horrific stuff, just a place to graft together body parts and hold the monster down.) a strange macabre (from corpse pieces) or fell mood (involving murdering the nearest dwarf/animal near you for parts) taking place there will construct a monster. Of course under dwarven ethics and generally most ethics, there will be punishment for a act, but unless the necromancer 'gets away' with it via the overseer muddling the judical books deliberately, you may want to have to control this beast for the duration that the necromancer is hostile in prison to avoid a loyalty cascade or forseeable

• Because a range of mortals join towers as apprentices and in general the secrets of life and death change hands in different ways,we can assume that just having a [STRANGE_MOOD] tag would just improve the slow rate that necromancers produce these unique 'artifact specimens' besides books so that it will remain a feature as long as towers are being generated rather than dwarf necromancer exclusive thing which severely limits the world to set parameters

> Fighting or even looking a constructed horror possibly made out of the people you love ought to be a terrifying and haunting experience, having them about in your own military and fortress should cause extreme morale and mood issues. If you were to obtain a entity 'friendly' example of such a creature, you should probably pit or isolate it for a extreme emergency in which to use it, it would be a excellent creature to build a dungeon or extensive crypt/pit around for atmosphere.

• Stray horrors (as per master dying or being cast out/spare) should probably be pretty common types to occupy dungeons and catacombs along with other night beasts are usually banished to or go to hide from the authorities within towns, leading to recruiting these horrors if you are a night creature yourself (like subterranean men for a example)

• A 'friendly' or at-least a infiltrator necromancer (ready to be accused and lynched at a moments notice) walking into a big city, could have a urge to do a experiment (/set of experiments) then trying to hide the evidence of them doing it by stashing the subjects into a dungeon/catacomb and denying it explicitly until the time comes to strike and a small army of the undead underneath emerges from the inner bowels and outcrops of the town for a organised strike

> Clearing out dungeons and forbidden tomb sites in order to steal artifacts by using the undead and night creatures that accumulate there as defensive guardians (as demonstrated by this DF talk, detailing slightly more advanced kinds of dungeons and catacombs, where world generated artifacts and treasure is placed as a reward) is sure to give you a commendable reference list as a slayer of monsters and a source of quest fodder.

Conclusion & additional thoughts

I guess the closest comparison to what the night creatures and necromancers might end up looking like at the end of most of these speculative points come true is probably closer to the occultistic forces of (warhammers iteration anyway) Chaos. A bunch of savage nightmarish and twisted beasts and villians mixed in with a bit of vampire lord/tomb lord un-dead. Pity they aren't a entity type we can prod and mod if we can feasably think of necromancer towers as being a fortress type and haunted houses/mini-tombs/pillaged and cursed settlements being hamlets where spare night creatures/zombies can mingle freely with a small array of intelligent undead/vampires etc to run this ramshackle 'town' to abstract normality.

Urist Grimshackles body was grave-robbed from the fortress Beechoils and brought to the Necromancer's Tower/Crypt city (etc.) Deathhalls to be reanimated as a intelligent un-dead/zombie/part of a construct horror

Necromancers and vampire cults (this may get fleshed out later for more majority organised groups) seem to be the 'leading' types if we assume that under normal circumstances night creatures are just isolated groups that occasionally come into contact (and forced/rational conflict) with each other. A full on 'Thriller' roll-call monster siege or army would be interesting if the world acted too poorly to combat such threats with mobs and creature-hunters and they grew to such power to form a organized force to forward their motives.

Goblins are 'evil' in themselves for violence and brutality but nightcreatures and the undead just want to kill everyone and harvest their bodies and souls or something along those lines for their own needs. Again i might be being personally influenced into making the forces of absolute-darkness a bit of a fantasy trope, but telling me what you think of that would be helpful for everyone.

Anyhow, if anybody has any constructive feedback to support this suggestion, it would be very much appreciated.

BIBLIOGRAPY

Necromancers and vampires getting powerful and experienced over time. (author-King_of_Baboons - March 11, 2016)  Notes - A very interesting thread from little over a month ago, a particular amount of skill on part of master, not apprentice necromancers putting together solid well built constructs?

Dwarf Surgeons Get Strange Moods (author- Coidzure Dreams -April 26, 2010)

Interesting thing about Magic: Necromancy (author - Shadowgandor -  January 01, 2009)

Do The Undead Have Souls? (author - diefortheswarm- October 18, 2008) Notes - Potentially relevant to created undead.

Reinstate house Râsh / Armies of the Undead (author-martinuzz - December 19, 2007) Notes - A more civil bunch of necromancers/undead for a more civil age.