| “ | Urist likes dwarves for their beards. | „ |
| ~ In-game characters expressing like for dwarves, which can be found in the game's .raw files. Urist being anyone with a name. |
| “ | The enemy have come and are laying siege to the fortress. | „ |
| ~ A message that appears when dwarves perform a siege against the player. |
Dwarves are the titular, central protagonistic race of the indie management and simulation game, Dwarf Fortress.
Though they are the main protagonistic race in "Fortress Mode", they are major characters in "Adventure Mode", as the player can play as almost any humanoid creature (including animal people) available in the game rather than just dwarves.
Every dwarf is given a pre-generated, detailed personality: likes, dislikes, religious views, values, fears, preferences and traditions. Attributes are also pre-generated for dwarves, which control how they handle any situation.
They are the arch-rivals of goblins, and are often allies to humans and sometimes elves.
Overview[]
A crayon drawing of dwarves done by Bay 12 Games.
Dwarves are short, stocky humanoid creatures with famously long and prominent beards. Unlike humans, they reach adulthood at age 12, and can live for up to 150-170 years. In the original version of the game, or if classic ASCII graphics are enabled in the premium version, they are represented by a smiley face (☺), though if the game is played in fullscreen, they are represented by faces with beards. They speak their own unique Dwarven language.
Dwarves prefer to live in underground mines and/or near mountains, and have skills in just about every type of occupation available in the game, from cooking to combat - from fishing to bone setting. They are generally peaceful creatures unless provoked, though this can change depending on map/story generation. Dwarf fortresses can be seen in map generation as a grey omega symbol (Ω).
Every dwarf is given a pre-generated, detailed personality: likes, dislikes, religious views, values, fears, preferences and traditions. Attributes are also pre-generated for dwarves, which control how they handle any situation. Like humans, they can own many domesticated animals, but dogs are shown to be among the most loyal and flexible tamed animals, as they can be trained for other tasks.
Gameplay[]
Dwarf sprite in v50 of the game.
In "Fortress Mode", the player is able to choose where to embark and build their fortress. The player always starts out with 7 dwarves, and can choose their starting skills, nicknames and what items they embark with. During standard gameplay, dwarves slowly gain experience and rank titles when performing tasks. The player does not directly control the dwarves, but makes them active through given tasks, otherwise they will act on their accord depending on what their occupation or thoughts are. As time and fortress quality increase, more dwarves migrate to the player's fortress.
Dwarves are very versatile in combat if trained properly (or given combat stats beforehand), and are the only creatures in the game that can gain the "martial trance" status, which grants them combat bonuses as well as the increased ability to take on multiple enemies at once. Due to their size, dwarves cannot ride mounts, but can still tame animals to do their bidding.
Living conditions must be managed well, as dwarves have a stress level. If dwarves have too many negative thoughts and endure too much stress, they can throw destructive tantrums. Dwarves can be assigned high social status, making them nobles or even royalty, but they require more advanced living conditions once they have these titles. Children dwarves will wander around the player's fortress, playing with toys and playing make believe. Once they are old enough, they can perform some helpful jobs, but not to the extant that adult dwarves can. Note that dwarf children can pick the strangest areas to play, such as near magma pools or piles of rotten garbage.
Morality wise, dwarves hold a standard, morally balanced code of ethics. One of the most important things for dwarves is the consumption of alcohol, meaning the player should embark with plenty of alcohol before starting the game, as well as constantly making sure that alcohol never runs low in the fortress. If dwarves have no alcohol, they will move and work much slower, as well as have lower happiness.
During world generation, humans are often made natural allies to dwarves, who also share very similar ethics. They are also sometimes allies to elves, but this relationship is much flimsier and less predictable compared to the friendship with humans. If dwarves cut down too many trees, or attempt to trade wooden objects with elves, this causes large strain of the disposition between the two races. World generation can randomly set up elves to already be enemies to dwarves, even to the point of elves wiping out entire dwarven civilizations before the game even begins.
When a dwarf dies, and their body is not properly buried, they will manifest as a ghost that will haunt the player's fortress and give negative thoughts to other living dwarves. Spooked dwarves may completely run from doing much needed tasks if they spot a ghost. The ghost can be removed by either creating a space for the deceased dwarf to be buried, or by placing down a slab with their name engraved on it (which is a good decision if a body cannot be found or has been destroyed beyond existence).
It is possible for the player's dwarves to be corrupted by a calculating villain, which is an easy feat if some dwarves have nastier personalities. If the player chooses, dwarves can perform such actions as pillaging, raiding and making demands from other settlements, which can come in the form of demanding tribute. Like humans, dwarves worship different kinds of deities, and the randomized spheres of influence connected to those deities.
Appearance[]
In the premium version of the game, dwarves are assigned randomized sprites, with many of the details also randomized. This can include skin color, sex, clothes, facial structure, etc. Their clothes will match their occupation. In the premium version of the game, the visual representation of a dwarf can be seen. They can be given one of eight types of faces, with one of four types of skin colors.
Like most other humanoids in the game, they appear as purple when undead, light purple as a necromancer, light green as a vampire, light blue as an intelligent undead, green and transparent as ghosts, yellow as a disturbed dead/mummy and crimson red as an infected ghoul.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- It is possible for the player's fortress to be sieged by other dwarves. This can happen due to angering another dwarven civilization, including attacking them or having a noble belonging to them dying in your fortress (in which the cause never matters). This can also occur if the history generated during map creation randomly decides to make your civilization an enemy to another dwarven one.
- The player starting with 7 dwarves is an obvious reference to Snow White and The Seven Dwarves.
- Strangely enough, dwarves can (if the procedural generation sets a dwarf up this way by chance) come to like creatures that would normally be disgusting, hostile and/or horrifying in some way. This can include many nasty rodents, megabeasts and even goblins - their sworn enemies.
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 Heroes 
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Main Races & Allies Immortals, Undead & Night Creatures Other | ||