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Author Topic: Mourning the Lost  (Read 1361 times)

Malroc The Valiant

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Mourning the Lost
« on: July 29, 2020, 03:23:51 pm »

I think it would be cool if dwarves occasionally visited the graves of their dead loved ones and close friends. Maybe once every few years, and more frequently right after their death. It's not revolutionary idea or anything, but I think it would add even more flavor to this already rich game. "Urist Deepmines processed grief while visiting the grave of Litast Raggedspears"
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FantasticDorf

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Re: Mourning the Lost
« Reply #1 on: July 29, 2020, 03:49:29 pm »

I think it would be cool if dwarves occasionally visited the graves of their dead loved ones and close friends. Maybe once every few years, and more frequently right after their death. It's not revolutionary idea or anything, but I think it would add even more flavor to this already rich game. "Urist Deepmines processed grief while visiting the grave of Litast Raggedspears"

I think it'd also be a solution to the problem of having dead family in the fortress, dwarves making frequent visits to fufill the family and friends need to their personal/public tomb to get some reassurance, and dwarves in world generation making round trips to visit the places of their buried kinsfolk.
  • I say this on account that if a dwarf's entire family inside the fortress dies of old age or is wiped out, and they are asexual or generally unsuccessful in making children due to... gelded limbs, the relations they have with them are not removed, and become less dead weight on a dwarf's psyche to add another chore to the dwarf's plate spinning needs schedule. Until necromancers re-exhume the remains that is.
I had a similar thread about momentos in a similar vein, mainly related to personal objects in likenesses. Gravestones and memorials are a bit more on the nose in directly referencing a historical figure with ties.
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Starver

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Re: Mourning the Lost
« Reply #2 on: July 29, 2020, 04:34:11 pm »

In my very earliest days (when my forum name described my fortress situations more, and for some time after while I dealt with other mortalities that suddenly became more likely) I used to dig to the very lowest layer of the map (pre-caverns, pre-SMR, only had to avoid actual magma pipes, bottomless caverns, pits, underground rivers, etc) and create a Tomb Complex.  Big tombs for later noble-assignment (during life, to satisfy the Room Requirements, but may get 'inhabited' at some point) and lesser or equal ones unassigned until I had a body that could use one (pre-slab, but also pre-ghost).

I tried to make them a feature, at first. Technically they could be visited.  Later I walled them up and/or (occasionally) arranged to fill them with liquid (red or blue type) as a hypothetical joke to play on any hypothetical tomb-raiders.

For a long time, though, apart from Room Requirement ones[1] I, a) hardly need them and, b) see no need to do anything more than a sarcophagus in a(n eventually) walled-off niche.


It would actually be nice to see that change. Well, not (a), but given any rare exceptions to (a) then subsequently (b)...

(Like pedestals/display cases, make them a feature. Perhaps token tombs ('unknown soldier'/generalised cenotaph, or set up a mythical hero's tomb just for the ambience/kudos/pilgrim-magnetism), where there's a lack of 'natural' raw filling.)


[1] These days a part of the "noble suite, 2x2 rooms: office/dining (main entrance, depending on if that noble uses an office); the other of dining/office and bedroom (adjacent internal exits) and tomb (final quarter, maybe led off bedroom because it'd be odd to connect to a dining-room).
« Last Edit: July 30, 2020, 03:05:19 am by Starver »
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Leonidas

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Re: Mourning the Lost
« Reply #3 on: July 29, 2020, 09:30:57 pm »

I think it would be cool if dwarves occasionally visited the graves of their dead loved ones and close friends. Maybe once every few years, and more frequently right after their death. It's not revolutionary idea or anything, but I think it would add even more flavor to this already rich game. "Urist Deepmines processed grief while visiting the grave of Litast Raggedspears"

That's a terrific idea.

You could make elaborate decorations for the graveyard, to give happy thoughts to the visiting dwarves.
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Uthimienure

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Re: Mourning the Lost
« Reply #4 on: July 29, 2020, 11:03:15 pm »

Bravo        +1
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Azerty

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Re: Mourning the Lost
« Reply #5 on: July 30, 2020, 02:27:50 pm »

If religion was fleshed out, we could even see ancestor worship, where dead relatives would be useful to fulfill spiritual needs.
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Red Diamond

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Re: Mourning the Lost
« Reply #6 on: August 02, 2020, 06:57:42 am »

If they get happy thoughts from doing this, it might offset the power of the seeing dead people unhappy thought.
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Leonidas

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Re: Mourning the Lost
« Reply #7 on: August 03, 2020, 09:19:51 am »

Funerals would fit well with this. In game terms they would essentially be performances, like singing or poetry. People would mourn and talk about the deceased. It would significantly reduce their grief and maybe adjust their attitudes about death. This might happen in a tavern, as with an Irish wake. Or it could happen in a temple if the deceased was a devout believer.

And if Toady decides to introduce single-event parties like this, he might as well add weddings and coming-of-age parties.
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Quietust

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Re: Mourning the Lost
« Reply #8 on: August 03, 2020, 09:43:16 am »

And if Toady decides to introduce single-event parties like this, he might as well add weddings and coming-of-age parties.
Parties were a thing back in 0.34 and earlier, and they happened both at random ("The Farmer Aban Balrakust has organized a party at clear glass Table.") and sometimes during weddings ("They have organized a wedding reception at Basalt Statue."). Maybe they can return some day?
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Starver

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Re: Mourning the Lost
« Reply #9 on: August 03, 2020, 09:45:53 am »

But only if they're socially distanced!


/wrong thread, wrong half of forums... ;)
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Leonidas

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Re: Mourning the Lost
« Reply #10 on: August 03, 2020, 10:35:45 am »

Parties were a thing back in 0.34 and earlier, and they happened both at random ("The Farmer Aban Balrakust has organized a party at clear glass Table.") and sometimes during weddings ("They have organized a wedding reception at Basalt Statue."). Maybe they can return some day?
I had forgotten about those! They tended to grow out of control and lock down the whole fortress. It would be fun to bring back parties now that we have singing, dancing, and poetry. Now that we have burrows, maybe we could use military alerts to cancel parties during difficult times.
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FantasticDorf

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Re: Mourning the Lost
« Reply #11 on: August 03, 2020, 11:38:38 am »

As the kind of extended flavor i agree that parties will probably have a purpose with the new needs system, providing all the relevant people are there. Maybe the petition for a party can request a venue to have a certain level of value ahead of time in exchange for making a memorable w.g logged event, that warms the heart of everyone in attendance.


Veering slightly off topic maybe, maybe just having dwarves acknowledge statue gardens (and by extent tombs) a bit more for the context would be nice as critique often doesn't scratch the surface than they stood next to a well crafted bit of furniture.

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