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v0.34:Vampire
| This article is about an older version of DF. |
Vampires are creatures that live off of blood, cursed in world generation by profaning against certain gods. In Fortress Mode, they occasionally appear in migrant waves and hide themselves amongst your dwarves. They can turn others into vampires by biting them. Also, in adventure mode, if you drink vampire blood, this will immediately change your character into a vampire.
Having a vampire as the last "dwarf" standing in fortress mode will not trigger a "game-over" screen- in fact, they are preferable to regular dwarves because they don't need to eat, drink, or sleep.
Vampires In Fortress mode
In a fort a vampire acts similar to any other dwarf, except for subtle differences too small to notice easily in any sizable population. A vampire will act like any other citizen of your fortress, performing jobs which are assigned to them and generally acting normally. They can be assigned to burrows, be given or claim rooms, possess items, and even be drafted into a military just like a normal dwarf. The exception of course, is that rather than partaking of a fortresses provisions they help themselves to the blood of the unwary to sustain their unnatural existence, living long and dark lives. Vampires will drink the blood of dwarves who they catch sleeping from time to time, whomever they can get their hands upon. This often kills the victim, but sometimes leaves them alive but weakened and unawares of what has happened to them. This can also transfer the curse forwards; making the victim a new vampire as well. If they are caught in the act of draining a victim, the crime will be reported in the justice screen as a murder, and if such a corpse is discovered it will be listed as a murder with no suspects. Even in the case that someone is accused, be aware that the deceitful vampire is capable of framing others for its crimes to send suspicion away for a time. Vampires routinely lie about their past so as to avoid identification by others, going so far as to adopt a false name when entering a new fortress. If a vampire is killed, the corpse will bear the original name of the creature rather than that of the dwarf who was seen to die, which might lead to some confusion among we managers of such things. Curiously, this leads to the effect that vampires will not display custom profession or nickname if given one in the customize screen.
Identifying a Vampire
In Fortress mode, the presence of a vampire will be indicated by either the appearance of dwarves who have mysteriously acquired the 'pale' or 'faint' statuses without having apparently been wounded, or more obviously the discovery of a corpse which has been drained of all its blood.
Vampires who migrated to your fortress are sometimes indicated by an abnormally massive list of former group associations in the status menu, indicating that they are much longer lived than normal. Although this could result in false positives, it is a decent litmus test in cases where two dwarves accuse each other, as vampires will sometimes counteraccuse those who catch them sucking blood in order to avoid suspicion. If a specific dwarf is suspected of vampirism, their personalities can be scrutinized for abnormalities. As they do not eat or drink, they will never have recent thoughts about meals, drinks, beds, dining rooms, or chairs. They may also have an unusually large number of children or the aforementioned group associations, indicating their long lives. In the case of older vampires, particularly those whom have migrated, in the line which speaks about needing alcohol to get through the working day a comment may be added to the effect that 's/he could really use a drink', or 's/he has not had a drink in far, far too long' indicating that they have been sober of alcohol for a time. As vampires have swapped booze for blood, these ominous comments can be telltale signs of vampiric dwarves in forts which have a steady supply of alcohol.
Defense against Vampires
Vampires attack and drink from dwarves who are sleeping, so one defense is to force all dwarves to sleep and meet in the same room, increasing the likelihood of eyewitnesses catching the monster in the act. Curiously, even if convicted of a vampiric murder, a convicted vampire will not necessarily be killed, but given a normal justice penalty such as temporary imprisonment. In this case, it is advisable to take dwarven law into ones own hands and introduce the leech to a pit of lava, bottomless pit, arena fight, dropping tower, or other elimination method of your choice.
Uses for Vampires
If you can correct identify a vampire and isolate it from the rest of your population you can make use of them without fear of blood feedings. A lone vampire in a sealed room will never die of hunger or thirst, doesn't need to sleep, and will never age. The only way a vampire can die (without your vengeful intervention) is in combat, through syndromes, or through insanity. Sealing it somewhere prevents the first two, and early detection will prevent the vampire from making friends who he will obviously outlive. Since a vampire wants for so little it is difficult for him to fall into insanity without relationships.
Once you have your sealed emotionally detached vampire your fortress becomes effectively eternal, since the vampire will always be alive even if horrible FUN claim your entire population. Be wary of ghosts though, as they are the only being capable of reaching your vampires eternal prison. Simply wait for the fun to pass and new immigrants to repopulate your otherwise abandoned fort.
Vampires abroad
In the wider world vampires continue the sort of behavior they exhibit in a fortress: deception and predation. Younger vampires stalk the streets of towns and cities, indistinguishable from the average mortal, and drink the blood of unsuspecting innocents. Elder vampires, those with power and ambition, mislead the gullible and power-hungry into forming vampire cults dedicated to worshipping and feeding their master. Should a vampire even rise to a position of power in mortal society, it may deign to expose itself, and impose a rule of tyranny upon the subjects who so unknowingly elevated it to power.