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Author Topic: The Saga of Weatherwires: Children of Dwarves (spoilers + image heavy)  (Read 154401 times)

DS

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From my fortress diary:

25th Moonstone, 182, Early Winter - Water flooding of the top of guildhalls began this month, but with the sealed passages between the buildings accidentally closed off, the dwarves (restricted to the interior of the halls, via burrows) pathed along the exterior avenues. Four dwarves perished when water flow pushed them off of the streets to fall many z-levels to their deaths. Additionally, one dwarf died on the surface, slain by a goblin ambush before the military could rush to protect him. The total fortress population has been reduced to 96, with no new dwarves having been born since 157.

Welcome to Nugrethshorast.

DFFD: Weatherwires (year 185)
DFMA: Weatherwires (upper fortress), Weatherwires (lower fortress). Also, the full and final map, dated 226, one full century after embark.
TOUR: Starts on page 35. It's extremely image-heavy, so beware.
ADVENTURE MODE SAVES: Explore the fort as an adventurer!
    Solon Townclenched, the last dwarf.
    Vucar Tombdeath, plump helmet woman.
    Osman the Puzzle of Poisons, forgotten beast.
    Èzum Openeddoors the Robust Stoker of Lances.
STORY: The Saga of Weatherwires, extracted and presented in a single downloadable document.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The fortress is a collection of free-standing structures, carved from natural rock, and housed inside a hollowed-out hemisphere. The bottom of the grotto is the bottom of the upper cavern layer, and most of the structures have been carved to match the arrangement of pillars and cavern walls of the caverns. The entire project took the majority of the summer, with the outline of each layer having to be carefully calculated (there was a lot of math involved), and carved out before the next could be worked on.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

As it turns out, the Merchant of Echoing (the fort's parent civ) was destroyed by goblins during the first few decades of world gen, so when Weatherwires was declared the Mountainhome (shortly after excavation began), no queen arrived - she had been dead for more than a century. With the duke (Kogsak Murdershot) dead in a recent tantrum spiral, the only 'royalty' left in the fortress, and thus in the entire civilization, was the duke's wife and four surviving children. At this time (around the year 135), I resolved to make the dome the last impregnable bastion of dwarfdom in the world.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Of course, once the dome was excavated, the massive amount of stone piled at its bottom was debilitating to my framerate, a problem which I resolved by flooding the entire affair with magma, pumped in from the adjacent magma tube. Many dwarves gave their lives in the excavation and flooding of the dome - I thought that my supply of dwarves would be neverending, between immigrant waves and new births. I could not have been more wrong.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In the hopes that the dwarves, sealed underground, might procreate and develop into an essentially limitless civilization, I organized them into clans. Each dwarf that was born in the fortress was given a nickname that was the same as their father's surname. The late duke's children were named princes and princesses, and given the nickname "Murdershot," in honor of their dead father, the last royalty of the Merchant of Echoing. A tantrum spiral or two later, the fortress population had dipped down to about 150, but no immigrant waves had arrived to replace the dead. I assumed then that the civilization's dwarven population had been exhausted, and all dwarves living in the fortress were, indeed, the last of their kind.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In 157, Kol "Languagemetal" Claspedrelief was born. His birth went unheeded for several years, until the following journal entry:

16th Obsidian, 164, Late Winter - All remaining stone dumped, and the bottom of the dome channeled out. The dome is finally contiguous with the upper cavern layer, and thus the excavation portion of the project (not counting housing within buildings) is complete. Also, the fortress, despite containing married couples who have produced children before, has stopped producing new infants. The only child left is Kol Claspedrelief, of clan Languagemetal, and at 7 years old, is the youngest dwarf in the fortress.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Since that journal entry, nearly two decades have passed. The fortress population has dwindled to 96, a combination of engineering accidents, pond grabber ambushes, and the occasional lucky goblin. Kol "Languagemetal" has been designated "The Youngest Dwarf." The surfaces of the four separate guildhalls have been flooded with water, to allow the growth of wild fungi. Eight guildhalls have been carved out of four free-standing structures, connected by a series of causeways. The royal family (of which a mere 3 remain) are housed in their own suites in the citadel located in the north part of the dome.

With no immigrants, no merchants, and no children, these dwarves are the last of their kind. Theirs is the saga of Weatherwires.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: July 09, 2015, 01:17:39 pm by DS »
Logged
Finished: Weatherwires, the Last Mountainhome. A tragic mix of Children of Men, City of Ember, and, uh, magma.
Stymied: Correspondence from Syrupurns, a prematurely ended narrative, told through annual updates.
In Progress: Roomcarnage, a fortress clinging to life beneath a haunted glacier.

Vorthon

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Re: Weatherwires: Children of Dwarves (slight spoilers)
« Reply #1 on: September 16, 2011, 07:12:44 pm »

Epic. Posting watch for updates.
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Banehallow

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Re: Weatherwires: Children of Dwarves (slight spoilers)
« Reply #2 on: September 16, 2011, 07:46:33 pm »


*Bracing for epic...*
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Foul_Soul

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Re: Weatherwires: Children of Dwarves (slight spoilers)
« Reply #3 on: September 16, 2011, 07:52:27 pm »

Wow man, I wouldn't dream of doing that.
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wypie

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Re: Weatherwires: Children of Dwarves (slight spoilers)
« Reply #4 on: September 16, 2011, 09:11:03 pm »

*slow clap*          epic
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Geen

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Re: Weatherwires: Children of Dwarves (slight spoilers)
« Reply #5 on: September 16, 2011, 11:06:58 pm »

Epic as Kirby's yarn.
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Vehudur

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Re: Weatherwires: Children of Dwarves (slight spoilers)
« Reply #6 on: September 17, 2011, 01:10:54 am »

Epic.
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Quote
...and a third died in his bunk of natural causes - for a dagger in the heart quite naturally ends one's life.

