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[Dunamisdeos]

This has probably come up before, but I feel like after 400 years someone should suspect that the 30-ish looking king is not natural. I feel like there should be something where after he just sort of doesn't age for 50 years people start to look into it, and every year after that he has a higher chance of being caught out as a night creature and deposed.

Maybe it could be possible for them to fake their own death and pose as their son to extend this time, but even that would expire in usefulness after the a few goes.

Thoughts?

[nuget102]

An interesting idea, but I don't think back in that day many peasants knew what their king looked like. Also for the races like dwarves vampires wouldn't even be thought of as a factor, since dwarves live a really long time.

[Dunamisdeos]

I could see that with dwarves, but a 400 year old dwarf would raise some eyebrows. Also, there are people in the court who would be aware, such as guards.

There are also instances where this happen with more public figures like mayors and even liaisons.

The only ones that could well and truly go unnoticed would be elves. Goblins too, I guess, but I feel like they would be less likely to be bothered by it all.

[Loam]

This already happens, sort of. Mostly with vampires -- they usually have to flee from town to town, getting kicked out "after appearing not to age." But no one hunts them or anything, which should probably be a thing. Vampire kings don't get deposed because they "impose oppressive edicts" on their people, which I assume includes quelling resistance.

Since necromancers usually live in towers or camps it's less of a problem for them; but technically anyone with the [NO_AGING] tag is subject to suspicion, I think.

[Deus Asmoth]

Well, long lived vampires do (used to?) take a bunch of cultists if they went long enough without being discovered. I assumed that vampire monarchs did something similar with nobles and high ranking priests, which would help avoid discovery. It would be interesting if the vampire posed as the immortal messiah of one of the civ's religions though.

[Putnam]

This already definitely happens, and it's referred to many times in the devlog.

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/dev_2011.html

When somebody becomes a vampire during world gen, which still happens via the profaning mechanism for the next few days, they now feed on people within their town, causing their deaths. The ones I've got now all pass for their original creature type and still maintain all of their original positions. I've set up a little reputation profile now for these historical figures vs. the site entities, and it tracks the number of unsolved murders as well as the year they first appeared at the site after stopping the aging process. It'll periodically look at the number of weeks without aging and the number of murders and compare that to the population. The smaller the population, the more likely suspicion arises. At that point they can flee to another site where they are unknown or, lacking options, retreat to the wilds (or the sewers/catacombs once I do the sunlight tag, which I haven't finished yet). We're going to work a bit more with that -- hopefully we can see immortality cults and vampire tyrants willfully feeding on terrified subjects where we're beyond suspicion in rare instances. We'll see what happens tonight.

[LordBaal]

This already happens, sort of. Mostly with vampires -- they usually have to flee from town to town, getting kicked out "after appearing not to age." But no one hunts them or anything, which should probably be a thing. Vampire kings don't get deposed because they "impose oppressive edicts" on their people, which I assume includes quelling resistance.

Since necromancers usually live in towers or camps it's less of a problem for them; but technically anyone with the [NO_AGING] tag is subject to suspicion, I think.

I dearly hope for vampire hunters. Right now DF lacks something that would definitely keep vampires in check in every universe. Vampire hunters. From Simon Belmont to Van Helsing, they all have been the ultimate terror to vampires. It remain to be seen, once is implemented, how guilds, groups, religious sects and orders would affect the world, but I have no doubt there wont be a lack of vampire hunters (that would also hunt other assorted monsters). That could be the crucial element of balance to keep vampires in check.

By having one of such guilds on your civilization or laying around in a neighboring one, you could expect regular visits if there is anything suspicious, random trials a la Spanish Inquisition (but they you can' expect ok?) or perhaps you can even call them for help with your liaison once you suspect something funny is happening in your fort. But this could go the other way around too, if you intend to make a vampire fortress then they become a hinderance, and in time they could be added to the list of sieges or even "excommunicate" you from your civ if they fail to clean the fortress either by action or inaction form your side, basically making everyone and their grandmother you enemy.