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[Lytha]

I generated a cute little pocket island with a somewhat long history (the year is 350). Right after it was generated, I noticed that the goblins were off on an isolated tiny island instead of with the bigger main island. So I kept it and started to browse the legends.

Now, I can't quite pinpoint it, but something about the dwarven queen Aban Cloisterfondle seems a bit odd.

It could be the fact that she has been queen for 106 years already, which seems somewhat long in comparison to the other rulers. Or that she worships Rakust the Tombs of Spring ardently. Or that she worships a bronze colossus somewhat dubiously. Or that her third youngest daughter has the pretty title "wife of the moon troll". Or that her last entry in her biography is that she became obsessed with her own mortality and sought to extend her life by any means (23 years ago).

I then looked through her family, and they're all somewhat... off.

Her husband, who has been off adventuring for the last 108 years (and still alive) for instance has a "dark creature bride" as mother.

Her mother became also obsessed with her own mortality and tried to extend her own life. But she did not achieve that goal and just died 84 years afterwards of old age. Her father seems to have been a bit more normal and also died of old age.

While some of her children are still alive - one is the general of the kingdom, another is adventuring, and another seems not to be too extraordinary, two of her  kids died at about 2-3 years being eaten by some monsters. And well yeah, the "wife of the moon troll" daughter.

The entire family worships that Rakust the Tombs of Spring, who is not surprisingly most often depicted as a rotting male dwarf and is associated with disease, death, rebirth and birth.

Oh yes, and the outpost liaison... she also had a bunch of hostile encounters with various dark creatures as a kid, worships Rakust the Tombs of Springs and that bronze colossus, but seems otherwise okay.

Oh yes, that bronze colossus is notably because he killed two hundred fourty-two humans and dwarves, I guess. And kobolds. And elves. And thee hundred thirty-six "other kills". He has been around a bit and still at it, though now worshipped.

I just looked at the artifacts and noticed that all (?) of these 271 items seem to be books written by necromancers. Dwarven and human ones.

The island itself isn't particularly evil or sinister. It's mostly neutral and good biomes. In fact, I think the only sinister biome is that island with the goblin town.


There is a dwarven necromancer tower next to the tiles with dwarven settlements. I made a backup of the world and opted to "embark anywhere" and had a quick look before getting slaughtered rather quickly by the inhabitants of that tower. None of the tomes seemed to be written by my dear queen Aban Cloisterfondle. So that might mean that she isn't a full-grown necromancer yet?

While I was at it, I also embarked right onto Paddlebells and went searching for Aban Cloisterfondle. Found her sitting in a room filled with horse cheese, but not looking particularly special. Mountainhome had some interesting fortress design though.


Oh! Aban Cloisterfondle is a descendant (4th generation or so) of one of the first necromancers of this world. The name was Urist Boldswines, and he was the one to do things with the Fated Belch and started the whole necromancy business in that tower. Well, that explains the widespread worship of Rakust at least.



So anyway. I am not too certain what is going on there, but should I try and stick to a fortress in this world until the queen arrives? There are some suitably looking 2x2 spots around with access to dwarves, humans and that tower. Also some suitably looking 2x2 spots with only access to dwarves and humans. And there's of course the tiny island with just access to dwarves and goblins. The elves perished a long time ago.

With my normal speed of fortress development, the queen might just die of old age before it's ready though...

[Psieye]

Isn't dwarven MAXAGE 150~170? Old age shouldn't (especially after tweaking the raws) kill off your Queen before you're ready.

[Lytha]

Max. age seems to be 150-170, yes.

Hey, since I tweak the raws anyway all the time, I might as well change that.

I did a test embark to check if all of my 7 were also faithful worshippers of Rakust, but only one was of that kind. Two developed an instant grudge though. Right first tick they saw each other, they were grudging.

I think I'll just give it a go and give Aban 50 more years before death of old age.

[Reelya]

It would be cool to regen the world from the original seed / settings you used, and let it run further. You could actually get her whole life history then, as it would be without you intervening. Also, trying to get her on site would be cool in the current game.

[thegoatgod_pan]

It would be cool to regen the world from the original seed / settings you used, and let it run further. You could actually get her whole life history then, as it would be without you intervening. Also, trying to get her on site would be cool in the current game.

Unless she immediately dies of old age upon arriving: or did that get fixed?

[Illogical_Blox]

Artifacts in world gen are ALWAYS slabs or books. Also, if someone has a "dark troll bride" for a mother, it means their mother was transformed after giving birth to them, and all references were changed.

