Noble

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v50.14 · 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

"Noble" in other Languages Dwarven: rîthol Elven: ramu Goblin: dösta Human: hal

Nobles and administrators are dwarves elevated to a position of rule over your fortress. Administrators perform a useful, specific task or duty unique to their position, such as managing work orders, trading with merchants, commanding military positions, or even stocks recording. An expedition leader or a mayor provides a critical happiness bonus to unhappy and stressed dwarves, who will yell at or cry on "someone in charge", and is also responsible for interacting with outpost liaisons.

Certain offices are automatically elected by your fortress's citizenry, rising to ranks mostly outside of the player's control, while most administrators can be directly appointed by the player, and can be promoted, demoted and replaced at any time. Administrators are colloquially known as "utility nobles", and internally both are a type of position.

Developed fortresses are offered the privilege of elevating a dwarf to a noble title, allowing the dwarven caravan the luxury of trading with high-capacity wagons. This is an optional victory goal of Fortress mode, and a fortress that chooses this path and produces enough wealth will see their chosen noble climb the echelons of society all the way to attracting the reigning monarch.

Higher-rank office-holders, such as nobles and the mayor, can make demands and set legally-binding mandates, which, if not met, will upset them and punish your dwarves for "oath-breaking" if the fortress has an active justice system. They are also well-aware of their social statuses and often want expensive, well-furnished rooms and other personal possessions, such as cabinets and armor stands, and some of them are pretentious and do not want a lower-rank dwarf to have a better room than them.

If a noble is too much of a problem and cannot be fired, it may be possible to arrange an unfortunate accident for them. Be careful, though, the death of a leader, especially a popular one like an elected mayor, may cause grief among the general populace, and may have additional consequences due to how leaders are chosen. Hereditary noble titles are not succeeded by dwarves in your fortress. A fortress lacking a mayor or an expedition leader will be temporarily unable to appoint new administrators manually until a new dwarf takes office.

It is possible for some of your dwarves to hold noble titles over other sites in the dwarven kingdom. These dwarves are still capable of issuing mandates in your fort, however, and demand the same sort of privileged treatment as any other noble. There is no further benefit to having multiple land-holders, so in the event you happen to have multiple barons or similar, it may be more productive to remove the noble whose title is not linked to your fortress in order to avoid the unnecessary hassle with mandates and demands. Note that office-holders, whether elected or appointed, cannot be peacefully exiled, as they are presumably in charge of the emigration orders in the first place.

Outside your fortress, positions such as the general and outpost liaison are also types of administrators that attend to national affairs, answering to the monarch of each dwarven civilization. Humans, elves and goblins have nobles of their own, with some of the positions of their civilizations being exclusive to them, such as human law-giver and elven druids. Humans and goblins are able to procedurally generate their government during world generation, with law-making officials able to create new positions for any number of reasons. While civilized, kobolds and subterranean animal people have no need for nobles or organized governments.

Menu

The nobles and administrators menu n, displaying a variety of positions. Those with room requirements are fulfilled, while the Mayor has a pending mandate.

The Nobles and administrators menu, opened with n or the n menu button, contains a list of the noble and administrator positions of your settlement. At the top is a description section, which may change to provide detail when hovering over different elements.

Each list entry contains the following columns (from left to right):

• The name of the position or the land name (like barony), with the name of the related squad below, if applicable.
• Button to change the current holder of the position, if applicable.
• An image of the current holder of the position, if there is one.
• The name and profession of the current holder of the position (usually their profession is the position title), or VACANT or NEW if there is none.
• Button to give symbols to the noble. This gives the position holder an item, which is given a name at this time if it did not already have one.
• The current and required Study/Throne Room, Bedroom, Dining Room, Tomb, and Furniture for the position.
• Any mandates set by the noble.
• For the bookkeeper, the desired stocks display precision.

Triggers

Landholding nobles have triggers defined in the settings. The default requirements are listed below.

• Population - Minimum population required for this position to become available.
• Created Wealth - Minimum created wealth for this position to become available.
• Exported Wealth - Minimum exported wealth for this position to become available.

Land Holder	Population	Created Wealth	Exported Wealth
Baron	20	100k	10k
Count	20	200k	20k
Duke	20	300k	30k

Needs

Below are the room demands made by each position. For details on room values see: Zone quality and value. It also lists the number of chests, cabinets, weapon racks, and armor stands they demand. Finally, it shows the maximum number of demands and mandates they can issue at any given point.

