Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Characters / DwarfFortress

Go To

1Characters include the different creatures you can meet in the game, as well as some {{Memetic Badass}}es the fandom has produced.
2
3[[foldercontrol]]
4
5
6!Civilized creatures
7
8[[folder:Dwarves]]
9-> ''A short, sturdy creature fond of drink and industry.''
10
11The current default playable race in fortress mode, and a playable race in adventure mode. Known for creating incredibly complex fortresses, and being [[ArtificialStupidity really stupid]].
12----
13* ArtificialStupidity:
14** Urist [=McMiner=] cancels dig through supporting structure; killed by cave-in.
15** They're notorious for having awful priorities, like looting corpses right before getting murdered by whatever threat claimed the previous victim; wasting all your seeds by cooking with low-value ingredients; electing someone to mayor even if it's quite obvious said person is a vampire; nobles imprisoning dwarves for not completing mandates regardless of the reason (for example, there was a tantrum spiral and now everyone with the relevant skill is dead; the fortress had more important work than making useless trinkets for nobles, or the item was literally impossible to craft). And so on.
16** There's a reason the forums have a thread for players to express their frustration at the stupid things their dwarves do.
17* TheBeastmaster: Dwarves can tame the vast majority of animals in the game. The definition of "animal" extends to dragons, hydras, rocs and giant cave spiders. Imagine THAT as your cavalry. However, "exotic" animals can turn on you, especially if your civilization knows next to nothing of the animal in question.
18* BewareTheSillyOnes: They're all lunatics, yes. However, they are capable of amazing feats (see "LetsPlay/{{Towersoared}}") and strong-enough dwarves can fight an EldritchAbomination to a standstill.
19* CastSpeciation:
20** As of the latest version, the emotion and thought work means it's perfectly possible to have sociopathic dwarves.
21** While the majority of dwarves see martial prowess as a worthwhile goal, most want to raise a family, [[ToBeAMaster master a skill]], or create a legendary masterwork; rare are the ones who want to be a legendary warrior
22* DayHurtsDarkAdjustedEyes: Dwarves who remain underground for too long undergo cave adaption, which causes them to get sick the next time they go outside - particularly bad cases generally result in the entrance to your fortress getting covered in vomit. If you make a dwarf adventurer in a mountain hall, they will start the game with maximum cave adaption.
23* DrivenToMadness: If miserable enough (or incapable of completing their strange mood), they risk becoming insane. This manifests in four possibilities: [[TheBerserker berserkery]], [[DespairEventHorizon melancholia]], [[MentalShutdown catatonia]] or [[NakedPeopleAreFunny running around naked.]]
24* FreakOut: Enough stress on a dwarf will lead to their normal behavior being temporarily overridden by one of three responses depending on personality- anxious dwarves will stumble around obliviously, depressive dwarves will become depressed, and irritable dwarves will throw tantrums. They will recover eventually, but too much freaking out and they will go permanently insane.
25* FunctionalAddict: They're all alcoholics, probably because they need alcohol to get through the day. Once alcohol was actually given an effect, dwarves were set to have a higher resistance to it than the norm.
26* GirlsWithMoustaches: The relevant code for female dwarves having heavy facial hair is DummiedOut by default, but there's a plaintext comment right next to it telling you how to reenable it, if you want to.
27* LongLived: While not biologically immortal like goblins or elves, they can live for almost two centuries. It's very common to see dwarves in their 70s and 80s.
28* MadArtist: Dwarves can go into a 'strange mood' once in their life, in which they halt all actions and claim a workshop relevant to their best crafting skill (or a random skill if they are peasants).
29** They will ask for a specific list of items, and once gathered, use those components to create an artifact: a unique, very high-quality, indestructible item. It can end in them creating a hilariously useless item (ex: a bone musical instrument), something [[BoringButPractical which looks unimpressive, but is in fact quite useful]] (like a stone door), or something awesome, like an [[InfinityPlusOneSword adamantine battle axe]].
30** If the moody dwarf is unable to complete the mood for whatever reason (an item is not available, the workshop is deconstructed, or a magma forge loses power), they will go insane.
31** There are five types of strange moods: Fey, Secretive, Possessed, Fell, and Macabre. All except possessions will increase the dwarf's relevant skill to Legendary, which ranges from useful to [[UltimateBlacksmith insanely useful]]. The only other difference between Fey and Secretive moods is how the dwarf states their demands (Fey is clear, Secretive dwarves sketch pictures). Only unhappy dwarves can enter a Fell or Macabre mood. Macabre moods are similar to fey moods with the exception of the dwarf using some sort of bone in his work, but Fell moods fit the trope best- the moody dwarf will ''murder another dwarf'' and make some artifact out of their victim's remains.
32* MightyGlacier: Compared to other races, that are stronger and tougher but less agile (and therefore slower). It's not very noticeable in-game.
33* MilesGloriosus: The first releases of [=DF2014=]. Even super-badass legendary military dwarves will flee from a harmless wild animal as long as they are not on duty.
34* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: The cultures of all the other humanoid races vary wildly from one generated world to the next, but the Dwarves are purposefully coded to stick more closely to the expected stereotypes so that the [[AudienceSurrogate player can more easily understand what they're getting into when they start a game.]]
35* ProudIndustriousRace: They are literally defined by their affinity for drink and industry, and as the game's main playable race they have access to a huge variety of industries, from smithing and masonry to beekeeping and soap-making. They are also the only major civilization that can craft steel equipment.
36* SkewedPriorities: Dwarven priorities are famously terrible due to dodgy AI. They've gotten better over the years as Toady has fixed a lot of the bugs (they actually notice when they're on fire now, and you can stop them from running out to snatch dead dwarves' clothes in the middle of sieges), but their AI still has zero concept of value or planning for the future, meaning they'll still cook away all your seeds and drop important jobs whenever they get a bit thirsty.
37* SuperMode: Combat trances, which happen when a dwarf is attacked by 2 or more enemies. It tends to make dwarves quite a bit better in combat.
38* TantrumThrowing: Considered the de-facto dwarven reaction to prolonged unhappiness, and frequently a catalyst for DisasterDominoes. [=DF2014=] mitigated this significantly by reworking the happiness system and by introducing two different reactions to stress depending on a dwarf's personality. Tantrums still happen and they're still a problem, but tantrum ''spirals'' are rare and prone to fizzling out [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential unless the player is deliberately going for one]].
39* TrademarkFavoriteFood: All dwarves have randomly generated food preferences. Eating or drinking something they like will give them a (potentially quite strong) happy thought, and a dwarf will never complain about lack of variety with their favorite foods.
40* TunnelKing: The most common type of fortress is below ground - they're dwarves.
41* UndergroundCity: Unlike fortresses, dwarven mountain halls are completely disconnected from the surface and can only be accessed via underground tunnels.
42* UpperClassTwit: Dwarven nobility is infamous for this. Their rooms ''must'' be grander than normal rooms, or they get irritable. They will also mandate the production of or forbid the export of items they like, punishing dwarves who may or may not have been involved if their demands go unmet. Demands quite famously don't take feasibility into consideration, so a noble could get upset because he mandated glass items in a fortress with no sand, or wanted something made of slade (rare and entirely unworkable). Because of their idiocy, it is popular among players to [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident find ways to "entertain" their nobles.]]
43* WizardNeedsFoodBadly: They're capable of living without alcohol, but it will make them so slow as to be nearly useless.
44[[/folder]]
45
46[[folder:Elves]]
47-> ''A medium-sized creature dedicated to the ruthless protection of nature.''
48
49Arrogant elves who demand that you limit your tree-cutting. They will send a trade caravan each year, which will bring wood (it's okay when they do it, because they can use magic to get wood without killing trees), wooden goods, bags of sand and/or clay, fruits, rope and cloth made from plant fiber, and tame animals in cages. There is absolutely nothing stopping you from going to war with them if you don't find these goods worth putting up with them.
50----
51* TheAgeless: Elves have the potential to live forever, which is why they never become {{necromancer}}s. Though elves can't die of old age, they reproduce just as frequently as the mortal races.
52* AnimalWrongsGroup: They have some secret method of harvesting wood without killing any trees, so they'll trade you plenty of wooden items. But they don't like it when ''you'' try to trade wood or cut down too many trees. If your fort survives long enough, an elven diplomat might try to impose a tree-cutting quota on it, or merely insult you for razing the forest. In earlier versions, they'd even get offended if you tried to sell them their own wooden goods! The current version solved that issue. As of the latest version, they're also a standard one for animals; they'll even get pissy and accuse you of kiling animals if you sell them wool or eggs, never mind that the collection of these items in no way harms the sheep or the chickens. Oddly enough, they have no issue with milk or cheese.
53* AssInAmbassador: Elven diplomats' idea of diplomacy mostly involves coming into your fort and insulting you because you have cut trees. There's nothing preventing you from concluding negotiations with a battle axe.
54* TheBeastmaster: If you go to war with them, you'll find that their primary danger besides their archers and numbers is that they can bring a wide variety of dangerous mounts with them.
55* BlueAndOrangeMorality: They're perfectly happy to eat their fallen enemies ''and'' comrades in battle. However, may the gods help you if you try selling them wood.
56* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: At first. They live in forests, don't use metal or technology, are "at peace with nature", and are the biggest tree-huggers you'll ever encounter. And then you discover that they are willing to slaughter innocents over cutting trees, and then eat their corpses.
57* FantasticRacism: When they come to chastise you for having chopped down trees, the aforementioned diplomats will refer to the entire Dwarven race (verbatim) as 'your stunted kind'. And if you haven't cut down ''any'' trees, they'll express joy and surprise at you for (paraphrased) [[YouAreACreditToYourRace 'not committing the atrocities that come so easily to your people']].
58* FriendToAllLivingThings: Even more so than dwarves. They can tame any animal with no difficulty, and even use {{Unicorn}}s as mounts. They also have the [AT_PEACE_WITH_NATURE] attribute, which means that wildlife won't attack them.
59* GreenThumb: Elves can shape their wooden weapons and armor without needing to chop down trees. One of [=ThreeToe's=] stories explains that they use magic to do this. This is, in fact, exactly how they build their forest retreats of trees planted in perfect rows. In fortress mode, however, their wooden goods are special only in that dwarves can only make [[NerfArm training weapons]] out of wood, whereas elves have slightly more lethal wooden weapons.
60* KnightTemplar: Their habit of eating war dead. It's even stated outright in their creature description!
61* KungFuProofMook: Goblin-raised elves, which lack a culturally-imposed ban on using metal equipment.
62* LongRangeFighter: Normally, elven warriors carry wooden armor and weapons, which are about as effective as you expect in melee combat against iron and steel. However, their archers can maim your military.
63* TheNoseKnows: In Adventurer mode, their sense of smell is stronger than that of the other main races.
64* OurElvesAreDifferent: They live in forests and in harmony with nature, and consider cutting down trees for any reason a terrible offense -- they themselves sing their tools out of living trees, but tend to go to war with people who give them wooden objects. They also eat their enemies' bodies.
65* SapientEatSapient: Elves don't kill people to eat them, but if a sapient being is ''already'' dead, then they will happily eat the corpse, since leaving it to rot would be a waste of resources (''and an attempt to gainsay the use of death-magic, perhaps?'').
66* ScrewYouElves: To the Dwarves, they're more annoying than terrifying.
67* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: They will be offended if you offer them wood while trading. Doing it enough times will cause them to attack the fortress responsible. And if you seek to raid them, you better be ready to confront their gigantic wall of war animals first, which can include such things as [[BearsAreBadNews grizzly bears.]]
68* ZergRush: Since they're immortal but reproduce just as quickly as mortal races, they have ''huge'' recruiting pool to throw into wars. And they need those large armies, since their armor and weapons are made out of wood.
69[[/folder]]
70
71[[folder:Goblins]]
72-> ''A medium-sized humanoid driven to cruelty by its evil nature.''
73
74Your most common opponent in fortress mode. They will send ambushes, sieges, and child snatchers to your fort. The equipment you can loot from the battlefield is a good source of iron if your fortress doesn't have any, giving rise to the fan nicknames ''Goblinite'' (the fourth ore of iron, mined by killing goblins and melting down their equipment) and ''Goblin Christmas'' (the time of year when goblins come to get themselves killed to provide good little dwarves with plenty of Goblinite).
75----
76* TheAgeless: Much like elves, goblins cannot die of old age.
77* AlwaysChaoticEvil: They are nothing less than outright called evil in the game, seem to attack you and kill your dwarves for no reason, are rather cruel to their enemies, and also kidnap children. The kicker is that the goblins then ''[[EqualOpportunityEvil raise them as their own without prejudice]]''. This is evidenced in the character personality options in Adventurer mode. If you try to create a goblin adventurer, it will be impossible for your character to have any propensity for love, peace, kindness, generosity, or [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking discrimination]].
78* AmbitionIsEvil: Their entity values show that they are extremely ambitious for power.
79* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Goblin leaders frequently get taken out and replaced during worldgen, whether by fellow goblins or [[TheLegionsOfHell other things]]. Treason may be the only behavior they consider a crime, but [[LoopholeAbuse no one said that a successful traitor has to answer to the law]].
80* DirtyCoward: Unlike dwarves, they tend to flee from battle at the first sign of resistance.
81* EqualOpportunityEvil: Due to their child-snatching, a goblin settlement can often have as many humans, dwarves, and elves as goblins. Not to mention trolls as "pets" and their [[TheLegionsOfHell more exotic]] rulers they often have. Prior to [=DF2014=], they were the most multi-cultural of the main races, before other entities (and later on, animal-people) could move to other civilizations.
82* EvilCounterpart: To the dwarves in Fortress Mode. While humans and elves are also capable of organizing themselves into armies and attacking fortresses if the player pisses them off, the goblins do so without being provoked by the player, so they are more likely to serve as an "evil army" needed to be dealt with in the game.
83* GenuineHumanHide: Since they have no problem with butchering sentient creatures.
84* HardcodedHostility: Goblins from goblin civilizations will be out for your blood whether you play fortress mode or adventurer mode. Depending on the version, goblin members of other civilizations [[GoodBadBugs may or may not]] be hostile to their own fellow citizens.
85* HatesEveryoneEqually: AlwaysChaoticEvil plus inability to discriminate equals this trope.
86* InvasionOfTheBabySnatchers: "Snatcher! Protect the children!" Notably, goblins will then raise them as their own, though some children can be rescued in Adventure Mode if it isn't too late.
87* TheKindnapper: One interpretation of snatchers. This depends of how you treat your children, however.
88* LackOfEmpathy: Their empathy and sympathy statistics are very low, although not as low as HFS denizens.