[Lytha]

Yes, I gathered that by now. Same for her daughter, who is now a three-eyed humanoid with feathers. Now you know why you fear the night. The fun thing is that that daughter has offspring from both of her mates, so there's a couple of dwarves with a nightcreature-abomination as brother around. It is a dramatic family.

Actually, I wonder if that mutated daughter could follow Aban onto the throne if she and the remaining 2-3 other kids had some accident. A three-eyed feathered humanoid queen would be something interesting.



Anyway, I opted for settling with the goblin fortress on the island because many caravans per year annoy me and I am not sure if I could cope with undead hordes led by necromancers from the tower.

It's, as a reminder, a sinister tiny island.

As my only encounter with evil biomes since my return to this game was some serious Fun with an undead horse head hair assaulting everyone until no one got any work done anymore, I was afraid. Turns out that this sinister biome only rains though. It rains dwarf blood. Very often at that. It looks kind of gorgeous when the non-ocean sector turns red once again.

But having to walk through that dwarf blood rain to get some tree logs back to base must have traumatized my dwarves so much that they didn't feel at all like getting romances going, so I let migrants in.

I was afraid at first when I checked them out closely (I read about vampire dwarves and that worries me), because they all have got about 2-3 dozen relatives listed. And they all worship that mean bronze colossus and Rakust the Tomb of Springs really, really piously. But I think no one of them is a vampire. So, yay.

Yeah well. Looks like the Rakust worshippers will in the long run turn this fortress into another Rakust metropolis, because they came in breeding pairs. Meanwhile, my non-Rakust heretics only begrudge and befriend peoples.


There are some horrible requirements to become mountainhome, right? Like hundreds of dwarves and such?

[Lytha]

Nooooo... the queen died of old age, following her off-site adventurer husband into the afterlife. Her successor is one of the "normal" daughters.

Oh well. At least I learned several more good things in this fortress: How to set up a functional track over ramps to the workshops (soooo worth it to build that for about 1-2 years to supply my 5 magma buildings!) How to magma-crab-safely pierce the magma sea. How to pierce the ocean at z-4 without drowning the engraver/miner/volunteer. How to set up pressure plates (still unclear about that though). Perhaps how to set up a fully trapped entrance path for invaders (who decided that they shouldn't show up, but it works against pesky ogres and badgers). Even got a military squad up and in my first ever danger room.

So, progress in relearning the game all around.

I am still not quite sure why the caravan turned around 2 times just when reaching the depot, and why sometimes, a merchant or merchant animal just die when they head off. Maybe the dwarf blood rain is to blame, because it can cause despair sometimes. The non-wagon merchants are happy to walk through the trapped 1 tile wide entrance too, so I think I might abandon the "entrance must be 3 tiles wide" approach to fortress entrance design.


What I find somewhat cute is that the migrants mostly seem related to each other. In wave 4, all 3 had relatives who are already in the fortress. And tons of relatives who're off in Paddlebells or wherever. But they're all cultists of that accursed Rakust the Tombs of Springs. Blargh.

[gunpowdertea]

There are some horrible requirements to become mountainhome, right? Like hundreds of dwarves and such?

... and in your case it might be "sacrifice the infidels on the altar of Rakust"

[smeeprocket]

Nooooo... the queen died of old age, following her off-site adventurer husband into the afterlife. Her successor is one of the "normal" daughters.

Oh well. At least I learned several more good things in this fortress: How to set up a functional track over ramps to the workshops (soooo worth it to build that for about 1-2 years to supply my 5 magma buildings!) How to magma-crab-safely pierce the magma sea. How to pierce the ocean at z-4 without drowning the engraver/miner/volunteer. How to set up pressure plates (still unclear about that though). Perhaps how to set up a fully trapped entrance path for invaders (who decided that they shouldn't show up, but it works against pesky ogres and badgers). Even got a military squad up and in my first ever danger room.

So, progress in relearning the game all around.

I am still not quite sure why the caravan turned around 2 times just when reaching the depot, and why sometimes, a merchant or merchant animal just die when they head off. Maybe the dwarf blood rain is to blame, because it can cause despair sometimes. The non-wagon merchants are happy to walk through the trapped 1 tile wide entrance too, so I think I might abandon the "entrance must be 3 tiles wide" approach to fortress entrance design.


What I find somewhat cute is that the migrants mostly seem related to each other. In wave 4, all 3 had relatives who are already in the fortress. And tons of relatives who're off in Paddlebells or wherever. But they're all cultists of that accursed Rakust the Tombs of Springs. Blargh.

you're fort sounds awesome btw!

