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Author Topic: Archcrystal: 500 years in a fortress [SPOILERS] Finished  (Read 469993 times)

Sethatos

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Re: Archcrystal: 450 years in a fortress [SPOILERS]
« Reply #735 on: April 07, 2019, 11:47:17 am »

143 pages... You have effectively written a book, Sethatos ;)

Haha I know and it’s not even freaking finished yet. :)
It still needs a lot of polish but I wanted to at least get it out there in some form for the people that asked so they wouldn’t have to navigate all of the forum posts.
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Garfunkel

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Re: Archcrystal: 450 years in a fortress [SPOILERS]
« Reply #736 on: May 21, 2019, 01:22:50 pm »

Good luck on getting to the big 5-0-0! Archcrystal 4eva!
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VABritto

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Re: Archcrystal: 450 years in a fortress [SPOILERS]
« Reply #737 on: June 06, 2019, 10:10:41 pm »

I have been stalking these forums for years. This thread inspired me in finally making an account. Great fortress! I haven't picked up DF in months, but you inspired me on making a new world. And it ended up being quite an interesing one too! Made a fortress and am keeping the population at 30 with 45 as max to account for children like you did. So far things are running pretty smoothly!

Keep on making great content, man! I know you want to end it at year 500 so I'll be waiting anxiously for the finale (while dreading it simultaneously since I don't want this incredible fortress to end lol)
« Last Edit: June 06, 2019, 10:13:06 pm by VABritto »
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Sethatos

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Re: Archcrystal: 450 years in a fortress [SPOILERS]
« Reply #738 on: June 18, 2019, 05:01:09 pm »

Thank you! I’ve been slowly plodding through the years, but it’s been slower because the equipment bug that causes the game to crash every once in a while. Still reaching year 475 soon and I’ll post the story bits then, but I’ve had to change a few of the narratives that I had in mind because dwarf fortress things keep happening 😁
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Large Wereroach

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Re: Archcrystal: 450 years in a fortress [SPOILERS]
« Reply #739 on: June 29, 2019, 05:17:23 am »

Cheers man, I find this story actually really inspiring. After some learning-tree fortresses I'm now into quite a stable game and reading this thread I feel that s.th. like this was my unconscious idea of the game. I started with pop cap 65 and a soft cap of 200, so if I get the population system right, it should allow for a 200 population of fortress-born dorfs. Right now I'm only 14 years into it, but seeing that it's actually possible to play a game for 100+ years is a good thing.
I always liked playing games without a goal, just (micro-)managing and tweaking every now and then and otherwise let things evolve... more like a screensaver with a story to it.
Great stuff!
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TheFantasticMsFox

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Re: Archcrystal: 450 years in a fortress [SPOILERS]
« Reply #740 on: July 11, 2019, 12:24:08 am »

I am deeply amazed that this continues to progress. Completely new to DF, some friends who originally brought me to B12 referenced this to me. This is a sight.
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TheMole10

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Re: Archcrystal: 450 years in a fortress [SPOILERS]
« Reply #741 on: July 13, 2019, 07:05:50 pm »

... This is still going? I looked at the title and assumed it was finished at 450 years, but amazingly it is still going.
New Account, but have been lurking off and on for years.
I'm posting to say congratulations on both the Fortress and the Thread.
« Last Edit: July 13, 2019, 07:16:29 pm by TheMole10 »
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TheFlame52

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Re: Archcrystal: 450 years in a fortress [SPOILERS]
« Reply #742 on: July 13, 2019, 10:13:09 pm »

You know your fort is good when people make accounts in droves just to congratulate you.

Superdorf

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Re: Archcrystal: 450 years in a fortress [SPOILERS]
« Reply #743 on: July 13, 2019, 10:14:05 pm »

You know your fort is good when people make accounts in droves just to congratulate you.
Amen.
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Sivanot

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Re: Archcrystal: 450 years in a fortress [SPOILERS]
« Reply #744 on: July 19, 2019, 04:17:24 am »

Made this account just to post here. This thread's been a huge inspiration to me to start playing Dwarf Fortress, haven't quite gotten into playing it myself yet but I sure as hell intend to. Maybe when the UI is easier to understand.
Hope I can one day do something as incredible as this.