89* MightMakesRight: They seem to believe in this, and will accept any leader powerful enough to force their will on them.
90* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Goblin sites, civilizations, groups, and individuals always have at least one "evil" word in their names, such as hell, monster, poison, sin, etc. Given the random generation, they either usually end up sounding appropriately evil or just disgusting (Pusfountain isn't exactly intimidating).
91* TheNeedless: Goblins in versions post-2010 don't need to eat or drink, though they do sleep.
92* OurDemonsAreDifferent: ''Dwarf Fortress'' goblins start proliferating after a powerful demon breaches the Underworld, strongly implying they are a type of demon themselves. In worlds specifically generated with no demons in them, goblins will take their place as the inhabitants of the Underworld and remain locked there until a faction [[DugTooDeep breaches it by accident]].
93* OurGoblinsAreDifferent: They act a lot like the stereotypical orc, despite orcs not existing in ''Dwarf Fortress'', being an AlwaysChaoticEvil race of cruel and murderous marauders who attack everyone who's not part of their empire.
94* RaisedByOrcs: Snatched children. That can assault your fortress later if they survive for long enough. [[FaceHeelTurn No, you have no other option than to kill them.]]
95* RedEyesTakeWarning: All goblins have red eyes that glow in the dark.
96* SapientEatSapient: The most notable example among the different civilizations. Whereas elves will only eat the bodies of those slain in battle ([[BlueAndOrangeMorality because to do otherwise would be wasteful]]), goblins can butcher other beings specifically for their meat.
97* TooDumbToLive: Goblins riding giant toads will allow their mounts to jump into large bodies of water (as the toads are amphibious), resulting in the goblin drowning.
98* TokenHeroicOrc: Like other races it's possible for them to end up in other civilizations through various events such as site takeover, taking on the ethics of their new parent civ. Like with elves, due to being TheAgeless any sort of authority a goblin gets they'll keep unless they meet a violent end.
99* ZergRush: They lack the token that allows invading forces to use proper siege tactics, and instead will just charge in to whatever traps you've laid.
100[[/folder]]
101
102[[folder:Humans]]
103-> ''A medium-sized creature prone to great ambition.''
104
105Trading partners, and potential besiegers. They're smarter about it than goblins, and more dangerous than elves because they aren't limited to wooden weapons.
106----
107* BlueAndOrangeMorality: While their actual ethics remain static, recent updates allow for a highly randomized selection of values allowing for considerable variation in the average human's behavior.
108* FantasyCounterpartCulture: ProceduralGeneration randomizes their appearances (averting HumansAreWhite) and clothing styles, but their culture is fixed and akin to Middle Age Europe. With some of the tweaks added in [=DF2014=], they've shifted a bit more towards the HornyVikings image, best seen in adventure mode. The new values system makes them (among other things) tend to value [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy martial prowess]], [[{{Determinator}} perseverance]] and [[MightMakesRight power]]. Their towns also include mead halls for towns too small to warrant a castle, where local lords and ladies rule the land, all swearing fealty to a king or law-giver (depending on what the randomly-generated culture entitles their leader). Later on [=DF2014=] changed things yet again. While they retain the similar HornyVikings motif of local lords in mead halls, their values can now be randomized during worldgen.
109* HumansAreAverage: Played straight, in regards of stats and weapon/armor availability. However, they are bigger than all of the other races, giving them a slight bonus to damage and toughness.
110* HumansAreDiplomats: Aside from your dwarven kin, they are likely to be your primary trading partners. Humans aren't as smug and easy to insult as elves and generally bring useful trade goods, so most fortresses keep good relationships with them.
111* HumansAreWarriors: Among their most prized values, aside from family and friendship, are martial prowess.
112* KlingonPromotion: Hamlets and towns can be taken over by adventurers, by [[IOwnThisTown staking a claim to the area]] and killing or driving off the current local ruler.
113* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Possibly more than dwarves.
114* WakeUpCallBoss: Human sieges, for anyone used to just elves and goblins [[ZergRush zerg rushing]] themselves into your traps. Humans actually use proper siege tactics. They'll set up camp near your fortress, harass any dwarves outside, prevent all trade, and wait for the the tantrum spirals to do their job for them. They're also better equipped than elves, more disciplined than goblins, and won't fall for any trap their diplomats have seen before. Luckily for new players, humans are usually at peace with the dwarves, and will probably remain so unless provoked by the player.
115[[/folder]]
116
117[[folder:Kobolds]]
118-> ''A small, squat humanoid with large pointy ears and yellow glowing eyes.''
119
120Small, thieving, "mammaloreptilian" goblin-like creatures with shining eyes and an affinity with poisonous critters. They skulk in caves and thrive in stealing trinkets from other races. They speak in their own incomprehensible tongue and are incapable of communicating with other races.
121----
122* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Let's say it is very different from what most people will consider standard morality.
123* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Kobold bandits, archers especially, are not to be taken lightly in adventure mode. Even in fortress mode, if their bumbling attempts at theft actually accrue enough success, they can eventually send ambush parties. While they're a lot easier to eliminate than a goblin ambush, they're still quite capable of taking a few dwarves with them.
124* DirtyCoward: More than any other race in the game. Though it must be said that against dwarves, they have not much chance, so running away is generally the most sensible solution.
125* FluffyTamer: They've somehow found a way to domesticate venomous cave creatures, such as helmet snakes and giant cave spiders.
126* FragileSpeedster: They run '''very''' quickly when discovered, however they tend to get killed easily.
127* GlowingEyesOfDoom: While "doom" is a fairly huge exaggeration, their eyes do glow in the utmost dark, visible as yellow '' in Adventure mode if they're too far away to see directly.
128* HardcodedHostility: Kobolds will pester everybody, and in some versions they'll [[GoodBadBugs start fighting each other as well]]. This is due to them being unable to communicate with other races, making it impossible for them to ask for peace, and as such they are mutually hostile to every non-kobold group.
129* ImpossibleTheft: In early versions of v.40, they could steal [[spoiler:from sealed divine vaults, whose treasure and secret are guarded by possibly the strongest things in the entire game]]. They may still steal trinkets from [[spoiler:demonic spires built as gateways to the ''Underworld itself'']].
130* OurKoboldsAreDifferent: Acording to a drawing by [[WordOfGod Toady One]], they resemble short, squat humanoids with brown skin, pointy ears and glowing yellow eyes. They're described as "mammaloreptilian" -- although their raw files show they're entirely mammalian in a biological sense, they do lay eggs. They're the most primitive of the main sapient species; generally strictly in the Copper Age. They live in simple tribal groups, usually inside caves, keep poisonous animals as pets and often sneak into fortresses to steal things.
131%%* TheSpeechless: The fact that certain ethical distinctions are not applicable to them [[AllThereInTheScript in the raws]] -- namely torturing for information, lying and oath breaking -- strongly implies that kobolds don't have spoken language.
132* UndyingLoyalty: They cannot even ''think'' of betraying the group they are in!
133* YellowEyesOfSneakiness: All kobolds have yellow eyes that glow in the dark.
134[[/folder]]
135
136[[folder:Animal People]]
137-> ''An orange striped person with the head of a tiger.''
138
139The world of ''Dwarf Fortress'' contains humanoid variations of its animals, often described in-game as resembling a human with the head of that particular creature. There are two distinct types: subterranean animal people tend to reside in primitive underground civilizations and can be playable in Adventure Mode under the right circumstances, while the ones found on the surface are little more than bipedal animals and do not use tools or form societies.
140----
141* BeastMan: As per the description, they're a person with the head, the coloring and -- if applicable -- the wings of an animal.
142* BlowGun: Subterranean animal people are pretty much the only users of them in the game.
143* LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces: Most of the animals in the game are covered, including different types of insects. There are even plans for there to be giant animal people as well, just as there are already giant versions of the wild animals. Becomes MassiveRaceSelection in Adventure Mode.
144[[/folder]]
145
146!Gods
147
148[[folder:Armok, God of Blood]]
149God of gods, Armok creates worlds, revels in bloodshed and conflict, and then destroys them and starts anew when he grows bored. While not present in the game proper, he's beloved by the playerbase, who are typically more than eager to find [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential ways to appease him]].
150----
151* BloodLust: Literally. Armok demands for blood to be spilled in his name.
152* DestroyerDeity: Destroyer of all the worlds in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'', obliterating those that cease to have the conflict they crave.
153* TheGhost: Not actually present in-game, and Toady One has no plans to implement him.
154* JerkassGods: See this official description of him: ''"Armok, the God of Blood, is just about the only constant in these chaotic random universes. A general sense of conflict keeps Armok appeased -- when the universe becomes too boring it is set on the anvil of creation to be reforged. The destruction of the world by Armok will arise inevitably in most game worlds. As civilizations spread and the frontier closes, the world will start to look homogeneous. Armok, looking upon this decadence in disgust, will reform the world. Basically, when the universe has become too boring, it will be changed."''
155* TheMaker: Creator of all the worlds in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'', creating worlds where conflict may reign.
156* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: '''Armok, God of Blood'''.
157* PlayerCharacter: One common interpretation is that Armok is the player. In which case [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential the sobriquet of "God of Blood" is well-earned]].
158* ReligionOfEvil: Maybe. Players tend to build giant obsidian cathedrals with HumanSacrifice and lava moats and shed rivers of blood to appease him. If this doesn't scream "not a nice god" to you, nothing will.
159* TopGod: One of the very rare certain facts about him is that he's TheMaker of all worlds in ''Dwarf Fortress'', which includes the procedurally-generated deities that mortals worship.
160* WarGod: He is to be appeased by violence and the shedding of blood.
161[[/folder]]
162
163[[folder:Minor Gods]]
164Every world is home to a number of procedurally-generated deities, who are associated with a number of spheres. They're often depicted in works of art as dwarves or humans, though some take the form of animals. Elves uniquely worship a god-like "force" that permeates the wilds rather than the same deities as everyone else.
165----
166* BecauseDestinySaysSo: Gods of fate perform the ritual to [[spoiler:bring demons into the world]] "because it is destiny".
167* BloodKnight: Gods of war and fortresses may [[spoiler:bring demons into the world]] "so that great fortresses may be raised and tested in siege" or "so that war may rage". Justified, since you know, they ARE war-gods.
168* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Gods who don't have a clear motive for [[spoiler:raising demons]] might do so while contemplating the "ineffable mysteries" of a sphere they share with [[spoiler: the demon]]. These can be some strange spheres indeed, including such things as food, rainbows and ''peace''.
169* {{Curse}}: Some gods tend to curse their mortal followers in vampire or werebeast form for profaning one of their holy places. And adventurers can directly earn the ire of said gods by toppling statues in their temples.
170* FantasyMetals: Among their creations are procedurally generated, ultra-powerful metals of unknown nature. [[spoiler:They're used by Angels, who guard the slade vaults of allied demons]]. Artifacts and items made of such metals can also be found in Fortress mode, [[spoiler:within gem-studded walls]].
171* GodOfEvil: Some of them [[spoiler: will collaborate with demons and bring them to the overworld]] for ''[[SarcasmMode pleasant]]'' reasons such as "so that more might die" or "so that the world may bathe in misery forever". Additionally they're responsible for the existence of werebeasts, vampires, and necromancy (by non-mummies).
172* GoodIsNotNice: Gods of bravery or valor may decide to [[spoiler:summon demons]] [[SinkOrSwimMentor "to provide opportunities for bravery to rise" or "to provide the opportunity for acts of valor to be performed"]]. Additionally all deities, no matter how nice they're described, are capable of cursing people into werebeasts or vampires... and [[CursedWithAwesome those cursed]] will then almost always go on to kill a lot of people unless they're killed first.
173* JerkassGods: Many are straight-up demons masquerading as deities, and even the real ones generally ignore their worshippers and their civilizations. Even when they're not [[spoiler:raising demons from the Underworld]], they have more of a negative than positive effect on the world; they seem to hand out curses more often than blessings. Necromancers in particular count as quite the negative influence, as while werebeasts and vampires essentially act as supernatural [[SerialKiller serial killers]], necromancers will raise armies of undead and create many a foul creature. Any fortress or other settled site near a tower is in danger of being attacked, and it's not uncommon in Adventure Mode to find a village or hamlet near a tower to be destroyed and filled with undead...
174** To put this in perspective, in a world without gods, necromancers (and thus experiments, intelligent undead, and infected ghouls), vampires, and werebeasts will not be present. While [[spoiler:in a world without any deities unique demons will just create underworld spires and leave the Underworld on their own]], the fact remains that a sizable amount of a given world's evils is due to the divine.
175* {{Necromancer}}: Gods associated with death tend to teach necromancy to mortals.
176* OddJobGods: Some of them. You can perfectly well have a god of family, law and murder, although it doesn't happen often. Considering gods are randomly generated, this makes sense.
177[[/folder]]
178
179!Notable individuals
180
181The (sapient) {{Memetic Badass}}es created by DF play (or just stories) and accepted by the community as such.
182
183!!World-gen figures
184
185[[folder:Âsax]]
186!![[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=52295.0 Âsax]]
187
188A cave swallowman who killed one forgotten beast and dueled several others to a standstill (and he would have killed them if they weren't bugged) before dwarves found him and took him in.
189----
190* BadassNormal: He had no magic, no divine purpose, no heroic lineage. He was just a birdman with a spear and a shield.
191* BirdPeople: He was a cave swallowman.
192* NamedWeapons: Apparently Âsax had a short memory. His spear got a new name basically every time it hit something.
193[[/folder]]
194
195[[folder:Cacame Awemedinade Monípalóthi]]
196!![[http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Cacame_Awemedinade Cacame Awemedinade, The Immortal Onslaught, Elf King of Dwarves]]
197[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lily_abdullina_cacame_web.jpg]]
198[[caption-width-right:350:The Glorious Elf King]]
199
200The only elf that is beloved by the fanbase.
201----
202* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: Was made king specifically because of how much of a killing machine he was, and has collected even more impressive accolades since being crowned.
203* BoomerangBigot: An elf legendary for his hatred of his own kind to the point that he became a king of a dwarven civilization. It's to be noted that it's not the elf species he hates, but the cannibalistic elven culture. He has no problem with elves raised in other cultures, like himself.
204* AChildShallLeadThem: Cacame was 7 when the dwarves conquered his home city in 90, and became the king of the dwarves in 99, making him 15 or 16 on his ascension to the throne.
205* DragonRider: He rode a zombie wyvern.
206* ElvesVsDwarves: He's an elf, but he sides with the dwarves against other elves in the elves vs. dwarves conflict.
