"...And lo! The dull red sun, though through countless millions of years shone its light upon our fair Earth, did succumb to age and wasting, its light dimming and fading as the descendents of Man sought succor in the depths of the world, chasms and canyons. Thus did the Days of Darkening come upon weary Mankind, forcing him ever deeper into the great Chasms opened up by the dying of the World. From Wisdom came Hubris as the sons of Man dealt and bargained with the Far Powers of the deepest space, and through their experiments unknowingly allowed the Powers of the Night entrance upon the Earth, long kept at bay by the electrically charged Atmosphere of the planet's exterior. Now the Dark Powers can at last Destroy and Devour the souls of the living, circling the magma-lit world like sharks of the Aether. Man hath sought safety and respite in the building of mighty Redoubts, city-fortresses dug deep into the Earth, protecting him from the Dark and its minions as they encroach deeper upon the boundaries of man. And lo! One by one do the flickering lights of the Redoubts go out, as the Night creeps in to feed upon what lives in an Earth beyond saving. This is the Terrible and Distant future of the Night Land, the inextricable End of Man's works and the quieting of his essence, as the Dark Ones feast upon their prey, as they always have, and always will. May the Powers of Good have Mercy on thy souls."
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What is the Night Land?
The Night Land takes the mechanics of dwarf fortress and combines them with the titular setting of the Night Land, a novel by William Hope Hodgeson. The story depicts a bleak future millions of years from now, where the sun has burnt itself out and most of the planet has become uninhabitable save for its darkest depths, which teem with degenerated abominations of fearful strength, size, and cruelty. There dwell the last millions of humanity, sheltered in an eight mile high Great Redoubt, containing over a hundred cities within, and without, the titanic and evil Dark Powers wait patiently for the Earth Current, the force which powers the barrier that keeps them at bay, to fail. And when that day comes, humanity will die by its own hand, as the citizens of the Great Redoubt commit mass suicide to avoid falling into the clutches of the Night, and having their very souls devoured by the spiritual predators within. This fate cannot be avoided, only delayed. This mod allows you to take part in that dark eternity, though I must clarify this is not a 1:1 reproduction, for obvious reasons. A few key changes have been made so as to make the setting 'playable' within the confines of the game. Consider it an alternate universe or something like that. For example, instead of a single Great Redoubt, the lands are dotted with countless lesser Redoubts, housing a few hundred humans each. Each a nation unto themselves, they must survive as best they can in a world that actively schemes to kill them. They are the recommended race to play in fortress mode. And secondly, this timeline of the Night Land is a slightly gentler one, in that leaving the protection of the Redoubts is no longer tantamount to suicide for all but the most epic of heroes, as it is in the original story. Aetherships, automobiles, biplanes, and motorbikes are all viable means of traveling through the blasted wastes, though they will only be found in the most advanced of civilizations. Be warned, however, and I cannot stress this enough, that this is still the Night Land. There are things in this mod that can instantly kill you the very moment you step into their line of sight. Things of this nature will, however, be heralded by strange sounds and other portents, warning you that such a deadly beast is in the area. Should you encounter something suspicious in the Night Land, running away as fast as possible is probably your best choice. For those wishing to play as other factions beyond humanity, the option is available to play as one of the bestial mutant tribes, universally strong but also universally primitive, or the more advanced kingdoms of abhumans and lesser men, possessing levels of technology second only to true mankind. More detailed information on these races can be found on the mod page. Regardless of your choice, life will likely be short and unkind. Good luck.
NOTE: Abhumans are kind of wonky right now. Playing as metalworking civs is recommended until such a time as I am confident they will function as intended. That aside they are still technically playable, just missing some important gameplay mechanics while at the same time having access to things they should not. Possibly recommended if you like challenging yourself with a high mortality rate.
Download Link:
https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=16239Title music taken from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqU-15KonOkHandy timeline chart from the extended universe:
https://nightland.website/index.php/background/timelineSpecial thanks to Vherid's Dark Sand color scheme.
