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v0.34:Vampire
| This article is about an older version of DF. |
Vampires are night 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.
Vampirism is believed to be spreadable (in fortress mode) by drinking water that has been contaminated by vampire blood. Also, in adventurer 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 may be preferable to regular dwarves because they don't need to eat, drink, or sleep.
Vampires In Fortress mode
In a fortress, 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 squad just like a normal dwarf. The exception of course is that rather than partaking of a fortress's provisions, they help themselves to the blood of the unwary to sustain their unnatural existence, living long and dark lives. Vampires will from time to time drink the blood of dwarves that they catch sleeping, whomever they can get their hands upon fangs into. This often kills the victim, but sometimes leaves them alive but weakened and unaware of what has happened to them.
If they are caught in the act of draining a victim, the crime will be reported in the justice screen as a murder; 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 managers of such things.
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 migrate to your fortress are sometimes indicated by an abnormally massive list of former group associations in their Thoughts and Preferences screen, 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. Furthermore, they are likely to have very large lists of relatives, none of whom can be found within the fortress itself (in stark contrast to the parents, siblings or cousins whom most dwarves will share their home with). Their biographies also indicate that they 'have the appearance of somebody who is (x) years old', which is a very good indicator of a vampire. Note, however, that lacking relatives within the fortress is not an automatic indicator of being a vampire.
If a specific dwarf is suspected of vampirism, his/her personality can be scrutinized for abnormalities. As vampires do not eat, sleep, or drink, they will never have recent thoughts about meals, drinks, beds, dining rooms, or chairs. Then you can check it directly. You have to lock the possible vampire into a room or burrow without food or alcohol. If the dwarf does not get thirsty by the time he or she is a vampire. 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 who have immigrated, 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," "s/he has not had a drink in far, far too long," or "can't even remember the last time s/he had some," indicating that they have been sober of alcohol for a time.
Vampire immigrants frequently have very high social skills, and one or more skills at the "Great" level. By itself, this may not be sufficient evidence to prove a dwarf is a vampire, but it is a frequent indicator. Their high social skills often help them assume positions of authority, such as Mayor, and it is possible (albeit not necessarily sensible) to use them as a highly-trained broker.
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 justice into one's 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 correctly 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 claims your entire population. Be wary of ghosts, though, as they are the only being capable of reaching your vampire's eternal prison. Simply wait for the fun to pass and new immigrants to repopulate your otherwise abandoned fort.
Consider placing a chair and table in your vampire's sealed room and making them an undead accountant. As they have nothing to do but sit around for eternity, once they get their skills up they make exceedingly effective managers/record keepers (work orders and stockpile updates currently seem to be psychically transmitted from the desk of the dwarf assigned to those labors, so entombing them in their office isn't an issue).
As another bonus, you can use him for a sleepless, un-eating and drinking dwarf who is always ready for some lever pulling, even if the rest of your dwarves die. You could even fill your fort with bridges, link them all to a lever in his isolation cell, and pull the lever repeatedly to remove any enemies short of a dragon.
Dealing with Vampires
Although keeping a single vampire in eternal solitary confinement can be a bonus for any fortress, it is always important to be capable of killing them whenever necessary (especially if the peasants unwittingly elect one as their leader and an unfortunate accident becomes necessary). However, vampires have certain abilities which will make it more difficult to properly take care of them - they cannot drown, and their physical strengths could make them tougher to kill with regular weapons. Fortunately, they are not resistant to high-tech particle physics experimentation.
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 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.
Creating new vampires
New vampires are created whenever a dwarf drinks the blood of a vampire so by contaminating the well with blood and cutting of the booze supply one can create a large population of vampires.