207* MindScrew: He's an elf. He's a king of dwarves. He's an Elf King of Dwarves. Any doubts?
208* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Other elves ate his wife. He swore off cannibalism after that and [[HeelFaceTurn joined the dwarves]].
209* RedBaron: '''The Immortal Onslaught'''.
210* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Much more so than normal ''Dwarf Fortress'' kings. Cacame killed a dragon, broke sieges, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking did not once mandate the production of something stupid]]!
211* OneManArmy: Out of boredom, he single-handedly sortied against a large, well-equipped Human siege army, and routed them.
212* ScrewYouElves: Despite being an elf himself, he swore off his kind's traditions and led the dwarves against them in retaliation for the murder [[SapientEatSapient and consumption]] of his wife.
213* UnskilledButStrong: He once took down a dragon in single combat with nothing more than "competent" hammer skill.
214* YouAreACreditToYourRace: General community reaction. He's just about the only elf beloved by the fanbase.
215[[/folder]]
216
217[[folder:Gedor Luslemostuk Oth Banik]]
218!! [[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=104354.0 Gedor Puzzlesneak the Knot of Hexes]]
219
220A demon created during worldgen with an obscenely high kill count (as in in the high ''quintuple'' digits).
221----
222* BreathWeapon: She spit poison, to be exact.
223* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: When she was finally slain, it was by an ordinary human soldier who got lucky.
224* EldritchAbomination: She's a demon who's even scarier than demons normally are.
225* EvilOverlord: She took charge of several civilizations and Dark Fortresses when she wasn't murdering creatures, and was a fan of convincing her civ members to do as she said "through [[AppealToForce force of argument]]".
226* FromBadToWorse: She's an '''[[Blog/{{Boatmurdered}} elephant]] demon'''.
227* OneManArmy: She killed 87,300 intelligent beings in a few centuries. ''DF'' sentient kill counts are normally less than ten, sometimes cases around 100, and exceptionally around a few thousand and less than 10,000.
228-->-...out of every single person or animal who [[NominalImportance has ever made something of their life in this world]], 9.5% have been killed by Gedor.
229* OurMonstersAreWeird: ''"A gigantic one-eyed elephant twisted into humanoid form. It has a bloated body. Its dark green hair is long and straight. Beware its deadly spittle!"''
230* PoisonousPerson: We never did get to find out what ''kind'' of poison was in her breath, but it likely helped achieve her body count.
231* TheRemnant: Some say that she was born of the evil of Blog/{{Boatmurdered}}.
232[[/folder]]
233
234[[folder:Tholtig Momuzidek Lelumdoren]]
235!![[http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Tholtig Tholtig Cryptbrain the Waning Diamonds]]
236
237A dwarven queen with an obscenely high kill count, most of it elves.
238----
239* BadassFamily: Most of Tholtig's relatives by either blood or marriage were combatants in the war, and many of them had their own long list of accolades. Even Tholtig's relatively peaceful brother-in-law amassed 118 kills before retiring to become a diplomat. Many battles saw multiple members of Tholtig and Logem's extended family on the battlefield at once.
240* BattleCouple: Her husband Logem, himself the son of heroes, was another notable warrior who had 1955 kills in his lifetime. Near the end, he and Tholtig were the only two warriors left and defended the mountainhome alone for ten years.
241* BittersweetEnding: After centuries of bloodshed and countless victories against the elves, Tholtig died undefeated after the death of her entire clan, including all her children. The elves never recovered from their losses in the Conflict of Martyrs and soon faded away too.
242* TheEpic: [[http://dfstories.com/the-legend-of-tholtig-cryptbrain/ Her story]]. It's kind of a sad Epic, but it's glorious and awesome one nevertheless. The official [[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=42702.0 Bay12 forum thread]] narrating her story is called "The Legend of Tholtig Cryptbrain: An Epic of Bloodshed, Despair, and Glory".
243* KingInTheMountain: "A story is told by the dwarves to their children, that one day, when demons rise from the underworld to bring about the world's end, Queen Tholtig will lead out her clan of heroes from their tombs under the mountain, as well as a horde of the skeletons of elves slain by her and her people, and the ensuing clash will tear the surface of the earth asunder. A different legend is told by the elves. They say that Tholtig's spirit is still walking the realm and possessing elves, causing moods and forcing them to perform depravities like chopping trees to make wooden rings, amulets, and bins..."
244* LastOfHerKind: The last living member of her civilization. She lived out her remaining years still fighting off the elves from her ancestral home of Circletower, before finally succumbing to old age. Other dwarven civilizations are still alive in the world, though.
245* MeaningfulName: The Waning Diamonds. Now see the parallels between her story and her nickname. It's totally coincidental, but still.
246* NeverMessWithGranny: Tholtig was still driving off armies of elves even at the ripe old age of 156. Many of her companions also kept on fighting until their own deaths by old age. Alas, Tholtig never was an actual grandmother; all of her children were childless and unmarried, possibly because the lack of eligible marriage candidates.
247* OneManArmy: Personally killed 2341 individuals, mostly elves. In the last ten years of her life she was the only combatant dwarf left, singlehandedly defending against ten seiges and killing 419 elves.
248* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Tholtig and her husband outlived their ten children, all but one of whom died before turning 40. Eight children died fighting the elves, including two during Tholtig's first battle as queen. Of the others, one was killed by a hydra, and the crown princess was killed at age 90 by the same titan their ancestors had once fought. Tholtig's grandfather was in a similar position, having outlived all but one of his seven children.
249* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: See [[OneManArmy One Dwarf Army]]. Many of Tholtig's relatives also qualify: Her grandfather Meng claimed the throne after defeating a titan in a duel, and her husband's father was a disinherited prince who fought during Meng's time and continued to serve long into Tholtig's reign. Circletower's main defenders in its last decades included the queen and her king-consort, their children, and the former prince.
250* WarriorPrince: A queen and an undefeated warrior.
251[[/folder]]
252
253!!Blog/{{Boatmurdered}}
254
255[[folder:Ral "StarkRavingMad" Swaeringen]]
256A profanity-prone overseer of Blog/{{Boatmurdered}}. The fortress's elephant problems got really bad during his reign, and he began Project Fuck The World. Unlike all other rulers, he left after his time was up, paying another dwarf to impersonate him while he left through an escape tunnel.
257----
258* AxCrazy: If [[DoomsdayDevice "Project: Fuck The World"]] is any indication.
259-->'''[=StarkRavingMad=]:''' I've started project 'Fuck The World,' a top secret attempt [[LavaAddsAwesome to funnel magma]] to the outside. I'll kill those elephants. I'll kill ''all'' those fucking elephants.
260* BodyDouble: He made the wise decision of ditching the place once his year was up, explicitly stating at the end of his entry that he'd paid another dwarf in Boatmurdered to pretend to be him (as opposed to later rulers, with whom it was accepted that the dwarves named after them were the rulers themselves).
261* {{Expy}}: Deliberately of [[Series/{{Deadwood}} Al Swearengen]].
262* GotVolunteered: By a noble from the dwarven capital. He suspects it's related to his having recently discovered gold.
263* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Recognizes that, once his time is up, it's best that he escape from Boatmurdered, and does so through the use of a {{body double}}.
264* ShoutOut: Makes several to Series/{{Deadwood}}.
265* SirSwearsALot: Extremely so, considering he's an {{expy}} of [[Series/{{Deadwood}} Al Swearengen]].
266* OnlySaneMan: Despite his aforementioned [[AxCrazy tendencies]], he's able to share this role with a number of other rulers. He recognizes the stupidity of the fortress's setup and the dwarves who live there, and comments on it frequently.
267[[/folder]]
268
269[[folder:Emperor Sankis/Sankis the Beardless]]
270A dwarf who took several turns as overseer of Boatmurdered. In her non-ruler time, she's the fort's legendary engraver. Word to the wise: '''don't''' mess with her artworks.
271----
272* BerserkButton: Her tomb being damaged. The entry after Mystic Mongul threatened to get rid of it, Sankis had inexplicably regained leadership of Boatmurdered (with Mongul becoming Judicator), and she proceeded to trap him in a locked room with an elephant. She's also very protective of her engravings. '''One''' of them getting destroyed by magma was enough to trigger her killing spree and subsequent death.
273* DespairEventHorizon: Her MadArtist tendencies began when she was forced to [[DirtyBusiness unleash pent-up lava on a flood inside the fortress, killing many dwarves and dogs from scalding or burning alive]].
274* IncendiaryExponent: Her final rampage involved beating dwarves to death while on fire.
275* InfernalRetaliation: See above. Though the fire did kill her.
276* MadArtist: Engraves way too many images of dwarf murder to be quite sane. And then she goes berserk after one of them is destroyed.
277* MeaningfulRename: mariguana renames her "Sankis the Beardless" as a punishment for the impudence of calling herself "Emperor" in the first place.
278* SheIsTheKing: ''Emperor'' Sankis, despite being a woman.
279
280[[/folder]]
281
282[[folder:"Unknowing" Momuzfikod, Eighth Circle Warmage]]
283
284A human nerd whose short stature and beard led to him getting mistaken for a dwarf and made ruler of Boatmurdered after he got kicked out of his mom's basement. He's obsessed with ''Wizards and Warlocks'', and seems to have some trouble telling the game apart from reality. Ends up being kicked out of his job after opening the door to goblin intruders after he rolled a 20 for the goblin commander.
285----
286* BecauseDestinySaysSo: Rolled a d20 die to determine if an impending goblin siege would be able to break through the doors. When his roll turned out to be a 20, he opened the doors for the invaders.
287* EasilyForgiven: Even though he's found guilty of letting the goblins into the fortress, all they do is remove him from his position and demote him to a regular dwarf.
288* {{LARP}}: He's obsessed with [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons Wizards and Warlocks]], and sincerely believes he has magical abilities. When he inevitably fails to cast spells, he claims to have failed all his attack rolls.
289* WrongGenreSavvy: Believes he's in a D&D-esque high fantasy, complete with magic missiles and attack rolls. When he inevitably fails said rolls because ''Dwarf Fortress'' is low fantasy, he attributes it to a fumble.
290[[/folder]]
291
292[[folder:Giginlimul "Mystic Mongol" Fliergold]]
293
294A harsh lawmaker who became ruler of Boatmurdered after one of Sankis's turns. Unluckily, she became ruler again after him, and he had annoyed her by dismantling her tomb. His fate involved elephants and a mysterious drowning.
295----
296* HangingJudge: Views at least three people in Boatmurdered as being "in desperate need of a hammer to the face".
297* KangarooCourt: His legal methods. He explicitly states at the end of his run that he'll be "acting as the merciful hand of law and merely throwing randomly selected dwarves into jail for no good reason" in his role as Judicator.
298* KnightTemplar: In regards to the law, and to the revitalization of Boatmurdered. When he finds Unknowing without any jobs assigned, Mongol gives him a lengthy list of jobs to complete (at crossbow point).
299* JudgeJuryAndExecutioner: Even after retiring as ruler and becoming the Judicator.
300* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: Implied to be his fate. According to Sankis: "Out of seemingly nowhere Mystic Mongol, Judicator of Boatmurdered, throws himself into the water and drowns." [[LampshadeHanging His prior player agrees it was suspicious.]]
301-->'''Mystic Mongol:''' [[SarcasmMode Right.]] Just like the Bookkeeper, after making someone's leather supplies super valuble, mysteriously died in an attack. Just like the unpopular Baron stepped on a rusty nail. Just like how the tax collector was found in his bed, [[BreadEggsMilkSquick mysteriously crushed to death by elephants]].\
302\
303Never mind that several other dwarves were seen at the scene, next to the Judicator on a rickety bridge, yet all claimed [[ImplausibleDeniability "No one was within thirty feet of him at the time of the incident."]] Never mind that this happened days after his brand new tomb was completed. [[TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch I'm sure Boatmurdered authorities will declare this case closed in less than a day]] [[PoliceAreUseless and bung off to drink liquor and eat the fortresses's dwindling elephant supplies]].
304* ObstructiveBureaucrat: The tendency of law-enforcing dwarves (obviously including [[KnightTemplar himself]]) to frequently throw dwarves in jail for "violation of production orders" (which occurs due to the [[ArtificialStupidity incompetence]] of the working dwarves) causes the dwarves in question to be unavailable for the jobs when they're needed most. [[TooDumbToLive While all of the free dwarves are partying, sleeping, or failing to find objects/reach the intended area.]]
305* TheRival: To Emperor Sankis, due to his hatred of [[MadArtist Sankis's unusual engravings]]. He wants to send a message to would-be criminals with her death. This, as well as Mongol threatening to destroy her future tomb and use it for supplies, causes Sankis to return these feelings.
306[[/folder]]
307
308[[folder:"Guerilla" Burialgears]]
309
310A military dwarf and the final ruler of Boatmurdered. During his reign, a tantrum spiral caused by the smoke from a burning catapult (oh, and the fort being on fire) killed everyone but him and a small child. He left to seek his fortune as an adventurer.
311----
312* CrazyPrepared: Wears ''two'' suits of armor.
313* DespairEventHorizon: He crossed it very early into his entry.
314* DualWielding: Two swords, to be exact.
315* INeedAFreakingDrink: His first entry notes that he's just consumed the last alcohol in Boatmurdered. "We are all doomed."
316* MadnessMantra: After seeing Boatmurdered's final spiral into insanity and death, he staggers away from the burning fortress mumbling two of these:
317--> "All burn..."
318-->"Any place is better. I must press on."
319* ScrewThisImOutOfHere: Once he and Dodók are the last dwarves alive in Boatmurdered, he leaves the fortress to her and departs.
320-->"Any place is better. I must press on."
321* SoleSurvivor: Of Boatmurdered, almost. "Almost" because there was one other survivor -- [[CreepyChild Dodók Sabrefrenzies]] (and [=StarkRavingMad=] had secretly left earlier too).
322* SurvivorGuilt: He has a lot of it by the end.
323[[/folder]]
324
325[[folder:Dodók Sabrefrenzies]]
326The last dwarf of Boatmurdered.
327----
328* CreepyChild: Doesn't have any reaction at all to the murder and destruction surrounding her as she plays.
329* DissonantSerenity: She played happily in the bonehoard while Boatmurdered was burning and everyone was murdering each other.
330* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Though she's not actually dangerous.
331[[/folder]]
332
333!!LetsPlay/{{Towersoared}}
334
335[[folder:Derm the Soulchopper]]
336----
337* TheMagnificent: The Soulchopper.
338* OneManArmy: Killed 20 [[EldritchAbomination Forgotten Beasts]] solo, and alternate-reality testing proved that he could single-handedly wipe Towersoared off the map.
