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[Jake]

So... we've now got dwarves who can hang around to make a nuisance of themselves if they feel they've been poorly treated in life. But how about ghosts who remain for other reasons?

The spirit of a champion warrior appears before a squad defending the fortress, inspiring them to great feats of courage. A baby is about to wander into harm's way when they are diverted at the last moment by a brief glimpse of their mother. Perhaps, if the miners breach the depths of Hell itself, the spirits of dwarves from ages past could take up arms beside them in the struggle between good and evil.

Any thoughts?

[Ultimuh]

This could be a nice feature.

[ZioAnthros]

That last part, truly epic sounding.
All in all, everything being evil is lame. Most things should be, but there's always exceptions. There should definitely be good ghosts, maybe related to their tome/burial somehow, like tombCost == chance.

[Max White]

That sounds cool, but don't make it too common. The sort of thing where you take a screenshot if your old champion comes to protect the fort.

[NW_Kohaku]

I talked about this in another thread a little while ago.

Things like, if you get your hands on the sword of an old hero of legend who grew attached to the sword, she might haunt it in death.  Then she might demand you prove yourself worthy of wielding her sword, but if you get to be good drinking buddies with the ghost, she'll even go about teaching the way of the sword to you if you're still new to the job.  She'd stay up at night, make sure no bogeymen run off with her sword... oh, and I guess make sure they don't kill you too by waking you up in time, if she has to.

I'd also kind of like to see a more mundane version of this, though. 

The old fortress historian still walks the halls, boring people with stories of the history of the region.  He especially likes the statue garden and engraving rooms, where monuments to historic events took place. 

The herbalist's ghost still walks out in the fields at night, especially where the goblin ambush cut her down, looking for the best berries, or just stopping to admire the flowers.  Maybe she'll help gather some for the rest of the fortress when she forgets that she's dead every now and again, but she keeps dropping them off in the place where the old stockpile used to be.

[Demicus]

I like this idea. If it's uncommon enough, it could make for truly epic stories. Maybe make it based off of requirements and triggers for big stuff. Like if you have a couple high level warriors when a siege arrives, then the ones that have royal tombs might rise up to defend the fortress, though if you breach into the circus, then maybe all your legendary warriors awaken from eternal slumber to come to aid. Or something like that.
Though the random peaceful ghost ideas that Kohaku stated would be a nice touch as well. We already have fishers that keep fishing even after death, though they don't drop the fish off at a stockpile.

[Max White]

Dwarf runs off to gather spider web for the looms.
Dwarf get's eatern in the caverns.
Dwarf rises as a ghost, and tries to gather webs again.
Inabilty to interact with the real world, therefor no web gathering sends dwarf into a tantrum.
Tantruming dwarf becomes angry and twisted, and is slowly turned into a foul spirt.
Foul spirt continues to stalk the caverns, attacking people who come to close.

*Later, in adventure mode*
You are asked to stop a foul spirt.
After finding the spirt, you are unable to kill it.
You find it's engraved slab and make an offering of spider web.
The spirt goes away.

[NW_Kohaku]

Why does it have to go in that direction?  Maybe someone was a real bastard in life, but over the course of being stuck in a cavern with nothing to do but reflect, they're looking for a way to try to redeem themselves so that they can pass on in peace?

[Max White]

Oh it dosn't have to go that way, I was just htinking out load about how things could transition between freind and foe.

It, could of corse, go the other way, that a hostile ghost could become freindly through a hostile act, or a ghost could go without changing it's allignment reguardless of your actions.

[IT 000]

I really like the ghost attached to a weapon idea, perhaps when artifacts are made in world gen and distributed one of these said artifacts could end up in your hands through a caravan or thief or something. These artifact ghosts could be either relieved that you 'saved' them from their 'kidnappers' or be extremely pissed off and you need to give the artifact away to it's parent civilization (ex humans or elves)

Perhaps randomly generated adventurers could happen during world gen, such adventurers would wander the surface or the caverns and when they die they're corpse and weapon should be found next to each other. Possibly in a shrine if someone from their civilization found them. They're ghosts will hang around or in the tomb if you open it up the ghost will either be angry that it was disturbed and attacked with said artifact weapon, once slayed the weapon is available for you to use. Or be eager to return to the service of slaying evil and will fade away. Or it may need a remembrance, say a slab built where it died.

[Demonsul]

Absolutely wonderful ideas. You have my utmost support.

I can just see my past Expedition Leader arising to yell at my Mayor about the awfully boring place my fortress has become and how it was all much better back in the day.

[Lex Talionias]

fuck, this thread is full of enough ideas for it's own freaking arc.

which would be the best arc ever, 'the ghost arc'.

[Waparius]

...I was going to say that heroic ghosts was really something for the Artifacts arc - ghosts haunting artifact swords, or rising to protect the fortress when memorialised in an artifact memorial hall.

On the other hand somebody already mentioned in an artifact thread somewhere the idea of certain Strange Mood dwarves trying to finish their work after death, and I like that idea a lot. Thinking about it, having a bunch of ghosts show up to save the fortress after you find the circus or when the goblins breach your doors and kill everyone but the children would make a hell of a story.

Artifacts (in my head at least) tend towards more substantial/semi-reliable things, and this seems more like once-off moments like the army of the dead in the Lord of the Rings, or at least things more out of player control. So the Artifact Memorial Hall brings back the ghost of every dwarf memorialised in it, and they hang around teaching everyone their skills all the time, or the artifact gauntlet keeps its wearer alive until the battle is over, but this is something separate from beloved Uncle Urist coming back to throw his own wake.


How well you bury your dead should be a factor, as should their relationships. I mean, anything that encourages you to make your dwarves more than antisocial loners increases the FUN. So if you have a huge, ornate catacombs and a memorial hall full of statues and dwarves, you should be more likely to get help than if you just throw everybody into your Empty Mineshaft Of Mass-Produced Rock Coffins.

Religion should be a factor when it's properly incorporated, too, since I'd imagine having a Cult of the Dead in your fortress throwing regular celebrations in said elaborate memorial hall would go a long way to making the ghosts happy.

[Lex Talionias]

yeah, i think the following things should be factors in saving a fortress form certain doom via undead intervention

-number and quality of relationships said dwarf had in life
(if he had lots of friends he would be more likely to come back, someone with no friends and/or lots of enemies... more likely vengeful/useless)
-quality of tomb
(duh)
-peril of the fort
(you need an epically huge threat for the dead themselves to rise and take up arms. i mean 100 strong goblin siege that has breached the main gates and is swarming the fortress with more then a quarter of the population dead)

[darkflagrance]

If the requirements for heroic ghosts could be gamed, you might get players purposely sending in,  alone and unarmored, the champion with the masterwork steel axe that she named, to die against a goblin siege so that her ghost might benefit the next wielder of the weapon, and the fort for perpetuity.

Although, flavor-wise this might be explained as a ritual of the dwarves to create champions who eternally guard the fort, and they might greatly honor the dwarf who makes this great sacrifice.