Position	Quarters	Dining Room	Office	Tomb	Chests	Cabinets	Racks	Stands	Demands	Mandates
Baron	4Decent Quarters	4Decent Dining Room	4Decent Office	4Tomb	2	1	1	1	2	1
Bookkeeper	0—	0—	1Meager Office	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—
Broker	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—
Captain of the Guard	3Quarters	3Dining Room	3Office	0—	1	1	1	1	0—	0—
Champion	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	1	0—
Chief medical dwarf	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—
Count	6Great Bedroom	6Great Dining Room	6Throne Room	6Mausoleum	3	2	2	2	3	2
Diplomat	6Great Bedroom	6Great Dining Room	6Throne Room	0—	3	2	2	2	3	0—
Duke	7Grand Bedroom	7Grand Dining Room	7Opulent Throne Room	7Grand Mausoleum	5	3	3	3	5	3
Dungeon master	3Quarters	3Dining Room	3Office	0—	1	1	1	1	0—	0—
Expedition leader	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—
General	3Quarters	3Dining Room	4Decent Office	1Grave	2	1	3	3	2	0—
Hammerer	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—
Manager	0—	0—	1Meager Office	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—
Mayor	4Decent Quarters	4Decent Dining Room	4Decent Office	0—	2	1	1	1	2	1
Militia captain	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—
Militia commander	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—	0—
Monarch	8Royal Bedroom	8Royal Dining Room	8Royal Throne Room	8Royal Mausoleum	910	5	5	5	910	5
Outpost liaison	6Great Bedroom	6Great Dining Room	6Throne Room	0—	3	2	2	2	3	0—
Sheriff	2Modest Quarters	2Modest Dining Room	2Modest Office	0—	1	1	1	1	0—	0—

Notes

This shows various notes for each position taken from the raws.

• # - lists whether one or more dwarves can have this position. Duke/Count/Baron don't have a number listed, but each fortress can only have one.
• Squad - Lists the number and type of dwarf that this position leads.
• Spouse - The noble's spouse is also considered a noble, being called "[noble] consort". No (functional) privileges are attached to them, except of course the fact that they share the rooms with their spouse.
• Heir - Is this individual replaced by an heir when they die?
• Appointed By - Which position appoints this person initially? Note that the player actually controls all appointments via the nobles screen; this is, in effect, only which dwarf is necessary before the player can make the appointment. Barons aren't directly appointed but elevated (presumably by the Mountainhome) upon recommendation of the player. They cannot be replaced via the nobles screen. Once a baron/countess/duke dies, the outpost liason will not offer elevation again. There is no guarantee your fortress will receive a successor, either.
• Replaced By - What position replaces this one?
• Pop Req - Minimum population required for this position to become available.
• Wealth Req - Minimum created & exported wealth (respectively) for this position to become available.
• Elected - Is this dwarf elected?
• Lazy - Such nobles won't do any regular labors aside from pulling levers, deconstructing walls, and some other things. Currently non-functional, so "lazy" nobles can still be assigned to perform any labor.
• Immunity - Immune dwarves aren't punished for any crimes.
• Econ Exempt - These dwarves don't need money to pay for goods or rooms after the economy arrives. Due to the economy currently being disabled, this privilege goes unused for now.
• Military Screen Only - This position is only listed on the military screen.
• Jealous - These dwarves will become upset if their rooms are not better than those of "lesser" dwarves. They don't have to see the rooms to become upset, since they somehow just know such rooms exist. Positions are sorted by their precedence in the nobles screen, with more important dwarves sorted above lower ranks.

Position	#	Squad	Spouse	Heir	Appointed By	Replaced By	Pop Req	Wealth Req	Elected	Lazy	Immunity	Econ Exempt	Military Screen Only	Jealous
Baron	-	-	Yes	Yes	Monarch	Count	20	100k / 10k	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	Yes
Bookkeeper	1	-	-	-	Exp.Leader/Mayor	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Broker	1	-	-	-	Exp.Leader/Mayor	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Captain of the Guard	1	10:Fortress Guard	-	-	Exp.Leader/Mayor	-	50	-	-	-	-	Yes	-	-
Champion	1	-	-	-	Duke/Count/Baron	-	-	-	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-
Chief Medical Dwarf	1	-	-	-	Exp.Leader/Mayor	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Count	-	-	Yes	Yes	Monarch	Duke	20	200k / 20k	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	Yes
Diplomat	1	-	-	-	Monarch	-	-	-	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	Yes
Duke	-	-	Yes	Yes	Monarch	-	20	300k / 30k	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	Yes
Expedition Leader	1	-	-	-	-	Mayor	-	-	-	-	-	Yes	-	-
General	1	10:Soldier	-	-	Monarch	-	-	-	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	Yes
Hammerer	1	-	-	-	Exp.Leader/Mayor	-	-	-	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-
Manager	1	-	-	-	Exp.Leader/Mayor	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Mayor	1	-	-	-	-	-	50	-	Yes	-	-	Yes	-	-
Militia Captain	1+	10:Militia-dwarf	-	-	Militia Commander	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Yes	-
Militia Commander	1	10:Militia-dwarf	-	-	Exp.Leader/Mayor	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Monarch	1	-	Yes	Yes	Armok himself	-	140	It's complicated	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	Yes
Outpost Liaison	1	-	-	-	Monarch	-	-	-	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	Yes
Sheriff	1	-	-	-	Exp.Leader/Mayor	Captain of the Guard	-	-	-	-	-	Yes	-	-

