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v0.34:Ghost
| This article is about an older version of DF. |
 | This feature has one or more outstanding bugs. Please view the Bugs section for details. |
 This article or section contains minor spoilers. You may want to avoid reading it.
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After the death of an intelligent creature or a dwarf (zing!), its soul may occasionally come back as a ghost Ñ. In a Dwarven fortress, dead dwarves have a chance of returning as ghosts if they are not properly buried or memorialized after their death. Ghosts often take to haunting their relatives and friends, following them around on the same tile, as well as lingering wistfully near areas they frequented in life or the spot they died. However, not all ghosts bear their anguish calmly.
Ghosts are able to pass through walls and cannot be harmed by atom-smashing. They can be targeted in the Squad kill screen (s,k) even though they won't actually be attacked. Ghosts can be dismissed by burying the remains or by building engraving rock slabs in memory of the deceased.
Paranormal Activity
Ghosts haunting the fortress will occasionally perform some of the following actions, based on their temperament:
- <ghost> sucks the wind out of <dwarf>
- <ghost> raises a high fever in <dwarf>
- <ghost> makes <dwarf> convulse and retch
- <ghost> inflicts excruciating pain upon <dwarf>
- <ghost> causes a spell of dizziness in <dwarf>
- <ghost> paralyzes <dwarf>
- <ghost> stuns <dwarf>
- <ghost> batters <dwarf>
- <dwarf> is throwing a tantrum, possessed by <ghost>
- <ghost> has risen and is haunting the fortress!
- <ghost> is following <dwarf>
- <item> has been misplaced. No doubt <ghost> is to blame!
- <ghost> is throwing objects around the fortress!
- <ghost> can be heard howling throughout the fortress!
The ghost's activities may be determined by the nature of its death. The following table summarizes the different types of ghosts. If you "slab" a ghost and then re-arise it by deconstructing the slab, it may change type.
| Type | Cause | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Murderous Ghost | ? | Murders dwarves. |
| Sadistic Ghost | ? | Batters, scares and paralyses dwarves. Capable of scaring a dwarf to death. |
| Violent Ghost | ? | Batters dwarves, often but not always removing limbs. |
| Angry Ghost | ? | Batters dwarves. |
| Moaning Spirit | ? | Troubles one unfortunate dwarf at a time. |
| Howling Spirit | ? | Makes sleeping difficult. |
| Secretive Poltergeist | ? | Misplaces Items. |
| Energetic Poltergeist | ? | Topples furniture, such as chairs. |
| Troublesome Poltergeist | ? | Misplaces items, may topple furniture and pull levers.confirm? |
| Restless Haunt | ? | Drifts around place of death and frequented locations. Also haunts dwarves, causing unhappy thoughts. |
| Forlorn Haunt | ? | Drifts around place of death and frequented locations. |
Adventure mode
If you revisit your fortress during adventure mode, the ghosts found previously will still remain. Although, take care! The ghosts may attempt to 'scare you to death' almost instantly.
"Ghostly" Dwarves
Legends mode will identify some immigrants and historical figures as "ghostly," generating messages like "the ghostly dwarf Urist McHauntypants arrived in Cagesyrups." There doesn't appear to be any way of detecting this trait in fortress mode. Unlike the ghosts who are created during gameplay, these "ghostly" individuals seem to behave like normal dwarves, and can do jobs, fight and have children, without haunting anyone or trying to batter them to death. Confusingly, they can also die (again?) and become ghosts, although the specifics of this process remain unexplained.
Science on Ghosts
Cave-ins do not kill ghosts, perhaps because they can walk through walls already.
Ghosts are put to rest when any part of their body is put in a burial receptacle.[Verify] For example, should a dwarf lose a toe in a fight before dying, the toe can be recovered to put its ghost to rest.
Ghosts will also be put to rest if they are properly memorialized, which is usually preferable if the dwarf is not easily accessible.
Ghosts can open doors, even forbidden ones (leaving them unlocked).
Ghosts can be frozen in water.
It is possible for a ghost to become the outpost liaison of a civilization.
Bugs
Some ghost names can't be engraved on slabs, and some slabs can be engraved for nameless creatures. Bug:3708