Those curious about the game: Allow me to introduce you...

[The Former]

... to Ducim Evostmosus, in the common tongue "Ducim Sectrooms", expedition leader of the hamlet known as Homagecaves. This is my second fortress; my first embark after running the tutorial and promptly abandoning the site because the game decided to throw me into a haunted biome.

Ducim is a 67 year-old dwarf with a learned way about him. Ducim is a talker. A manager. A swayer of people. A skilled negotiator and competent persuader, he's worn many hats since settling here. That of leader, that of trade broker, that of manager... He's faced it all with a dogged stubbornness and a strong conviction that ensuring the prosperity of this hold is chiefly his responsibility, now that he's been entrusted with the post of leader.

But that's not all Ducim is. No, no. He's not merely a sum of his skills. You see, Ducim has a personality. He has memories. He has a history.

Shortly after arriving here, Ducim's close friend Lorbam was buried in rubble during a collapse while digging out a large dining hall. She was found dead shortly thereafter. Lorbam became bitter after that event. He found the lack of coordination during the process of tearing up the upper floor to be the cause of her needless death, and now hates to see any sort of strife in the world's operation whatsoever. He knows well the rippling effects a simple argument can have.

Thankfully, this is not all that's changed him. Lorbam's lover, Domas. Domas is a woman who easily forms deep emotional bonds, and this has rubbed off on Lorbam in that her emotional ties have helped him to see everyone as a person rather than a title or a tool, leading him to put compassion top of mind when dealing with others. To protect this romance of his, Ducim prefers a peaceful life to one of conflict (even though he enjoys a good fight himself every now and again).

This compassionate manner has been of great benefit as a leader. Recently, as a couple citizens have fallen on hard emotional times, Ducim has quite literally been a shoulder to cry on. Specifically, militia commander Unib Ringraptors. Unib had a very hard first couple years. He too was close with Lorbam, and he's the one who first found her body. He's relived that moment time and again, keeping him in a sordid emotional state for the longest time.

But, since finding a kindred spirit in Ducim, who he vents his anger at and sheds tears upon when it becomes too much... The empathy instilled in the expedition leader has slowly helped Unib to heal. He no longer has the frequent nightmares he once had. (But boy does he yell a lot.)

All this can be confirmed by looking at his character sheet[i.imgur.com] and again at Unib's.[i.imgur.com]

This is one of the great things about Dwarf Fortress as opposed to a game like, say, Rimworld. In games like Rimworld (a game I love, by the way), colonists are essentially their stats and their stats alone. At best, they have a handful of traits, one or two of which might be personality traits.

In Dwarf Fortress, characters have an entire psychology, and it affects how they live and how they interact with eachother. Relationships, personality traits, memories... All these have a profound effect on the moment-to-moment workings of your dwarves.

Already, just by recounting the first three years of these two dwarves from a purely psychological perspective, the rich storytelling possibilities of Dwarf Fortress are clear and I couldn't be more thrilled to finally be playing it after watching from the sidelines all these years.

[The Former]

Good Lord this got buried fast.