Ethic

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v50.12 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF. Note that some content may still need to be updated. More Info · V

Ethic tags are used in the entity raw files to determine how different civilizations feel about various issues. Relationships between civilizations are based on their ethic responses in relation to each other; similar ethics result in friendship, while conflicting ethics result in animosity. Strongly conflicting ethics often trigger wars during world generation. (In practice, this generally causes elves to declare war on everybody else over killing plants and making trophies, and everybody else to declare war on the elves over the devouring of sapient beings.)

Some ethics also affect fortress mode features, such as justice, or trading. In adventurer mode, ethics can affect the level of conflict (lethal, or no quarter). During world generation, ethics also affect how the entity treats its kills, such as devouring them or making trophies out of them.

Example

In the raw files for entities, ethics appear as follows:

[ETHIC:LYING:PERSONAL_MATTER]

This means that the entity will treat lying as a personal matter. More technically, the value of its LYING ethic is set to PERSONAL_MATTER.

Ethic types

Token	Extra Information
ASSAULT	The result of a tantrumming citizen attacking another in fortress mode. Other effects unknown.
EAT_SAPIENT_KILL	This determines if the race will sometimes devour defeated enemy combatants.
EAT_SAPIENT_OTHER	This includes whether or not a race is willing to butcher other sapients. Note that due to a bug player forts will never butcher intelligent creatures in fortress mode (they are still willing to eat their meat though, should they have access to it). However this works as intended in adventure mode, worldgen, and offsite (caravans will deliver products made from sentients, etc.)
KILL_ANIMAL	A response between MISGUIDED and UNTHINKABLE (see below) causes the entity to refuse animal products in trade — namely, materials with [IMPLIES_ANIMAL_KILL]. If the civ will sell those animal products (because civ token), they will be marked as "grown" (example grown leather).
KILL_ENEMY	If REQUIRED, all lethal combat with an enemy who is an enemy of the whole entity will put the creature in no quarter mode.
KILL_ENTITY_MEMBER	If REQUIRED, all lethal combat with an enemy in the same entity will put the creature in no quarter mode. Determines whether and how often entity members will be murdered.
KILL_NEUTRAL	If REQUIRED, all lethal combat with an enemy who is neutral with the entity will put the creature in no quarter mode, and the creature will also demand that strangers identify themselves.
KILL_PLANT	This includes a race's position towards wood — a response between MISGUIDED and UNTHINKABLE (see below) causes the entity to refuse wooden objects (except for "grown" wooden objects) in trade, and also prohibits them from bringing caravan wagons. Caravans will sell grown wood objects (if the civ has WOOD_PREF) and even grown non-wood objects but that elves refuse to buy (if the civ uses misc processed wood products).
LYING	Giving false witness reports?[Verify]
MAKE_TROPHY_ANIMAL	This determines whether animal kills in world-gen will lead to characters with trophies.
MAKE_TROPHY_SAME_RACE	This determines whether kills of one's own race in world-gen will lead to characters with trophies. Historical figures can go to your fortress with jewellery of leather, tooth, hair, bone or nail from their race, even INTELLIGENT. Example: goblin with -goblin tooth ring-.
MAKE_TROPHY_SAPIENT	This determines whether kills of other sapients in world-gen will lead to characters with trophies. Like previous, but about other races, including INTELLIGENT.
OATH_BREAKING	The result of a citizen violating noble mandates in fortress mode. Other effects unknown.
SLAVERY	Civilization will enslave defeated enemies and bring them back to their site. Also affects whether you may trade caged sapient beings to merchants. Aside from diplomacy, higher/lower values don't seem to affect anything beyond if a civilization is willing to take slaves at all.[Verify]
THEFT	This determines whether the race will try to steal goods.
TORTURE_ANIMALS
TORTURE_AS_EXAMPLE	Civilization will sometimes execute non-combatants after defeating enemy defenders.
TORTURE_FOR_FUN
TORTURE_FOR_INFORMATION
TREASON	Protects position-holders from being murdered like everyone else – the reason that demon overlords of goblins manage to live for centuries, despite goblins' regard of killing each other as being a personal matter.
TRESPASSING	Ignoring burrow restrictions[Verify]
VANDALISM	The result of a tantruming citizen breaking furniture in fortress mode. Other effects unknown.

Ethic values

As used internally (see below), roughly in order of acceptability:

Num	Token
0	NOT_APPLICABLE
1	ACCEPTABLE
2	PERSONAL_MATTER
3	JUSTIFIED_IF_NO_REPERCUSSIONS
4	JUSTIFIED_IF_GOOD_REASON
5	JUSTIFIED_IF_EXTREME_REASON
6	JUSTIFIED_IF_SELF_DEFENSE
7	ONLY_IF_SANCTIONED
8	MISGUIDED
9	SHUN
10	APPALLING
11	PUNISH_REPRIMAND
12	PUNISH_SERIOUS
13	PUNISH_EXILE
14	PUNISH_CAPITAL
15	UNTHINKABLE
16	REQUIRED

Ethic value numbers in relation to each other

The following table describes how entities respond to other cultures, with the observer on the vertical axis and their target on the horizontal axis. If an entity's accumulated animosity towards another passes a certain threshold (determined by the ruler's personality) then it will run a risk-assessment check. If passed, this will lead to a declaration of war.