HOW TO INSTALL:
Just download it, place the folder somewhere, and play it. This mod comes with its own .exe and everything, you do not need to copy and paste, drag and drop, or otherwise move any files around beyond the initial step. It works exactly like installing and playing the vanilla game.
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Changelog:
2.21
-Fix to the constant crop world rejections. This is a messy hotfix and the mod needs a big overhaul which I will do in the future but it should be easier to generate worlds now.
2.2 Changes:
-Updated to current DF version
2.1 Changes:
-Updated to current DF version
2.0 Changes:
-Updated to current DF version
-Removed capacity for language for certain abhumans, replacing it with utterances. As barely sapient beastmen I feel this will be fitting. The Rufous Men, Pale Men, and Riding Men will retain language as their cultures seem to be more sophisticated
-Manshonkin civilization renamed to Manshonyaggers
-Redoubt civs will just use Diskos (which have been buffed) and harquebuses now, as the other weapons were my own invention and ultimately not necessary
-Half-Men re-written to be more coherent, with most of them being lesser versions of proper abhuman races (smaller, capable of speech) with rarer, more intelligent mutants being found among them.
-Vehicles redone. Some abhumans of sufficient cunning will possess crude land vehicles while Redoubts make heavy use of airships (as canonically they did in the past).
-Worldgen rejections reduced
1.81 Changes:
-Harquebus bullets fixed
1.8 Changes:
-Many new monsters and creatures added.
-Machines and vehicles can be "butchered" and yield resources like metal blocks.
-Capacity for love removed from most Abhumans.
-New weapons, the mundane and great Harquebuses. bulky and costly to make but devastatingly lethal contraptions resembling rifles. Powered by the Earth Current, their bullets cleave through flesh like it was Sluren lard. In the true canon, such weapons are ineffective against the most devastating of the Dark Powers and would only make them angry, hastening humanity's doom. In this mod, that is not the case. Such devices will be found in the hands of most human civs along with the abhuman Half Men and the terrifyingly intelligent Kiln Giants.
-New civilization added, the Peaceful Ones. An offshoot of the Road Builders (and in the official canon what the Road Builders will become a few million years after their golden age), they are ruled by the supposedly wise and compassionate Cynosures, though these beings have also utterly forsaken their humanity in favor of benign apathy. Indeed, it was the experiments of the Cynosures that allowed the Pneumavores, soul eaters, to break through the atmosphere and doom the planet.
-The werebeast-style beings known as the Ridden have been altered to be a necromancer type instead as the transmission system won't work with them. The Ridden are now husks controlled by Pneumavores, who slay victims to grant their lesser kindred material bodies. Unlike the Saiitii Hosts, nothing of the original mind remains, only a cunning imitator. Also, the intelligent Ridden can Destroy souls if they get close enough, meaning, and I am putting this in all caps so it is noticed, THEY CAN INSTANTLY KILL ANYTHING IN MELEE RANGE. There is a short cooldown to this, but fight these foes with caution. Lesser animated corpse style Ridden should be easier to handle. These foes can serve as a stand-in for the House of Silence.
-New civilization, the Scyrrites. Some time circa 23 million years AD, a man known as Scyrr will embrace the dark powers and devise, or be gifted, a means to convert humans into things more fitting the cruel dominion of the Night Land. Though in the true timeline he will be overthrown, in this case the Scyrrites have taken hold and constructed redoubts of their own. This truly terrifying enemy combines the cunning and power of the Night Land with stolen metals and technology from humanity, making them a rare and cunning foe that must be stopped at all costs.
-New civilization, the Gnarled Men. Abhumans with large claws and knotted pink skin. Just another of many freaks with the power to tear a human limb from limb, but added nonetheless.
-Fun things added to the magma sea. One of the expanded universe stories notes that the deep portions of the earth have experienced a massive boom in biodiversity as many strange creatures evolve to thrive in boiling water and acidic seas at the darkest depths of the surviving oceans. So then I thought, what if there were creatures who also survived in the earth's mantle itself? And so now you can find giant fish with bones of silicone and boiling blood swimming in the deepest depths of the molten earth. Not all of them are confined to the magma, however.
