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[MaskedMiner]

How about only dwarfs or humans could become wendigo because 1) They frown upon eating other sentient species unlike goblins and elfs 2) They worship gods. Elves worship Forces and Goblins worship nothing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendigo

ALSO read the darn wikipedia, Wendigo sounds nothing like Bigfoot or yeti.

[Gotdamnmiracle]

I feel kind of like wendigos wouldn't care about your ethics, and it diverges from the myth in that they would have to be indoctrinated or an event would have to happen unlike in real life when it occurs as a disease from eating to much human meat.
Personally I like the idea of a pale skinned amphibian creature that is taller than a human but less strong but more agile letting them run very fast but only be able to drag a single person back at a time. This is DF I think Toady should decide, bigfoot or not... However we already have sasquatches and yetis so I think bigfoots are unlikely.

[Owlbread]

I think our native american friend earlier was actually talking about how gigantopitheci came from Asia, not the Wendigo. That's what he was talking about when he said bigfoot is basically the same thing.

I like the idea of a wendigo, but why not link it with the elves more? If an elf is placed into exile (as they are for lying and such), if they survive in the wilderness they would quickly become more and more feral before eventually turning to cannibalism of sentient beings for survival rather than as a post-battle ritual. They would then mutate into a primitive night-creature-like monster obsessed with eating the flesh of sentient beings; the wendigo. Think of the long walk from judge dredd or the "endless walkers" from Van Buren. It would make the elven forests quite interesting. Each Wendigo is a historical character.

Just imagine your fortress toiling away one evening, safely underground. Your woodcutter is just out of your marksdwarves' reach, chopping down trees in the impenetrable evergreen forest that surrounds your fortress. Suddenly, you realise you can't see him.

"Onul Rithdastot, carpenter, is missing."

His gnawed bones are discovered by your scouts at sunrise. It's up to your trappers and hunters along with the fortress guard to try to determine what killed him based on the teeth marks. They realise it's an elf.

Wendigo! The forests are no longer safe.

I also like the idea being thrown around earlier about them being elves who have cut down trees or abused their ethics in some way. Elven culture in Dwarf Fortress has a lot of potential.

[TheyTarget]

So from what I understand of Wendigos and elves are the same thing right? A dwarf that eats another dwarf is cursed to live his life in the trees as an elf.

[Owlbread]

So from what I understand of Wendigos and elves are the same thing right? A dwarf that eats another dwarf is cursed to live his life in the trees as an elf.

I think a dwarf that eats another dwarf shouldn't turn into anything, he'd just get executed or something and the crime would be remembered for decades for its horrifying nature. To me, a Wendigo is just an elf that survived exile and devolved into a feral, cannibalistic night-creature like being. Elves are quite magical after all. When they are found by other elves they are captured and their souls are put to rest by the druid.

[MaskedMiner]

I still like the idea of dwarfs/humans only becoming wendigos, but okay 

BTW, I've heard somewhere something about wendigos being giants with heart of ice that die when heart is destroyed, remember it being wikipedia, but now only thing related to ice mentioned there is the fact they were associated with wintern xD

[Gotdamnmiracle]

I remember reading a lovecraft like story about a god whose cultists gained the power of invulnerability toward the cold and were mutated into horrible creatures. The god was a manifestation of Nyarlathotep if I remember correctly.

I'm alright with the evil evles idea but i would like them to mutate and not just be normal elves clad in human skins. Also they should be able to indoctrinate other races, that's the horror of the wendigo, not being eaten by one, but becoming one. Feeling the hunger that slowly overtakes you and makes you into a mad shambling monster consumed by one desire. It is the face of addiction at it's worst.

[Owlbread]

I remember reading a lovecraft like story about a god whose cultists gained the power of invulnerability toward the cold and were mutated into horrible creatures. The god was a manifestation of Nyarlathotep if I remember correctly.