339* TrainingFromHell: The fact that he does almost nothing BUT train. He has no real social connections to Towersoared as a result.
340[[/folder]]
341
342!!LetsPlay/{{Headshoots}}
343
344[[folder: [=HolisticDetective=] Shovethzuglar Remnosim Etlar]]
345
346One of the mightiest champions of the fortress Headshoots, [=HolisticDetective=] became legendary for her sheer indestructibility (thanks to her artifact adamantine plate armor) and her habit of fighting with a rat leather backpack instead of a proper weapon. Though she defended Headshoots valiantly and well for many years, she was ultimately corrupted by insidious whispers from a demonic pit and turned upon her own people, bringing about the final destruction of the fortress.
347----
348* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Impressively enough, Holistic's fellow champion [=Nemo2342=] was even tougher than she was and had a higher body count by the end of the Let's Play.
349* AmbiguousGender: Headshoots' players flip-flopped on whether Holistic was a male or female dwarf, occasionally referring to them with different pronouns in the same update. By the time they started Syrupleaf, though, they'd settled on Holistic being female.
350* AnArmAndALeg: Holistic gets both hands cut off in her showdown with [=Nemo2342=] at the end of the Let's Play.
351* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: At the end of the Headshoots Let’s Play, Holistic is turned into a skeleton and slaughters every living thing in the fortress alongside [=Nemo2342=].
352* CultOfPersonality: One of the other dwarves in Headshoots declared Holistic to be a goddess and set out to “endarken” the forts inhabitants by setting as many of them on fire as possible. (This was part of her player’s scheme to wreck the entire fortress, though it didn’t work out.) She’s executed for this by an adventuring Hammerer in one of the LP's appendices, then comes back from the dead to wreak vengeance on the fortress’ inhabitants in the finalè.
353* CurbStompBattle: At one point, Holistic kills a dragon without it laying a claw on her. She also effortlessly demolishes several of Headshoots' best soldiers after being turned into a skeleton.
354* DissonantSerenity: Holistic managed to stay ecstatic even while the rest of the dwarves in Headshoots were on fire, killing each other, or killing each other while on fire.
355* TheDreaded: After her fall, Holistic becomes a figure of terror, and at least two subsequent Let's Plays (LetsPlay/{{Syrupleaf}} and LetsPlay/{{Spearbreakers}}) posited that she had become a powerful demon lord and modded in horrific demons called the “Spawn of Holistic” that routinely besieged the fortresses.
356* FallenHero: Holistic was corrupted from one of Headshoots’ greatest heroes into a terrifying undead scourge that massacred many of the fortress’ denizens.
357* FromNobodyToNightmare: Holistic started out as just an ordinary dorf wrestler, but quickly grew into a legendary champion with impossible stats who was then corrupted into a skeleton and went on a rampage through the fortress, killing everyone she came across.
358* GoodBadBugs: At the time of the Let's Play, there was no cap on dwarves' stats. One player ran Holistic through an external editor to check her stats and found that her highest stat, Wrestling, was at 77. For perspective, a dwarf with a stat of 15 is considered "legendary".
359* ImprobableWeaponUser: Holistic quickly got into the habit of bashing things to death with a backpack. In her showdown with Nemo at the end of the Let’s Play, she manages to kill him with her teeth after he cut off both of her hands with his axe.
360* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: When she’s turned into a skeleton, Holistic kills several dwarves by bludgeoning them into paste with her backpack, deliberately breaking as many bones as possible before going in for the kill.
361* OneManArmy: Holistic routinely destroyed groups of goblins and kobolds without breaking a sweat and at one point single-handedly killed a dragon without being harmed. Later, she and Nemo massacred the entire population of Headshoots between them, with Holistic killing several of the fortress’s best champions.
362* WouldHurtAChild: After being turned into a skeleton, Holistic killed several dwarf children during her rampage through the fort. The player who’d unleashed her notably felt guilty about doing so after watching her chase down and mortally injure a fleeing child before killing the last noble and her children.
363[[/folder]]
364
365!!Others
366
367[[folder:Logan Cudgelurdge]]
368!![[https://dwarvensupersoldierproject.wordpress.com/ Logan Cudgelurdge]]
369
370The most badass dwarven child in the world. Originally intended to be a test subject for a [[SuperSoldier Super Soldier Project]], he surpassed all expectations, [[{{Determinator}} climbing up 13 flights of stairs with his throat torn out]] to the hospital, then he forged a [[LegendaryWeapon battleaxe fit for Armok himself]]. While there have been other Dwarven badasses in the past, what makes Logan so special is that the feats mentioned above happen when he's '' 8 years old ''. Also, while previous Dwarven supersoldier projects have had... questionable morality at best, throwing the children into dog pits for 12 years, Logan's ascension to Supersoldier happened with minimal mental scarring (well, as minimal as Dwarf Fortress can be), making him more like ComicBook/CaptainAmerica than a psychopath.
371
372Each Logan story has Logan performing [[SerialEscalation increasingly badass feats]], which picks up once he's made a [[SuperSoldier supersoldier]] via [[TrainingFromHell swimming in a chamber for a solid month]]. He goes from struggling to fight against a rabid dog, to [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever killing a Blind Cave Ogre 500 times his size]], to ''[[OneManArmy ripping through entire well-equipped and highly trained Goblin kill squad with his bare hands]]''. He's become a beloved figure on Reddit, symbolizing what the fanbase is capable of.
373----
374* CharlesAtlasSuperPower: As the creator put it, "the secret to becoming a supersoldier is to make your child Michael Phelps". Logan spent a month in a swim chamber, training his swimming skill, which also raises all combat-related attributes except toughness. When he got out, he was strong enough to [[MegatonPunch punch the brains out of humanoid skulls]].
375* SuperSoldier: Explicitly designed as such.
376[[/folder]]
377
378[[folder:Morul Cattenmat]]
379!![[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=34933.0 Morul Cattenmat, the Most Interesting Dwarf in the World.]]
380
381An attempt to see what would happen if a dwarf got legendary rank in all increasable skills in 40d Fortress Mode. The end result was a hilariously strong dwarf due to how ranking up skills equated into stat buffs in that version.
382----
383* TheAce: Morul has the highest possible level of skill in ''every'' area.
384* CharlesAtlasSuperPower: All that work made Morul immensely strong; enough to single handily wipe out sieges by himself.
385* BoringButPractical: Getting some of the more annoying-to-raise civilian skills was extremely tedious at times but it all paid off as back in 40d these equated into buffs to stats and made Morul pretty strong even before he started military duty.
386* MasterOfAll: Fighting, weaving, brewing, fish dissection- you name it, Morul is legendary for his skill in it.
387* OneManArmy: Once he joined the military.
388* PunchedAcrossTheRoom: Shortly after Morul started his military training he [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/OrcStrikeAnnot.png maced a Orc so hard it flew 155 game tiles before splattering against a wall]]. Most people don't play on maps that wide and it probably would had gone farther if it wasn't for the wall.
389* ReadingsAreOffTheScale: All that work actually made his stats higher than the game could display.
390[[/folder]]
391
392[[folder:Planepacked]]
393!![[http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Planepacked Planepacked the Limestone statue]]
394
395Okay, technically Planepacked is not a character, being an artifact, but it is still a legend in the DF community. Planepacked occurred as the result of a glitched strange mood, creating a limestone statue incorporating a lot of non-Euclidean geometry. Aside from being highly encrusted and menacingly spiky, Planepacked is engraved with the entire history of the world up to its creation, including 73 images of itself.
396-----
397* AccidentalDiscovery: Planepacked's creation happened because of a glitch with strange moods -- a moody dwarf who claimed an outside workshop and was then ordered underground would not stop gathering materials and would work on his artifact for a very long time, resulting in the creation of mega-artifacts like Planepacked.
398* AlienGeometries: Presumed to be how Planepacked manages to fit all that decoration and engravings.
399* DrosteImage: Planepacked contains multiple engravings of itself.
400* ItOnlyWorksOnce: Planepacked's creator was unable to replicate the bug and the community didn't know how it worked until someone else accidentally created another mega-artifact, an obsidian floodgate called Broiledprinces. The bug has since been fixed.
401[[/folder]]
402
403!Megabeasts and Semi-Megabeasts
404
405!!Megabeasts
406
407[[folder:Bronze colossus]]
408-> ''A gigantic magic statue made of bronze and bent on mayhem.''
409
410A massive {{golem}} made of solid bronze, widely considered the most powerful of all megabeasts, as they take near no damage from any material inferior to steel.
411----
412* BloodKnight: They're "bent on destruction and mayhem".
413* ContractualBossImmunity: Thanks to being made of solid inorganic material. They're [[FeelNoPain immune to pain]], stunning, dizziness and disease, aren't subject to exertion, and can't be nauseated or suffocated.
414* DeathOfAThousandCuts: In [=DF2014=], enough hits that do more than glance off will eventually crumple the relevant bodypart and kill it. With vampirism or some other method of boosting strength, a mere human can even manage this with [[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=51245.msg6657326#msg6657326 a copper spear]].
415* {{Expy}}: Of [[Myth/GreekMythology Talos]], the original bronze colossus.
416* {{Golem}}: They're bronze statues animated by magic.
417* HardcodedHostility: As with all megabeasts, towards non-megabeasts. Most notable because bronze colossi were popular creatures to [[GameMod mod to be playable in Adventurer Mode]], but [=DF2014=] made it so this makes citizens equally hostile to bronze colossus adventurers.
418* TheJuggernaut: With no needs, biology or any kind of animating principle to target, they're perpetual motion machines whose only purpose is to murder everything they can see, and with no weak points to target only the kind of overwhelming force that'll crack and slice through pure and solid metal will come anywhere close to giving them pause.
419* KillItWithFire: A possible way to kill them, but not a very good idea: due to their huge size it takes quite a while to melt them to death and bronze has a melting temp slightly below magma's, so fire hot enough to start melting one can cause fires or kill other living things nearby it with the heat it gives off.
420* LightningBruiser: Huge? Check. Fast? Check. Ridiculously tough? Check. Very strong? Check. They're not one of the most terrifying enemies of the game for nothing. They are, overall, the most dangerous of the megabeasts, even if dragons generally have more damage potential.
421* LivingStatue: They're magic, animated bronze statues.
422* NighInvulnerable: Due to being made of solid bronze, they are VERY difficult to kill, unless you are well prepared.
423* PerplexingPlurals: The plural for bronze colossus is bronze colossuses according to the game, though players use colossi just as often.
424* WeaksauceWeakness: Thanks to an [[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=56935.0 infamous]] incident, [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter fluffy wamblers]] are considered this by the community. More conventionally, bronze colossi are still vulnerable to traps, cage traps in particular. Or you can abuse the SquareCubeLaw and give them a good long drop, as their sheer weight means they tend to fall apart from falls that would merely bruise a dwarf.
425[[/folder]]
426
427[[folder:Dragon]]
428-> ''A gigantic reptilian creature. It is magical and can breath fire. These monsters can live for thousands of years.''
429
430Among the largest creatures in the game when fully grown, dragons are among the most dangerous of all megabeasts, with their [[BreathWeapon dragonfire]] being hotter than ''the surface of the Sun''.
431----
432* BreathWeapon: They have ''the'' most powerful breath weapon in the game. Not only does it have huge reach, but dragonfire is '''extremely''' hot[[note]]22222°C/40000°F -- compare to our sun's ~5500°C/~9900°F[[/note]] and can easily melt or burn most of the materials in the game. It won't melt unmined stone or constructed walls, however.
433* {{Determinator}}: They have a very high Willpower stat.
434* GlassCannon: By megabeast standards (compared to dwarves, they're {{Lightning Bruiser}}s). Physically, probably the frailest of the megabeasts (In DF dragons don't have extra-tough natural armor). But their weapon skills and especially breath weapon mean they can destroy nearly anything in their path, unless that thing is wearing a shield.
435* {{Greed}}: Standard trait for Western dragons. In Legends mode, they go and steal stuff from civilized settlements, then hoard it in their lairs, most often improbably worthless baubles like dog bone amulets, so looting a dragon's lair for treasure is not necessarily that good. Averted in fortress mode, where they just will burn your fort to the ground or die trying.
436* KillItWithFire: They all can shoot out fire so powerful that it can melt practically any material and living being in its trajectory,
437* NoSell: They're not subject to exertion, which essentially makes them utterly inexhaustible in combat. They're also immune to fire, magma and excessive heat in general, and likewise for their flesh, bones and other body products. This makes sense, considering the extreme heat of dragonbreath.
438* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Very close to the standard mold, except they don't fly nor do they have wings. Their fire is much hotter than "standard fire", even beating the heat of the Sun. They are also mindless beasts.
439* TechnicolorFire: In the premium version of the game, dragonfire is blue.
440
441[[/folder]]
442
443[[folder:Hydra]]
444-> ''A giant dragon-like monster with seven biting heads.''
445
446Massive megabeasts with seven heads, hydras can attack multiple times in a single tick, making them exceptionally dangerous.
447----
448* AnArmAndALeg: They're easily capable of shaking off limbs or removing torsos from things smaller than itself due to its high natural combat skills, great size, and superior strength after biting. Assuming it doesn't kill something outright from caving in or removing a head by biting it, which is the main combat hazard it poses to your adventurer or your dwarfs and causing the above tropes to happen.
449* FeelNoPain: Pretty much [[RequiredSecondaryPowers required]] to properly exploit their redundant heads.
450* HealingFactor: Although a rather weak one. Their wounds close faster than most other creatures, but they're unable to regenerate severed body parts (such as heads).
451* LightningBruiser: Their massive size, high nature combat skills and the fact attacks from different body parts can occur simultaneously makes their multiple heads heighten their damage to lethal power.
452* MultipleHeadCase: They have seven heads, which allows them to perform multiple biting attacks against a single foe or engage multiple attackers at the same time.
453* NoSell: They're [[FeelNoPain immune to pain]], feel no exertion and can't be stunned. This allows them to continue fighting unhindered even if you cut one or some of their heads off.
454* OurDragonsAreDifferent: They're to be related to dragons, and resemble smaller and multi-headed versions of their kin.
455* OurHydrasAreDifferent: Creatures resembling dragon-like beasts with seven heads. While only around half the size of other megabeasts, they can attack with all seven heads at once, thus overwhelming single opponents or keeping multiple attackers at bay simultaneously. They also possess a strong HealingFactor, a rarity in the game, that allows them to heal a hundred times faster than other creatures can, although they cannot actually regrow lost heads.
