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[Weizen1988]

Hello, Im a new player, ive looked at some guides and flailed around a while dying at the hands of weresquirrels until i learned how to defend areas and arm dwarves. Something is wrong, its probably minor, but since I dont know what Im doing, things not doing exactly what they say they should concerns me. Ive been looking around but I cant find an answer for this, Im sorry if I just missed it somewhere. So, ive got about 100 dwarves, and seconds later, one of them "had a discussion with the locals" and became king. I looked at the wiki and it tells me I should have gotten a baron, count, and duke before this, along with various other things unlocked as I get those, and that I shouldnt even have a king here yet, Im supposed to need more value in the fort, more exports, and more dwarves, I didnt get any of the others, just mayor and all the regular ones, and now I have a king. I also never got this entourage the king is supposed to have of champions and skilled dwarves, hes just some dung coated ignorant peasantdwarf who had been a cheesemaker or something useless. Do I just never get these champions or other nobles? Has my fortress been gimped by this? Do I have to start over or something? What did I do wrong? Im using Lazy newb pack with dfhack and stuff, can I somehow force those nobles to show up?

[DanielCoffey]

Is your fortress the last survivor of your Dwarven Civ? Look at the wiki for King...

"Random dwarves in dwarf fortress mode can become monarchs if the current monarch dies or if the position was vacant (common in dying civilizations)."

[anewaname]

I have gained a king with fewer dwarfs. It happens when your parent civ is "dead". You will get migrants and some dwarf trade caravans but there will be no diplomatic liaisons. Look at it like this... the original dwarf settlements have been destroyed and the survivors are migrating to the last known planned settlement.. yours. It is up to you to build the new home of the dwarven people, to arm and armor a new miitary, and to establish a safe haven against the aggressive people that destroyed your parent civ.

[Weizen1988]

Ok, thank you for the two responses, and im realizing I was unclear about what my actual concern is.

To answer both of you, no, my civ is totally still alive, It is not dead, there are other settlements, mine isnt even the largest, ive had liason come by regularly, same with caravans and migrants, last one about two seasons ago, then suddenly I have a guy become king. The having a king isnt what is bothering me, the -NOT- having a baron, champion, duke, count, or any of the other nobles is my problem, that i received a king is merely confusing, not itself the problem, im bummed that I did not get any of the things that come with that, or any of the previous nobles which themselves unlock various functions it sounds like. The problem is lacking all the other nobles, I have no champion slot, so I guess I cant train my dwarves, wiki says champion is the one who teaches/leads demonstrations. All I have access to is King, mayor, captain of the guard, militia commander, hammerer, manager, chief medical dwarf, broker, and bookkeeper. No baron, count, duke, champion, or general. Which according to the wiki, means I cannot train my military at all, champion is the one who leads demonstrations.

Edit: Civ is definitely still alive, i hit c and it shows up on the list, shows it has nobles (baron, the liason, a diplomat and a few others) living in other fortresses belonging to the civilization.

Still more Edits: Im sorry if this is confusing or particularly stupid, I barely know what im doing, operating mostly on "the wiki says do things in this order and these things will happen." and that has clearly broken down. Im worried ive done something wrong and that continuing to play is a waste, because I will not have various positions available.

[feelotraveller]

No, you haven't done anything wrong.     Sometimes when the old king dies a random dwarf in your fortress gets appointed king.  I once had one of the starting 7 dwarfs become king... while there were only 7 dwarfs (i.e. before the first migrants arrived).  In fact some/many oversees would love to be in your position, but then they probably drink magma for breakfast too.  I've always enjoyed having a noble and watching them progress through the ranks and cause random fun.

If you want to get a baron you will need to get the kingship to pass elsewhere.  Assuming that there are other dwarf forts still thriving having the current king have a fatal accident should do the trick, if not rinse and repeat until it does (or perhaps it becomes clear that your civilization is not that healthy).  It could involve magma, or pulling a lever, or even heroically charging a siege/forgotten beast.  Or solo cavern exploration barehanded and lightly clothed.

As to your other worry, you don't need a champion to train squads.  Basically any dwarf with military skills will lead a demonstration.  In fact sometimes it is hard to get the novices from not giving demonstrations.  Make a squad, include at least one dwarf with military skills, follow the wiki to set up barracks and uniforms, etc. and watch them go at it.   

[Weizen1988]

Currently trapped by goblins, and I dont have a very good way to airlock the king out to fight them without inviting the goblins inside, or enough (any) crossbows to shoot them from my fortified hallway, but i figure they will leave eventually. After that, I guess ill build a temple over my volcano, not yet clever enough to move magma (or hell, water) around without killing myself, thinking ill use this volcano for practice, try to confine it to one area of the map with some walls or something incase something goes wrong while i learn how pumps and all that work. Thanks everyone, I was worried my military was gimped by not getting those random nobles.

[rhavviepoodle]

You shouldn't have to actually kill your king. From what I understand, a given fort can possess the monarch without actually meeting the requirements of being Mountainhome. In my current fort, dwarves were a dying civ, and it was a couple years before a liaison started visiting, long after one of my dwarves declared himself king. Eventually the liaison offered to make the fort a barony (because even though the king wasn't anywhere else, the current fort wasn't technically the Mountainhome), and the next year a duchy. Population went up and I eventually saw the requirements to become the capital, which my fort did the next spring. I got a message saying the monarch and his entourage had arrived, but it really was just two or three regular migrants. It wasn't great, and it was somewhat janky, but it is functional. You definitely shouldn't be missing out on anything, but don't let that stop you from building a temple above a volcano!

