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[FrisianDude]

I can if I want to.

[Necro910]

In my current world, goblins are at war with the White Tigermen.

They have saved my fortress from each other several times.  Warms my dwarves' coal-black little hearts...

That explains why dwarves are so flammable! Screw blacklung, we get coalheart 

[Wannazzaki]

In my current world, goblins are at war with the White Tigermen.

They have saved my fortress from each other several times.  Warms my dwarves' coal-black little hearts...

That explains why dwarves are so flammable! Screw blacklung, we get coalheart 

I thought it was their tissue fluid being 80% proof...

[King DZA]

A snatcher managed to run off with the child of a single mother a bit ago, as my fort is two years old and i only just recently finished the first wall of the DeathMaze.

When checking on the state of said mother, i saw she was happy, and didn't have a single thought about her only son being hauled off by goblins. In the child's thoughts, he was happy to be free.

Maybe having children snatched up really is for the best...

[GreatWyrmGold]

I found this out a while ago, hence my signature.

FrisianDude may may be onto something though. What we could have going on here is that both races are trying to do what they think is the right thing, and those views simply conflict with each other.

Mayhap the dwarves don't mean to seem so cold and cruel, they are just trying to do what is best for the greater good of the mountainhomes. More utilitarians than sadists(though the fact they end up murdering each other by the dozens under our control probably doesn't help too much).

And maybe the goblins aren't trying to be so barbaric with their good-doing, it's just the only way they know. Goblins have never been known to be very bright. Despite their benevolent intentions, it's possible that the only way they know how to help is by taking away the little ones, and stabbing the mean adult ones in the face.

Hell, if the races understood each other a little better, i wouldn't be surprised if they became allies. And, in my opinion, a half goblin half dwarf fortress would be beyond badass.

To humans, "good" is what is best for them.
To dwarves, "good" is what is best for the Mountainhomes.
To goblins, "good" is what is best for everyone, including demons and the oppressed (but still malleable) children of other realms.
To elves, "good" is what is best for the whole natural world.
To kobolds, "good" is something the Big People talk about a lot.

[Ibid Straydrink]

But wait. What are the moral and ethical dispositions of the fluffy wamblers..?

[MoonLightBird]

But wait. What are the moral and ethical dispositions of the fluffy wamblers..?

They are of the utmost evil! They lull you with their cuteness only to feast upon your soul!

[Necro910]

But wait. What are the moral and ethical dispositions of the fluffy wamblers..?

They are of the utmost evil! They lull you with their cuteness only to feast upon your soul!

BURN THEM! BURN THEM ALL!

[Ibid Straydrink]

But wait. What are the moral and ethical dispositions of the fluffy wamblers..?

They are of the utmost evil! They lull you with their cuteness only to feast upon your soul!

CAT THEM! CAT THEM ALL!

Fixed.

[Wannazzaki]

But wait. What are the moral and ethical dispositions of the fluffy wamblers..?

They are of the utmost evil! They lull you with their cuteness only to feast upon your soul!

BURN THEM! BURN THEM ALL!

I tend to designate them for dumping directly into a volcano/magma sea. Little rat bastards aren't getting their hands on my dorf's souls. They are mine to play with and abuse as i please!

[Forumite]

Has it ever occured to anybody that the goblin snatchers may simply be trying to save dwarven children from the life of a dwarf fortress. I mean, sure goblins have some questionable ethics, but not nearly as bad as the things we do in dwarf fortresses...
It also applies to trying to siege for treasure. They may not be trying to steal dwarven treasure, they may just be trying to rid the world of the dwarven scourge.

Really? My fortresses are usually benign, full of production and brew. I keep them fed and busy building. The goblins are snatchers.

The fortress still die to tantrum, sieges, demons or FPS in the end anyway, right?

That might be what the goblins are saving the children from, the inevitable end of the fortress. In my current fort of 80 dwarves, there are several families, but their children will be forever trapped in the fortress. Snatchers take them away from that, allowing them to lead their lives somewhere else.

Yeah, I want to be able to send away dwarves to the mountainhome.