I'm alright with the evil evles idea but i would like them to mutate and not just be normal elves clad in human skins. Also they should be able to indoctrinate other races, that's the horror of the wendigo, not being eaten by one, but becoming one. Feeling the hunger that slowly overtakes you and makes you into a mad shambling monster consumed by one desire. It is the face of addiction at it's worst.

Indeed, I was just a bit worried about outlining exactly what I think the elf would transform into. I tried to keep that open for you fellows. I suppose if we take indoctrination of other races into account that would tilt this in favour of a new night creature specifically; you know, think of the historical figures that get turned into spouses of night creatures. What do you think the wendigo would look like? How would the indoctrination take place? Would they capture and eat some, but keep others alive? That might interfere with the idea of their "addiction" though - if the whole point of the wendigo is that they have no self control, how can they choose to eat some but not others?

I had actually been thinking of a physical transformation as well, but now you've mentioned human-skin clad elves (elven wildmen) I really like that idea. Damn.

[Gotdamnmiracle]

I mentioned it in a former post. I figure it would be like the goblin civ leader who trains war animals, just the title would be wendigo chieftain. And yes the similarity with night creatures is intentional the difference is that these guys aren't loners living in caves craving isolation. They seek out people to fill their ranks and act like kobolds in that they live in camps, are their own race, never seige and don't trade. Act like goblins in that they ambush but more often try to snatch, only in this case it is a full grown dwarf they knock out and drag off. They only eat people so they are like kobolds in that they might die due to that so they might not die from starvation but be put in crippling pain or atleast that will be the story. No civ likes them, no civ can go to war with them, they are just a constant pest and a possible early fortress killer.

I would like to see them living in yurts and longhouses with hanging human and elf skins being tanned outside, a knapper working stones making macuahuitls to arm his brothers and sisters, the chieftain standing in front of a small crowd gesticulating wildly with an artifact scepter speaking of the piles of flesh to come when the next attack on the meatbearers is organized. Neat!

Not going to go over what they should look like, but I really liked the aztec imagining of them especially them being salamander-like.

[Gotdamnmiracle]

I had actually been thinking of a physical transformation as well, but now you've mentioned human-skin clad elves (elven wildmen) I really like that idea. Damn.

Why not have both the transformation and skin cladiness!

Plus I wouldn't mind my dwarves angrily reffering to wendigos as elven scum. Heh.

[Owlbread]

I mentioned it in a former post. I figure it would be like the goblin civ leader who trains war animals, just the title would be wendigo chieftain. And yes the similarity with night creatures is intentional the difference is that these guys aren't loners living in caves craving isolation. They seek out people to fill their ranks and act like kobolds in that they live in camps, are their own race, never seige and don't trade. Act like goblins in that they ambush but more often try to snatch, only in this case it is a full grown dwarf they knock out and drag off. They only eat people so they are like kobolds in that they might die due to that so they might not die from starvation but be put in crippling pain or atleast that will be the story. No civ likes them, no civ can go to war with them, they are just a constant pest and a possible early fortress killer.

I would like to see them living in yurts and longhouses with hanging human and elf skins being tanned outside, a knapper working stones making macuahuitls to arm his brothers and sisters, the chieftain standing in front of a small crowd gesticulating wildly with an artifact scepter speaking of the piles of flesh to come when the next attack on the meatbearers is organized. Neat!

Not going to go over what they should look like, but I really liked the aztec imagining of them especially them being salamander-like.

You see, your idea there isn't really as much about addiction (the horror of the wendigo etc) as it is about creating a new, civilised (technically) race of people with the goal of capturing and eating other races. As I'd said, those wendigos show remarkable self control if they can capture people without skinning them alive and devouring their flesh as quickly as possible. Could a new race with its own culture, architecture, technology and so on develop from exiled elves or an act of cannibalism by a human or a dwarf? I suppose as a procedurally generated thing, it could in the future, but that sort of idea looks like a completely different ball game.

[MaskedMiner]

I would find it better if they wouldn't be their own civilization  Or civilized.

