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[delphonso]

Killing children of a species should have a harsher emotional impact than killing adults. I would also suggest civilians should have more impact than killing soldiers.

As far as I can tell, dwarves don't like it when their kids die. Dwarves also sometimes don't like it when someone else dies, even if they killed them. Stress clearly needs sorting out, as the thread about it has been going on for months, but I think here, we should see an increase in stress.

It is not an uncommon story trope to be horrified with oneself for killing a child, under orders or by mistake. I think dwarves (really, everyone) should suffer a bigger stress penalty if they kill a kid or see a dead kid - even if they are an enemy, even if the kid starts the fight...which happens in DF.

[Maximum Spin]

A quick look over history demonstrates that that's definitely not a cultural universal, though.

[delphonso]

I would guess goblins wouldn't care - but they might, as they are snatchers. Oh, and likely, kobolds couldn't tell the difference between an adult and child dwarf.

[Nordlicht]

I don't think that inter-species thing really works. At least most humans seem to have no problem killing children of other species.

Also seeing children not as small adults is quite a new concept as far as I know.

[muldrake]

I don't think that inter-species thing really works. At least most humans seem to have no problem killing children of other species.

Also seeing children not as small adults is quite a new concept as far as I know.

Dwarven ethics about torture and killing and butchering and making trophies universally forbids it when done to sapients, even hostile sapients.  I'd imagine the dwarven ethics system, if it addressed killing children, would consider it especially heinous.  I'd think as with most evil things, goblins would consider it a matter of personal preference.  Child snatchers might consider it bad, too, as they have a culturally mandated use for them. 

Human ethics tend to be fairly close to that of dwarves.

Elves, of course, would certainly have some utterly degenerate, delusional ethic reflecting their insanity.

[Shonai_Dweller]

I don't think that inter-species thing really works. At least most humans seem to have no problem killing children of other species.

Dwarf Fortress inhabitants see "Sapient" and "Non-Sapient". As they do on Earth. Many Earth humans, have no problem killing the children of non-sapients, but probably would have an issue killing other sapient children (humans).

(There aren't any examples on earth beyond humans, but we can easily look back to a time when certain humans didn't think of certain other humans as actual humans, and there the children slaying was no doubt morally justified in many of their hearts. Or at least, they didn't lose any sleep over it).

[IndigoFenix]

Viewing the death of children as being "worse" than the death of adults is a quirk of modern culture, brought about largely through Christian beliefs (which assume that a person will acquire "sinfulness" over time, thereby making adults intrinsically "less innocent" than children), modern medicine (which has greatly reduced the death and illness of babies and children that used to be extremely common), general abundance of food (reducing the cost of an extra mouth to feed) and availability of contraceptives (reducing the number of unwanted children).

In fact a casual glance at history will show that infanticide was actually an extremely widespread practice up until as recent as the 1800s.  Keeping a baby around meant another mouth to feed for years until they were able to do work, so killing babies - especially weak or deformed ones - was a very common practice.  In poor countries, it is still done regularly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanticide

[delphonso]

Fair enough - I'm just looking for ways to make warfare worse.

[muldrake]

In fact a casual glance at history will show that infanticide was actually an extremely widespread practice up until as recent as the 1800s.  Keeping a baby around meant another mouth to feed for years until they were able to do work, so killing babies - especially weak or deformed ones - was a very common practice.  In poor countries, it is still done regularly.

That's really depressing.  I prefer my fantasy races to have better ethics.  I want the world to be better than it is.