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Baron

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Baron
Room requirements  
Office Decent Office
Quarters Decent Quarters
Dining room Decent Dining Room
Tomb Tomb
Furniture requirements
Chests 2
Cabinets 1
Weapon racks 1
Armor stands 1
Other
Mandates 1
Demands 2
Arrival conditions
  • 20 Population
  • 100 000☼ Produced wealth
  • 10 000☼ Exported wealth
Function
This article is about the current version of DF.
Note that some content may still need to be updated.

When a fortress meets certain requirements, the liaison will offer to make it a barony. The player will then have the option to choose a citizen to promote to the rank of baron, which will take effect when the liaison leaves the map ("Do you have any dwarves to recommend for elevation?"). This offer can be temporarily rejected (by choosing the "we'd rather keep our distance" option or by canceling out of the selection screen after agreeing), deferring the choice until the liaison's next visit. Until the offer is accepted and a candidate nominated, the liaison(s) will not negotiate trade agreements. The promotion screen (see example below) displays only the names and titles of potential candidates. As of v0.50, it is possible to hit esc to close the diplomacy window, search for potential candidates in the units menu and come back to the diplomacy window to appoint the new baron accordingly. A baron is required for your fortress to receive wagons in dwarven and human caravans. If baron gets killed, or lost on an off site mission, you will no longer get wagons (bug?).

It is also possible for a citizen to inherit a baron(ess) title, even from another site, immediately giving that citizen noble status. This can potentially result in the fortress becoming overrun with baron(esse)s that will never leave for the sites that they are the rulers of.

If the appointed baron(ess) is married, then the spouse will become the baron(ess) consort, and will be considered an unlisted noble (doesn't appear in the noble menu, but is listed as a noble in the units menu).

Once appointed, the local baron(ess) can issue mandates and demands, and these will be strongly influenced by his or her personal preferences. Of particular note, a baron(ess) with no item preferences will never issue any mandates (but may still make demands). If a non-mandater is appointed, it may be a good idea to supply additional happy thoughts for him/her to replace those that would have been experienced from having mandates met.

The selected baron(ess) may still perform useful labor from his/her normal life (as a miner, for example). However, as the baron is supposed to be a lazy noble, this seems to be an unintended, broken behaviour in all pre-0.50.xx versions (so far) and might be fixed in future releases.

If a baron dies, goes insane, or has an unfortunate accident, players will not be able to appoint a new baron (Bug 2960) and consequently cannot get other nobles which are upgraded from baron, i.e. count and duke. However, in at least some situations, the fortress can still eventually become the seat of the monarchy of its civilization, in which case a baron (or count/duke) for the fortress at least sometimes arrives as part of the monarch's entourage.

A picture detailing how a baron is appointed. ASCII mode.
Appointed
Military Ranks
Elected
Aristocrats
BaronCountDukeMonarch
Other
Unused
Elven