40d:Legendary artifact

Dwarves in strange moods will create legendary artifacts: unique, "named" items which are of unsurpassable quality (and usually cost). An artifact is the ultimate expression of a dwarf's desires, fears, memories and hopes in art form, and each dwarf will produce only one in their lives (or die trying). Dwarves that create artifact are often granted the status of legendary.

Dwarves will normally carry the artifacts they create until they die, lose the limb in which it is held, or throw it away in a tantrum. A dwarf carrying a job item artifact, such as a pick or an axe, will use it to perform that job. A dwarf with an artifact weapon will use it to great effect in battle if drafted or forced to engage in combat. Drafting them into the military can sometimes have the effect of causing them to drop the artifact, this may be related to weapon assignment [need further research into this]. Once it has been dropped, they will not pick it up again under any circumstances, except for hauling purposes. Any dwarf that creates a heavy artifact (such as a floodgate) will inevitably be slowed down by the burden.

Artifacts were originally set to have a 5 year timer (possibly varying as much as a few years). When reached, an event will happen (also reported to go down in history), and the dwarf will either drop the artifact, become obsessed with it and carry it around as normal, or become nervous and hide it. The timer is currently bugged and is a great deal longer than normal, so much so that most fortresses may never see such an event unless they have been running a very long time and have managed to keep their artifact-wielding dwarves alive. As of v0.27.176.38c, dwarves will no longer carry artifacts around obsessively, and will instead drop them as soon as they are made. They can then be used just like other items. However, be warned that according to current bug reports, when a dwarf equips an artifact item (as a weapon or armour) he will never drop it, and may even carry around several artifact weapons in each hand. Of course, you might not see having a champion swordswarf wielding eight artifact adamantine scimitars at once as a bad thing.

Artifacts cannot be destroyed unless lost in a chasm. They can be stolen by marauding parties; an artifact lost to you will have a note to that effect in the Artifacts screen.

Artifact items have a quality modifier of 120×. This is applied on top of the item's base value, its decorations and the value of all materials used in its construction. Dwarves will use anywhere from one to ten items in their construction. If you view ([q]) the workshop a dwarf has seized while the dwarf is in it, you can see what materials he or she plans to use (see strange moods for further details).

Artifacts will automatically have one "free" decoration of the same type as its base material. For instance, a "Perfect Ruby" might have "Images of mangrove trees in Ruby". This decoration doesn't consume additional materials: in the above example, only one ruby was used.

Artifacts can range in value from 2,400☼ to well over 100,000☼ (for the curious, the limit is 648,000☼ if adamantine isn't used). Since immigration totals are based on your fortress's "Created Wealth" (and held/worn items count double in the total), expensive artifacts are commonly the driving factor behind how many immigrants show up each year.