456* UnstableEquilibrium: If they get even a single bite to hit, which they eventually will given how many heads they have, the battle's pretty much over. Conversely, any injuries that reduce speed (nausea, difficulty breathing, being grounded) massively reduce their lethality.
457[[/folder]]
458
459[[folder:Roc]]
460->''A bird of prey so large and ferocious it dwarfs many dragons. All beneath its mighty wings should fear the sky.''
461
462The largest flying creatures in the game, rocs are one of the species of megabeast.
463----
464* FragileSpeedster: Out of the megabeasts, rocs have the greatest potential for bypassing your defenses, but have even less natural protection than the scales dragons have, with less raw destructive potential as well.
465* GiantFlyer: They're bigger than full-grown dragons, and the largest flying animals in the game.
466* RocBirds: Birds of prey of monstrous size, they're the third largest creatures in general and the biggest flying creatures of all. A newly hatched roc is already as big as a fully-grown giant eagle.
467[[/folder]]
468
469[[folder:Forgotten beasts / Titans]]
470-> ''In the deep, there are beasts so fell and terrible, that only they know what they are, for none who have met them have lived to tell of it... they are the Forgotten Beasts, born of the chaos from before the world's birth... they have waited, brooding in the dark places of the world... and now... by digging too deep... we have awakened them.''
471
472Forgotten beasts and titans are monstrous procedurally-generated megabeasts, with forgotten beasts living underground and titans living in the surface. They can range from anything from a gigantic humanoid made of coral, to a skinless fire-breathing cobra, to a flying, poison-spewing dimetrodon made out of gemstone.
473----
474* AnimalisticAbomination: Many resemble gigantic versions of normal animals, but with aberrant traits ranging from the mild -- extra eyes, extra limbs, poisonous spittle -- to the extreme -- flesh-rotting exhalations, for instance, or being made of living ash or coral.
475* BreathWeapon: Some of them can spit fire, or webs, or toxins with various effects.
476* ContractualBossImmunity: They're [[FeelNoPain immune to pain]], stunning, dizziness and disease, feel no exertion and can't be nauseated or suffocated.
477* DugTooDeep: Your fortress is at risk of forgotten beast attacks once you breach a cavern. Still not as dangerous as [[TheLegionsOfHell what lies further down]].
478* EldritchAbomination: Not all of them, but mostly the ones who don't make any sense, such as gigantic blobs made of grime or salt that do not dissolve in water. Or [[OxymoronicBeing six-legged quadrupeds]].
479* GlassCannon: In direct comparisons to others that are extremely tough, some will die in one hit due to being made of liquid or gas.
480* InstantDeathRadius: A lot of them have deadly dust or gas. Oftentimes your dwarves will start [[BodyHorror rapidly rotting]] after fighting one of these monsters. The deadliest dust attacks can ''[[BlownAcrossTheRoom throw dwarves several tiles across in the air and smash them into walls]]''.
481* KillerRabbit: Some of them ''most definitely'' don't look dangerous, mostly by looking ridiculous or being based on "cute" animals. Hint: they are, in fact, very dangerous, and they will kill your dwarves.
482* NighInvulnerable: A few forgotten beasts can be this if the RandomNumberGod hates you, typically when they're made of weapons-grade metal like bronze, iron, or, Armok forbid, steel.
483* OurMonstersAreWeird: Every single one. They're randomly generated monsters made from animals, materials, some extra body parts or all three in tandem. And, again, [[MindScrew six-legged quadrupeds]].
484* OurTitansAreDifferent: Even from version to version, and even without considering the randomly-generated properties. Titans in [[http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/23a:Titan older]] [[http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/40d:Titan versions]] were merely large humanoids.
485* RentAZilla: More or less. You may even get fire-breathing dinosaurs AND it's not that uncommon. However, they CAN be killed by your military.
486* ZeroEffortBoss: Some of them, due to being made of liquids, fire, ice, salt or something else with low to no consistency, can very literally come apart the moment a random dwarf or animal walks up to them and strikes them.
487[[/folder]]
488
489!!Semi-Megabeasts
490
491[[folder:Cyclops]]
492-> ''A giant humanoid monster with a single eye set in its forehead.''
493
494A massive semi-megabeast with a single eye, who lacks any special abilities beyond sheer brute strength.
495----
496* ClassicalCyclops: The classic destructive one-eyed giant.
497* GoForTheEye: Being blinded severely hinders the AI, and doing so is much easier when the target only has one to begin with.
498* WarmupBoss: They're generally considered among the least deadly of the semi-megabeasts. Unlike ettins they aren't immune to pain, and unlike minotaurs they don't have natural combat skills. Like all semi-megabeasts, their attack trigger stats are lower than megabeasts, making them arrive to attack your dwarves sooner.
499[[/folder]]
500
501[[folder:Ettin]]
502-> ''A giant humanoid monster with two heads.''
503
504A two-headed semi-megabeast, distinct for being immune to being stunned.
505----
506* MultipleHeadCase: Grants them all-around vision so long as both heads have intact eyes, and makes them a lot harder to put down by aiming for the head.
507* NoSell: They're immune to being stunned.
508* OurGiantsAreBigger: A very standard depiction of the ''D&D'' Ettin, as a giant with two heads.
509* WakeUpCallBoss: Like all semi-megabeasts, their attack trigger stats are lower than megabeasts, making them arrive to attack your dwarves sooner. Unlike other semi-megabeasts, ettins are more likely to survive long enough to give your militia-dwarves a good fight.
510[[/folder]]
511
512[[folder:Giant]]
513-> ''A gigantic creature resembling a human, almost unparalleled in size.''
514
515The largest of all semi-megabeasts, giants lack the special abilities of other miniboss-creatures, but make up for it in sheer weight.
516----
517* OurGiantsAreBigger: In all aspects they're basically aggressive, uncivilized and utterly enormous humans. Nothing more, nothing less.
518* WarmupBoss: Generally considered among the least deadly of the semi-megabeasts. Unlike ettins they aren't immune to stunning, and unlike minotaurs they don't have natural combat skills. Like all semi-megabeasts, their attack trigger stats are lower than megabeasts, making them arrive to attack your dwarves sooner.
519[[/folder]]
520
521[[folder:Minotaur]]
522-> ''A giant humanoid monster with the head of a bull.''
523
524Inhabiting labyrinths, minotaurs are the smallest of all semi-megabeasts, though they make up for their small size with sheer skill in weaponry.
525----
526* BeastInTheMaze: One always spawns in a labyrinth.
527* ImprobableWeaponUser: Once they get into close combat with your dwarves, they can make use of any item forcibly removed from their target's possesion via wrestling.
528* InstantExpert: They have natural skills with literally every weapon, no matter how absurd.
529* OurMinotaursAreDifferent: Classic fantasy minotaurs, resembling giant bull-headed people and living inside labyrinths.
530* WakeUpCallBoss: Like all semi-megabeasts, their attack trigger stats are lower than megabeasts, making them arrive to attack your dwarves sooner. Unlike other semi-megabeasts, minotaurs have the combat skills to potentially give as good as they get.
531* WeakButSkilled: Compared to other megabeasts and semi-megabeasts, they're the smallest and most mundane in terms of weaknesses. But their natural skills mean they can hold their own depending on what they get their hands on.
532[[/folder]]
533
534!Notable standard creatures
535
536While most animals in the game are just the same thing you'd see from the real life counterpart, some gained various levels of notoriety, with some being given the name of [[http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:King_of_beasts Kings of Beasts]] (meaning something similar to MemeticBadass on this wiki).
537
538!!Common animals
539
540[[folder:Badger]]
541-> ''A small mammal with a striped face. It lives in groups and is ferocious in combat.''
542
543Mostly famous for being the terror of most fortresses in the days of 0.31.25, especially in their Giant form - little more than an inconvenience in the current version.
544----
545* TheBerserker: When enraged.
546* HairTriggerTemper: They are "prone to rage", having a small chance to randomly go berserk and attack all creatures around them, including passing dwarves.
547* LightningBruiser: Their giant counterparts.
548[[/folder]]
549
550[[folder:Buzzard]]
551->''A medium-sized, red-faced black bird that searches the temperate lands for carrion.''
552
553Your average turkey vulture. Doesn't sound so bad? In this game, they're a ravenous, food-stealing swarm, and a very common one at that.
554----
555* BanditMook: They give kea a run for their money, but are notable for being present in even more biomes. Any food item on the surface is subject to being stolen by these birds should it not be protected.
556* FeatheredFiend: Unless you capture, train and tame them, in which case they become worse chickens.
557* TooDumbToLive: They'll often try and steal from visiting caravans, and be promptly shot down by its crossbow-wielding guards. It can be very annoying as it may cause the caravan to leave early.
558* ZergRush: They appear in flocks of anywhere between 5 to 10 birds, which can be particularly bad for a starting fortress who hasn't had the time to take their food items underground yet.
559[[/folder]]
560
561[[folder:Carp]]
562-> ''A medium-sized fish found in lakes and streams. They are bottom-feeders and tend to gather groups.''
563
564When carp were introduced, they were absurdly ferocious. Nowadays they act as you'd expect a benign fish to, though their reputation is eternal.
565----
566* FromBadToWorse: When their living kin were {{Demonic Spider}}s, zombie carp and skeletal carp added the ability to move on land and all the powers undeath offers. And husk carp in the current version ''still'' count as DemonicSpiders.
567* ImprobablePowerDiscrepancy: In real life (and the current version of DF), carp are peaceful bottom-feeders. In older versions of the game, they were famed as '''ferocious beasts'''.
568* LegendaryCarp: The very quote from the page.
569* MagikarpPower: Not just literally. Part of their lethality in older versions was due to how gaining experience in skills affected attributes, while aquatic creatures built up the swimming skill despite being innate swimmers. While all aquatic creatures where affected by this, other factors combined with a steady increase in strength to make carp quite lethal with a high-enough swimming skill.
570[[/folder]]
571
572[[folder:Cat]]
573->''A small mammalian carnivore. It is usually domestic and hunts vermin.''
574
575Cats have a long history with ''Dwarf Fortress'', thanks to the so-called [[ExplosiveBreeder catsplosion]]. They are unique in that dwarves don't adopt cats as pets, but rather, cats adopt dwarves as owners, provided they have a preference for them.
576----
577* CatsAreSuperior: You don't adopt a cat, the cat adopts ''you''. This can lead to a large number of cats all 'adopting' the same dwarf as their owner without warning.
578* DisasterDominoes: What a catsplosion tends to result into. Numerous cats belonging to the same dwarf die at once (in older versions, probably because you're butchering them to free up space), leading them to have a tantrum and cause mayhem, leading any other affected dwarf to have a tantrum of their own, until the entire fortress is having a tantrum spiral.
579* ExplosiveBreeder: They hold this reputation, thanks to older versions of the game struggling much more with cat overpopulation, though the introduction of gelding has all but eliminated the issue. [[SubvertedTrope They don't actually breed any faster than other animals]].
580* MascotMook: Their antics go hand-to-hand with any discussion of the game. Acknowledged by the official site, which has a collection of ASCII sprites featuring numerous animals, including a cat (as the letter c), followed by a cat surrounded by ''many'' other cats.
581[[/folder]]
582
583[[folder:Elephant]]
584-> ''A huge, hairless mammal, found grazing in grasslands in groups. It eats plants which it lifts up with its long trunk. When angered, it will attack with its long tusks.''
585
586The terror of Boatmurdered and of the first versions of the game, elephants are now GentleGiant creatures who will leave you alone... if you don't provoke them, that is.
587----
588* AwesomeButImpractical: In earlier editions, while excellent and powerful war animals, elephants were literally impossible to maintain -- they starved faster than they could eat, and invariably starved to death.
589* BeastOfBattle: They can be trained for war and hunting.
590* CruelElephant: Insanely aggressive in former versions of the game. Nowadays these are [[HonorableElephant far more calm]], but still not to be pissed off.
591* DifficultButAwesome: Training them for war. Yes, an army of WarElephants will crush nearly any mortal enemy you can face, but they're grazers, and as such require a constant source of grass. They're also not that easy to find, and breeding elephants takes ages (they're not adults until the age of 10). Used to be AwesomeButImpractical in previous versions due to a bug causing them to always starve faster than they could eat, but that has since been fixed.
592* TheDreaded: In 23a, they were widely dreaded by the playerbase due to their extreme aggression and toughness. See Blog/{{Boatmurdered}} for more details.
593* HorseOfADifferentColor: They're among the dozens of animals that can be used as mounts by surface-dwelling [=NPC=] factions when they siege you.
594* MightyGlacier: Its speed is not abysmal, but considering it is far stronger and tougher than fast...
595* WarElephants: You can make them these by training elephants for war.
596[[/folder]]
597
598[[folder:Kea]]
599-> ''A small, green, intelligent mountain parrot.''
600
601By far the most infamous BanditMook of the game, what should be just a small cute parrot quickly becomes the bane of a fledgling fortress as they swarm the wagon and steal everything of value in it.
602----
603* BanditMook: No other animal has the reputation of the kea. The little critters can steal both food and crafts, so should one take hold of your legendary artifact, you can say goodbye to it.
604--> ''[[PintsizedPowerhouse A kea has stolen a ☼steel anvil☼!]]''
605* FeatheredFiend: Unless you capture, train and tame them. They don't have much use beyond laying eggs.
606* TooDumbToLive: They'll eagerly throw themselves at caravans and be shot down by the crossbow-wielding guards. It can be very annoying as it may cause the caravan to leave early.
607* ZergRush: They appear in flocks of anywhere between 5 to 10 mayhem-minded individuals. A kea attack upon a new embark has doomed many a fortress.
608[[/folder]]
609
610[[folder:Mandrill]]
611-> ''A large monkey with blue face and rump. It lives in large groups and often survives by destroying crops and stealing garbage. The males are larger, with powerful jaws.''
612
613A well known species of primate with a colorful face. Most famed in the DF community thanks to Boatmurdered, where they were essentially TheDragon to the elephants. Mandrills in the current version are far tamer, though not entirely harmless.
614----
615* BanditMook: They're thieves and will try and steal both your food and your crafts, from random socks to your most precious artifact given the chance.
616* BeastOfBattle: Trained and tame mandrills can be given war and hunting training. You read that right: ''war mandrills''. However, due to their small size, they're about as effective as dogs in that department.
617* ManiacMonkeys: Particularly in the older versions of the game, and still capable of causing some injury to passing dwarves today.
618[[/folder]]
619
620!!Fantasy creatures and variants
621
622[[folder:Beak dog]]
623-> ''A creature from the evil swamp. It resembles a squat, wingless bird with powerful beak and legs. Its blotchy skin is brightly colored.''
