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[Dr. Melon]

Whoa, there's one dwarf there with an extremely long and broad nose, which is also upturned.

[Deon]

It's ok. 16th dwarf has TWO chins. One is flat and square, 2nd is very round .

Also, what's with olivine, olivine and olivine?

[SmileyMan]

Having read some of the descriptiong of the female dwarves, all I can say is: I don't fancy yours much!

The freakish old woman with a passion for olivine floodgates should on no account become ennobled.  A lifetime of hauling stones in the deepest mines for her (yay for burrows!)

[Granite26]

All that said... the descriptions are awesome.

I feel like we've been given a whole new batch of legos to play with.

[Azkanan]

I leave for two months, return, and there are greens! and nearly dones! Yay.

[DG]

I decided to try to create a portrait of my favourite dwarf from the new description examples and I've found that Toady is right. They aren't necessarily ugly. Behold my interpretation of this dwarf http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/imgs/embark_desc9.png

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I know he's often cheerful but I think this was taken during a particularly discouraged mood. I was going to colour it but stopped at the eyes because Paint defeated me.

Edit: I fail at reading and comprehension. I somehow missed the reference to a pony tail until now.

[axus]

Am I blind?  I don't see hair color in any of the descriptions.  It doesn't need to be different for each part of the hair.  Maybe every dwarf has the same hair color, and it doesn't deviate from the norm so doesn't get mentioned.

[DG]

Check the one I linked to again. Towards the end of the appearance summation you'll see "His hair is black."

[Exponent]

Am I blind?  I don't see hair color in any of the descriptions.  It doesn't need to be different for each part of the hair.  Maybe every dwarf has the same hair color, and it doesn't deviate from the norm so doesn't get mentioned.

Which raises* the question:  If all of your dwarves are pretty close to normal (for example, LordZorintrhox mentioned everyone having a braided mustache, where that is the norm), would we not see this?  Does this mean that we wouldn't be able to figure out what the norm even is?  That seems a bit strange.

*Note that it does not beg the question.  That phrase means something else entirely.</pet_peeve>

[smjjames]

I agree there. Hair color is part of the identity, norm or not.

Also, I notice something there. All of the dwarves which are 80 or over, except one who is probably on the young side of 80 have their hair starting to go grey. I'm sure there is some variation as humans generally start getting grey hair in the 40s, sometimes 50s.

The frailty part seems to be using the human age rather than the equivalent. Sure I would expect a dwarf who is something like 140 and getting on in years to be somewhat frail (unless maybe they are a lifetime forgeworker or something), but not quite that early.

[Bunny]

The frailty could be as a result of sickness or injury, rather than age though.  I know some really frail 20 year olds (sadly, usually from cancer or something equally horrible) and some really robust 70 year olds.  Or perhaps frailty is meant as the opposite of muscular - as in a dwarf that is not fat but nonetheless has had a job in which they do very little physical labour.  Like a clerk.

I agree it would be good to develop the descriptions so that they only focus on things that deviate significantly from the norm... but I don't think hair/skin should be worked that way.  If most dwarves in a fortress are broad of body with brown hair and green eyes I would still want to know this to get an accurate picture.  And I can see the potential frustration of never finding out that the average dwarf in your fortress has an extremely long nose.  Maybe there could be some sort of page giving an overall fortress description to give us the averages.

The Caves of Iron was founded in the year 10 by the dwarf Urist CleavedMoon.  The fortress extends across 12 levels and consists of 20 burrows.  The walls of this fortress are mainly microcline and some are engraved.  The fortress army consists of 37 dwarves in 8 squads.  The Champion of this fortress is Big McLargeHuge, who killed 8 goblins during a siege in the year 87.  The main export is olivine crowns.  The main import is Dwarven Rum.  The dwarves of this fortress are uncommonly rugged and stocky in build.  They are taller than normal and tend to be very lean.  Their skin is usually olive and their hair is on average copper.  They tend to have long, upturned noses.  They prefer to keep their beards neatly combed, their sideburns shaven and their moustaches in double braids.

I would then know that Urist McSparsebeard who is described as short, fat, uncommonly frail and with large ears, a braided beard and purple eyes is actually shorter, fatter and frailer than the rest of the fortress and, in addition to his large ears and purple eyes, likely has olive skin and a long nose.

It would also add a nice touch when picturing my fortress - a mass of stocky, tall olive-skinned dwarves with long noses... and the few notable dwarves whose descriptions I've paid attention to standing out from the crowd by virtue of their unique features.

But then again, this is a hell of a lot of work I'd be asking for... maybe something to revise for the next release after this one, though, or a few releases down the line?

[Dae]

a mass of stocky, tall olive-skinned dwarves with long noses...

Like, muscular crossbreed of elves and goblins ?

I like your idea. Besides, calculating the average for your fortress should be quite simple and would have to be done hardly ever (with migrants coming, births and death).  And, if Toady makes description based on the racial average, he just would have to use the fortress average instead.
But still, I'd better like the release to come out before discussing these details.

[Mephansteras]

Good idea, Bunny. I think you should put up a thread for it in Suggestions so people can talk about it there. Otherwise it runs the risk of being drowned out here by the rest of the chatter.

[LegacyCWAL]

And what was the old fetish? Microcline? At least olivine isn't a eye blinding color. Plus I like green anyhow.

I like Microcline's color