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Urist
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- This article is about the Dwarven name. For the weapon, see Dagger.
The first name Urist is generally accepted in the DF community as the generic dwarven name, and often used as a reference name if someone talks about a dwarf and doesn't have (or want to bother with) an actual name, similar to a generic Anglo/American called "Bob", a Russian being called "Ivan", or a Frenchman called "François", etc. etc.
This first name is almost always paired with a last name with the Gaelic surname prefix "Mc", e.g. "McMiner" or "McUselessNoble". The suffix of the surname is always a description of the dwarf or the dwarf's job, even though this is not a valid form for in-game dwarven names. The "Mc" probably stems from both the Scottish accents commonly given to dwarves in fantasy films and video games, and the stereotypes of Scots being drunk and violent, stereotypes also associated quite accurately with dwarves in Dwarf Fortress.
Examples
The correct pronunciation of "Urist" depends on dialect. Dwarves from your civilization will always pronounce it the right way. Everyone else is wrong.
Origins
The origin of the name's popularity seems to be the tale "One Dwarf Against the World," a well-received narrative style account of a hermit fortress played in the 2D version. That dwarf's full name was Urist Borushdumat (Raked-Roughness). Despite that dwarf having been female, the name is used for either gender of generic dwarf.
"Urist" is the dwarven word for "dagger", somewhat of a misnomer per se, as dwarves really aren't that sharp.
Other uses
Urist is also the term for the temperature units used by Toady One and has since been adopted by players.
It has also unofficially expanded to be the tongue-in-cheek unit of measurement for any dwarven measuring system. For example, an artifact valued at 100,000☼ (normally "dwarfbucks") could be valued "at 100,000 urists!", or a room could measure "100 square urists", meaning that the room was 10 by 10 tiles. The use of Urist (or dwarfbucks) as the unit of currency has been challenged recently, with Zathal being proffered, as an eroded form of the Dwarven Zatthudduthal (judged-worth).
In popular culture
- Typing "Urist" into the games Super Scribblenauts, Scribblenauts Remix and Scribblenauts Unlimited creates a dwarf.
- Immigrants in Papers, Please are occasionally named Urist.
- Urist McPrudent is a semi-random name in Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead.
- There is a chance that the Demolitionist NPC dwarf in Terraria can be named Urist.
- Members of the ship crew in the game Star Traders: Frontiers can spawn with the surname McUrist.
- The example email address used in Mailchimp's developer documentation is
Urist.McVankab@freddiesjokes.com - In Borderlands 3, a randomly-spawning mission will task you to kill Urist McEnforcer, a shorter dwarfish version of the game's usual Enforcer-type enemy.
- In Runescape the quest From Tiny Acorns contains a dwarf named Urist Loric. The quest also features other references to Dwarf Fortress.
- In Space Station 13 the default character's name is Urist McHands, and in Space Station 14 Urist is the default first name of debug NPCs spawned