Can hardly wait to see this reach year 500, and beyond if it doesn't become nearly unplayable after that point. Lmao.
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Murderkill

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Re: Archcrystal: 450 years in a fortress [SPOILERS]
« Reply #745 on: July 19, 2019, 06:43:36 am »

Is King Zan still kicking? [He became king c. 300 at the age of 17, which would make him around 167 by year 450.] I doubt by the next update he will still be alive, but I guess we'll just have to wait and find out.
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Sethatos

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Re: Archcrystal: 450 years in a fortress [SPOILERS]
« Reply #746 on: July 22, 2019, 12:14:22 pm »

Is King Zan still kicking? [He became king c. 300 at the age of 17, which would make him around 167 by year 450.] I doubt by the next update he will still be alive, but I guess we'll just have to wait and find out.



King Zan died at the old age of 170. Hi reign lasted over 153 years.
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Sethatos

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Re: Archcrystal: 470 years in a fortress [SPOILERS]
« Reply #747 on: July 22, 2019, 12:28:46 pm »

Fath smiled a hopeless smile as he stood before the glass walls. Time seemed to slow around him and a concentrated silence emerged within the dwarven defenders as the demons continued to crash the gates in front of them. The juxtaposition between the raging cacophony outside and the sudden stillness inside had an eerie impacted atmosphere of importance that was peculiar in its uncertainty. All dwarven eyes turned to Fath standing silently at the artifact door, back slightly hunched with a burden that ignored physical age but listened to an emotional one.

Slowly the dwarves defending the walls stopped what they were doing and turned towards him with a frightened expectation. Surely there was nothing he could do on his own to turn back the demon army. In their heart of hearts they had realized what the demons possessed: a will and lifespan to outlast them. It didn’t mean they would give up, but facing an enemy that time cannot defeat becomes increasingly futile. The knowledge of this would weigh down any combatant, increments of sand that slowly buries the determined and talented in a grave of consistent inevitability. The depth of the grave never matters and neither do the contents after a while.

The weight of Fath’s heart dragged behind him as he forced himself towards the battle. He had come to hate war and would rather see the world live harmoniously, but that was never an option here - Archcrystal, a monument that spat in the face of inevitable time while time simply nodded and smiled knowingly. But Fath knew that moments like this were why he lived, why anyone did, as they condensed the immense design of things into what mattered, or at least split what had to matter and what ultimately must not. He wondered if he had the will to do what he ultimately must. This was not hell, Fath thought, hell is made by minds and hearts who know compassion and charity but choose to bring misery and suffering. There would be no misery like that which he could bring, and it was a choice to do so despite knowing and feeling the opposite. It was a curse that was cruel and viscous by the decision to do it in spite of the sympathy and grace that could be given otherwise.

As Fath raised his hand to shudder the dead to animate another hand grasped his wrist. Surprised, he slowly turned his head to see who would defy him, his ego driving a self imposed status to wonder what dared to disturb his moment that he had forced himself to believe was inevitable and profound.
It was Meng the catatonic and insane apprentice of Edzul the great late mathematician. Years before she had attempted to compile all of Edzul Ironsword’s teachings into a codex. Shortly after starting her work she was found sitting on the floor of the library staring off into space unblinking and unspeaking. They placed her into a cell where they fed and cared for her, thinking that she may never speak again - until now.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