I used to have an avatar, but I was told to remove it after it kept making people go insane.

darkflagrance

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Re: Weatherwires: Children of Dwarves (slight spoilers)
« Reply #7 on: September 17, 2011, 11:00:37 am »

Your mountain home feels the way I think a Dwarven mountain home should feel: roughly hewn from stone, but strikingly elegant in its form and conception. That said, I look forward to the continuation of the diary, and perhaps screen shots of the completed, fully furnished mountain home's interior architecture in detail.
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...as if nothing really matters...
   
The Legend of Tholtig Cryptbrain: 8000 dead elves and a cyclops

Tired of going decades without goblin sieges? Try The Fortress Defense Mod

DS

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Re: Weatherwires: Children of Dwarves (slight spoilers)
« Reply #8 on: September 17, 2011, 11:57:19 am »

That said, I look forward to the continuation of the diary, and perhaps screen shots of the completed, fully furnished mountain home's interior architecture in detail.

I have a handful of these on my computer (posting from my phone at the moment), but they're all very limited in scope. Although, in-game, you can view the entire width and breadth of the dome, you are limited to a single z-level at a time (the dome itself has a radius of approximately 47 z-levels). On the other hand, Stonesense views give a much better impression of the actual fort layout, but are limited to a fraction of the dome at a time (I haven't figured out how to zoom out in SS, though, so that might be part of the problem there).

When I get back to my computer, I'll put up a few more screenshots detailing the individual guildhalls, and the layout of streets and buildings inside the dome.

And of course, thanks to everyone for the positive response.
Logged
Finished: Weatherwires, the Last Mountainhome. A tragic mix of Children of Men, City of Ember, and, uh, magma.
Stymied: Correspondence from Syrupurns, a prematurely ended narrative, told through annual updates.
In Progress: Roomcarnage, a fortress clinging to life beneath a haunted glacier.

Corneria

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Re: Weatherwires: Children of Dwarves (slight spoilers)
« Reply #9 on: September 17, 2011, 12:03:20 pm »

Why so many woodcrafters?
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DS

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Re: Weatherwires: Children of Dwarves (slight spoilers)
« Reply #10 on: September 17, 2011, 12:13:53 pm »

The fortress is more than five decades old... I just reached a point where every living dwarf had had a strange mood. Many were children when they got moody, and claimed a craftsdwarf's workshop.
Logged
Finished: Weatherwires, the Last Mountainhome. A tragic mix of Children of Men, City of Ember, and, uh, magma.
Stymied: Correspondence from Syrupurns, a prematurely ended narrative, told through annual updates.
In Progress: Roomcarnage, a fortress clinging to life beneath a haunted glacier.

Madventurer

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Re: Weatherwires: Children of Dwarves (slight spoilers)
« Reply #11 on: September 17, 2011, 03:31:29 pm »

Going to share save?  :D
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Then he made grudge wit about 20 other dwarfs (still don't know why - perhaps they were stealing his chair).

eccentricheathen

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Re: Weatherwires: Children of Dwarves (slight spoilers)
« Reply #12 on: September 17, 2011, 09:48:37 pm »

I recognize that this is bloody amazing!

However, I'm not grasping why the dwarves are no longer reproducing?  Is that an artificial thing or a result of all remaining dwarves being related, and thus not willing to reproduce with eachother?

Edit:  BTW, any Elven "fugees"?   :D

« Last Edit: September 17, 2011, 10:28:29 pm by eccentricheathen »
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Corneria

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Re: Weatherwires: Children of Dwarves (slight spoilers)
« Reply #13 on: September 17, 2011, 10:14:31 pm »

I recognize that this is bloody amazing!

However, I'm not grasping why the dwarves are no longer reproducing?  Is that an artificial thing or a result of all remaining dwarves being related, and thus not willing to reproduce with eachother?
They'll reproduce with all non-parent/child/sibling relatives, so unlikely.
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DS

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Re: Weatherwires: Children of Dwarves (slight spoilers)
« Reply #14 on: September 18, 2011, 02:27:46 am »

However, I'm not grasping why the dwarves are no longer reproducing?  Is that an artificial thing or a result of all remaining dwarves being related, and thus not willing to reproduce with eachother?

Completely unintentional. It seems to be a bug, actually. But I've decided to look at it as a feature. :)

Quote
Edit:  BTW, any Elven "fugees"?   :D

An interesting point I didn't bring up in the first post... in this world, there are no elves. The fortress is in a pocket world with no forests, so there are no elves. Also, the area around the fort is haunted, and plagued by zombie giant badgers. They were a plague during the fort's early years.
Logged
Finished: Weatherwires, the Last Mountainhome. A tragic mix of Children of Men, City of Ember, and, uh, magma.
Stymied: Correspondence from Syrupurns, a prematurely ended narrative, told through annual updates.
In Progress: Roomcarnage, a fortress clinging to life beneath a haunted glacier.
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