1.71 Change:
-Quickfix, one type of monster didn't have the LARGE_ROAMING tag and wouldn't spawn, this has been changed. As always, let me know if you feel something is wrong or broken.
1.7 Changes:
-Poetry and music potential removed from most abhuman civs as such creatures hate those sorts of things.
-Pale Men added. Like Rufous Men in that they can work metal, but sneakier.
-Both of the above civs can use less complex vehicles now.
-New semimegabeast added, the Giant Thaumaturge. Focuses on full offense instead of Watcher-type tactics and has ab-natural psychic powers.
-Some new monsters added.
1.6 Changes:
-More ab-life added.
-Kiln Giants added. Only the size of an elephant, but possessed of a peculiar cunning, they form cruel societies of smiths and forges deep below the earth, pumping out crude but effective siege engines to bring ruin upon mankind.
-Fungal Things added. In ancient days, before the sun went out, there was known to be a particular breed of fungus that could infest and corrupt the minds of victims. Over time, it has evolved with the Night Land, and formed its own empire out of sculpted forests. Invader civ, not playable.
-All non-metalworking civs (aka primitive abhumans) are now item thieves, so as a human fort you won't get caravans from (most) abhuman civs. This is experimental and I may change it.
-Necromancers changed to Saiitii hosts. Saiitii is a sort of infectious aetheric fungus that can reanimate corpses into malevolent ghouls. A Saiitii host is one who has traded away their humanity to act as a conduit for Saiitii, and is given both immortality and vast legions of undead in return.
-Skincrawlers added. These are once-humans who have been murdered and flayed, their skin surgically grafted over an abhuman infiltrator. They function as vampires, but I intend to expand on them later.
-Good Powers added. In Evil areas, where Pneumavores are found, you have a rare chance of finding these beings. They will bless the worthy, or lucky, with temporary protection from soul Destruction and thus a mortal will gain the strength to kill the soul eating demons of those tainted lands, for a time.
1.5 Changes:
-Abhuman tiles overhauled, replaced with entirely new ones. Savage tribal types will no longer have soldier tiles. This change is necessary simply because there are so many of them, to the point that I'll eventually run out of tiles that link together in an understandable way to form the civilian/soldier duality, and so I'd rather just do away with that entirely.
-The Rufous Men, who are abhumans who work metal, though only iron and copper, and the Lopsided Men, who are mundane save for their much larger right arms, have been added.
-Many new forms of non-sentient ab-life have been added, including some new Pneumavores.
-Feral manshonyaggers will not spawn everywhere and murder everything.
-Good biomes reworked to resemble giant ruined cities. Manshonyaggers should now be found only in said biomes, and later other relics of prior ages may be found here.
1.4 Changes:
-Watchers and Fixed Giants added. The Watchers are, without question, very very dangerous and will absolutely murder most of the population in worldgen if you st the megabeast setting too high. Much like how they function in the book, Watchers cease movement upon encountering a settlement, besieging it. The power of the Watchers is in their size and terrible ab-natural abilities. Watchers will possess and assume control of all feral Night creatures that wander onto the map, allowing the Outer Powers to possess them and in this way, slowly build an army of augmented wildlife that it will constantly send at your fortress. In addition, it can dizzy and confuse soldiers using its psychic energies, and manifest spheres of flame to attack them directly. Watchers are essentially one-man invasions, capable of turning the very ecosystem into a weapon. Fixed Giants are semimegabeasts work the same, but lack the telepathic and fiery defenses of true Watchers.
-Manshonyaggers added. These are mechanical constructs dating back millions of years, with an inscrutable plan for humanity's future. They are cruel, patient, and often mad, though they are also by their nature tenuous allies to humanity, though they should not be trusted. Certain redoubts will be ruled by manshonyaggers and their nanotechne-enhanced human serfs, while others will use tame manshonyaggers as beasts of war. In addition, some larger ones are semimegabeasts, attacking abhuman settlements to protect mankind, or attacking human settlements to prune the weakness out of humanity. And of course, feral ones can be found roaming the Night Land as well. They are quite mad and should be fled from.
