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[AnotherL2]

I've been seeing a lot of those "iceberg" memes and started wondering if there is any creepy and unsettling community generated folklore about DF. Also it's the spooky month so I though this topic would be relevant.

Aside from the obvious gore and mutilation present in the game, the only thing I can really think of is the whole mermaid bones incident, but even that is quite a stretch. I've also hear rumors about someone actually winning Dwarf Fortress, but I gather that that might just be a joke on the forums.

Maybe DF isn't the type of game to generate this kind of stuff, given the slapstick attitude of the game. Additionally, internet folklore is usually created by young and impressionable audiences which DF doesn't really attract. However I find it hard to believe that nothing like this has come up given DF's long and storied history.

[Egan_BW]

Well, and older version of the game before procedurally generated hidden fun stuff had a chamber of demons deep beneath the earth, with one of the possibilities being all-male tentacle demons which keep insane sentients trapped in filth-covered cages. That's kind of disturbing.

[muldrake]

I actually like that Tarn found mermaid farming so utterly repellent that even in a game like Dwarf Fortress, this was just too far, and he got rid of it.  There is something so vile even Dwarf Fortress will not countenance it, and mermaid farming is that.

[delphonso]

I actually like that Tarn found mermaid farming so utterly repellent that even in a game like Dwarf Fortress, this was just too far, and he got rid of it.  There is something so vile even Dwarf Fortress will not countenance it, and mermaid farming is that.

I think this is a myth - butchering sentients was removed for more reasons than just the mermaid farms, but I could be wrong.

I can't think of much in the community - there has been a sort of morbid competition to make more and more horrible things in DF because you can. I think that mentality has sort of driven away any "internet folklore" type stuff.

Something I do think is understated in DF is that dwarves basically never talk to each other while working. The halls seem to be 100% silent and dwarves only talk in meeting areas.

[Splint]

Something I do think is understated in DF is that dwarves basically never talk to each other while working. The halls seem to be 100% silent and dwarves only talk in meeting areas.

While I dunno if this is still true now, in 34.11 soldiers would actually talk to people who were in the area while they were training. I had soldiers who were friends with all the forts' children cause they'd hang around their moms or dads in the barracks, apparently conversing with the on-duty soldiers while shadowing their folks.

Granted that creates a really bizarre picture where soldiers know everything about their squadmates' kids but absolutely nothing about each other except probably their names.

EDIT: Something that also seems to be ignored is just how hellish a standard DF world can be, nevermind one with tons of mods. Necromancers, vampires, ghouls, werecreatures, demons, giant animals, all the freakish things underground like molemarians or knuckleworms, a standard DF world is jammed full of crap that makes it a wonder civilizations manage to remain stable.

[Starver]

Well, beyond the mermaid-bones incident, readily discussed insofar as its current nerfedness, there was the one with the "grasp" tag modded in - that I should not go into much further, as even the thread(s?) about it was cut out by Toady, it was actually so disturbing. (And, as a possible mod, I don't think it's even nerfable, should anyone want to try it anew.)

Let us not elaborate, please?


Instead, a personal (tame, by conparison) Vanilla unsettlingness is the willingness for crossbowdwarves to leap off their parapets, to fall any number of Zs, in order to (attempt to) engage in meleé. Which I think is still a thing, and I certainly make many designed-in built and organisational precautions against this. Not sure it fits the OP definition, whereas crawling orphaned baby behaviour might if it's not tweaked from how I recall it.

[muldrake]

EDIT: Something that also seems to be ignored is just how hellish a standard DF world can be, nevermind one with tons of mods. Necromancers, vampires, ghouls, werecreatures, demons, giant animals, all the freakish things underground like molemarians or knuckleworms, a standard DF world is jammed full of crap that makes it a wonder civilizations manage to remain stable.

They're pretty mellow, though.  I routinely have undead, necromancers, all kinds of seemingly horrifying creatures constantly visiting my fortress and they don't do anything hostile.  They just sort of hang around, even with terrifying names like "putrid one" and so on.  I was kind of afraid when things like this started showing up, but they haven't done anything.  I'm glad too because the one occasion hostilities broke out it was between an FB and one of these things and the intelligent undead just one-shotted it.  Literally just smacked it and its head exploded.  And then went back to doing whatever it was doing before.  (Just went back and found it, it's just hanging out in a guildhall.)

[Eric Blank]

Melancholy dwarves will throw themselves off steep ledges, or at least they used to. I had one once that tried to kill herself a dozen times, broke a bunch of bones and died of thirst in a sad heap at the bottom of the wall I was building.

[muldrake]

Melancholy dwarves will throw themselves off steep ledges, or at least they used to. I had one once that tried to kill herself a dozen times, broke a bunch of bones and died of thirst in a sad heap at the bottom of the wall I was building.

Embark on flat terrain.

[Quantum Drop]

The Accident has already been mentioned - and not elaborated on, for damned good reason - so I'm going to say the 'Nothing' is pretty good on the 'understated creepy' front.

For elaboration, the 'Nothing' is what happens when you bugger up a modded creature (usually by not giving it a body, tissues, or a description, from what I know). It may be able to attack or pick up gear, but trying to get a description of it crashes the game.

Now think of what that creature looks like to your Dwarves.

[nogoodnames]

They tend to get overlooked, but night trolls are definitely one of the more disturbing elements in the game. They kidnap people and force them to become their mates, transforming their victims into a suitable form to bear their monstrous children. Then the children grow up to be copies of the troll parent and the cycle repeats. The transformation process isn't elaborated upon in game, but I recall that in one of Threetoe's stories (I forget which one) it involved repeatedly skinning the victim alive and then magically healing them.

And then your adventurer comes along and kills the spouse for their first quest and thinks no more of it.

[Splint]

And then your adventurer comes along and kills the spouse for their first quest and thinks no more of it.

Would anyone really? Once they're transformed... Well. Death is a mercy.

[muldrake]

They tend to get overlooked, but night trolls are definitely one of the more disturbing elements in the game. They kidnap people and force them to become their mates, transforming their victims into a suitable form to bear their monstrous children. Then the children grow up to be copies of the troll parent and the cycle repeats. The transformation process isn't elaborated upon in game, but I recall that in one of Threetoe's stories (I forget which one) it involved repeatedly skinning the victim alive and then magically healing them.

And then your adventurer comes along and kills the spouse for their first quest and thinks no more of it.

Okay, night trolls go on my list of things to kill on sight.  Holy Christ this is horrifying.  I'm glad I mostly play in fort mode where I don't encounter these things.

[Quantum Drop]

Okay, night trolls go on my list of things to kill on sight.  Holy Christ this is horrifying.  I'm glad I mostly play in fort mode where I don't encounter these things.

Be careful - those damn things are hard to kill with blunt weapons, and can very easily catch you unaware. And for your sake - don't let them grapple you or latch on.

[delphonso]

Elves consuming sentients after battles should be a bit disturbing - depending on how many they consume...