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[Fen]

I would like a "secret" where if you quantum stockpile enough pitchblende into one spot and then atom-smash it with a drawbridge, it will destroy your entire embark site killing everyong and everything for miles around, and carve a giant hole into the earth with the HFS exposed to the air.

Dwarven nukes. Good "fuck the world cuz the fort is about to die anyway" lever.

Fort-wide detonation would be cool. Especially if you could to back there in adventure mode and just find a huge crater, maybe with a memorial slab if it was a huge fort with important dudes in it.

You see here a pitchblende memorial slab. All dwarfmanship is of the highest quality. The slab menaces with spikes of pitchblende. On the slab is an image of a mushroom cloud in pitchblende. This image relates to the explosion of the fort Dwarffort in the year 431.

[zakkeh]

Secrets like controlling the elements, so I can part the sea while I build a place, then let it rush back. Maybe let a few goblins try and get to me, then let the water crash back on them ^_^

[Jheral]

Taming and breeding unicorns would be a useful secret - makes sense for it to be secret, and would get them out of the way (plus, unicorn meat is very tasty... )

To be honest, though, I could see all forms of equipment and work order being moved to such a system, allowing dynamic development of talents during the game. If, for instance, a dwarf in your fortress creates an artifact of a type you can't make (for instance, an exotic weapon like the whip, or something completely out there like a gemstone bed), it's type could be made available to your civilization to make at will.

[Will_Tuna]

Flight, should be able to be discoverd.

although verry undwarven, so probable more a human thing.

Also, elves should have a sectret to grow threes or make them grow faster, or in some kind of formation.
- ingame: like building a wall, only there grow saprolings that grow into threes in a matter of seizoens, creating a nature wall.

[Naz]

What the hell is this obsession with flight? We're dwarves! We don't gaze longingly at birds and dream of joining them in the heavens, we build a more accurate version of a ballista and harpoon the little bastards for thinking they're too cool for gravity!

Why? Because fuck those guys.

[black overlord]

boats. not toy boats, but boats big enough for dwarfs to ride on. and fishing nets.

though i'm not sure if we can't make them in this version. can we make wooden floors? do they float on water?

maybe i should try this.

[Taranli Maren]

1. Druids with the ability to animate trees to attack any dwarf next to them, also to greatly accelerate the tree growth.  I imagine a druid leading a siege as retaliation for clear-cutting a map.  They invade and within a minute there are hundreds of violent trees spawning all over the map (probably concentrated around the druid).  You send out your wood chopper, and he actually has to battle the tree to remove it.  Trees would be virtually immune to spears, bolts, hammers, maces, etc.  Obviously the most damaged by axes and !!MAGMA!!.  You'd probably have to make it so that elves could walk through trees though.

2. Dwarven miners who gain the ability to smell ore/gem deposits through solid rock.  The civs that have these special people would build fortresses in places that have better minerals, thereby increasing their wealth, improving their equipment and increasing immigration.  However, this might lead to the civ being invaded more often.

3. Goblins who gain the ability to invade through the caverns.  Perhaps you could have goblins with this secret be able to attain the dwarf mineral sense with the same results.

[ohgoditburns]

Most alloys should be secrets (including bronze and steel).
Poisons, extracts and some weapons and traps could also be secrets.

[ISGC]

I want a secret that cleans my fortress
because, fuck, the vomit and blood is messing up my meticulous patterns

[Deus Machina]

Ohhh, this opens up opportunities.

Maybe the ability to make otherwise foreign weapons?
A ladder would be good, really. A temporary way to move up and down, that doesn't take a dwarf an hour and a nap to remove.
The ability to apply poisons to a weapon?

Gunpowder, maybe? Slower-acting but more powerful crossbow-style weapons!
The ability to transport fire, without (if all goes as planned without fun) setting the hauler and everything around him ablaze.
First project: short tunnel, barrel of powder in back, behind a barrel of sewer brew. FB problem solved.

Really, when it comes down to it, my vote is for certain alloys.
Steel should remain an overall dwarven thing, I think, but how about slightly nicer ones? More valuable and perhaps more useful.
I mean, steel itself is great, but imagine being the fortress to develop damascus!

Or even the ability to make a *weighted steel hammer*. Steel hammer with lead in the center.

[dimondmine2]

My idea is simple, but effective, a tome of nervous healing, it let's the dwarf to heal nervous injuries, !!SUPER DOCTOR!!

[Eddren]

Actually, I think this is how it should work:

Secrets, okay? You have the 'Magical' secrets, taking the Spheres of:
Decay/Death vs. Life/Regeneration
Fire/Pyromance vs. Ice/Cryomance
Earth/Golems vs. (You'll get a kick outta this,) Nature/Wilderness vs. Air/Sky
Metal vs. Magic(With the possibility to half-combine them, actually resulting in metal that's actually slightly life-threatening to the User, just by virtue of being wielded.)
Each of these has a total of TWENTY aspects. Opposing forces cannot be mixed together, except as part of the History. You'd have to get the person who knows the secret as a Migrant, and the ability could only be activated via a mood.
HOWEVER, Forces that do NOT oppose have a 75% chance of being mixed together by ANY mood, with the Mood taking 3 random Aspects and throwing them together.

Then there's the non-magical aspect of it: LEARNING it.

First thing's first: It applies SPECIFICALLY to a skill. The only time you can learn it, is if you're Legendary at it.(Thus, those abilities that can't be tied to a skill are tied to 'Alchemy' which can have some use in the future.) In fact, the only way you can TEACH it is if you're a master Teacher. Thus, SEVERELY limiting the amount of people who can use Secrets.