-Delver civilization added. They actually went extinct almost ten million years before the sun went out but I have added them in this mod because they are the closest one might come to proper Dwarves, which I'm sure you all will appreciate. They dwell in caves but have semi-modern technology, with the exception of air vehicles, as they despise the open sky.
-Abhuman civilization renamed to the Half Men for the sake of proper terminology. Abhuman is a catch-all term for ab-naturally mutated forms of life stemming from the human base. Most humanoid monsters present in this mod are abhuman, and the Half Men (formerly termed abhuman) are a single facet of that diverse group.
-Riding Men added. They are a tribe of abhumans that have domesticated a species of brute along with a breed of human slaves they use as food.
-Airships renamed to Aetherships.
-Silent Ones relocated from Good to Savage biomes, made rarer.
-Mechanical Knights replaced with Manshonyaggers as attack animals.
-Delvers, Road Makers, and Manshonyagger-owned humans will not be able to telepathically respond to the Master Word, but will not ping as ab-natural either.
-Humans were previously unable to develop skill due to a RAW mistake but this has been corrected.
1.3 Changes:
-Terrain hazards added. You will rarely find geysers of chemically-infused flame gouts bursting out of the ground in any plain-type biome. These can be detected by a dull roaring sound that echoes around them. They suffuse the surrounding air with toxic chemicals that bring debilitating effects. After exposure, finding somewhere safe and resting to recover from it is probably your best option. On the other hand, you can now also find small fire pits, glowing holes of smoke and lava, which will show up anywhere. Resting near these gives you a significant bonus to recuperation for a short while, allowing wounds to heal faster.
-More monsters added.
-New beast man civ added, the Tall Men. Not much different from the other brutes but they like to use bows.
-Cave-dwelling beast man civs should siege you earlier than normal invader civs, but I don't know how early. (testing and feedback on this feature would be very very appreciated pls)
-New metal added, Orichalc. Basically better than steel in every way. Only humans can make it.
-Humans now have innate skills in combat and military tactics. Justified as them being trained from birth.
-Shadow Men will now by default have 1 civ per world and should always be at war.
-Silent Ones will not kill each other. Reminder to read their description upon encountering them.
-Fish removed, as their kind have been extinct for millions of years.
-Tanks renamed to Ironclads
-A certain metal of great importance has been replaced with something more lore-friendly.
-Five percent of humans have the potential for strange moods.
1.2 Changes:
-New race added, the Shadow Men, like bestial brutes, but smaller and more cunning. Will dwell in dark fortresses and can work metal. I wanted a more traditional invader race to keep the world interesting. They are based off of the unnamed monsters that attacked the Road Builders prior to the sun winking out and the arrival of the Pneumavores.
-All domestic animals removed. Further research has revealed that such animals went extinct millions of years ago. Humanity as it is now is primarily vegetarian. Note that as of this update, Road Builders and true Humans that consume the flesh of creatures will become ill and feverish, due to the diseases contained within (eggs and cheeses are safe, though very rare to come by). Abhumans and Brutes suffer no such penalties, however.
-Adventurers can now create powdered water tablets in the brewing section of adventure mode crafts if they have a barrel, a reliable source of water, and time. To rehydrate the water, one needs a waterskin and one tablet, which is enough for three units of water. Very useful for traveling long distances, and also because you can't trust water to not be inhabited with something unpleasant. Technically only humans know how to make this stuff but I can't stop you from using it as other races so you do you.
-Slug size doubled.
-Additional tentacles added to Yellow Things.
-Some new creatures added.
1.1 Changes:
-Scorpions are of intended size.
-Clouds of sand and sulfur will not spam pausing and recentering.
-Bestial Men can be appointed to positions.
-Appropriate pet value added to spider crabs.
-Cave civs no longer have language
1.0 Changes:
-Night Land released.