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[SpiralDimentia]

Do you get attached to your dwarves? I know a majority of the forum has no problem sending random dwarves out to die... I don't. I get attached to them. I remember specific dwarves names, what they do, veyr rarely what they like. I attach personalities to some.. take for example by militia commander of my current fortress:

Eshtan itonlaltur Aned Zizun
Eshtan Hallcover the Sports of Reticence, militia commander
Incredibly Muscular. Not very attractive in the face. Wrinkles in her raw umber skin. Slight touch of gray in her burnt sienna hair.
She is 'absolutely inexhaustible', 'basically unbreakable', 'unbelievably strong' and 'very agile.'
She has an astounding feel for the position of her own body, an unbreakable will, a stunning feel for spatial relationships, a great ability to focus, great creativity and a sum of patience..
but she's got poor ability to manage or understand social relationships. She's often nervous, and somewhat reserved. She feels helping others to be rewarding.


My militia commander is like.. a social outcast. I see her as secetly being every dwarven boys dream, despite not being all that attractive. A beer guzzling warrior-woman [Shielmaiden, if you will.] who is shy to talk to, but won't hesitate to cut a fool in half if she's gotta. She also have 53 confirmed kills, all in armed 1v1 [or with odds stacked way against her] combat.



I also have another soldier [ I have a preference for the military] who's got almost as many kills.

Shem Uzolfikod Estilatesh Dobar
Shem Oilglaze the Whirling Radiances of Creating
Incredibly muscular. Long double-braided 'stache. braided beard. clean shaven head. hooked nose. His right hand bears a massive straight scar.
Mighty, almost never sick, indefatigable, very agile and tough.
He is slow to anger. Very friendly. Lives life leisurely. Loves a good thrill. dislikes intellectual discussions and lacks confidence.

This guy is my favourite. He looks like your typical dwarf, and behaves like Santa Claus. Good patience, and won't think twice about stepping into a fight if he must. In a recent seige, he and a hammerdwarf were the first on the scene. The hammerdwarf, a scrub, immediately got his leg broken and went down. Shem then started killing anything near the hammerdwarf. I like to think he was protecting him. Then a troll grabbs his arm, and broke his upper arm and shoulder. Then Shem martial tranced and wiped out half the seiging force before the rest of the military got there. I like to think his slow to anger came in here, like he was fine defending his comrade, but once he got his arm broken, he finally got mad and berserked, not unlike the Hulk. Anyways, I'm rambling...

So, Do you actually like your dwarves, guys?

[Girlinhat]

I tend to like one or two, usually military types.  Those are the most interesting.  Sure, your farmer does important work, but it's boring work!  It's the soldiers who show up fresh and young, cast into their first warzone in the armor of their fallen comrades, sometimes three or four generations of soldiers dying in the very breastplate they slide on.  Terrified but violent, they survive their first encounter, or don't, only to go a little bit insane because of it.  Their mind suffers for the violence, their mood diminished and their lifestyle altered, until a few battles later they find themselves unable to remember the battles before.  The images of screaming goblins impaled upon spears and the dead and dying dwarves, their faces ruddy with bloodlust and booze, furtive eyes slowly going still before the dwarf is carried to the refuse stockpile.  The memories of shame and anguish fade, blurred by a haze of angst and decay.  They can't remember those who fell in the last battle.  They no longer see a living being's life snuffed out before them - only a green shape returned to a still state.  They don't remember who fell during the battle, even as they shuffle back to the dining hall for another draft of ale.  The others look at them, worried, afraid.  It's not the same dwarf who was recruited into service just a year ago.  Their friend, brother, husband, son, is no more.  The only thing that remains is a husk of a dwarf, unfit for public life yet essential for the fort.  The shunned revered, they are adored for their might and feared for the way they so nearly resemble a healthy dwarf, but are just strange and broken enough to be unrelatable.

My soldiers are often separated from the civilian population, and from other squads.  They're waited on, hand and foot, but ultimately outcast from the warm tunnels of home.

[Cyroth]

So, Do you actually like your dwarves, guys?

I do. I tend to watch over them all, and I try to keep them all alive at all times.
It is hard tough. Watching over them is like babysitting some retarded child standing on a large staircase with a knife in its hands.

[thatkid]

I occasionally get attached to some dwarves. One of my squad captains, for example, found himself decked out in artifact gear. His last name was Nishtun, and he liked clear zircons and was a farmer before becoming an axe dwarf. I pictured him as the sort of coward who's willing to man up and do what's right; the kind of leader who inspired his troops to victory. The fact that I thought he was cool didn't stop me from sending his squad, along with three other squads, across a bridge I had built leading into a tunnel system that had punched into the top level of a curious structure however.

