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[Mcducks22]

While looking at the dev log, I had an idea. What if, very rarely, you get benevolent necromancers?
What if sometimes, the necromancers decide to use their newfound powers of destruction for good?

What I am suggesting is that occasionally, during worldgen a dwarven necromancer appears that does not immediately decide to kill everyone around him. In fortress mode, he can appear as a migrant noble (like the dungeon master). You can then select certain corpses and he will (after eating, sleeping and drinking) raise them as allied zombies. Can you imagine the possibilities? Your greatest soldiers, raised from the dead to fight once more, and enemies attacking their own. It would be awesome.

Of course, there must be some drawback, otherwise this would just be plain unfair. I suggest that allied zombies give some dwarves unhappy thoughts, and there is a small chance that they will become evil when raised. And maybe necromancers will need to be treated like kings. After all, imagine if they berserk...

[Ahra]

required dwarves 150
and god knows how much wealth...........

[Starver]

Urist McDabblingNecromancer cancels everything: Having a little trouble keeping the newly hired staff from biting people they shouldn't be...

(@Ahra: Requirements == corpses?  i.e. he won't come without a particularly well-stocked graveyard.)

[Ahra]

graveyards of dwarves or other things?

[NW_Kohaku]

Undead are merely the first interactions/secrets/curses that will be included.

I find it extremely doubtful that we wouldn't get something that is beneficial somewhere down the road, Toady just wants "zombie apocalypse" to be first.

[Patchy]

Dwarven necromancer nobles... eh... I don't think it'd really fit with them. Dwarves place a high importance on proper burial (even if the players don't) and would probably be horrified at Urist McNecro for practicing his abilities. And if they didn't immediately kill him for it, they'd probably exile him at the very least, and definately not promote him to noble status. Noble status to the dwarves is a sign of great respect and honour (again even if the players don't) and I doubt they'll respect anyone who would be seen as disturbing the rest of their beloved fallen.

[Crioca]

Code: [Select]

Urist McChild has been upset lately; he saw his father raised from the dead as a nightmarish parody of his once jovial self recently.
I like this idea; but having friends and acquaintances being raised from the dead should create incredibly potent Bad Thoughts for dwarves. In fact every time a dwarf even saw a zombie dwarf it should generate a bad thought. This would ensure that you'd need to keep the zombies out of sight; toiling in the bottom of caverns or manning outposts some distance from the main fort.

I do like the idea of having miners that could be made to mine underwater, however I think any skills the undead dwarves had would need to be capped at maybe adequate or skilled and wouldn't be able to increase. Undead labour would be useful, but highly limited.

Also, depending on the skill of your necromancer, Undwarves might end up acting a little oddly, such as visiting the bedrooms they had when they were alive, or going to the dining room and sitting down, mimicking eating, even if the table and chair is no longer there.

Code: [Select]

Urist McNewguy was upset to have found a fallen compatriot in his newly occupied bedroom lately.
Also, attacking necromancers with superior skill would be able to usurp control of your thralls, and have them attack you as well as pull levers and unlock doors.

[Urist McCheeseMaker]

Horrid parodies of former selves and fallen compatriots in newly occupied bedrooms have my full support. BRING ON THE NECRODWARVES!!!

[Nasikabatrachus]

This sort of seems like it would remove the coolness and mystery of necromancers being active in the world. I would, however, support being able to learn necromancy in adventure mode, ideally through a long and dangerous quest chain involving talking to zombie dragons and visiting libraries in ruined cities warped by the very evil that destroyed them.

[crackesians]

why not we use thousand of our goblin and elf corpse for our undead army???

[Music]

Zombie army sounds like it would kill the entire fort with purple smoke. Wouldn't that be bad?

[Cerol Lenslens]

Of course, Threetoe's initial example was a noble who feared death and researched immortality. And it's supposedly not impossible for a slab with the secret to make its way into a fortress. It might be quite possible for your dwarves to acquire those abilities. (Whether that would clash with their civ would depend on the laws - we might need an [ETHIC:PRACTICE_THE_DARK_ARTS:UNTHINKABLE] tag or something...)

Also, to quote Toady:

There's no reason why a historical figure that gains immortality and the power to animate the dead should immediately become an antisocial evil tower-living guy, but we'll have to wing that part until we get to the personality rewrite in Release 6.

[SirHoneyBadger]

On that note: Can some dwarf spirits occasionally come back from the dead in a benevolent capacity?

This could still require a memorialization of them, but the quality level of the memorial might affect the chance for a good return.

I'd love to see Urist Romero the eternal warrior, still defending my Fortress, clutching a rusted iron battleaxe in her remaining hand, and wearing the first suit of bronze armour ever produced on site, long after her lower jaw fell off.

[dwarfed one]

I would rather like to see the spirit of long fallen hero of my fortress which came to lift the curse and destroy the zombies who dare to approach his tomb.

[Tharwen]

So what happens when a necromancer gets in a Strange Mood?

This is a masterwork tower-cap zombie. It menaces with spikes of bismuth bronze. On the item is a picture of zombies and cheese. The zombies are laughing.