Dwarf tidbits
Well, there's going to be a break for a week now :-( But there will more dwarves, and we will dig deeper than ever before, and build our fortress into the most glorious fortress the world has ever seen*
*or we'll crash and burn**
This is Jan Smallhammer. He's now a very proficient woodcutter and architect. He worships Shin, who is the goddess associated with painting, who most commonly takes the form of a dwarf. The most notable thing about Jan, is that he is almost indispensable.
It may not look like it, reading those stats - sure, he isn't rippling with dwarven muscle, or built out of granite and able to take on anything. But a combination of traits, like his superb intuition, his awareness of his own emotions, and his candid and sincere style of interpersonal relationships means that he has more friends than ANY other dwarf.
Friends are good - look at Jan's mental state - he's ecstatic - he loves his sociable dwarven life, and a few little things can't get him down, not with all the friends he has.
Friends are also bad.
The following people think Jan is lovely:
Anita
Persephone
Ludwig
Ellen
Adil the farmer
Rith the Thresher
Zon the Gemcutter
Adil, Ellen's Apprentice Brewer
Bembul the Animal Caretaker
Ber the Gemsetter
Zon the Cheesemaker
and, being Jan, he is also friends with Tekkud, the Dwarven Child.
Now, it's lovely that all these people are happier because they know (and love) Jan. But what happens if Jan is untimely struck down by a blind cave ogre, or eaten by a troll? That whole list of people up there will be DEVASTATED. Combined with just a few other bad events, we could have mad dwarves stripping naked and jumping into rivers to drown, or going beserk and killing anyone they can, all in Jan's memory. It's what he would have wanted.
Only one dwarf in the entire fortress wants Jan dead. Reg, the Carpenter broods as his foot recovers from the successful surgery. "He always chops me the wrong sort of wood. Plotting against me he is. Look at him with all his friends, and his...and his wood."
There will be a reckoning one day, between Jan and Reg.
**okay, it'll be the second