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Mayor

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This article is about the current version of DF.
Note that some content may still need to be updated.

Mayor
Room requirements  
Office Decent Office
Quarters Decent Quarters
Dining room Decent Dining Room
Tomb None
Furniture requirements
Chests 2
Cabinets 1
Weapon racks 1
Armor stands 1
Other
Mandates 1
Demands 2
Arrival conditions
  • 50 population
  • Elected
Function
  • Meet with foreign dignitaries
  • Talk with unhappy citizens

The mayor is a noble whose job it is to speak with unhappy citizens, and (until a baron is appointed) entertain foreign diplomats. They are automatically elected from the most social dwarf, most likely the expedition leader, once the population reaches 50. A new mayor may be elected from time to time as your dwarves' social skills change.

Mayoral nobility[edit]

A dwarven mayor conducting a "meeting" with some goblin "liaisons".

A mayor or expedition leader is required to appoint other nobles. Should your leader suffer an unfortunate accident, you will have to wait for a new leader to be elected before appointing nobles.

Mayors are classy individuals, who require certain living standards in their rooms and furniture. They may demand certain types of furniture in their rooms and will get unhappy if you don't comply. They can mandate the production of certain goods, and receive a happy thought if you comply. If the mandated items are not produced in time, the mayor will receive an unhappy thought and will order the punishment of whoever they consider responsible. Likewise, they can prohibit the export of certain goods instead of mandating their construction, resulting in dwarves being punished for trade violations.

Mayors are not replaced by barons, dukes, counts or monarchs; if one of these nobles arrives, or if a citizen of your fortress is promoted to one of these positions, the mayor will still issue mandates and require quarters.

Mayoral elections[edit]

Mayors are elected for one year. Elections take place at exactly 4:00 PM on the 17th day of summer (specifically, 2000 season-ticks after the beginning of the season). If you don't have a mayor, then the election will happen at the beginning of every season, rather than just summer. If an election doesn't trigger after gaining 50 dwarves for whatever reason, any change in the nobles' screen, such as assigning the expedition leader's position as "leave vacant" will force an election.

When an election happens, it's usually the dwarf with the highest social skills who gets elected. In previous versions children had nothing to do but socialize, and did, therefore, gain lots of social skill, which carries over when a child becomes an adult at age 18 and therefore an 18-year-old mayor was not a rare sight. But in the current version, children prefer playing over socializing, and thus will only rarely become a mayor (with the possible exception of migrant children, who already had high social skill on arrival, and unhappy children constantly complaining). Prime candidates for mayor are vampires (who tend to have high social skills, if they have been around for a long time), tamed gremlins, and other non-working citizens of your fortress, since they cannot be put to work either. The mayor doesn't actually need to be a dwarf, any citizen can be elected - however, dwarves currently on a mission, or otherwise absent from the fortress, cannot.

If the player decides to do mass-trading with the broker (with as many trade transactions as possible), the main candidate for the mayor would be the broker (due to the high skill gain per trade transaction in comparison to normal socializing interactions), regardless of any competition, which is the only reliable way to make sure that a certain dwarf will (eventually) become (and stay) mayor.



Appointed
Military Ranks
Elected
Aristocrats
BaronCountDukeMonarch
Other
Unused
Elven