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[Staalo]

Six (out of 28 total) of my militiadwarves just came back from an ordinary razing mission as holy men of various religious orders. Halfway into the mission, several back-to-back notification windows popped up:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

When they came back I also found out they had detached themselves from their squads and came back as ordinary civilians. They can be re-drafted and they are otherwise normal citizens, except of course the outrageous titles.

So what happened here? Did the game glitch somehow? Did they all have a sudden epiphany on the way back? Were they somehow recognized as defenders of faith as they took part of a raid against an enemy of the church?

[delphonso]

They all chose to multiclass in Cleric. Totally normal given the benefits in 5E.

Oh wait - nevermind.

Yeah, I would guess the fort just happened to elect these six as their priests (which happens occasionally to dwarves (in my experience) with high social skills). Are all of these religions present in your fort with temples and more than 10 followers?

The real question is, why do your military dwarves have high social stats?

[addendum:]
I just recalled something like this happening to someone else - I believe their dwarves inherited royal titles just about as soon as they left the map, which suggests something going on with world activation. Not sure where I read that, though.

[Staalo]

None of these religions have their own temples in my fort. The following might be strong enough for some, but so far they just haven't been requested. The dwarves in question also aren't very socially connected. They are all so-called "blank" dwarves; non-historical migrants with no backgrounds or social relations besides their god, which of course might be a contributing factor.

Before the fateful mission they were all ordinary members of their creed and casual to average worshippers of their chosen god. They also all happen to be monotheistic with no other objects of worship.

Some of the faiths involved haven't had a high priest for few years due to constant warfare and death in this world. On the other hand some others seem to hand out titles like candy and already had dozens of high priests before this incident.

It's a mystery. For all I know, these guys just looted the titles during their mission.

[Quarque]

They all chose to multiclass in Cleric. Totally normal given the benefits in 5E.

[delphonso]

Is your civ low on population? If your civ only has a hillock or something, this may have just been the game dolling out titles like it does with king or queen with a dying civ.

[Staalo]

No, dwarves are actually the most populous race here (despite the world being in the Age of Goblins for some reason), and my civ has several sites and thousands of members. The king is healthy and his succession secure.

It can't be that the original title holders died all at once and passed them to my warriors, either; the notifications were about election, not inheritance. I've sometimes seen title inheritance happen during raids earlier.

Ah, the hell with it. I'm going to play along; I assigned all six warrior priests into a whole new paladin/cleric/holy warrior squad and I'm going to aim for a Templar theme with this fortress. Gods will it!

I'm going to imagine they'll go to war shouting the names of their various deities:

"Forward, brothers and sisters! Gods will it! FOR LIM!"
"FOR BER!"
"FOR KODOR!"
"FOR ERTAL!"
"FOR... uh... IDGAG THE ACE FATHER!"

[Immortal-D]

Just be grateful you have relatively respective names.  I don't think your enemies would take you seriously if your Dorfs charged into battle shouting praise for 'The Bust of Coveting'

[Staalo]

Yes, this civ seems to have lucked out in that sense. Even the one with the awkward name sounds like a DOOM cheatcode, which of course immediately associates with omnipotence and holiness.

[delphonso]

Ah, the hell with it. I'm going to play along

The perfect response to weird stuff DF throws at you.

Honestly if someone showed up calling themselves the "Holy Legend" and the "Sacred Dawn", I'd just surrender immediately.

[Staalo]

Outpost liaison brought the latest news: looks like these newly appointed holy men "replaced" previous title holders... who according to Legends died centuries ago.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Apparently their religions had been without leaders for up to 700 years before the game woke up to the fact, seemingly triggered by that one raiding mission.

Missing from this list is our Holy Legend Tobul whose cult already had dozens of other Holy Legends scattered around the world. Maybe adding one more wasn't newsworthy enough.

[DwarfStar]

Were there temples present at the site they raided? Maybe the temples at the site had been abandoned due to not being used after the site was conquered, and your dwarves were the first to set foot in them for all those years?

[Staalo]

No, Plaitdoom was a perfectly unremarkable dark pits with no temples or other structures. It was barely even worth attacking but since we're at war and it was right in the middle of my satellite hillocks, it had to go.

Although now that I look at the Legends, earlier in this war (12 years ago) the same goblin civ conquered a fortress which did have temples for most of those religions. Last of the high priests of one religion were killed in that battle as well. This might be related somehow.

[Hans Lemurson]

Did that war happen before or after the founding of your fortress?

[Staalo]

Let's see... this war started one year after the founding, so it's all post-worldgen stuff. So far the fighting has been mostly one-sided: that raid to Plaitdoom was the first battle my civ actually was on the attacking side. One more thing that might or might not have something to do with all this.

In further news, just as the year changed after a fought off winter siege, two of the newest recruits suddenly also gained high priest status:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

These two had just grown to adulthood this autumn and had experienced their first siege. For some reason they're both worshipping gods from a foreign civ's pantheon, and have been members of religions related to those gods since birth.

Ah well, two new members for the Templar squad then. Gods will it!

[Staalo]

A pattern seems to be emerging... each military action my troops participate in will be rewarded with religious titles for one or more militiadwarves.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That makes twelve of them. Sooner or later my fortress will be inhabited entirely by high-ranking clergy. I have no idea what's going on.