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40d:Children
Dwarves are considered children for their first twelve years. They learn how to become a dwarf through living in and participating in dwarven society with no formal schools, apprenticeships or other formal learning; even parenting seems quite minimal.
In fortress mode, some migrant dwarves are married and may have children on rare occasions. Children who immigrate to your fortress might be any age from 2 to 12, and there is no way to determine the age of a child.
Your dwarves may also give birth to children too, but how to get your dwarves to have children is unknown. Some fortresses seem to have a higher fertility rate then others.
Labor
Children may not be assigned any labors, but perform some activities without any intervention:
- socialising, through arranging parties in meeting halls;
- harvesting crops, if the 'All dwarves harvest' order is on;
- remove constructions (such as walls, floors, ramps);
- pull levers;
- haul items to the trade depot;
- eat, drink, and sleep as necessary.
Children may not be assigned to the nobility.
Diet
Children seem to eat and drink with similar preferences to adult dwarves, including a preference for alcohol over plain water.
Kidnapping
Children are also the target of goblin snatchers, who will sneak into your fortress and try to kidnap the young dwarf in a sack. Like stolen objects, children who are removed from the map are lost forever.
Moods
Strange moods effect children in the same way as adults. Experience gained through a strange mood will lead to the dwarf having legendary skill in either woodcrafting, bone carving or stonecrafting, depending on the artifact made.
Adulthood
At the age of twelve, children become an adult dwarf. While most then become unskilled peasants, those who have successfully completed a strange mood other than possession will become legendary craftsdwarf, while those who help in harvesting plants throughout childhood may received sufficient experience points towards the grower skill to be grand master grower.
Dwarven parenthood
For some odd reason, males can give birth to children. That ain't right.
As an oversight in programming, children's parents can become so preoccupied with finding their children that they can die of thirst. This is aimed to be fixed at a later update.