In general, entities react much more strongly to actions that violate their taboos than to the outlawing of their customs in other civilisations. For example, Civ A finds slavery Acceptable, but Civ B considers it a Capital Offence.

• Civ A will consider Civ B most unreasonable (−5) for executing people over such a non-issue.
• Civ B will be shocked and disgusted (−15) that Civ A engages in such a debased activity.
• The end result is mutual negativity. However, Civ B is 3× more offended, and much more likely to go to war over the issue — assuming, of course, they think they have a chance of winning.

		TARGET
		Accept.	Personal	Reperc.	Good	Extreme	Self-Def.	Sanct.	Misguid.	Shun	Appall.	Reprim.	Serious	Exile	Capital	Unthink.	Req.
OBSERVER	Acceptable	+1	+1	+1	0	0	0	0	−1	−2	−2	−2	−3	−5	−5	−2	+1
	Personal	+1	+1	+1	0	0	0	0	−1	−2	−2	−2	−3	−5	−5	−2	+1
	No Reperc.	+1	+1	+1	0	0	0	0	−1	−2	−2	−2	−3	−5	−5	−2	+1
	Good Reas.	0	0	0	+2	+1	0	0	0	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	0
	Extreme Rs.	−1	−1	0	+1	+2	0	0	0	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1
	Self-Defence	−2	−2	−1	0	+1	+2	0	0	0	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−2
	Sanctioned	−2	−2	−1	0	+1	0	+2	0	0	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−2
	Misguided	−1	−1	0	0	0	0	0	+2	+1	+1	+1	0	0	−1	+1	−1
	Shun	−1	−1	0	0	0	0	0	+1	+2	+1	+1	0	0	−1	+1	−1
	Appalling	−5	−5	−3	−2	−1	−1	−2	+1	+1	+2	+1	+1	+1	0	+1	−5
	Reprimand	−5	−5	−3	−2	−1	−1	−2	+1	+1	+1	+2	+1	+1	0	+1	−5
	Serious	−10	−10	−7	−3	−2	−2	−3	0	+1	+1	0	+2	+1	+1	+1	−10
	Exile	−10	−10	−7	−3	−2	−2	−3	0	+1	+1	0	+1	+2	+1	+1	−10
	Capital	−15	−15	−10	−5	−3	−3	−5	0	0	+1	0	+1	+1	+2	+1	−15
	Unthinkable	−15	−15	−10	−5	−3	−3	−5	0	+1	+1	0	+1	+1	+1	+2	−15
	Required	+1	+1	+1	0	0	0	0	−1	−2	−2	−2	−3	−5	−5	−2	+1

All above info was collected and interpreted from the data given by Toady himself at [1].

Ethics of vanilla civilizations

Issue	Mountain (dwarf)	Forest (elf)	Plains (human)	Evil (goblin)	Skulking (kobold)
Killing member of the same entity	Capital punishment	Justified with extreme reason	Justified with good reason	Personal matter	Exile
Killing neutral sapient	Only if sanctioned	Acceptable	Justified if no repercussions	Required	Required
Killing enemy	Acceptable	Acceptable	Acceptable	Required	Required
Killing animal	Acceptable	Justified in self-defence	Acceptable	Acceptable	Acceptable
Killing plant	Acceptable	Unthinkable	Acceptable	Acceptable	Acceptable
Torture as example	Unthinkable	Acceptable	Acceptable	Acceptable	Unthinkable
Torture for information	Unthinkable	Misguided	Acceptable	Acceptable	N/A
Torture for fun	Unthinkable	Unthinkable	Appalling	Acceptable	Acceptable
Torture of animals	Unthinkable	Unthinkable	Shunned	Acceptable	Unthinkable
Treason	Capital punishment	Exile	Capital punishment	Capital punishment	Unthinkable
Oathbreaking	Capital punishment	Exile	Capital punishment	Personal matter	N/A
Lying	Personal matter	Exile	Personal matter	Personal matter	N/A
Vandalism	Serious punishment	Reprimand	Serious punishment	Personal matter	N/A
Trespassing	Serious punishment	Reprimand	Serious punishment	Personal matter	N/A
Theft	Serious punishment	Reprimand	Serious punishment	Personal matter	N/A
Assault	Serious punishment	Exile	Serious punishment	Personal matter	Personal matter
Slavery	Capital punishment	Exile	Acceptable	Personal matter	Unthinkable
Eating sapients	Unthinkable	Unthinkable	Unthinkable	Personal matter	Unthinkable
Eating sapients (that have been killed in battle)	Unthinkable	Acceptable	Unthinkable	Personal matter	Unthinkable
Making a trophy from a corpse of the same race	Appalling	Unthinkable	Acceptable	Acceptable	Unthinkable
Making a trophy from a corpse of another sapient race	Shunned	Unthinkable	Acceptable	Acceptable	Unthinkable
Making a trophy from the corpse of an animal	Acceptable	Unthinkable	Acceptable	Acceptable	Unthinkable

Animal people currently have the same ethics as kobolds.