624
625A bizarre, squat wingless avianoid, that are about as heavy as a gorilla, found in evil marshlands. They're domestic animals in goblin civilizations and their favorite war beasts.
626----
627* BeastOfBattle: Notably, exclusively for goblins. Dwarves can only use them as common pets and livestock.
628* FeatheredFiend: It doesn't actually have feathers, but it's an evil and aggressive bird-like creature anyway.
629* HorseOfADifferentColor: They're the main mounts of the goblins. Expect them to come in great numbers during sieges.
630* MixAndMatchCritters: They look like a rainbow-colored mix between a lovebird and a [[Film/{{Tremors}} Graboid]], which were an inspiration for them according to Toady One.
631* NonIndicativeName: They don't resemble nor are anything close to dogs.
632[[/folder]]
633
634[[folder:Cave dragon]]
635-> ''A gigantic monster, once a dragon, now adapted to and polluted by the underground. Its wings fall limp at its side. Its face is full of incredibly long teeth. Its eyes are large to penetrate the darkness.''
636
637A rare subterranean variant of the dragon, smaller and missing the fire breath. These immense monsters are the largest cavern creatures in the game and may be the doom of many dwarves should they go against it, or a boon to your fortress should you manage to capture one.
638----
639* AwesomeButImpractical: It's theoretically possible to capture a breeding pair of cave dragons and have them breed to give you a whole bunch of war dragons. However, they're born as small as foxes and their growth is very gradual, taking ''1000'' years to reach their full size. It'll take around 4 or 5 in-game years until a cave dragon is large enough to pose a significant threat to most humanoid enemies.
640* BeastOfBattle: If you're lucky enough to capture one, it can be trained for war and hunting. Just pray it's a mature one.
641* BossInMookClothing: Despite not being a megabeast, it has the same natural combat skills of a normal dragon and is significantly larger than a forgotten beast when fully grown.
642* ContractualBossImmunity: It's not subject to exertion, making it inexhaustible. It's also immune to fear.
643* HorseOfADifferentColor: Goblins can use them as war mounts, should the [=RNG=] hate you enough.
644* ImmuneToFire: It's immune to common fire and dragonfire.
645* OurDragonsAreDifferent: It's much like a normal dragon, but it curiously sports a pair of atrophied wings while the megabeast version doesn't have any to begin with.
646* RentAZilla: An adult cave dragon is as large as a basking shark, outsizing forgotten beasts who are {{Kaiju}}s in their own right.
647* WingsDoNothing: It has wings but can't fly with them, due to them having atrophied after millennia living underground.
648[[/folder]]
649
650[[folder:Fluffy wambler]]
651-> ''A fluffy, pudge-filled being, known for its warm heart and stumble bumblings.''
652
653A type of tiny humanoid critter found in good regions.
654----
655* BizarreAlienBiology: Instead of any guts, their insides are filled with purple "pudge".
656* TheCutie: They're tiny, fluffy, harmless and described as having a "gentle nature" and a "warm heart".
657* {{Expy}}: Of [[Franchise/StarTrek tribbles]]
658* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: According to a crayon drawing by Toady One, fluffy wamblers look like VideoGame/{{Kirby}} if he were covered in fluffy white fur.
659* ThrowTheMookAtThem: Perhaps the most famous example of this in the DF community, which happened back when throwing was [[GameBreaker at its most overpowered]]. A player grabbed a fluffy wambler and threw it at a bronze colossus ([[NighInvulnerability who were also at their most overpowered]]), ''decapitating'' it.
660[[/folder]]
661
662[[folder:Giant cave spider]]
663-> ''A large underground monster with eight legs and sharp, venomous fangs.''
664
665A spider the size of a horse that lives BeneathTheEarth. Terror of the underground. It has a paralyzing web attack and a neurotoxic, paralytic bite. It can kill every single other King of Beast, provided it can use its webs.
666----
667* AllWebbedUp: As if their [[FeelNoPain lack of pain]], [[DidntNeedThoseAnyway redundant limbs]], and [[TheParalyzer asphyxiation-causing paralytic toxin]] were not bad enough, they are also capable of projecting webs at their prey that immobilize them, allowing their pincers to deliver a shallow-but-lethal, [[CoupDeGrace bit on the head]].
668* DemonicSpiders: [[LiteralMetaphor In more ways than one]].
669* DidntNeedThoseAnyway: They can't pass out from pain, and can't die from blood loss, so lopping off limbs do nothing unless you can ground one by severing [[WhyWontYouDie four of them]]. This, combined with the unpredictable nature of what body part the AI will target, is what makes them so hard to kill in Fortress Mode.
670* FeelNoPain: They're immune to pain, a trait shared by most arachnids in the game.
671* GiantSpider: It's the same size as a grizzly bear.
672* LightningBruiser: Their redundant members and chitin give them quite a lot of defense and they are fast. They tend to kill their opponents slowly however, so it's more like a fast StoneWall.
673* MonsterOrganTrafficking: [[DifficultButAwesome With some careful effort and luck]], it is possible to capture a giant cave spider. With even more, ''very'' careful effort[[note]](Involving a cage-deconstructing mechanism, a drawbridge, a penned animal, fortifications, and other things)[[/note]] it is possible to set up a safe giant cave spider silk ranching operation. Giant cave spider silk is an ''enormously'' valuable cloth, but risky to gather in the wild (what with the giant cave spiders that produce it still about) and this method mitigates that danger.
674* TheParalyzer: Their venom causes paralysis, except it leads to death by asphyxiation, ''Dwarf Fortress'' being as developed as it is.
675[[/folder]]
676
677[[folder:Giant desert scorpion]]
678-> ''A gigantic arachnid with huge pincers and a poisonous barbed tail. It is found in the savage lands.''
679
680ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. They are encountered only in savage deserts. They also can equip weapons, as impossible as it should be.
681
682Has been DummiedOut as of version .42.04. Despite mentions of a future replacement, it didn't come to pass.
683----
684* AwesomeButImpractical: Yes, you can technically catch them in fortress mode, tame them, put them over piles of crossbows and bolts, hope they pick up both and pelt your enemies with bolts. Fired by giant scorpions. However, it is quite unlikely and unwieldy considering you can just use your own dwarves for marksdwarf duty. They at least learn how to fire crossbows well.
685* BigCreepyCrawlies: Over two times the size of an adult human.
686* FeelNoPain: They're immune to pain, a trait shared by most arachnids in the game.
687* ImprobableWeaponUser: Their pincers mean they will pick up any item in the game and use it as a bludgeon. Or shoot crossbows. They can kill you with your/your dwarf's own weapon in adventure/fort mode after they wrestle away your weapons/shields from your/your dwarf's hands.
688* LightningBruiser: With their redundant body parts, speed, pincers, poison, chitinous armor, and sheer size, they qualify.
689* MakeThemRot: Their venom kills by causing envenomed creatures nerves and brain to rot away.
690* MetalSlime: In former versions, they were somewhat rare, but could even be found in packs. Now, with the addition of hundreds of animals in savage biomes, you'll be lucky to find a group of these even if you embark on the right biome.
691* OneHitKill: Their venom will quickly kill any creature that has both a nervous system and blood, unless they're immune to poison.
692* ScaryScorpions: Even without venom they're enough of a threat as is; they're big enough they can just pull you apart with their pincers.
693[[/folder]]
694
695[[folder:Giant kea]]
696-> ''A monster many times the size of an ordinary kea.''
697
698A seemingly ordinary parrot... only rendered huge, and no less eager to snatch any item they can get their talons on. They're infamous for combining the normal keas' flight and tendancy to home in on any available items with the size to make them a serious threat.
699----
700* BanditMook: Attracted to whatever you leave lying around or otherwise accessible, even if it means tearing through half your fortress to get to it.
701* GiantFlyer: Bigger than a grizzly bear. Not the largest GiantFlyer in the game by any means, but few such birds will make a beeline for your fortress like these will.
702* HorseOfADifferentColor: They have the tags that allows surface-dwelling civilizations (usually elves) to use them as mounts. It rarely, if ever, happens, however, not that you should hope for it to ever happen.
703* KillerRabbit: To quote the wiki: Giant kea will kill your dwarves faster than you can say, "It's just a big parrot, what harm could it do?" Even if they don't kill any dwarves, Armok help you if they steal something important early in a fort's life like your only anvil, or your picks, which will make it much harder for your dwarfs because of the lack of being able to forge real armor or replace metal objects that get stolen or render your dwarves unable to dig in and make a actual fortress or get away with stealing a masterwork-crafted item that makes the dwarf that crafted it finally snap from all the strain of dwarf life and start a [[DisasterDominoes tantrum spiral that proceeds to destroy your fort]].
704[[/folder]]
705
706[[folder:Giant mosquito]]
707-> ''A huge monster in the shape of a mosquito.''
708
709Your average mosquito, except as heavy as a lion. They suck the blood out of people they bite, as you'd expect from a mosquito, though the much larger size means one bite might be enough to kill a dwarf.
710----
711* BigCreepyCrawlies: It's a mosquito over twice the size of a man.
712* GameBreakingBug: In version 0.34.01, they spawned in groups of ''100 to 200'' at a time, giving you a monstrous swarm of giant, dangerous insects who'd kill your dwarves either through violence or through sheer game lag. It was quickly fixed and now they only appear one at a time.
713* HorseOfADifferentColor: They have the tags that allows surface-dwelling civilizations (usually elves) to use them as mounts. It rarely if ever happens, however.
714[[/folder]]
715
716[[folder:Giant sponge]]
717-> ''A huge immobile sponge.''
718
719ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: a Porifera the size of a grizzly bear. It was infamous in [=DF2012=] for being completely invulnerable to combat damage. They would charge and kill dwarves who come close to the river, despite being immobile -- essentially invincible carp. [=DF2014=] has {{nerf}}ed it considerably, however, due to improved combat mechanics.
720----
721* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Strangely, they can also become enraged or unconscious, despite not having a nervous system. But this is due to a bug and some tag not working, considering that Toady generally [[ShownTheirWork shows his work a lot]].
722--> "''Without a central nervous system, the only thing they can feel is'' '''anger'''."
723* FakeUltimateMook: Undead versions in .34. They gained immunity to [[WeaksauceWeakness air-drowning]] in exchange for collapsing after taking enough hits, rendering their effective invulnerability moot. Regular versions have taken a blow too as of [=DF2014=]. Now a ''[[DemonicSpider thralled]]'' giant sponge is another matter entirely...
724* GlassCannon: The addition of pulping has rendered them much easier to damage, but their push attacks are still bizarrely powerful.
725* HorseOfADifferentColor: ''Theoretically speaking''. They have the tags that ''allow'' them to be mounted by surface races, but [[SubvertedTrope it doesn't actually happen]].
726* KillerRabbit: Not so much cute as pretty in the same way flowers are (going by their real counterparts) and ''utterly'' unexpected when it comes to being a threat.
727* MightyGlacier: In .34, they were invulnerable to damage due to having no body parts or blood. Their only mode of attack is pushing things, but their size means that said push can ''break your skull''.
728* NighInvulnerable: In its debut version, it ''could not be killed in combat''. The 2014 version {{nerf}}ed it quite a bit, however, due to the addition of pulping damage. Enough blunt strikes and it does fall apart, especially since sponge-tissue is even more fragile than flesh.
729[[/folder]]
730
731[[folder:Merpeople]]
732-> ''A man-like creature with the tail of a fish instead of legs.''
733
734Half-man, half-fish humanoids who live in good oceans. Mostly unremarkable, save for that one time the community found out how valuable their bones used to be...
735----
736* HumanResources: For a given definition of human, but mermaid bones were some of the most valuable material in the game. Naturally, this led to players capturing a breeding pair of supposedly sentient merpeople and butchering then for their bones to make trinkets out of.
737* HorrifyingtheHorror: Though not the Merpeople themselves they did contribute to this. The above large scale merperson breeding and air drowning for bones actually disturbed the creator enough to nerf the value of merperson bones. The same creator who is noted to have given a dwarf molten gold for blood while testing the new damage system.
738* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: They're pretty standard as far as mermaids go, but they don't really behave any different from wildlife yet, much like other "wild" intelligent creatures.
739[[/folder]]
740
741[[folder:Troll]]
742-> ''A huge humanoid monster with coarse fur, large tusks and horns.''
743
744Large, evil humanoids who live BeneathTheEarth. They destroy buildings they come across. Most notably, however, is that many of them serve the goblins as living battering rams, serving as an essential part of their sieges.
745----
746* AlienBlood: They have cyan blood.
747* AllTrollsAreDifferent: ''Dwarf Fortress'' trolls are large humanoids with gray fur, horns and tusks (which coincidentally make them resemble [[WesternAnimation/MonstersInc Sulley]] a lot). They're not very smart and have a nasty disposition. Unlike most depictions of trolls, they have no enhanced regeneration or vulnerability to fire and acid in particular.
748* AlwaysChaoticEvil: They're marked as [EVIL] in their files and, fittingly, are never not hostile.
749* DumbMuscle: They're very strong and can demolish buildings, but have a penalty to their skill learning rate (as is the case with other "primitive" races) and can't communicate verbally.
750* HornedHumanoid: They have a pair of horns which they can gore people with.
751* SlaveRace: To goblins, although they never seem particularly perturbed by it. Goblins shear them for their fur and use it in their textile industry, essentially making them the dark pits' equivalent of sheep, and use them as living battering rams during sieges. At the same time, trolls can freely gain names, titles and non-military professions in goblin society, implying they have roughly the same rights as goblins but are simply too stupid to take advantage of them.
752[[/folder]]
753
754[[folder:Unicorn]]
755-> ''A horse-like creature with a spiral horn growing from its forehead.''
756
757Found in good biomes, these creatures don't act too differently from common horses. But while timid in the wild, they're the preferred mounts of the elves, and far more dangerous under their employ.
758----
759* FakeUltimateMook: Wild unicorns are the largest and as such deadliest creatures in good biomes, though they're entirely benign and prefer to flee from attackers rather than fight back unless enraged, meaning even your most inexperienced hunter can kill a unicorn with a shabby crossbow and some wooden bolts.
760* HorseOfADifferentColor: Elves can use them as mounts during sieges. Elven-controlled unicorns are hostile to your civilization, unlike wild ones, and as such won't shy away from fighting you.
761* HornAttack: Their preferred means of combat should they fight dwarves.
762* {{Unicorn}}: Essentially horses with an extra goring attack, only found in good-aligned regions and often used as a mount by elves.
