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[LegoLord]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_%28mythology%29
Interesting.  Latinization of a Greek term for spirits that can be either good or evil.  Seems a poor choice of terms to describe them, doesn't it?  Not actually from the same root as demon, but sounds a lot like it, and curiously was meant to differentiate them from the Christian idea of malicious spirits (demon) - seems like that decision just got people more confused instead.

[profit]

I actually meant Daemons. Look it up. sorta like demigods, but with more of a spirit context.

I always thought Demons were bad and Daemons were like worker spirits that did what ever they were told to do, whether good or bad.

[Sunday]

I'm pretty sure that linguistically the two words are just different spellings.  The "ae" squashed together letter, in the international phonetic alphabet (and Latin, and actually modern words as well though they're often mispronounced), is actually the "ee" sound.  Not an "ay" sound as it's often pronounced.  Back when spelling wasn't uniform, I think "ae" and "ee" and "ea" were all legitimate ways of spelling the "ee" sound.

And yes, looking in my etymology dictionary, modern "demon" comes from Late Latin "demon" or "daemon" (evil spirit), from Latin "daemon" (spirit) from Greek "daimon" (lesser god, good or evil spirit).

But of course, pop-culture wise "demon" and "daemon" might be different, which is cool.

[Hummingbird]

I'm pretty sure that linguistically the two words are just different spellings.  The "ae" squashed together letter, in the international phonetic alphabet (and Latin, and actually modern words as well though they're often mispronounced), is actually the "ee" sound.  Not an "ay" sound as it's often pronounced.  Back when spelling wasn't uniform, I think "ae" and "ee" and "ea" were all legitimate ways of spelling the "ee" sound.

Hmm.  In my Latin class I've learned that "æ" is pronounced as "ai", which is the reason that "Caesar" got transliterated to German as "Kaisar".

Not that it matters at all, since it's a dead language anyway. 
</derail>

[Jude]

I like the idea of the clowns being imprisoned inside the only material that can hold them, back in some pre-worldgen cataclysmic war of the titans or somesuch.

[Sir Reginald Bathwater]

More crawling out of the pits could be easily blocked by walling/flooring once the adamantine's gone though, couldn't it? Demon nobles is a cool idea, but they would have to do no labor (more to stop lever based 'accidents'), and make crazy mandates.
They could take over by making the king slowly go insane, and you have to choose to either kill him, and risk the wrath of the dwarves of the world, or let him take over, and all other nobles are removed, replaced by demons, who make crazy demands, and do random evil stuff.

[HAMMERMILL]

I don't like the idea that the demons are "trapped" by the adamantine. After all, they can engrave lewd pictures in the stuff and not all of the clownroom is surrounded by it. Also they could have humans, elves and dwarves that can mine through adamantine.

I always liked the idea that breaking into HFS is an event of mutual suprise. A dwarf mines out the adamantine vien and his pick bursts through into a chamber "What the hell? Its HELL!" he thinks, and the demons are like "What the hell? More victims!" Demons are not great at hosting guests. They view your intrusion as a happy suprise and another excercise in having fun at other's expense.

Adamantine is either something naturally occuring or it is somehow related to the unknowable horrors of the demons.

Either way, killing all of the clowns, making high quality trade good from their bones and engraving the adamantine stuff in their pit is an awesome sense of awesome.

[LegoLord]

Maybe the pit and the adamantine is holy to the demons, or something.  As in, they worship it in their own twisted way, using it to torture the lost souls of Hell (yes, hell.  How else did all those elves, humans, and dwarves get underground without diggin?).  Then they see your mining out the wall of their temple as sacrilegious and seek revenge.

[Jianaran]

To those wondering about the Demons, I direct you to Paradise Lost.

To set himself in Glory above his Peers,
He trusted to have equal'd the most High,
If he oppos'd; and with ambitious aim
Against the Throne and Monarchy of God
Rais'd impious War in Heav'n and Battel proud
With vain attempt.  Him the Almighty Power
Hurld headlong flaming from th' Ethereal Skie
With hideous ruine and combustion down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire,

[irmo]

To those wondering about the Demons, I direct you to Paradise Lost.

Nice catch.

[ebbus h. urist]

I like 'possesion'. Some random dwarves,  or so, get possesed. As a player, you have to find out which ones to have a visit from someone with the 'exorsism' skill activated.

These dwarves will gradualy progress into setting up traps, vandalise, become agresive, pull random levers, make disturbing artifacts etc.
If you wait too long, they'll go berzekr and need a lot of military to put down, or turn into demons themselves.

I'm not sure if this would work from a gameplay perspective, but it sounds like Fun to me.

[Felblood]

I'd always liked to think that the demons were servants of Armok, cast into the underworld, and sealed behind and admantium barrier, before the dawn of history, by the other gods. In the centuries that they've been buried, the vile images that you see on the walls are all they've managed to do, to the walls of their prison.

If all the HFS are connected, then the underworld will still apprecaite new exits in additon to the first one you create. Though where they get victems, before the first pit is breached, is an interesting quetion.

The most obvious guess is that they are the damned, cast into the underworld for some terrible misdeeds, but perhaps they are the mortal champions of Armok, from the wars at the time of creation, and they died in prison.

------

Dwarves under the influence of demons don't have to work up to setting traps and other complicated stuff.

They could just go mad and start attacking people at random intervals.

Figuring out which dwarves are just cranky, and which ones are struggling with dark powers within, would be a Fun activity.

Dwarves wouldn't neccisarily have to be able to tell the difference at all. A prison full of snarling madmen would be a cool after effect, for when the more martial challenges of the pits are overcome. Not only does it expand the prison building aspect, but having a bunch of posessed lunatics lying around is a great hook for gameplay and story alike.

Some of the posessed should be strong enough to break out of chains, just for the sake of tradition.

Dwarves with strong winds and souls should be able to resist posession, and supress their demons, if they do get posessed. Not only is this pretty logical, it makes selecting candidates for advanced military training a little deeper. You don't just want as many champions as you can train, becasue a weak minded super soldier can become a liability, when you most need him as an asset.

[HAMMERMILL]

Maybe the pit and the adamantine is holy to the demons, or something.  As in, they worship it in their own twisted way, using it to torture the lost souls of Hell (yes, hell.  How else did all those elves, humans, and dwarves get underground without diggin?).  Then they see your mining out the wall of their temple as sacrilegious and seek revenge.

That makes sense, with the demons drawn to the ore itself.

I would offer the theory that the urm..

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

clown prisoners?

are not dead

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

souls, but rather real, living people/elves/dorfs kidnapped by the goblins for the purposes of having them exported to the clownroom and beyond

[Funk]

maybe the HFS can come up and take people some times?
or the demons can send down prisoners to it kin to play with.

[Quixim]

I'm not too interested in the lore behind it (The lack of any real game lore is one of the things I like about this game the most), but the effects of making them scarier are great.

I absolutely LOVE the walk-close-and-stare idea, that really would get me going, especially if sometimes it happens to more people at once, and takes a while.

I think that they should start giving out unhappy thoughts, due to nightmares, or just have them be like "Cancelled action: Rest (interrupted by Nightmare/Demon)" or whatever, as they refuse to sleep because of the nightmares.

However, what I like is the idea that until you get rid of the demons, EVERY mood you get will be Fell, and maybe increase the chance of them somewhat significantly, and let them get more than one a lifetime. So that if you don't kill these guys quickly enough, your dwarves will end up making artifact items out of each other until there's only one left, who ends up finally going berserk because there's NOBODY LEFT TO KILL MUST HAVE DWARF SKIN.

I think putting a time limit like that on the demon extermination could really make things interesting.