[Gotdamnmiracle]

I mentioned it in a former post. I figure it would be like the goblin civ leader who trains war animals, just the title would be wendigo chieftain. And yes the similarity with night creatures is intentional the difference is that these guys aren't loners living in caves craving isolation. They seek out people to fill their ranks and act like kobolds in that they live in camps, are their own race, never seige and don't trade. Act like goblins in that they ambush but more often try to snatch, only in this case it is a full grown dwarf they knock out and drag off. They only eat people so they are like kobolds in that they might die due to that so they might not die from starvation but be put in crippling pain or atleast that will be the story. No civ likes them, no civ can go to war with them, they are just a constant pest and a possible early fortress killer.

I would like to see them living in yurts and longhouses with hanging human and elf skins being tanned outside, a knapper working stones making macuahuitls to arm his brothers and sisters, the chieftain standing in front of a small crowd gesticulating wildly with an artifact scepter speaking of the piles of flesh to come when the next attack on the meatbearers is organized. Neat!

Not going to go over what they should look like, but I really liked the aztec imagining of them especially them being salamander-like.

You see, your idea there isn't really as much about addiction (the horror of the wendigo etc) as it is about creating a new, civilised (technically) race of people with the goal of capturing and eating other races. As I'd said, those wendigos show remarkable self control if they can capture people without skinning them alive and devouring their flesh as quickly as possible. Could a new race with its own culture, architecture, technology and so on develop from exiled elves or an act of cannibalism by a human or a dwarf? I suppose as a procedurally generated thing, it could in the future, but that sort of idea looks like a completely different ball game.

Eh true. But I would like to see them have a little more detail than the DF sasquatch. Pretty much just another creature running around in the forest. Seems like kind of a waste. And in the wiki you become one by being welcomed into the evil spirits tribe or clan. shrug. Seems like they would be more civilized than werewolves or night creatures. I figured the addiction was an affliction that binded them to one goal but didn't turn them loony tunes. However I'm just hungry for something different. Eh I can always mod it or something I suppose.

[MaskedMiner]

Well, if we go by wikipedia, we can get several different versions:

"The Wendigo is part of the traditional belief systems of various Algonquian-speaking tribes in the northern United States and Canada, most notably the Ojibwe and Saulteaux, the Cree, the Naskapi and the Innu people.[4] Though descriptions varied somewhat, common to all these cultures was the conception of Wendigos as malevolent, cannibalistic, supernatural beings (manitous) of great spiritual power.[5] They were strongly associated with the Winter, the North, and coldness, as well as with famine and starvation.[6] Basil Johnston, an Ojibwe teacher and scholar from Ontario, gives one description of how Wendigos were viewed:[7]
“    The Weendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tautly over its bones. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, the Weendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. What lips it had were tattered and bloody [....] Unclean and suffering from suppurations of the flesh, the Weendigo gave off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption.    ”

Well, dunno what to do with Winter theme thing except maybe be listed as being associated with them in legends. That does give nice description to them though... Hmm..

"At the same time, Wendigos were embodiments of gluttony, greed, and excess: never satisfied after killing and consuming one person, they were constantly searching for new victims. In some traditions, humans who became overpowered by greed could turn into Wendigos; the Wendigo myth thus served as a method of encouraging cooperation and moderation.[8]

Among the Ojibwe, Eastern Cree, Westmain Swampy Cree, Naskapi, and Innu, Wendigos were said to be giants, many times larger than human beings (a characteristic absent from the Wendigo myth in the other Algonquian cultures).[9] Whenever a Wendigo ate another person, it would grow in proportion to the meal it had just eaten, so that it could never be full.[10] Wendigos were therefore simultaneously constantly gorging themselves and emaciated from starvation."

Well, this could be interesting. A monster that grows in size more it eats.

Also, where does it say that? .-. It says that you become one by being possessed by cannibalistic spirit or becoming cannibalistic spirit yourself...

[Gotdamnmiracle]

The winter theme is because this creature was beleived to exist by northern based peoples so they saw harsh winters and since winter is often a time of famine eating people was a thinkable alternative. You shouldn't eat other people or wendigo is easier to explain than because it's awful to a starving person.