Outpost liaison

!!UNKNOWN!!  · xTATTEREDx  · +FINE+  · *SUPERIOR*  · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡  · ☼MASTERWORK☼

Outpost Liaison

Room requirements
Office	Throne Room
Quarters	Great Bedroom
Dining room	Great Dining Room
Tomb	Tomb
Furniture requirements
Chests	3
Cabinets	2
Weapon racks	2
Armor stands	2
Other
Mandates	None
Demands	3
Arrival conditions
Arrives with dwarven caravan each year (Temporary) Arrives with monarch (Permanent)
Function
None

v50.15 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF. Note that some content may still need to be updated. More Info · V

Our fortunes rise and fall together.

The outpost liaison is a special dwarven noble responsible for coordinating trade agreements with the capital. Once your fortress becomes the mountainhome, the liaison will migrate to it alongside the monarch. They possess moderate room requirements.

The outpost liaison lives at the mountainhome and visits your fortress at the same time as the dwarven caravan. The liaison will first bring news about events that happened elsewhere during the year, such as noble appointments or reclamation expeditions. The liaison will then seek to draw up a trade agreement: you'll be asked to indicate your demand for all the different kinds of goods; this will cause prices to be quoted, and will strongly influence the contents of next year's caravan. In return, the liaison will indicate the prices that will be paid for goods the dwarven civilization particularly desires (you are not obligated to trade any of those items). Also to note, after you make trade agreements they can be viewed in the civ screen. If you have satisfied the requirements for becoming a barony, the liaison will also grant you the opportunity to appoint a baron; upon satisfying the requirements for becoming a county or duchy, the liaison will also promote your baron to a count or duke. Note that these appointments/promotions only occur if the liaison leaves the map alive.

In the event that your leader is replaced, killed or taken by a strange mood, the liaison may decide to leave your fortress "unhappy".^Bug:576 Curiously, this will not occur if your leader is otherwise unable to perform the "conduct meeting" task. You can currently lock a liaison in a room and he will wait years to attend a meeting (and all subsequent diplomats appear to wait in line for the first to finish); this behavior is presumably a bug.^Bug:8947

An unhappy liaison will naturally prevent you from creating trade agreements, however it is not currently known what other effects this has on relations with the mountainhome. Whether the liaison successfully met with your leader or just gave up, a liaison who has decided to leave but is prevented from reaching the map edge will eventually go insane.

If the liaison is killed (or permanently detained), a new liaison will arrive the following year. It should be noted that you can order the Liaison to be killed through the "squads" screen, however, doing so will trigger a loyalty cascade.

The liaison's title does not change according to your fortress's status.

If your civilization does not currently have an appointed liaison (or if the liaison is already inside your fortress) you will receive this message in a lovely red text: No outpost liaison? How curious...   If your civilization is truly extinct, however, you will not receive this message.

Human trade representatives

Some human civilizations will send a trade representative to your fortress along with the caravan to negotiate trade agreements. This representative will have a procedurally generated job title, but will always greet you in the name of the merchant guild. Beyond this, the trade agreement works the same as the dwarven one. This offers opportunities like being able to ask for goods dwarves will normally not have access to, such as foreign weapons or tamed grizzly bears. On the other hand, clothing and armor supplied by the humans will be human-sized, and they do not have access to steel.

The Human trade representative does not visit as regularly as the outpost liaison. Trading large amounts of goods, offering valuable goods, and giving the humans profitable trades all seem to incentivize the arrival of the trade representative^[Verify].

If your civilization does not have one, the "fix/merchants" DFHack script can be used to add a "Guild Representative" position to all human civilizations which lack one.

Bugs

• The outpost liaison will occasionally just hang out in the tavern and never bother to meet with anyone.^Bug:9262

See also

• Diplomat

Raws

[POSITION:OUTPOST_LIAISON] [NAME:outpost liaison:outpost liaisons] [NUMBER:1] [RESPONSIBILITY:ESTABLISH_COLONY_TRADE_AGREEMENTS] [APPOINTED_BY:MONARCH] [PRECEDENCE:80] [MENIAL_WORK_EXEMPTION] [SLEEP_PRETENSION] [PUNISHMENT_EXEMPTION] [ACCOUNT_EXEMPT] [DO_NOT_CULL] [COLOR:7:0:1] [DUTY_BOUND] [DEMAND_MAX:3] [REQUIRED_BOXES:3] [REQUIRED_CABINETS:2] [REQUIRED_RACKS:2] [REQUIRED_STANDS:2] [REQUIRED_OFFICE:1500] [REQUIRED_BEDROOM:1500] [REQUIRED_DINING:1500]

V · T · E Nobles and Administrators
Appointed	Bookkeeper • Broker • Champion • Chief medical dwarf • Dungeon master • Hammerer • Manager • Messenger
Military Ranks	Militia captain • Militia commander • Sheriff • Captain of the guard
Elected	Expedition leader • Mayor
Aristocrats	Baron • Count • Duke • Monarch
Other	Consort • General • Outpost liaison
Unused	Captain • Diplomat • Lieutenant
Elven	Druid • Acolyte • Ranger captain