763[[/folder]]
764
765!Night creatures
766
767[[folder:Bogeymen]]
768->''You are surrounded by incessant cackling.''
769
770Infinitely spawning blighters that appear when you sleep in the wilderness alone. They're the reason why every prospective adventurer should consider gathering a party.
771----
772* BossInMookClothing: At the start of your adventure, when you are typically poorly skilled and equipped. They kinda degrade into GoddamnedBats later.
773* EvilLaugh: Their arrival is heralded by incessant cackling, which doesn't stop until they're gone.
774* FragileSpeedster: Very hard to hit unless you are a very good fighter. But when you do hit them, most of the time LudicrousGibs happens. This would only make them annoying, if they weren't also...
775* GlassCannon: They have very high strength and impressive combat skills, and tend to punch/gore/bite right through steel armor despite being the size of a child and very squishy.
776* TheImp: Their appearance. They don't really act like stereotypical imps, however.
777* NoBodyLeftBehind: The corpses and body parts of slain boogeymen turn into smoke and vanish in the sunlight.
778* {{Nerf}}: Received both this and a BalanceBuff in the villains update; they became slightly more powerful, but do not spawn outside of evil biomes anymore.
779* PintsizedPowerhouse: They're smaller than kobolds and can break every bone in your body if you're not careful.
780* ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight: When peasants warn you not to sleep outside alone, ''listen to them.''
781* TrashTalk: A bogeyman's description states that "it hurls vicious insults constantly", [[InformedAttribute not that you can actually hear it]].
782* VillainTeleportation: They do this if you try to run from them.
783* WeakenedByTheLight: Exposure to sunlight causes them to disappear and their corpses and severed body parts to [[NoBodyLeftBehind turn into smoke]].
784[[/folder]]
785
786[[folder:Experiments]]
787-> ''In the midautumn of 99, Zutshosh Rotbegan performed horrible experiments in Copperbasic.''
788
789Unfortunate people and animals who fell victim to a necromancer's magical experiments. Successful experiments appear as monstrous humanoids, not unlike bogeymen and night trolls. Failed experiments, on the other hand, are non-sentient monsters that come in many different forms.
790----
791* MonsterAdventurers: Humanoid experiments are playable in Adventurer mode.
792* TheNeedless: They do not eat, drink, or sleep. However, they do have limited stamina.
793* PlayingWithSyringes: Experiments are created by necromancers or certain goblin leaders who experiment on captured citizens and livestock.
794[[/folder]]
795
796[[folder:Ghosts]]
797-> ''[A ghostly dwarf] has risen and is haunting the fortress!''
798
799If a member of your civilization (usually a dwarf from your fortress) isn't properly entombed or given a memorial, they may return to haunt you as a ghost. Whether these ghosts are docile or not depends on how the person was in life.
800----
801* BerserkButton: Whatever you do, ''don't'' take down a dead dwarf's tomb. This will ''always'' cause the dwarf to return as a malevolent ghost which regularly murders dwarves.
802* DueToTheDead: All they ask for is this. Burying the body or memorialising it in a slab will put them to rest.
803* FrightDeathtrap: Sadistic or Murderous Ghosts may occasionally scare a dwarf to death.
804* GhostlyGoals: Broadly, every ghost's goal is to be [[DueToTheDead buried or memorialised so that they can rest in peace]]. Individual ghosts will vary between Type A and Type B depending on their personality traits, ranging from semi-harmless (like Forlorn and Restless Haunts) to extremely dangerous (like Murderous and Sadistic Ghosts).
805* OurGhostsAreDifferent: They arise from dwarves [[DueToTheDead who were never buried and or memorialised]]. Even the same fortress may have different kinds of ghosts, depending on what they were like in life. Most will hang out scaring your living dwarves (which gives them unhappy thoughts), but some will attack and ''kill'' living dwarves as well. [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Sometimes they even throw parties!]]
806* ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight: Some kinds of ghosts make noises at night, topple furniture, misplace items, or harass dwarves. The worst kinds can beat and torture people or even ''scare'' them to death.
807[[/folder]]
808
809[[folder:Mummies]]
810-> ''Who dares to enter my house? I curse you!''
811
812The preserved remains of dead rulers, interred in tombs that they watch over, even in death. Awakening them by approaching their sarcophagus, vandalizing their tomb, or stealing their treasures will invite their wrath. Not only will this entail a curse, they also have the ability to animate corpses, and plenty of their servants are interred with them to facilitate this.
813----
814* AnimateDead: Like Necromancers, they can create mindless undead minions or more intelligent forms of undead.
815* BerserkButton: Defiling their tomb by stealing their treasures, approaching their sarcophagus, or setting off a trap will immediately wake them from death and attack the adventurer responsible.
816* {{Curse}}: The most common effect is a reduction in skills. Not that most adventurers will live to figure out what the curse did to them.
817* DueToTheDead: All they ask for is to be left alone. Defiling their tomb is a surefire way to make them angry, and the only way for them to appear after worldgen.
818* HumanSacrifice: They're buried with dozens of corpses to animate if disturbed, resembling the funerary rites of some cultures that sacrificed and buried servants with a deceased ruler.
819* JustTheFirstCitizen: Because rulers lose their title upon death, the mummies will be identified by their other profession (such as a beekeeper mummy).
820* {{Mummy}}: Fairly typical as far as "mummies as undead monsters" go: Preserved, intelligent and very protective of their belongings.
821* NighInvulnerable: Mummies are essentially husks with the powers of a necromancer.
822* ZergRush: Their favourite tactic is to [[AnimateDead mass-reanimate]] the corpses buried with them. Since there are dozens of them in any one tomb, this is the result.
823[[/folder]]
824
825[[folder:Necromancers]]
826-> ''The dead walk. Hide while you still can!''
827
828Former mortals that were taken by an obsession with their own mortality, seeking it to extend their lives by any means. In doing so, they take on devout worship of a god of death and learn the secrets of life and death, becoming immortal and gaining the power to raise the dead.
829----
830* AnimateDead: Their main ability -- they can raise corpses by the dozen, but little else.
831* BadPowersGoodPeople: Sometimes a necromancer will just live out their lives in their communities. If they join your fortress, they will function like other dwarves and can be an excellent asset.
832* DidntThinkThisThrough: Necromancers can raise unique, intelligent undead who retain their personality and memories from life. They will occasionally do this to enemies, who naturally will stay their enemies and will immediately turn on the dumb necromancer who revived them.
833* EarlyBirdBoss: For most attackers to arrive at your door, you need to either pass certain thresholds of population and wealth to be sent, or to directly aggravate other entities in the map. If a necromancer is close enough they can completely forego this limitation and start knocking at your door before you even ''have'' a door, showing up in the first year early enough to leave you without your Autumn caravan. Mercifully, their amounts still depend on wealth and population, but even just ''three'' walking corpses with armor and weapons are a giant threat at that stage.
834* ImmortalitySeeker: All necromancers are motivated by the desire to extend their lifespan. Elves and goblins never become necromancers because they are already TheAgeless.
835* PlayingWithSyringes: They may perform "horrible experiments" during world generation, resulting in unique, monstrous-looking night creatures that may escape into the wild.
836* MadScientist: As of 0.47, they now perform "horrible experiments" on animals and people in order to create new night creatures.
837* MageTower: They're usually found living in these, which they raise on becoming necromancers.
838* MagicIsEvil: They were one of the first types of sorcerer introduced in the game. They ''will'' cause endless amounts of Fun if your fortress is nearby one.
839* MakerOfMonsters: They can create Experiments out of people and livestock, with successful experiments being vertebrates and failed one being blobs.
840* TheNecrocracy: They can sometimes be found ruling civilizations.
841* {{Necromancer}}: These ones got their powers from a slab with the secrets of life and death gifted to them by a deity. They live in dark towers and raise the dead near them. They can sometimes besiege fortresses.
842* TheNeedless: They have no need for sustenance, as they know the secrets of immortality.
843* NightOfTheLivingMooks: Necromancers may use their undead slaves to siege a fortress.
844* TheSleepless: They don't need to sleep or rest.
845* SpellBook: The source of their knowledge, and thus their powers. Only ''copies'' (which also work to propagate necromancy) are books, however; the original is a Ten Commandments-esque stone slab, to make the divine connection even clearer.
846* StraightForTheCommander: Necessary to end the sieges they bring, and a surprisingly valid strategy when it comes to raiding too; necromancers aren't necessarily good commanders, and their mindless undead even less so, such that necromancer armies are ''much'' more vulnerable in their home towers thanks to getting tactically outwitted (and worldgen combat not being too favorable to undead).
847* WizardsLiveLonger: They stop aging once they become necromancers.
848* ZergRush: Zombies in a necromancer siege come by the hundreds. ''Carrying weapons and armour''.
849[[/folder]]
850
851[[folder:Nightmares]]
852-> ''With singular purpose it seeks to destroy the living.''
853
854Necromancers who worship a deity of nightmares may gain the ability to summon these abominations in battle. They are smaller than forgotten beasts, and disappear after a short while.
855----
856* ImNotAfraidOfYou: A more literal weakness here: Nightmares aren't hostile to creatures with the [NO_FEAR] tag, ignoring them completely since they have no fear, and thus no nightmares of their own.
857* LivingDream: They're literal nightmares brought to life and made to attack their presumable bearers.
858* RealDreamsAreWeirder: Procedurally generated as they are, they can take some bizarre shapes, even when nudged into more fearsome forms. Ever had a dream where you were chased by a gigantic, eyeless horned dinosaur?
859* YourMindMakesItReal: Somewhat, in that while creatures that literally have no fear and thus cannot have nightmares won't make them go away, Nightmares themselves will not even try to harm them.
860----
861[[/folder]]
862
863[[folder:Night trolls]]
864-> ''Now you will know why you fear the night.''
865
866Monstrous, randomly generated humanoid creatures that kidnap mortals and transform them, [[MarsNeedsWomen turning them into mates to breed more of their kind.]]
867----
868* AbductionIsLove: Their [[PlanetOfHats hat]]. Worse is that they come in ''both'' sexes (oddly enough), so nobody is safe.
869* AllTrollsAreDifferent: [[ProceduralGeneration Procedurally generated]], even, so they're all different from each other as well. However, they explicitly [[NonIndicativeName have no actual relation to trolls]].
870* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Utterly hostile to everything else and fond of butchering sentients for food and fun.
871* BodyHorror: Quite often. Procedural generation allows for all sorts of nasty mutations from the base humanoid form, and they'll actively inflict them on anyone they wish to keep as a mate.
872* TheCorruption: They create mates for themselves by kidnapping and transforming villagers.
873* EvilSmellsBad: Most creatures in the game [[ShapedLikeItself smell like themselves]], but night trolls always smell like "death" or "bug innards".
874* TheFairFolk: They have hints of this. Toady plans to have the local villagers give them nicknames.
875* MarsNeedsWomen: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]]. For some reason, they never mate with other night trolls, despite coming in both sexes. Instead they kidnap a non-goblin sapient and morph them into a night troll of the opposite sex; the children are always the sex of the original parent.
876* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Most of their [[ProceduralGeneration procedurally generated]] names are usually linked with darkness, death, or evil. Such names can be Night Hag, Moon Horror, Night Monster, and so on.
877* TheNeedless: Night trolls don't need to eat, drink, sleep, or breathe.
878* NonIndicativeName: Not actually related to trolls.
879* OneGenderRace: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. You'd think that this would be the case since they need to kidnap opposite-sex mortals in order to breed and their children are always the same sex as the original parent, but in actual fact, "natural born" night trolls come in both sexes.
880* ToServeMan: Among the things you can find in their lair are the organs of sapient races.
881[[/folder]]
882
883[[folder:Undead]]
884-> ''The goblin corpse stands up.''
885
886The undead are the re-animated remains of various living creatures. In addition to the above necromancers, undead can occur in [[{{Mordor}} evil regions]] spontaneously, making a more persistent hazard than a necromancer would.
887
888Certain types of undead, called husks or thralls, may also be created through exposure to some of the nastier effects of randomly-generated [[DeadlyGas evil clouds]]. While they won't get back up again if killed (unless re-animated as a zombie, which is different), they retain the skills they had in life, whatever equipment they were wearing[[note]]Yes, you can end up with a legendary axelord thrall. [[BringMyBrownPants You may now loosen your bowels in stark horror.]][[/note]] and worst of all, [[ZombieApocalypse may still be infected with the substance of the evil cloud that enthralled them]].
889----
890* EliteZombie: "Intelligent" undead almost always have some kind of magical power in addition to their ability to wield weapons and armour. They also retain their original loyalties, allowing you (or Necromancers) to build a particularly powerful force out of your allies.
891* MightyGlacier: They are usually much stronger yet slower than the base creature and are unaffected by pain or bleeding, however while they can still block if they have a weapon or shield they cannot dodge which makes them far weaker than they used to be.
892* {{Nerf}}: All Undead could once dodge and even zombie birds could shatter bones, with zombie kea jokingly called ninjas by the community pre-nerf. In even earlier days Husks were even immune to magma! Now, while regular zombies have gotten slightly stronger again and husks still remain dangerous foes, they are nowhere near the terrors they once were, and zombie avians are a matter of simply hitting them once and watching them go flying until they die on impact.
893* NoSell: They're immune to blood loss, FeelNoPain, can't be knocked unconscious, will never tire, will never flee from battle, and can shrug off any damage that isn't "pulping" a bodypart or [[RemovingTheHeadOrDestroyingTheBrain the classic method of taking down the dead]] without much issue.
894* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Even from update to update. They've gone from NighInvulnerable to easily de-animated in a few hits to a middle-ground but not too tough if you know what to do and have decent combat skills.
895* RemovingTheHeadOrDestroyingTheBrain: Zombies can be killed via severing or pulping (severing or blunt damage respectively) the head, neck, upper body, or lower body. Very, very rarely sometimes they won't die from head decapitation/destruction due to a bug but slicing off any other limb will cause the game to notice their headlessness and kill them.
896* SnowballingThreat:
897** A ghoul attack can quickly become one, as their bites will turn victims into more ghouls.
898** Husks can be similarly Fun to deal with if their body is covered in condensed evil cloud stuff, as they run the risk of spreading the effect to living beings nearby and thereby creating new hostiles.
899* TechnicallyLivingZombie:
900** Husks are made by contact with the substance causing the effect, whereas normal undead start as a corpse.
901** Infected Ghouls share many traits of undead such as [[TheNeedless needlessness]], opposition to life, and a host of [[NoSell immunities]]. They're still "alive" in a sense, however, as they're vulnerable to dying from blood loss and are capable of breeding, as opposed to the sterile and bloodless zombies.