Appointing Administrators

Appointed positions are chosen by the player via the nobles and administrators menu n (representing them being appointed by higher-ranking leaders; see below). There are certain skills that are relevant for each administrator's responsibilities, and not all dwarves will gain experience in the given skill. Some dwarves will never gain experience in certain social skills, this is determined by each dwarf's personal traits, and it is therefore important to select the dwarf with the appropriate set of traits for each position.

When choosing a dwarf to assign to a position, the list of choices is sorted by the skill relevant to the job. This is especially important when appointing administrators.

• Military leaders (captains of the guard, militia commanders, and militia captains) use the leader and military tactics skills, among others.

• managers use the organizer skill.

• Chief medical dwarves are usually appointed based on their qualifications as a diagnostician, though of course you need more than just diagnosis for a functional hospital.

• brokers most critically use the judge of intent and appraiser skill, with other social skills moderately useful in negotiating deals.

• bookkeepers have their very own record keeper skill.

In-universe, when you appoint a leader, the new orders don't just descend from on high - instead, a higher-ranking official will actually appoint someone to the position. All appointed positions aside from the militia captain are appointed by the expedition leader, or the mayor that replaces them when your fort's population reaches a certain point. Militia captain positions are instead appointed by the militia commander, and the commander must return from any missions before any appointments can be made. If your fort doesn't have the relevant higher-ranking official for some reason, you can't appoint certain positions until they are replaced.

General nobility mechanics

The nobles in your own fortress, your civilization, as well as other types of civilizations use a standardized set of mechanics. These may be seen in the elves, humans or goblins or in modded civilizations.

Nobles in other civilizations

Main article: Advanced Entity Position Mechanics

There are two basic kinds of nobles: civ-level and site-level. Positions with the [SITE] tag are site-level, those without it are civ-level. These types of nobles can be regarded as completely separate systems; with the lone exception of [LAND_HOLDER] related appointments (which have their own specific rules), civ-level nobles cannot appoint, succeed, or be replaced by site-level positions, and vice versa.

Outside of Fortress mode, the game will always attempt to assign nobles whenever possible (except for those with [NUMBER:AS_NEEDED]). So the rules for when nobles appear are controlled by the tags which limit them.

• Nobles with [APPOINTED_BY:position] require a noble of the designated position.
• Nobles with [REQUIRES_POPULATION] require the population to have a specific size.
• Nobles with [REQUIRES_MARKET] will only appear in "large" sites (which may have different rules for different site types). This tag has no effect in Fortress mode.

Positions that have no requirements will automatically be assigned to a random civ member when a new site/civ is created. A position that requires a certain population will not appear in fort mode unless it has [APPOINTED_BY] or [ELECTED], probably due to a bug. In worldgen, there is no functional difference between [ELECTED] and having no appointment rule except that elected nobles tend to have high social skills and/or skills related to the position, while non-elected ones are assigned randomly. If a noble dies or advances to a new position via succession, the position will be granted to another unit based on the [SUCCESSION] tag. If they have an heir or the position exists, the unit will be assigned. If not, a new one will be appointed according to the usual rules. It is possible to assign multiple levels of [SUCCESSION:BY_POSITION], creating a line of positions where the death of one causes all those "below" them to advance.

[REPLACED_BY:position] means that once the replacing position is available, the current position will disappear. As mentioned, site-level and civ-level positions are completely separate; a site position cannot be replaced by a civ-level one or vice versa.

These rules are followed in worldgen. It is possible to cause civs and individual sites to change their behavior substantially when they reach a certain size by controlling nobles. For example, if a site can only appoint a position with MILITARY_GOALS after reaching a particular size, that site will not send armies on missions until the required size is reached.

Another interesting point is that a civ-level LAW_MAKING position is required for the civilization to have any kind of cohesion. Without it, sites will be constantly embroiled in territorial disputes and civil wars will be commonplace.

Landholders and Positions

Main article: Why won't my positions appear?