[acetech09]

As far as I can tell, the goblins do consciously believe they're doing the right thing. If you talk to a snatcher in adventure mode (good luck finding one, but you can find it in the game's files as I did), and ask him about his profession, he'll gladly remark "I rescue lost children and bring them back to <Insert Dark Fortress Here>."

[Tevish Szat]

The popular image of a Dwarven fortress is the picture of Koganusan... the smoking gatehouse of hell, filled with madmen, miasma, and omnicidal maniacs.  Perhaps that is the way that many fortresses end, run into the ground by the increasingly insane schemes of their overseers... but those are not the only fortresses that the Goblins invade.  They come for the good and the wicked alike, take the unloved, the orphans, and the doted upon with equal glee.  It is the goblins that are the chosen minions of Demons upon the surface, for such creatures must impersonate gods to sway the humans and can have their way with neither dwarven nor elven kind.  Many dwarves live happy lives from birth until death in the dwarven fortresses of the world, and all too often that death comes on the end of goblin swords, with no provocation nor show of horror to be found.  They give no reasons for their attacks, and offer no quarter.  If they believe they are doing good, then their zealotry results in greater evil, for if it were not for the constant pressures of the goblins, perhaps overseers would not be so desperate for the ruinous contraptions dwarves have become known for -- magma floods, adamantine, and all other forms of doomsday device would be largely obsolete if the goblins did not persecute a war against the dwarves.  Supersoldiers would wait out their lives for megabeasts that are surprisingly easily felled, and the gladitorial arenas would be empty.  Dwarves, you see, are children of their world, and it is the goblins that make the world, and therefore the dwarves, hostile.

[King DZA]

The popular image of a Dwarven fortress is the picture of Koganusan... the smoking gatehouse of hell, filled with madmen, miasma, and omnicidal maniacs.  Perhaps that is the way that many fortresses end, run into the ground by the increasingly insane schemes of their overseers... but those are not the only fortresses that the Goblins invade.  They come for the good and the wicked alike, take the unloved, the orphans, and the doted upon with equal glee.  It is the goblins that are the chosen minions of Demons upon the surface, for such creatures must impersonate gods to sway the humans and can have their way with neither dwarven nor elven kind.  Many dwarves live happy lives from birth until death in the dwarven fortresses of the world, and all too often that death comes on the end of goblin swords, with no provocation nor show of horror to be found.  They give no reasons for their attacks, and offer no quarter.  If they believe they are doing good, then their zealotry results in greater evil, for if it were not for the constant pressures of the goblins, perhaps overseers would not be so desperate for the ruinous contraptions dwarves have become known for -- magma floods, adamantine, and all other forms of doomsday device would be largely obsolete if the goblins did not persecute a war against the dwarves.  Supersoldiers would wait out their lives for megabeasts that are surprisingly easily felled, and the gladitorial arenas would be empty.  Dwarves, you see, are children of their world, and it is the goblins that make the world, and therefore the dwarves, hostile.

One of the most intriguing points made thus far.

Perhaps, however, they are just presumptuous. The various races have been slaughtering one another since almost the beginning of time(in their world). And one must admit that, out of all other races, dwarves have some of the most sadistic methods of doing so. A young goblin would grow up hearing stories of the twisted things that went on in these fortresses, horrible acts committed against his ancestors so long ago even the teller of the stories would have trouble believing it ever truly happened. Although dwarves may not truly be as bad as depicted, legends have a way of becoming over exaggerated as time goes on.

With no first-hand experience that proves otherwise, generations of goblins would grow to see dwarves as more sinister than the demons who ruled over their own race, who could also have some part in the deception as well. Brainwashing the goblins into seeing the other civilizations as evil for their own ends.

By the time a goblin has reached a mature age, he would have developed a strong mixture of both fear and hatred for the dwarven race, even without ever meeting one personally. When confronting the bearded creatures, he would waste no time ending them right then and there. As far as he knows, they would not hesitate to do the same to him, and with a much more murderous delight.

Feeling sympathetic toward the children who will grow up in a race of such supposedly horrid beings, they attempt to "rescue" a few of them, in the hopes that they can keep them from succumbing to the vile ways of the others.