I was also a fan of his second-in-command, a Sworddwarf I nicknamed "Cat" because his name began with those three letters. He actually survived the aforementioned meat grinder, and was the first of my ragtag army to exit the fortress in order to drive off the goblin siege that had been mounting at the gate while I screwed around with my deep-mining operations. Cat was a former peasant who, in my mind, was a cold and distant dude who wasn't afraid of nothing. Not because he was brave, just because he wasn't smart enough to be scared.
He had his sword-arm torn off by a Jabberer, but not before felling a cave crocodile and a goblin. He then proceeded to kick the jabberer to death (with the help of some traps) before his head was caved in by a the one remaining troll that hadn't been slaughtered by my traps or placed in a cage while the siege was milling about outside.

Those are the two most recent examples that come to mind, but I tend to come up with little stories about a lot of my dwarves (mostly in my head). The fact that I find them so interesting, and develop them as actual characters in my head, only makes me more willing to send them out to face danger. As sadistic as that sounds, it's just because danger and strife make for good story-telling.
I once developed a small obsession for a mechanic who kept punching enraged pandas to death. He was cool.

[Vercingetorix]

Kogan Mondulsharast is a favorite...she's been mayor for 15 years and has given birth to 22 children in her life.  She's also our chief medical dwarf, which likely explains it as most of the time she's been idle making friends.  I genuinely have no idea who her husband is aside from a legendary stonecrafter.

Fath Estunmeng Etvuthmis Nitig is another legend.  She's the eldest daughter of the bookkeeper and manager (a most romantic pairing); she entered the military at age 12 and now at age 20 has forty-nine notable kills; in addition, she is married to a planter whose parents died at some point in the past.  She has three children, one of whom unfortunately was killed by a goblin (didn't mature to childhood in time).   She has seventeen siblings, one of whom is her fellow soldier and legendary hammerdwarf Melbil Onsonol Ustuthnir Sazir.  Melbil isn't married but does have a stonecrafter lover...not sure if they'll tie the knot, but it happened with Fath while she was in the service so it's not impossible.  Also note that she herself has forty-seven notable kills meaning their family currently has nearly one hundred dead goblins to its name...

And this is in year 25.  I'm looking forward to the state of affairs in year 50...we've already made it to the third generation.

[Necro910]

So, Do you actually like your dwarves, guys?

I do. I tend to watch over them all, and I try to keep them all alive at all times.
It is hard tough. Watching over them is like babysitting some drunk, retarded child standing on a very large staircase with a sword in its hands over a spike pit filled with magma and magma carp. With badgers behind them.

Fixed.

[ext0l]

I only like engravers. I get really angry when one of my engravers die.  Best military dwarf dies? The cheese maker in the next migrant wave can take his place.

[Necro910]

I only like engravers. I get really angry when one of my engravers die.  Best military dwarf dies? The cheese maker in the next migrant wave can take his place.

lol.
So much is wrong and right at the same time in this quote.

[Chronas]

I only like engravers. I get really angry when one of my engravers die.  Best military dwarf dies? The cheese maker in the next migrant wave can take his place.

is it wrong of me to have a professional cheesemaker in my fortress actually doing his job in most of my forts?

[Kassil]

I only like engravers. I get really angry when one of my engravers die.  Best military dwarf dies? The cheese maker in the next migrant wave can take his place.

is it wrong of me to have a professional cheesemaker in my fortress actually doing his job in most of my forts?

I suspect you of secretly being an elf, now.

[SirAaronIII]

Zuntir Monomes, Hunter
He's pretty cool. He shoots elephants in the head quite often. Plus, he has a pronounceable last name.

[Syreniac]

I only like engravers. I get really angry when one of my engravers die.  Best military dwarf dies? The cheese maker in the next migrant wave can take his place.

is it wrong of me to have a professional cheesemaker in my fortress actually doing his job in most of my forts?

I suspect you of secretly being an elf, now.

That's an overreaction; it's not like he's using a soapmaker to actually make soap.

*shudders at the thought*

[SirAaronIII]

I only like engravers. I get really angry when one of my engravers die.  Best military dwarf dies? The cheese maker in the next migrant wave can take his place.

is it wrong of me to have a professional cheesemaker in my fortress actually doing his job in most of my forts?

I suspect you of secretly being an elf, now.

That's an overreaction; it's not like he's using a soapmaker to actually make soap.

*shudders at the thought*

Soap? What is this soap? We know not of this soap abomination you speak of.

[SpiralDimentia]

I only like engravers. I get really angry when one of my engravers die.  Best military dwarf dies? The cheese maker in the next migrant wave can take his place.

is it wrong of me to have a professional cheesemaker in my fortress actually doing his job in most of my forts?

I suspect you of secretly being an elf, now.

That's an overreaction; it's not like he's using a soapmaker to actually make soap.

*shudders at the thought*

Soap? What is this soap? We know not of this soap abomination you speak of.

It's that stuff you use 1 bar of to hold up half a mountain so you can drop it on the next elf caravan.

[Yoink]

So, Do you actually like your dwarves, guys?

I do. I tend to watch over them all, and I try to keep them all alive at all times.
It is hard tough. Watching over them is like babysitting some drunk, retarded child standing on a very large staircase with a sword in its hands over a spike pit filled with magma and magma carp. With badgers behind them.

Fixed.

Wow! If DF came in a box, that'd be the blurb on the back!!