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Animal person
v50.14 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF.Note that some content may still need to be updated. |
Animal people are half-man, half-beast creatures with various animal-like traits (such as flying, thievery, and poisons), inherited from their base animal. They generally have significantly longer lifespans than their base animals, as well as the ability to learn. Animal people can join civilizations and live in sites. They can also come to your fort as visitors.
Animal people are playable creatures in adventure mode. If they became established members of a playable civ (dwarf, elf, human), they will appear listed in the creature selection screen alongside the main races. Otherwise, they are selectable under Intelligent Wilderness Creature. Some animal people may not be available due to having died out or being uncontacted (e.g. excluded to an isolated island).
Wild animal people wander on the surface in savage environments or dwell underground in the caverns; these two populations form distinct groups. Subterranean animal people are actually a civilization in themselves, rarely encountered, in small groups or "tribes". They are equipped with primitive weaponry such as wooden spears and blowguns (they are the only known source of blowdarts). Subterranean animal people will be labeled as Hostile upon discovery. They are not interested in negotiations and will attack your dwarves on sight. Encountering them often comes as a surprise, since there is no way to know about their presence before embarking. They do not appear in the civilizations menu.
Subterranean animal people are also found in generated sewers, formed from a collection of outcasts.
Subterranean animal people
aAmphibian manaAntmanbBat manfCave fish mansCave swallow manoOlm manrReptile manrRodent mansSerpent man
Ethics
Being an entity in their own right, subterranean animal people possess ethics much like other civs. Those particular ethics are incomplete for now — being directly copied from kobolds and their values all set to zero (none).
Like kobolds, subterranean animal people consider the killing of other living beings acceptable, but treason is unthinkable, and they'll respond to the murder of their own kind by exiling the offender from their tribe. They oppose torturing for information and the torture of animals, but consider torturing for fun appropriate. Assault is considered a personal matter, while slavery, the taking of animal trophies, and the consumption of sapient beings (which includes other animal people) are all unthinkable acts.
Other animal people
Animal people organized by Attributes
@ Probably only functions as a Citizen in Fortress Mode (Needs Testing/Verification)
+ Probably only functions in Adventure Mode (Needs Testing/Verification)
(#) Probably only functions for procedurally generated "mob spawns" and not for adventurers (Needs Testing/Verification)
(All animal people have the Learning and Humanoid Attributes)
History
Present from the first official release of the game, the animal people did not exist as a class but were instead part of a small group of subterranean creatures that harassed your dwarves. Frogmen, lizardmen, and snakemen emerged from cave rivers, and antmen, batmen, and ratmen would come out from chasms to attack.
v0.27.169.32a released three-dimensional worlds, and subterranean creatures were moved to flock near generated chasms, underground rivers, and underground pools. Cave swallowmen and olmmen were introduced. The first set of above-ground savage animal people were also introduced: leechmen, snailmen, slugmen, and tigermen.
In v0.31, every creature was renamed and/or had their properties revamped (for example, "frogman" was changed to "amphibian man" and "batman" was changed to "bat man"). Not all animal people were redefined in this version, and some continued to use old codes for many releases. The version also introduced "creature variation" templates, which made converting existing animals to humanoid (and giant) variations much more efficient. Underground features were expanded to the current caverns, and subterranean animal people formed civilizations. More anthropomorphic variations of animals present at the time were added.
More animal people were added to the game in v0.34.
v0.42.01 allowed animal people to join civilizations, live in sites, and visit forts. Animal people became playable as adventurers. (A grizzly bear hammerman has much to offer a dwarven society.) v0.42.04 added more animal people to the game.
Bugs
- Humanoid versions of animals with the
[MEANDERER]token will keep it when converted, leading to severe issues with their pathfinding. These animal people will move extremely slowly unless performing a task.Bug:9588