Finding the interesting stories of the Dwarf Fortress world is another thing I've wanted to do but never done. My sort of heuristic idea to do this would be to create a graph of historical figures, entities, sites etc and try to find cycles in the graph in hopes of finding some interesting things. I feel like cycles would be able to find clusters of interrelated historical figures and events. Then also along with just putting more weight on rulers, werebeasts, etc. The only other way I've thought about doing it would be having sort of premade "storylines" that Legends Viewer would search for, such as just looking for vampires that do some predefined interesting things. Will be interesting to see what awesome things you can do!
Yeah, there are lots of directions this could go! Alas, as with many things my original plans have been somewhat truncated due to time, but I finished my first basic story output today. It's based on what I call a "story scaffold" of:
1. Historical figure decides to learn how to become immortal
2. Historical figure desecrates a site
3. Deity curses historical figure
An example:
The Tale of the WereBeast Kothvir LarkreleaseKothvir's terrible obsession began in the year 400. He resolved that he would not succumb to old age, but instead would discover the secret of immortality no matter the cost. Nothing is known of what happened in the following year, but after 1 year, Kothvir found what he sought. All other avenues had been exhausted. The only remaining option was apostasy. The temple at Fruitthroats was where, with reckless abandon, Kothvir pulled down the altar and destroyed the offerings.
But Kothvir's actions had not gone unnoticed. The Sunfish god Aco, arbiter of coasts, whose lustrous form is worshiped by The Nation of Scribing, had witnessed the wanton destruction of his most holy place, and thus angered, cursed Kothvir to the horrible form of werebeast upon the light of every full moon. But Aco's fury was Kothvir's gain, for he had seized immortality, though monstrous, for his own.
Does anyone have any other lists of events they think would make a good class of stories? I'm thinking I might investigate werebeasts or vampires going on killing sprees, since story scaffolds can nest / go in sequence for each character. For example, the event sequence I used for the above showed up under a character's event log in Legends Viewer as:
In 400, midautumn, Kothvir became obsessed with his own mortality and sought to extend his life by any means.
In 401, midwinter, Kothvir profaned (17) in Fruitthroats.
In 401, midwinter, the fish sunfish ocean deity Aco Shipbeach (DEITY_CURSE_WEREBEAST_7) on Kothvir.