[TheHossofMoss]

Don't ever delete this world! The legends mode seems like a gold-mine of awesome!

[Baffler]

Try to attract the Bronze Colossus to your fort! See if you can catch it and build it a temple or something. Bonus points for throwing a bull (or failing that the strongest male specimen of any domestic animal) down there every year on the first of malachite as a sacrifice.

[Lytha]

I am not sure if that bronze colossus can swim. Or walk through the ocean. I settled on that island next to the goblin town, because I was afraid of the necromancers on the main island. But the goblins totally ignore me.

The only notably things so far are really the almost permanent rain of dwarf blood and the ogres. And a bit more prolific caverns than in non-evil biomes. Including a tribe of troglodytes sitting on a tree and dropping 2-5 babies per year into the subterranean lake below their tree. It's the troglodyte way of teaching their young to swim.

I don't even think that I could get a vampire immigrant, as no god cursed anyone. That's necessary for vampires to exist, right?

But yeah... "It's raining dwarf blood! Hallelujah!" That's always great.

Currently digging a loooong shaft down to my workshop so that I can farm sliver barbs and rye and maybe get some aboveground trees down at the intended location of the workshops instead of in the soil. I guess a 50 z-level drop might also have other uses for purposes of goblinite farming, if they should ever decide to visit. This tiny project takes a while because that stone needs to be smoothed.

Oh, and in the spirit of the giant sperm whale topic... no giant sperm whales, but 3 orca whales apparently died on my map. They were all butchered and their bones were recently turned into artifact earrings or similar useful artifacts. I am not sure if they just spawned on the beach and died horribly or if they crawled out of the ocean to walk into my weapon traps to die horribly.



I will definitely keep this world but looked at other world gens yesterday. I got one where dwarves and goblins swapped civilizations apparently: The dwarven king + nobility is a bunch of goblins with dwarfish names. The goblin tribe is led by dwarves with goblin names. I am very tempted to try that world, too.

The 7 starting dwarves were dwarves though, not goblins.

No iron available in that world, but who needs iron if you can just buy steel junk items and smelt it into more steel, right? And who needs steel if you can just pave your roads with gold, right? Uhm.

[smeeprocket]

I am not sure if that bronze colossus can swim. Or walk through the ocean. I settled on that island next to the goblin town, because I was afraid of the necromancers on the main island. But the goblins totally ignore me.

The only notably things so far are really the almost permanent rain of dwarf blood and the ogres. And a bit more prolific caverns than in non-evil biomes. Including a tribe of troglodytes sitting on a tree and dropping 2-5 babies per year into the subterranean lake below their tree. It's the troglodyte way of teaching their young to swim.

I don't even think that I could get a vampire immigrant, as no god cursed anyone. That's necessary for vampires to exist, right?

But yeah... "It's raining dwarf blood! Hallelujah!" That's always great.

Currently digging a loooong shaft down to my workshop so that I can farm sliver barbs and rye and maybe get some aboveground trees down at the intended location of the workshops instead of in the soil. I guess a 50 z-level drop might also have other uses for purposes of goblinite farming, if they should ever decide to visit. This tiny project takes a while because that stone needs to be smoothed.

Oh, and in the spirit of the giant sperm whale topic... no giant sperm whales, but 3 orca whales apparently died on my map. They were all butchered and their bones were recently turned into artifact earrings or similar useful artifacts. I am not sure if they just spawned on the beach and died horribly or if they crawled out of the ocean to walk into my weapon traps to die horribly.



I will definitely keep this world but looked at other world gens yesterday. I got one where dwarves and goblins swapped civilizations apparently: The dwarven king + nobility is a bunch of goblins with dwarfish names. The goblin tribe is led by dwarves with goblin names. I am very tempted to try that world, too.

The 7 starting dwarves were dwarves though, not goblins.

No iron available in that world, but who needs iron if you can just buy steel junk items and smelt it into more steel, right? And who needs steel if you can just pave your roads with gold, right? Uhm.

whales have the tag that allows them to beach themselves, so sometimes they will do that. I saw no whales on my whale fort. I even dug down to the caverns to bridge that off, turns out there were no caverns, just a magma sea. So at the most a few magma crabs might be down there. Partially draining the ocean may be the ultimate solution.

[Lytha]

Rest in peace, troglodyte tribe with the swimming babies.

A forgotten beast annihilated them. Currently, another one is running around and makes another FB cough a lot. FBs are weird.



You really had no caverns at all in your whale fortress? That is odd.