902* YouCantKillWhatsAlreadyDead: Zombies aren't using any of those [[SubsystemDamage lovingly detailed organs]] any more, so a lot of the swift, ruthless ways Dwarf Fortress players have to kill a living thing don't work here...other than you know, just chopping their head off.
903* ZombieApocalypse: If you embark on an evil region, a zombie infestation may be truly endless unless you make every single corpse you encounter DeaderThanDead, and promptly. Husks are even more Fun than normal undead, as there's a chance whatever substance infected them will condense on their bodies, spreading the effect to anything that survives a brief period of close combat with one.
904[[/folder]]
905
906[[folder:Vampires]]
907-> ''[A dwarf] has been found dead, completely drained of blood!''
908
909Like werebeasts, they are former mortals cursed by a god. Unlike werebeasts, vampires are a much more insidious threat -- they disguise themselves as normal citizens, even taking false names and fabricating their life history, to hide their habit of drinking people's blood in their sleep.
910----
911* BlessedWithSuck: For quite some time it was much closer to CursedWithAwesome, but more recent [=DF2014=] updates introduced a major drawback: anyone who witnesses you feeding will flip out and go fully "no quarter" hostile. It doesn't matter how famous a hero, and it no longer depends on who or what you're feeding on.
912* CursedWithAwesome: Are created by curses from gods, similar to werebeasts, and have similar drawbacks if discovered. However, as the curse renders otherwise-mortal creatures [[TheNeedless essentially needless]] and greatly physically empowers them, it's not uncommon to find players poisoning their fortresses water supply with vampire blood in order to turn all their dwarves into vampires.
913* DayWalkingVampire: Aren't affected by sunlight.
914* IDoNotDrinkWine: ... But ''do'' start complaining about alcohol withdrawal.
915* ImplausibleDeniability: Ever since they were introduced, there have been occasional bugs regarding their efforts to disguise their identity in fortress mode. In particular, their tendency to blame others to add confusion often led to patently absurd accusations, such as blaming babies or nearly harmless animals. More importantly, they'll still go through the effort of trying to pin the blame on somewhere else even if they were caught red-handed by multiple witnesses, as ultimately it's up to the player to order a conviction.
916* LightningBruiser: They have ''double'' the agility, strength and toughness of non-vampires; it's not unheard of for one to survive a full-on Hammering from a ☼silver war hammer☼. This is one reason why many players turn their adventurers into vampires.[[note]]The other reason is that they don't need any form of sustenance besides blood.[[/note]]
917* TheNecrocracy: Can sometimes be found ruling civilizations.
918* TheNeedless: In Fortress Mode. They'll drink blood every so often, but don't actually die of thirst if isolated from the population. Sealing one up and keeping them from being harmed or going insane can render a fortress functionally immortal. Even though the need to drink blood is present in Adventure Mode, vampires in both modes still don't need sleep or food.
919* OurVampiresAreDifferent: They mostly follow the standard vampire model, but are also deceitful social chameleons who take deliberate steps to kill people in secrecy. Or, if they're powerful enough, they'll openly overtake their civilisation.
920* VampireBitesSuck: They tend to kill the dwarves they feed from, and those few who do not die become faint with blood loss and need to recover.
921* VeinOVision: They can sense living creatures with blood through walls.
922* ViralTransformation: Unlike classical vampires, they don't change creatures they bite. However, drinking their blood does transform the creature into a vampire.
923[[/folder]]
924
925[[folder:Werebeasts]]
926-> ''[A dwarf] has transformed into a werelizard!''
927
928Former civilised mortals cursed by the gods as punishment for profaning a temple. At the full moon, they turn into a monster crazed for blood and flesh.
929----
930* BlessedWithSuck: They're prone to changing forms at the worst possible times. In adventure mode, dropping ones entire inventory in the middle of a fight can turn a would-be rampage into a CurbStompBattle in favor of any nearby armed opponents. Even worse for NPC werebeasts, they spend their off days hiding in their lair, not even bothering to put on clothes or armor. And finally, anyone who isn't a fellow werecreature will react with hostility at the sight of one.
931* {{Curse}}: First-generation werebeasts come from mortals cursed by a god.
932* DamageReduction: Transformed werebeasts have an inherent x0.5 force multiplier against any incoming blows, making them far tougher than a regular mortal or beast.
933* InvoluntaryShapeshifting: They can only assume a bestial form in the full moon, which tends to make them change into their weaker, human, naked form at the worst possible time. In adventure mode they are in their human, naked, weaponless form 30 days a month.
934* MagicPants: Averted: body transformations remove or destroy all clothes and armour.
935* OurWerebeastsAreDifferent: Very different. Visibly, they can be created out of a very wide variety of animals,[[note]]Not all of which actually appear in the game otherwise[[/note]] such that seeing an actual were''wolf'' is rare. And while werecreatures of smaller animals are still dangerous even if less so, werecreatures of big animals are something you don't want to face; a were-elephant can be a nasty threat...[[WeaksauceWeakness until the day of the full moon ends and it transforms back.]] In truth their biggest threat is the infectious bite and the headaches that may result from it.
936* ShapeshiftingHealsWounds: Transformation (both to and from werebeast form) fully restores missing limbs and heals nerve damage, making it the only source of outright regeneration in the game. Some players intentionally turn their adventurers into werebeasts because of this, as it allows badly crippled adventurers to regrow severed limbs and regenerate damaged nervous tissue (including spinal injuries).
937* ViralTransformation: Their bite transforms other creatures into werebeasts, though it must break the skin to work.
938* WeaksauceWeakness: All werebeasts are generated with an inherent weakness to a randomly-chosen metal, causing them to take ten times the normal force from a strike by a tool made of this metal. This can include incredibly common metals such as copper, iron, or the classical silver.
939[[/folder]]
940
941!Hidden Fun Stuff (SPOILERS!)
942
943[[folder:Angels]]
944Radiant creatures that were created by the gods to be their servants. [[LightIsNotGood This does not mean that they are good beings.]] They are best known for guarding the slade vaults of demons, whom the gods themselves were responsible for bringing up to the mortal world. They outshine even the demons as the most powerful things in the game.
945----
946* AngelicAbomination: Even outside of [[AnimalisticAbomination "Assistant" angels]], the angels can be associated with various spheres, with their appearance ranging from utterly vile to outright bizarre accordingly.
947* AnimalisticAbomination: "Assistant" angels are generated like Forgotten Beasts with similar end results. Despite their strangeness, they're considered the ''least'' dangerous kind of angel.
948* AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance: Every angel's description includes a tidbit that depends on which divine sphere the angel is associated with. Angels of balance have a symmetric appearance, angels of dreams are difficult to remember clearly, angels of torture are covered in spikes and barbs, and so on.
949* BrutalBonusLevel: The vaults Angels occupy are one. They're labyrinthine structures with a few simple puzzles to solve, filled with murderous and highly powerful angels armed with some of the strongest gear in the game; despite that, there is absolutely no requirement to challenge them in either fortress or adventure mode..
950* CelestialParagonsAndArchangels: An Archangel is always the last one to guard a slab in every vault. They are (usually) humanoid, enormous, well-equipped by their deity's sacred metals and have the skills of a Grand Master in everything that is combat-related. ''Nothing'' in the game other than a Legendary adventurer with luck on their side can hope to stand against one of them.
951* ContractualBossImmunity: They're [[FeelNoPain immune to pain]], stunning, dizziness and disease, feel no exertion and can't be nauseated or suffocated.
952* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: It is probably the hardest task in the entire game, but it can be done. In one famous case, a newbie player managed it [[AchievementsInIgnorance entirely unaware of how difficult it should've been or what he was even looking for]].
953* FantasticMetals: One of the reasons that they are so dangerous. The divine metals that they carry as weapons are almost as strong as Adamantine. And because they aren't are light as Adamantine (still much lighter than steel; about the same density as water), they aren't as [[JokeItem hilariously ineffective]] when used for blunt weapons.
954* HumanoidAbomination: "Soldier" angels, who wear equipment made of the divine metals, may or may not be made of flesh and are naturally Talented in all the arts of war. They're not even much bigger than a dwarf, usually, but their God's sphere-dictated appearance betrays their true nature.
955* LightIsNotGood: They are some of the most dangerous and vicious creatures in all of ''Dwarf Fortress''. They also guard the possessions and the true names of unspeakably evil beings.
956* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The Archangel usually has a particularly menacing one, such as the "Ruination of Dreams" or "Suicide's Destroyer."
957* OurAngelsAreDifferent: They are created by specific gods and have descriptions associated to their progenitor's spheres. They also do not shout "Fear not!", ''because you have every reason to fear them''.
958* RageAgainstTheHeavens: Basically what you do if you decide to fight them. [[CurbStompBattle It likely]] [[OneHitKill won't end well]] [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu for you]].
959* SealedEvilInACan: Sometimes, they can be found [[spoiler:entombed within gem-studded obsidian walls]], waiting for some poor dwarf to break them out. Such angels are less powerful than demons, individually, but are armed and armored with divine metals.
960* SuperBoss: Archangels are on par with unique Demons in terms of size and combat skills, with a host of immunities to boot. There's only one in a vault, but it's more than capable of instantly slaying an adventurer. There is absolutely no need to fight them; indeed, the only way to do so is to actively seek one out in adventure mode.
961[[/folder]]
962
963[[folder:Demons]]
964-> ''Horrifying screams come from the darkness below!''
965
966Horrifying {{Eldritch Abomination}}s that inhabit the underworld. When you've DugTooDeep, they'll swarm your fortress in masses of hundreds or more. Don't expect to survive a fight against the LegionsOfHell.
967----
968* AlwaysChaoticEvil: They're even explicitly marked as [EVIL] in generated raws, and their mental parameters are such that it's impossible for them ''not'' to have domineering, extremely cruel personalities.
969* BreathWeapon: Not all demons have one. Some demons breath fire, other spit webs, other can emit various toxins that can very well kill your dwarves... or give them a headache.
970* ContractualBossImmunity: They're [[FeelNoPain immune to pain]], stunning, dizziness and disease, feel no exertion, can't be nauseated or suffocated, and can't be affected by traps (unless they're webbed.)
971* DemonLordsAndArchdevils: Unique demons are indicated to be something like leaders to the 'generic' demons, and are some of the few to spawn with unique names.
972* DidYouJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu:
973** Sometimes a human civilization sends a diplomat to your fortress. Sometimes that diplomat is a demon. The non-hostile demon will meet with your leader, make some meaningless but polite small talk, then leave. The encounter may be harmless, or extremely !!FUN!! if the demon is made of fire or spat flesh-eating toxins all around your fort due to an enemy appearing in his line of fire. And sometimes, in the extremely rare case they're taken prisoner in a siege, you can liberate them from wherever they're captured, and they'll gladly ask for sanctuary become citizens of your fort.
974** In Adventure Mode, the Demons that present a GodGuise to become the overlords of Human civilizations are no more malicious as any other human lord, and you can converse and receive quests from them as you would any other.
975* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: With sufficiently badass soldiers, it's entirely possible to defeat the demons' initial invasion of your fortress. Or simply cunning, deadly traps.
976* DugTooDeep: The page image. Dig deep enough through a certain blue metal and you will see.
977* EldritchAbomination: They are terrifying, alien, godlike creatures that live in the Underworld.
978* EvilOverlord: May be an aversion. While some named demons take over human settlements (by posing as a deity) or goblin settlements (by force), they don't rule better or worse than normal rulers, as civilization ethics are tied to the civ, not who's in charge of it. It IS implied that demonic rule is part of the reason behind goblins being AlwaysChaoticEvil, as it's normal for goblin civilizations to get a demon ruler sooner or later.
979* FinalBoss: The closest equivalent to a Final Boss fortress mode has, for now. Earlier versions had leader Demons better fitting this trope. They also can apply in Adventure Mode where they [[EvilOverlord lead Goblin kingdoms]]. Although you only (usually) fight one of them rather than an entire army and, depending on the the random body a demon could have, it could be a ZeroEffortBoss or even tougher than Angels.
980* GodAndSatanAreBothJerks: Gods currently have quite a bit more influence on the world, and one of the ways is collaborating with a demon to build huge spires and vaults of slade and terrorise the outside world.
981* GodGuise: Instead of taking over Goblin civilizations, Demons evoked in the overworld may sometimes present themselves as gods to a Human civilization and take it over.
982* HumanoidAbomination: The Demons evoked in the overworld are considered unique demons who tend to be various animals 'twisted into humanoid shape'.
983* IKnowYourTrueName: Invoking the true name of a demon, engraved in the slab in a demonic vault, gives you power to banish it or put it under your command. A demon companion is more of a BraggingRightsReward though, because if you manage such an amazing feat, you're already a god among men. (For the reason why, see the section just above.)
984* InstantDeathRadius: Same reason as the Forgotten Beasts, having similar procedurally-generated material emissions.
985* LackOfEmpathy: By mechanics; not even the biggest outliers among demons can feel anything that resembles empathy for another being.
986* TheLegionsOfHell: Their numbers are ''unquantifiable''. Even if you somehow defeat the initial, possibly dozens-strong ZergRush of demons, they just spawn in endlessly from the Underworld's edges.
987* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Nearly all demons have these, although they vary in awe-inspiring factor.
988* NighInvulnerable: Like Forgotten Beasts, some demons can have this characteristic. Inorganic blobs are functionally immortal, save for a few instant-kill methods.
989* NoSell: [[ImmuneToFire Fire and heat of any kind does not harm them]], meaning the classic solution of magma is futile. They can't be drowned, are immune to any bioweapon you may have. They however are quite prone to being squished, encased in obsidian, impaled by spikes, or meeting their end on your most powerful warriors' adamantine weapons.
990* OmnicidalManiac: They're already this in Fortress mode, but the eventual plan is to have them incur ''the end of the world'' for releasing them from the Underworld.
991* OurDemonsAreDifferent: Mostly physically: they are generated randomly and can have wildly different forms, from a blob made of steel (which is just as NighInvulnerable as you expect it is), to a random, giant version of animal with a few additional (or removed) body parts, to something made of water (which is hilariously weak due to how the current combat system handles creatures made of liquid). Mentally, they are just as sentient and just as evil as standard demons.
992* OurMonstersAreWeird: Much like Forgotten Beasts, they're randomly generated.
993* SealedEvilInACan: That shiny blue ore is there for a reason.
994* ZergRush: One can tear apart an unprepared fortress, but demons come in ''swarms''. These swarms can be anywhere between half a dozen to almost a full ''hundred'', including [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils unique demons]].
995[[/folder]]

Top