They attack any fortress and steal any children not because they don't care, but because from what they have heard, there are no "good" dwarves. They all love nothing more than the cries of agony from their helpless victims. This misconception would be further strengthened by the dwarves building massive machines of death to defend against the goblin hordes, who are seen as evil because they seemingly attack unprovoked.

perhaps the foundations for these wars are not really a matter of good and evil, but ignorance and misunderstanding.

[Wimopy]

QUOTE, Spoilered

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The popular image of a Dwarven fortress is the picture of Koganusan... the smoking gatehouse of hell, filled with madmen, miasma, and omnicidal maniacs.  Perhaps that is the way that many fortresses end, run into the ground by the increasingly insane schemes of their overseers... but those are not the only fortresses that the Goblins invade.  They come for the good and the wicked alike, take the unloved, the orphans, and the doted upon with equal glee.  It is the goblins that are the chosen minions of Demons upon the surface, for such creatures must impersonate gods to sway the humans and can have their way with neither dwarven nor elven kind.  Many dwarves live happy lives from birth until death in the dwarven fortresses of the world, and all too often that death comes on the end of goblin swords, with no provocation nor show of horror to be found.  They give no reasons for their attacks, and offer no quarter.  If they believe they are doing good, then their zealotry results in greater evil, for if it were not for the constant pressures of the goblins, perhaps overseers would not be so desperate for the ruinous contraptions dwarves have become known for -- magma floods, adamantine, and all other forms of doomsday device would be largely obsolete if the goblins did not persecute a war against the dwarves.  Supersoldiers would wait out their lives for megabeasts that are surprisingly easily felled, and the gladitorial arenas would be empty.  Dwarves, you see, are children of their world, and it is the goblins that make the world, and therefore the dwarves, hostile.

One of the most intriguing points made thus far.

Perhaps, however, they are just presumptuous. The various races have been slaughtering one another since almost the beginning of time(in their world). And one must admit that, out of all other races, dwarves have some of the most sadistic methods of doing so. A young goblin would grow up hearing stories of the twisted things that went on in these fortresses, horrible acts committed against his ancestors so long ago even the teller of the stories would have trouble believing it ever truly happened. Although dwarves may not truly be as bad as depicted, legends have a way of becoming over exaggerated as time goes on.

With no first-hand experience that proves otherwise, generations of goblins would grow to see dwarves as more sinister than the demons who ruled over their own race, who could also have some part in the deception as well. Brainwashing the goblins into seeing the other civilizations as evil for their own ends.

By the time a goblin has reached a mature age, he would have developed a strong mixture of both fear and hatred for the dwarven race, even without ever meeting one personally. When confronting the bearded creatures, he would waste no time ending them right then and there. As far as he knows, they would not hesitate to do the same to him, and with a much more murderous delight.

Feeling sympathetic toward the children who will grow up in a race of such supposedly horrid beings, they attempt to "rescue" a few of them, in the hopes that they can keep them from succumbing to the vile ways of the others.

They attack any fortress and steal any children not because they don't care, but because from what they have heard, there are no "good" dwarves. They all love nothing more than the cries of agony from their helpless victims. This misconception would be further strengthened by the dwarves building massive machines of death to defend against the goblin hordes, who are seen as evil because they seemingly attack unprovoked.

perhaps the foundations for these wars are not really a matter of good and evil, but ignorance and misunderstanding.

Good points, now I'll list mine.

Goblins live in dark fortresses, and most of the time, tyrannical demons control them,

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

who sometimes even personally goes to slaughter enemies.

Now, they might see dwarves as evil, they might see them as food, they might just want their things or their huge forts....
But why do snatchers kidnap the children? There could be multiple reasons.

-They think they are saving them from the rest of the horde.
-They want a dwarven craftsman.
-They'd like to reduce the number of dwarven defenders.
-They want to increase their own numbers.
-The leader demands slaves/new enemies to control.
-The demon is mind-controlling them to believe it's good.
-They might be wanting to train spies.