“No” she forced out as she clutched Fath’s wrist. It was the first word she had spoken in years and it carried a weight despite its mouse-like pitch. “No” she repeated and her eyes focused this time instead of looking through him at some imaginary point miles away. Fath recoiled reflexively and looked on her as anyone else did. The absence of kindness was burning bright in his state but her urgency made him stop.
“No” she repeated again and again and tilted her head. Fath paused for long enough to consider her meaning for the first explosion to pierce his ears. Mine carts filled with lead coins dropped from their newly finished settings to travel at break neck speeds and then come to a sudden stop at the fortifications releasing their deadly cargo into the demonic assembly who stared at it with unknowing comprehension.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The missiles they had created tore through everything in front of them, whether they spit, webbed, or breathed fire. There’s no other sound like a demon from hell screaming for its life as it is ripped apart by projectiles travelling at a thousand meters per second. Pieces of their flesh exploded off them as they writhed back and forth during the infinite rain of metal bullets that blew apart the slade walls behind them. Piercing and melodic, the demonic cries of agony split the stale air of the underworld as the dwarves prepared to fire the collective hearts of their ancestral labour forth into them - a weapon born of their industry and passion and profound history. While the demons had learned patience from the dwarves, the dwarves had learned to pour their malice into the technological terrors they invented, and while it would have reciprocal effects far in the future, the dwarves of Archcrystal yet again held the acme of delivering efficient and horrifying death and destruction to their enemies.
The demons attempted to counter attack by holding the dead bodies of their fallen up as shields as they again rushed the entrance en mass. But the large groups they clustered in made perfect targets for the arrays of hundreds of lead ammunition that fired continuously into them without discrimination. The repeated mechanisms of the mine carts ensured a steady rhythm of casualty and fatality, and the torn sinew and muscle of those invaders caught in their metal kill zone emitted from the fortifications without reprieve. Steady streams of targets continued to march forth from their ranks but were mowed down by the physics of dwarven automation that exploded from the glass ramparts, reliable in its constant and unrelenting drumbeat of mechanical death. The new masters of Hell were cold and metallic, and the fear of fire and brimstone were rendered obsolete.

An hour later the battlefield in front of Archcrystal lay silent, the smoking ruins of the dead demons, counted by the thousands, were an inspiring and horrible reminder that the meaning of hell had changed forever - from a monstrous population of demonic creatures into a callous race of mortals who could care, but decided not to.

***

14th of Moonstone, Year 542
470th Year of Archcrystal
The Final Gathering

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Sultrangris had packed his meager belongings and was ready for his long journey to Archcrystal. The neighbouring elves were constantly harassing his local hillocks and he had finally had enough. The elves justified their raids by saying that the war machine of Archcrystal was destroying the land in its constant reach outwards for territory. But it was the same “land” that nearly killed his ancestors with beasts, and poisonous plants, and infectious diseases until they had finally carved out a small home in the hills. He had decided that the ambivalent land deserved its reckoning. Let the war machine scorch the unforgiving plants and animals, he preferred to live underground anyways. Sultangris started walking and made sure to step on any flowers he could.

***

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Euler was tired of being conscripted into the military to defend his dwarven fortress of Questedceiling. A scholar at heart he yearned to discuss and study mathematics and he knew that most of the literature on the subject came from the capital of Archcrystal, now the political, intellectual, and geographical Center of the world. Copies of Edzul Ironsword’s glass codexes had made their way to his fortress and he was ravenous to read more. Living in hell did not scare him as long as there were books to read. So he began his journey to the crystal spire full of hope and ambition, with his sights set on unlocking the secrets of the world.

***

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Gitzo the local sheriff ran a tight ship at his fortress of Tinbucks, to put it lightly. He felt that he understood that order was the purest form of existence and that cruelty was the purest form of order, so much so that his punishments were terrible and quick. But he also felt that his methods were unappreciated here. He had heard stories of the famous sheriff of Archcrystal, Doren Lashgrooved, and he made the decision to immigrate. He packed his steel whip and other instruments of justice and set out alone to join the fortress guard. He fantasized of torturing horrible truths out of a demon and this gave him an exhilarating bounce to his step as he traveled.

((Just a quick note before I finish the chapter. If anyone else wants a named migrant dwarf for the finale, I’ll be writing them in over the next couple of weeks as they travel from the corners of the world to Archcrystal.))
« Last Edit: July 25, 2019, 01:04:48 pm by Sethatos »
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TheFlame52

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Re: Archcrystal: 470 years in a fortress [SPOILERS]
« Reply #748 on: July 22, 2019, 03:49:11 pm »

Ooh, that scene puts fire in my blood! Your writing is as good as ever.

Superdorf

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Re: Archcrystal: 470 years in a fortress [SPOILERS]
« Reply #749 on: July 22, 2019, 04:50:09 pm »

Update! Glorious update! And-- dorfings!
I shall be Gearg the hammerdwarf. May my death be glorious and swift. :))
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Falling angel met the rising ape, and the sound it made was

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tormenting the player is important
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