Subscribe to download
The Language Overhaul

-- Updated for Adventure Mode with Old English-inspired human language and new tavern names! --

Bay12Forums Topic[www.bay12forums.com]
Dwarf Fortress File Depot Page[dffd.bay12games.com]

This mod aims to make names less random, more distinct and more epic-sounding with inspiration from fantasy literature and games. It does this through a complete rework of the game’s vocabulary and symbols as well as adding more distinct languages for the dwarves, elves, goblins and humans.

This mod completely revamps the vocabulary of the game, meaning that it adds new words that are aimed to fit the fantasy setting and specific context in which they appear. This means that names will be more like real-world and fantasy names than the names of vanilla dwarf fortress. Instead of dwarves and settlements having random names like Clasptreaties, Girdergrove and Faceearths, they will now have names such as Goldenmark, Castlecrown and Magmabury.

I have also changed how words are used in epithets. Instead of vanilla’s ”the X of X” naming scheme, where most words could appear in both positions making for very random outcomes, this mod uses a ”X of Y” approach, where X tends to be an object or symbol, and Y tends to be a more abstract concept. This makes for more meaningful names. With this mod, you will encounter forgotten beasts with menacing epithets such as ”the Child of Night” or ”the Venom of Reckoning” and your dwarves will create great artifacts with names such as ”the March of Heroes” or ”the Defender of Creation”.

I have gone to great lengths to make names fit the context they appear in. Civilizations will have names that sound like states and kingdoms, taverns will have more typical tavern names and you will be able to easily determine whether you are looking at an Elven or Goblin entity just by looking at the name. For instance, an Elven kingdom will tend to have a poetic name such as Burniel Loril ”the Pact of Songs” while a Goblin civilization will have a menacing one such as Sultozh ”the Gruesome Empire”.

The mod also revamps the game’s languages (or ”translations”) to make them more unique and recognizable. The new dwarven language is inspired by Old Norse, the language of Elves by Tolkien’s Elvish languages and goblin language by Tolkien’s black speech. Human language is a WIP and currently they are using dwarven language as a placeholder. This change aims to make the different cultures feel much more distinct.



This mod should be placed right after the vanilla modules in the load order. The mod should be loaded before any mod that modifies vanilla entities. It will have minor incompatibilities with mods that replace vanilla entities rather than modifies them, but as long as there are no changes to languages it won't be gamebreaking - the usual consequence being slightly more abstract dwarf civilisation and group names.

The mod replaces the vocabulary of vanilla, so any mods that add new translations based on vanilla vocabulary (such as new race mods, they usually include new languages too) will cause game-breaking problems, even if they aren't noticeable during world generation. I'm looking into adding some compatibility patches for the most popular race mods.

Please leave any suggestions or bug reports in the comments or on the forum topic!

If any of you encounter an awesome name in-game, feel free to send me a screenshot here or on the forums. Then I will add it to the screenshot section above!

0.1 - first release - Dwarven personal and site names
0.2 - Human personal and site names
0.3 - Elven and Goblin personal and site names
0.4 - Civ and government names + more of the above
0.5 - Fixed bug with bad group names
0.6 - Bugfixes, added forgotten beast names and more
1.0 - First release for Steam! Vanilla vocabulary now completely replaced. Dwarven, Goblin and Elven languages are pretty much finished, Human is still WIP.
1.1 - Compatibility with Adventure mode. Added Human language inspired by Old English. More tavern naming variety for your adventures and various other tweaks and additions.