The way DF determines what positions will actually appear in your fortress is somewhat counter-intuitive and fairly limiting. This guide should help you understand what you can do to actually get your positions working properly.

There are five tokens governing which positions appear in your fortress - [LAND_HOLDER], [REQUIRES_POPULATION], [APPOINTED_BY], [ELECTED], and [REPLACED_BY]. The first two determine when your fortress is eligible for a new position, the next two determine how a new position for which your fortress is eligible can be added, and the fifth allows you to clear up obsolete positions. Unfortunately, they also interact in some strange ways that makes creating interesting position structures difficult.

When you start a new fortress, DF compiles a list of your initial positions. To do this, it looks at the requirements for each position - any position whose only requirement is less than seven dwarves (either because they have no requirement tokens, or because their only requirement tokens are [REQUIRES_POPULATION: =< 7] or [LAND_HOLDER:some trigger whose only requirement is some number of dwarves equal to or less than 7]). Most importantly, any position whose only requirement is a [LAND_HOLDER] requirement, regardless of what the trigger for that requirement is, will be added if another eligible starting position is [REPLACED_BY] it. A non-[LAND_HOLDER] position that is [REPLACED_BY] a [LAND_HOLDER] position will never appear. With this list compiled, the game culls all positions that are [REPLACED_BY] another eligible position, and then culls all positions that have the [APPOINTED_BY] token. You may not embark with any appointed positions. Any remaining positions are then filled by a dwarf chosen at random.

Positions do not automatically appear when you reach their requirements. For example, if you remove the [ELECTED] token from the Mayor, then the Mayor will never appear, even once you reach their required number of dwarves. For a position that does not appear at embark to appear in your fortress, it must be [APPOINTED_BY] another position or [ELECTED].

Naturally, this is more complicated than it looks. [APPOINTED_BY] positions must be appointed by another position already in your fortress, or a civ-level position. Only [LAND_HOLDER] positions may be appointed by civ-level positions. [LAND_HOLDER] positions that are [APPOINTED_BY] civ-level positions are inherently tied to civ-level tokens with the ESTABLISH_COLONY_TRADE_AGREEMENTS responsibility.

If a fortress meets the [LAND_HOLDER_TRIGGER] for a new [LAND_HOLDER] tier when a caravan leaves, then the next time the outpost liaison or equivalent arrives, they will offer to make you an official colony, which will allow you to select all positions for that [LAND_HOLDER] level. Each time they appear, the outpost liaison will only promote your fortress one tier up the [LAND_HOLDER] track. The biggest problem with this system is that you may set your [LAND_HOLDER_TRIGGERS] such that you are eligible for the first tier of [LAND_HOLDER] positions at embark. If you are eligible for the first tier of [LAND_HOLDER] positions at embark, then all first-tier positions will appear twice - once at embark, and again when the outpost liaison comes to appoint you to the first tier.

Bugs

• Nobles may have impossible demands, like cardinal leather items or metal beds. ^Bug:944 (Feel free to arrange an unfortunate accident for the idiot in question) While no dwarves will get punished for not producing these items, it may enrage the noble.
• If your fort is unable to find a replacement for a noble, that noble will never be reappointed. ^Bug:5299
• New mayors and expedition leaders will be elected / "appointed by the monarch" after some time, but it might take a while, and in the meantime, you won't be able to appoint certain nobles. ^Bug:8129

Selecting Squads which contain Nobles

Here's a link to the DF forum, where some SCIENCE on Nobles in Squads has been conducted. http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=113639.msg3467517#msg3467517

This article or section has been rated D for Dwarf. It may include witty humour, not-so-witty humour, bad humour, in-jokes, pop culture references, and references to the Bay12 forums. Don't believe everything you read, and if you miss some of the references, don't worry. It was inevitable.

Although all many players often constantly get angry murderously mad at nobles, wiser players simply thank their lucky stars that Armok never created congressdwarves.

A human noble from times past.
Jacques Callot (1620-1623)

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

V · T · E Entities
Groups	Civilization  · Site government  · Religion · Army · Mercenary order · Criminals · Performance troupe · Merchant company · Guild
Laws	Citizenship · Ethics · Insurrection · Nobles
Diplomacy	Alliance · Claims · Factions · War

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Tasks t	Tasks
Places P	Zones • Locations • Stockpiles • Workshops • Farm plots
Labor y	Work details • Standing orders • Kitchen • Stone use
Work orders o	Work orders
Nobles and Administrators n	Nobles and Administrators
Objects O	Artifacts • Symbols • Named objects • Written content
Justice j	Open cases • Closed cases • Cold cases • Fortress Guard • Convicts • Intelligence