| “ | Urist likes humans for their stature. | „ |
| ~ In-game characters expressing like for humans, which can be found in the game's .raw files. Urist being anyone with a name. |
Humans are the secondary protagonistic race of the indie management and simulation game, Dwarf Fortress. By default, they are often allies of dwarves, and sometimes elves. Humans are non-playable allies or enemies in the game's "Fortress Mode", but are playable in "Adventure Mode".
Due to the procedural generation of the world and civilizations in the game, coupled with the fact that many elements can be customized by the player, the strength, placement and disposition of humans may vary greatly.
Out of every other race, humans appear to have the closest relationship to dwarves, frequently appearing to trade with the dwarves, and even as the most frequent visitors to a dwarven fortress aside from other dwarves themselves. This can change if the player chooses to embark in an area very far from human settlements.
Overview[]
Human sprite in v50 of the game.
In the original version of the game, or if classic ASCII graphics are enabled in the premium version, humans will appear as a cyan "U" in gameplay. In the premium version of the game, humans 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.
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.
Humans are cooperative and friendly by default, but will fight back with aggressive force if provoked, or if a high-ranking official of theirs dies in a town not governed by them, regardless of the reason of said official's death. They are primarily interested in trading, and begin sending caravans to other towns starting in the summer. More often than not, humans provide the best, most useful trading goods in the game. They are also a good source for items that dwarves cannot make themselves.
In contrast to dwarves, that prefer to live underground, humans (like almost all other forms of life in the game) prefer to live above-ground in homes made entirely of wood. In the case of castles, stone and metal are the used as the building materials. They prefer to live in plains, or generally open areas where building and expansion is easy. During the time period of the game, the life expectancy of humans in real-life was roughly in the mid 60s. However, in the game, humans can live up to 120 years.
If human caravans are destroyed too many times near the player's fortress, or if a human diplomat is killed in said fortress, humans will begin a siege against the player's settlement. Diplomats and nobles can be found living in castles in "Fortress Mode", where they can give quests to the player if enough notoriety is gained.
Like dwarves, every human is given a pre-generated, detailed personality: likes, dislikes, religious views, values, fears, preferences and traditions. Attributes are also pre-generated for humans, which control how they handle any situation. Though this information is not as readily available to the player is it for dwarves.
If a dwarven fortress has a tavern, humans will regularly visit it. Some may stay in the fortress and become citizens (though this takes 2 years), making them laborers for the player's fortress. They can perform songs, socially interact, tell stories and poetry when visiting. Humans are capable of holding weapons the dwarves cannot, which include two-handed swords, mauls and pikes.
Dwarves can suffer from "cave adaptation", which causes them to get sick upon reaching the surface after spending a long time underground. Humans, however, do not suffer from this. Though dialogue presented by humans appear to be in English, they (like a few other races in the game) also have their own fictional language that is procedurally generated by the game.
Like dwarves, humans worship different kinds of deities, and the randomized spheres of influence connected to those deities.
Ethics[]
At the start of the game, humans start out friendly and supportive of dwarves, and as enemies to goblins and sometimes elves. Devouring sentient beings is seen as a horrific crime, and find torture for sport and pleasure as appalling, though routinely use torture themselves as a means of extracting information.
Humans also find killing and keeping trophies of animals perfectly acceptable. Killing goes unpunished if there's some sort of justified reasoning behind it. Humans also find the killing of neutral beings perfectly fine as long as there's no punishment involved. Slavery is also acceptable. Any standard crime: assault, unjustified murder, theft, trespassing and vandalism are punishable by death. These ethics can slightly vary between games, as to provide variety and flexibility for humans.
Gallery[]
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 Heroes 
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Main Races & Allies Immortals, Undead & Night Creatures Other | ||