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[90908]

Most of us understand the pain that comes from the loss of an awesome dwarf. We also understand the absolute joy at seeing a mason beat a troll to death. However, the second is not overmuch relevant to the upcoming topic until said mason is dead.

Yes, I'm talking about the deceased "Special Snowflakes" (read: Legendary Armorsmith) of our glorious fortresses. All the little and not so little Urists that we love for their various sacrifices. What do you do to honor these heroes? Custom professions? Nicknames? Special burial arrangement? Magma? Share your methods! Tell us the dwarves that you have done it for! And, most importantly, tell us how many have died for your more impressive sendoffs.

My personal favorite is a rather simple one. Before my military goes into battle, I rename all of their professions as "Hero Under the Mountain", because original titles are dumb. If they survive or do not die in a cool enough manner and I can get to them quick enough, I change their professions back to normal. If not, they keep it. I will sometimes do this for civilians as well, such as my sacrificial Circus Pass miner. I will then create large tombs surrounded by statues for each fallen and place a masterwork memorial slab in my memorial garden. And I sometimes burn massive amounts of captured enemies as a sendoff of sorts if their badass enough. Like that one time where my single Carpenter, with no weapon skills, fought of a Forgotten Beast long enough for my Marks-dwarves to pepper the thing. I burned the beast's corpse, along with several troglodytes. Except for their heads, which I made totems out. I placed those in her tomb.

[dwarfhoplite]

I have system of military ranks where officers get their own mausoleums and lower ranked guys are have standard civilian funeral.

[mikelon]

I have two ways based upon if they had an honourable death, or if they ran like a coward and were chopped down subsequently


Honorable way- each dwarf is given a 3x3 room with 2 statues and a coffin- made of steel. Then The when their body is interred in their coffin i fill the room with magma, sleep eternal in your warm steel coffin

The Cowards- refuse pile with corpses engaged on a collapsible floor which is hooked up to a a lever that drops the remains in magma, also doubles as a garbage shoot!

[eataTREE]

I usually begin carving out the Halls of the Dead sometime around F.Y. 1 or 2. These are mostly a big communal catacombs with coffins/sarcophagi of a common material placed in recesses in the wall. (Urist McDerpy-who-fell-into-magma's memorial slab goes in one of these sockets too.) The entire area is smoothed and covered in engravings, and the area is sealed with doors wrought from some sort of precious metal, if possible. Here, amongst their kin and neighbors, lie all non-noble dwarves. Particularly notable commoners might get a brass sarcophagus instead of a copper one, but that's all. Death is the great equalizer.

This has the happy side effect of preventing the unhappy thought among butthead nobles that Urist McCommoner has a grander tomb than they. Nobles get little 3x3 tombs that branch off from the main catacombs. I've (he sheepishly admits) never had to prepare the tomb of a King or similar figure; I expect I'd have to get a bit more grandiose before they were happy.

[90908]

I usually begin carving out the Halls of the Dead sometime around F.Y. 1 or 2. These are mostly a big communal catacombs with coffins/sarcophagi of a common material placed in recesses in the wall. (Urist McDerpy-who-fell-into-magma's memorial slab goes in one of these sockets too.) The entire area is smoothed and covered in engravings, and the area is sealed with doors wrought from some sort of precious metal, if possible. Here, amongst their kin and neighbors, lie all non-noble dwarves. Particularly notable commoners might get a brass sarcophagus instead of a copper one, but that's all. Death is the great equalizer.

This has the happy side effect of preventing the unhappy thought among butthead nobles that Urist McCommoner has a grander tomb than they. Nobles get little 3x3 tombs that branch off from the main catacombs. I've (he sheepishly admits) never had to prepare the tomb of a King or similar figure; I expect I'd have to get a bit more grandiose before they were happy.

It must be said that, although my over the top commoner tombs are awesome, nobles do get rather butthurt about it. Which is of course when I grab the ☼Steel coffin☼ and plonk it in a 3x3 engraved room. I also rather enjoy it when the engravings are rather morbid. Serves the self righteous parasites right.

[90908]

Oh, and before I forget! I have a rather...interesting story of dwarven ceremony.

2 years into my fortress. Population of 100. Around 50 of them are children. 3 year old children, all of whom apparently have a fetish for causing pain. Long and short of it is, there was a legendary miner, a child indirectly caused his death. So, in memory of this glorious man, I began preparation for the most !!Amazing!! burial ceremony. Ever.

I locked all of the children into the miners tomb, which is a 4x4 room. I slowly began the process of moving magma into an area where magma mist could reach the tomb. Some children may have fallen in.

Once that as finished, I set up a dumping zone above it. I then dropped in a single elf corpse I happened to have around.

And, as I watched the fruits of my labors, I realized that I probably shouldn't have set fire to all of my fortress's children for the purpose of burying a miner.

