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[Mogul]

I decided recently to expand my selection of bloodthirsty animals to make arena fights more entertaining by adding [PET] and [trAINABLE] to several interesting creatures.

I kept a War Fire Imp dubbed "Mountainfinger" in a small pit so that I could extract iron from all the goblinite I had, and between when I let him out to gather the iron and attempting to put him back in, he disappeared from the animal list. A quick check confirmed he was still alive, merrily hanging out at my meeting hall with all my slackers. In the units list he was labeled as hostile, but he was quite friendly with my dwarves.

About this time, an elven caravan came along. They reach my trade depot and unpack and my broker is moving to the depot to trade. Out of nowhere, Mountainfinger runs out of the meeting hall and starts flinging fireballs, resulting in a hilarious sequence where elves fled panicking around my fort with fireballs zipping past them. By the time the imp finished off the last of the elves, he was promoted to 'Mountainfinger the Legendary Councillor'.

While this was a fun and safe way to make elf bones, I'd prefer it not unexpectedly happen to my critters, especially since I can't move them once they've gone wild.

Spoiler: Fire Imp (click to show/hide)

[CREATURE:IMP_FIRE]
   [NAME:fire imp:fire imps:fire imp]
   [TILE:'i'][COLOR:6:0:1]
   [MODVALUE:10]
   [LARGE_ROAMING][FREQUENCY:20]
   [FIREBREATH][FIREIMMUNE][liKES_FIGHTING][MAGMA_VISION]
   [LARGE_PREDATOR][PET][trAINABLE]
   [GENPOWER:5]
   [BLOODTYPE:0]
   [BONECARN]
   [CANOPENDOORS]
   [PREFSTRING:terrifying features]
   [BODY:HUMANOID:TAIL:2EYES:2EARS:NOSE:HEART:GUTS:ORGANS:HUMANOID_JOINTS:THROAT:NECK:SPINE:BRAIN:MOUTH]
   [NOBREATHE]
   [SIZE:3]
   [ATTACK:MAIN:BYTYPE:MOUTH:bite:bites:1:6:BURN][ATTACKFLAG_CANLATCH]
   [EQUIPS]
   [FAT:1]
   [ALL_ACTIVE]
   [NO_DRINK][NO_EAT][NO_SLEEP]
   [POPULATION_NUMBER:15:30]
   [CLUSTER_NUMBER:8:10][CHILD:1]
   [BIOME:SUBTERRANEAN_LAVA]
   [STANDARD_FLESH]
   [HOMEOTHERM:10095]
   [SWIMS_INNATE][SWIM_SPEED:2500]
   [HEATDAM_POINT:13000]
   [IGNITE_POINT:13500]
   [LEATHER_HEATDAM_POINT:13000]
   [LEATHER_IGNITE_POINT:13500]
   [BONE_HEATDAM_POINT:14000]

Edit: I guess I forgot to state the actual question. Does anyone know what causes this and how you stop it?

[Shakma]

No, the question is how you START this happening.

[Darekun]

This isn't really in the raws or anything, it's the "blooded" mechanic. Once a creature has killed a sentient, it can't be properly tamed. You can tame and even train it, but it'll remain hostile on the unit screen, and still kill anybody it feels like. They can still be relatively peaceful - for example, elephants don't start fights often - but if they aggro or get aggroed on, they'll start killing. I think even killing goblins is enough to blood an animal... Though it's possible that once trained they can't be blooded.

[nicholasneko]

wouldn't the [LARGE_PREDATOR] tag be causing that?

[Earthquake Damage]

This isn't really in the raws or anything, it's the "blooded" mechanic. Once a creature has killed a sentient, it can't be properly tamed. You can tame and even train it, but it'll remain hostile on the unit screen, and still kill anybody it feels like. They can still be relatively peaceful - for example, elephants don't start fights often - but if they aggro or get aggroed on, they'll start killing. I think even killing goblins is enough to blood an animal... Though it's possible that once trained they can't be blooded.

To expand:  AFAIK this is because, upon hurting and/or killing a sentient, the creature is flagged an enemy of that civilization.  This causes (mutual?) hostility between the two.

I think this may still be exploitable in Adventure mode.  The trick goes something along these lines:  Become the enemy of your own civ then later retire in one of that civ's towns.  Bring another adventurer to that town and laugh as a civil war breaks out.  I've never done it myself, so I'm not sure if there's more to it than that.

[Mogul]

War dogs will happily tear apart goblins and still remain loyal to your dwarves though. The imp was tamed before he killed anything and has never hurt a dwarf. (In fact while chasing the elves he was able to throw fireballs through dwarves with no ill effect)

[Tigershark13]

congrats you have an awesome xenophobic imp?

[Michaelsoftman]

Sounds like an awesome Anti-Elf device!

Now you can get all of their trade goods for free

[Creamcorn]

Sounds like an awesome Anti-Elf device!

Now you can get all of their trade goods for free

That's if you can get all of their trade goods before they burn to ashs. Than again I'm not quite so sure if you're refering to elven bone rings.

[i2amroy]

Has that fire imp hurt elves before? If he did it might have set him as an enemy of the elven civ, but not the dwarven. Are you sure that he hasn't attacked a caravan before?

[Mogul]

I'm sure.

I caught him as soon as he popped out of the volcano, and he spent his time deep in my fortress happily burning goblins, far away from the caravans.

It wasn't until I let him out and he went rogue in my meeting hall that he developed a taste for crispy elf snacks.