[Thisfox]

If there is a series of deaths happening in some distant fort, you might suddenly end up with far more Nobles than you first intended. I've been gifted with half a dozen over the course of a year once. I'm certain I've had duchies, barons, and so on be Happened after a King was chosen (I assume all the closer heirs died when a fort winked out mere months after we founded our muddy little ditch of a fort).

This appears to be a serious case of Be Careful What You Wish For. Good luck!

[PatrikLundell]

A truly dead civ doesn't get a monarch, nor any dwarven caravans or any liaison, and two migration waves, in contrast to what's stated above. A "struggling" civ can start out without a monarch and saddle you with the monarch more or less immediately (and a "struggling" civ can be one that has had neither sites nor members for a thousand years, yet still refuse to become properly dead), and a struggling civ gets the dwarven caravan, liaison, and unlimited migrants, but all of these may be AWOL for more or less lengthy periods. As said above, you can also get saddled with a monarch out of the blue even with a healthy civ.

Nobles are mostly a pain you can do without, although you need appointed nobility or a monarch to get insulted by elven diplomats (with their attendant meddling in your internal affairs).

You'll get a mayor at a pop of 50, but the mayor can replace itself with one who isn't a mandate spewer (has to be repeated every year after each election, though). The chief medical dwarf, broker, accountant, and manager positions are useful, but be very careful about activating the injustice system, especially if you have mandate spewing nobility.

[Melting Sky]

It sounds like somewhere out in the world a great battle has been fought and lost by your parent civilization and the King was killed and one of your dwarves was of royal blood and next in line for ascension to the throne. Either that or your civilization is in real dire straits and the entire royal line was wiped out and the new king was chosen from your fortress's dwarves randomly. Killing your current king won't likely help you get your other nobles and it certainly will not help your military. It looks like your fortress is likely one of the last great bastions in the world for your people.

[Weizen1988]

Ok, so ive got king still, goblins still hanging about so I cant try having him explore the magma for the glory of Armok yet, but a caravan and the liaison just showed up, presumably going to die horribly at the hands of goblins, guess Ill see what happens.

Edit: Just got freed, not sure what killed the goblins, something killed a giant elephant though, which tells me those spawn here, so hopefully I catch some. Anyway, time to try and kill my king.

[PatrikLundell]

Well, caravans don't show up while the fortress is under siege, so my guess is that the goblins gave up and left. Siegers leave after either a season (if you're lucky) or year (if you're unlucky). Note that Titans do not give up. I suspect (semi) megabeasts don't either, but I've never had any of those roaming for a season.

[Weizen1988]

Well, caravans don't show up while the fortress is under siege, so my guess is that the goblins gave up and left. Siegers leave after either a season (if you're lucky) or year (if you're unlucky). Note that Titans do not give up. I suspect (semi) megabeasts don't either, but I've never had any of those roaming for a season.

Yeah, the goblins must have just left before the caravan and I didnt notice, Id gotten used to being locked underground. Some kinda snow blob monster attacked in the caverns, but it wandered off and died somewhere, i suspect the pits of magma are involved. Anyway, this topic is getting far beyond my initial fear about missing nobles. Should I just keep asking things here and re edit the topic/first post or make different threads if I come up with more stuff I dont understand? I dont want to clutter up the forum with stupid questions.

[rhavviepoodle]

Weizen, you really don't have to kill your king unless you really hate his likes (and thus his mandates). The arrival of an existing king only occurs when a fort becomes mountainhome, and that is the only way to turn your fort into a mountainhome. When an existing dwarf ascends to the position of monarch, that's all that happens--your fort has not prematurely become mountainhome. As far as the code is concerned, there is a mountainhome that exists somewhere out in the ether (even if said mountainhome no longer has a monarch, or even if the "mountainhome" doesn't -really- exist. Hence, for example, the outpost liaison saying "greetings from the mountainhome" even if your fort houses the king). The only thing you might potentially miss out on by not having the monarch and their entourage arrive is the legendary +5 warriors, which frankly aren't that impressive. Training an actual militia to the same skill would also raise the rest of their melee skills, yielding much more rounded and effective fighters. Trust me, you -really- don't need to kill your king, lol. Your fort can and still will become a barony, as it's one of the stepping stones to becoming the official mountainhome, which is still an open option for you.

I remember in one of my forts I gave one of my dwarves some level in social skills, thinking that he would eventually declare himself mayor. I'm pretty sure he ended up declaring himself king instead, before I'd even hit a population of 50 in my fort. If the regicidal bloodlust is due to your monarch having bad likes or the fact they're a cheesemaker, then I understand. But you really won't be fixing any gameplay mechanics for your fort or anything. Dwarf Fortress is already ridiculously complicated and this is one thing that has been accounted for and will still properly work for you.

[Werdna]

It sounds like somewhere out in the world a great battle has been fought and lost by your parent civilization and the King was killed

Or not so great, as some cases may be.  Our fort gained a Queen (from polite debate) after, according to Legends, the previous King accepted a duel from the local goblin civ.  King Venomsomething proceeded to lose to the goblin's champion, a 12 year old human boy.