[vjmdhzgr]

I think the only special funeral I've ever managed to arrange was for thinner of an 8 year fort I had recently who was there on embark and was probably something around legendary +10. He died when a goblin thief snuck in during a goblin assault that had wiped out my military for the third time in a row. So I was without any military and assigned the miner as an emergency fighter since they would be over legendary with pickaxe as a weapon skill. They killed the thief, and I unassigned them from the military. Then another goblin was revealed and it ran around panicking for a long time as I tried to assign my miner to the military with a pick weapon again, but with all their messing around picking up different clothes for some reason, they forgot to pick up the pickaxe and ran into the goblin. The fight didn't last longer than three rounds of combat.

I gave them an artifact coffin that had been made recently, which was put at the center of the far wall of my 10x20 cemetery, and I put the artifact chair the miner had made next to it and designated a third of the room as his tomb.

It was a sad day in the fortress as the goblins were blocking us in with sieges every season, and none of my military attempts lasted very long. My population was down from 70 to 40 and was mostly children. I think that fort died when I tried to make a wall around the outside to get out of hiding underground for so long, and I was expecting a siege, but I decided to push it and keep working as the wall was almost done. I'm still trying to reclaim it now. It was on 0.34.11.

[NJW2000]

Not strictly relevant, as it was just for a king who survived the fort, but I once had an artifact coffin, huge value, made it my monarch's tomb.

It was visible from my central staircase, down which ambassadors went to conduct meetings.

A few years after it was built, the dwarven trade caravan tried to sell me a toga with a picture of that artifact coffin on it.

[90908]

Not strictly relevant, as it was just for a king who survived the fort, but I once had an artifact coffin, huge value, made it my monarch's tomb.

It was visible from my central staircase, down which ambassadors went to conduct meetings.

A few years after it was built, the dwarven trade caravan tried to sell me a toga with a picture of that artifact coffin on it.

!!Sue!! them for copyright infringement. Preferably spikes would be involved.

[LlamaLlord]

I have two ways based upon if they had an honourable death, or if they ran like a coward and were chopped down subsequently


Honorable way- each dwarf is given a 3x3 room with 2 statues and a coffin- made of steel. Then The when their body is interred in their coffin i fill the room with magma, sleep eternal in your warm steel coffin

The Cowards- refuse pile with corpses engaged on a collapsible floor which is hooked up to a a lever that drops the remains in magma, also doubles as a garbage shoot!

You must have to deal with alot of ghosts, Who ya gonna call? Ghost Busters!

[Torrenal]

For visitors falling in valient/helpful defense of the fort, I'll make a slab, of native goldz if possible, and set it just outside my fort walls in memory of their defense.

Haven't had anything other lately (been avoiding combat as best I can till the military bugs get sorted), but in past playthroughs I'd make a 11x11 crypt with their coffin in the center, and the whole thing smoothed.    Occasionally I'd add little embellishments where appropriate.
//Torrenal

[Tanaman]

I usually begin with a ceremonial dumping of the corpse down the garbage chute. Once the body has begun to partially rot away and a ghost shows up is about the time I realize that something is wrong. After I've tracked the body down to the bottom of my chute, I then unlock the chute access and dump designate the body to get it out. With access to my upper chute locked as well, the dwarves now realize that the body should be properly stored in a coffin.

By the way. If anybody knows how to design a garbage chute that accepts sentient corpses, but not dwarves. Or at least how to get dwarves to prefer coffins over the garbage chute, I'd much appreciate it!

[Avin]

Tombs, crypts and graveyards have always seemed like a way to put a corpse somewhere and forget about it, and that's always bothered me a little. I took some time to consider what is the one place where dwarfs always go, what is the one thing dwarfs are known most for doing. The answer I found was the Legendary Dinning room for drinking!

My dead dine eternally with the living. The walls and the rows of tables of the dinning hall are lined with the coffins of all fallen dwarfs great and small. All of you are dwarfs and all of you deserve nothing less than to dine eternally with your brethren.

[greycat]

By the way. If anybody knows how to design a garbage chute that accepts sentient corpses, but not dwarves.

I don't think this can be automated.  At least not without DFHack type tricks.

Or at least how to get dwarves to prefer coffins over the garbage chute, I'd much appreciate it!

If you build a bunch of coffins and designate them for burial, each dwarf that dies on site should be automatically assigned to one of them, and any pathable body parts stored in the coffin.  But I don't know if having a corpse stockpile interferes with this.  I do not use corpse stockpiles, or refuse stockpiles, at all.

[Immortal-D]

I very recently learned that Dwarves receive a happy thought from viewing a coffin, akin to 'tastefully arranged Statue'.  Go figure.  If you run Fortresses like I do, you need all of the morale-boosters you can get.  To that end, my latest Fortress designs incorporate a 1x1 alcove along the walls for coffins.  Major areas like the Dormitory and Dining Hall get 1x2 slots for an additional Memorial Slab (reserved for important Dorfs of course).