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[Narrrz]

These would be a bit like a cross between a werebeast and a vampire, though they wouldn't arise from a deity's curse. Instead, (in fortress mode) when a dwarf reaches the stage of starvation where they begin to "hunt for small creature", there would be a chance instead that they would seek out and murder, butcher, and consume one of their fellow dwarves, leaving a skeletal corpse. Upon finding such a body, the player would be notified "The skeleton of Urist has been found, the bones sucked clean of marrow".

The offending dwarf would now be an infiltrated night creature, and in their description their features should become more and more monsterous over the course of a year, and other dwarves catching sight of them should szsometimes become overcome by horror/fright. In addition to their usual food and drink needs, they will sometimes seek out dwarves who are alone to kill and consume in the same way. If not found and removed before the year-long incubation period ends, the dwarf will exit the fortress entirely to create a lair nearby, subsequently fully transforming into a monstrous form, and returning (in stealth) periodically to raid your fort for more dwarves to kill and eat.

[delphonso]

I like the premise - even if not a wendigo, DF feels like it has space for cannibalism.

[Iä! RIAKTOR!]

And when wendigo live in lair (in worldgen), it can teach sentient creatures for turn them into wendigo too. Also they use some powers of undead lieutenants like mist creating and weather changing.

[IndigoFenix]

Interesting premise, but I think it would be better as several procedurally generated elements that could be combined together.

We already have MAJOR_CURSEs, but right now the only way to become cursed is to desecrate a temple.  There should be other sins or taboos that can be punished with a curse.  These could be tied to a civ's ethics; it wouldn't make sense for an elf or a goblin to be cursed for eating a sapient creature, but a dwarf or human might.

The curses themselves could also have procedural elements.  Instead of just being vampire and werebeast, you might have elements that can be combined, like "hunger for blood", "hunger for sapient creature flesh", "compulsion to steal".  There could also be procedural "gifts" that go along with the curse, such as stat boosts.

So one curse could be "a hunger for sapient creature flesh" that is triggered when they commit the sin of cannibalism, effectively a wendigo, but there could be a wide variety of other variations.

[Fikilili]

To continue the procgen aspect of this, let's give the game the ability to give an entity malformations or randomized transformation.
For instance, let's say that in some civ's mythos, a dwarf becoming a cannibals suddenly gets taller, grows horns, sharp teeth and extra stomachs. Well the game could assign those elements to a dwarf who's been cursed to become a cannibal. Eventually, the game could give it a random name, such as Wendigo.

[Azerty]

And I think some of these curses could also affect entire groups: for exemple, a village where cannibalism was practised by non-elf or -gobelins might see its soil cursed, or an entire family could be cursed for such acts such as the Atrides.

[GOTOTOTOE]

yeaaa lets not make a sacred piece of navajo mythology a df enemy please, seems kind of disrespectful

[Nordlicht]

So we throw out every other real world mythological creature too?

I guess the idea of having gods is also disrespectful for the true and only god(s) religion(s)©

[bloop_bleep]

yeaaa lets not make a sacred piece of navajo mythology a df enemy please, seems kind of disrespectful

So is it disrespectful to Chinese mythology to have dragons as enemies in DF? Is it disrespectful to European mythology to have gremlins? This makes no sense.

If anything it's a promotion of Navajo mythology.

[A_Curious_Cat]

yeaaa lets not make a sacred piece of navajo mythology a df enemy please, seems kind of disrespectful

So is it disrespectful to Chinese mythology to have dragons as enemies in DF? Is it disrespectful to European mythology to have gremlins? This makes no sense.

If anything it's a promotion of Navajo mythology.

Actually, the wendigo is from the folklore of the Algonquin tribes of northeast U.S. and southeast Canada and has nothing to do with Navajo mythology.

[Narrrz]

Vampires, zombies, devils, probably most of the "horror" monsters have their roots in some mythology or other. I guess it's not my place to say whether it should or shouldn't be offensive - if it's a part of your culture, and its adaptation into modern media offends you, then your feelings are valid - but to me, at least, it's always felt more like paying homage to a culture and its stories to include them in other works. And it's not impossible that such homages could help to keep your culture alive, if people who become interested in the source of these creatures look more deeply into their origins. And when all is said and done, stories are basically made to be told and retold, adapted, taken apart and put back together again. Culture evolves just like practically anything else, and there's no reason the inclusion of another culture's myths and legends in a modern art form can't be an example of that evolution.

[Maximum Spin]

Not only is it not Navajo, it's not sacred, either, they kind of hated the things.

if it's a part of your culture, and its adaptation into modern media offends you, then your feelings are valid

Man, no they aren't. Look, on behalf of my ancestors, I give you permission to do whatever the hell you want with wendigos. Appropriate all you want, we'll make more.

[GOTOTOTOE]

yeaaa lets not make a sacred piece of navajo mythology a df enemy please, seems kind of disrespectful

So is it disrespectful to Chinese mythology to have dragons as enemies in DF? Is it disrespectful to European mythology to have gremlins? This makes no sense.

If anything it's a promotion of Navajo mythology.

Actually, the wendigo is from the folklore of the Algonquin tribes of northeast U.S. and southeast Canada and has nothing to do with Navajo mythology.

oh, i mustve confused it with skinwalkers. i have this argument a lot

[betaking]

Skinwalkers are just witches/warlocks aren't they?

[Pohiena]

yeaaa lets not make a sacred piece of navajo mythology a df enemy please, seems kind of disrespectful

So is it disrespectful to Chinese mythology to have dragons as enemies in DF? Is it disrespectful to European mythology to have gremlins? This makes no sense.

If anything it's a promotion of Navajo mythology.

Actually, the wendigo is from the folklore of the Algonquin tribes of northeast U.S. and southeast Canada and has nothing to do with Navajo mythology.

oh, i mustve confused it with skinwalkers. i have this argument a lot

Skinwalkers, as far as i know, are a type of witch, and what appears to be the Navajos' reluctance to talk about them seems to arise much more because it is an "uncomfortable subject, gives bad luck or it's taboo to talk about if not to educate the young" than a spirit of "sacredness" for the entity.