#Strike The Earth

[this-has-returned]

One of these days, I'm writing an isekai fanfic where a dwarf from Dwarf Fortress finds themselves aboard the space rig in Deep Rock Galactic, and discovers that their new coworkers not only maintain the same love for alcohol and fellowship, but they also cannot stand elven colonialism.

"You are welcome here, Urist, so long as you're no pointy-eared leaf-lover."

Urist blinks, comprehending the words of this future-speaker. Thorn, was the warrior's name? His friends called him a "gunner"? Strange title...

"Well," Urist chuckled, "we have an understanding there, it seems! Those damned elves were as cruel on my world, as their machines are on Hoxxes!"

"Hell yeah," smiled Thorn. "Rock and Stone!"

"Indeed!" cheered Urist. "Strike the Earth!"

"Aye," Thorn chuckled, patting Urist's shoulder. "Your heart's in the right place, at least. Let's get you something to drink. How 'bout a good ol' Blackout Stout?"

"Sounds like a powerful welcoming gift," mused Urist, smiling ear to ear. "Let's see if I stay standing...!"

See the infopage here!

[fluffysminion]

Biology of Fortress Dwarves

So I've been playing a lot of dwarf fortress lately, and one thing I've noticed is that dwarves are weird. So naturally I've spent a lot of time thinking about how their biology might work and I've come to the conclusion that the dwarves in dwarf fortress are marsupials. Hear me out, I promise it will make sense.

Large eyes explain many dwarfisms

Dwarf basics

Dwarves are short humanoid creatures that dig holes and build fortresses. They don't need light underground and get cave adapted if they don't get exposed to sunlight often, making them dizzy and confused when they do encounter it. To see in near darkness they would have massive eyes, and for navigating in total darkness long whiskers. The consequences of having huge eyes would explain two other facts about dwarves, namely the fragility of their skulls and their incredible talent for stupidity. No space for brain or bone in their head, it's all eyes.

They will eat just about anything except other dwarves but they don't need to eat often, something that caused me to initially assume they might actually be a form of reptile but is better explained simply by them having a lower body temperature and therefore slower metabolism than a typical mammal. None of this is strong evidence for any particular theory so let's move on.

Urist McCaveAdapted

Dwarf reproduction

Married heterosexual dwarf couples can have babies. Lots of babies. Dwarf women can have aproximately one baby a year, thanks to their short gestation period and the fact that they can become pregnant again immediately after birth. Pregnant dwarves show no outward signs of being pregnant, and birth happens while the mother is about doing her job - which will be interupted as she then looks for the child. Now the main advantage of the marsupial pouch is precisely that, allowing young to be born early reducing the risk to the mother from the birthing process and allowing the mother to get pregnant again sooner. Marsupials are born tiny and able to crawl, so it would make sense that the first thing they need to do after giving birth is find the baby and make sure it makes it into the pouch.

A dwarf mother in a rare moment of remembering her baby exists

Dwarven childcare

Dwarves are babies for one year, during which time their mothers never put them down (unless they are washed down a drain or other misadventure). The mother is able to act normally while carrying her baby, even doing things like fighting or tasks that require both hands. So she must be carrying the baby in some other way, and a marsupial pouch would be ideal for the task. Even the issue of chest deep water causing mothers to loose their offspring makes sense for marsupial dwarves, as one of the limitations of the marsupial pouch is the fact that pouch young are vulnerable to being washed out of the pouch if the adult is in water.

It even explains the lack of beards on dwarf women, as they would get in the way of the baby climbing into the pouch.

Marsupial dwarves. You're welcome.

Like my work? Support me on Patreon

[spacevixenmusic]

Source: Delicious In Dungeon [2024]

[dontvap0rdawave]

Pink n Blue, Page 112

<Previous // Next>

[cuddlecryptid]

undefined

My god, it’s beautiful

[zimcard-artblog]

Flowers of Antimony, real name Pandora but nicknamed “Plague” by Marci (La Danse Macabre)

Plague, King, and Shovel Knight (All nicknames that Marci made for the other three Just Shovels and Knights levels) HATE Marci. For several reasons and Marci still sees them as her friends/her allies. 

[h1ghs34s--h1-j1nx]

x / x / x

x / x / x

x / x / x

art by mod acronix

[surgeworks]

Remember, Folks. Do NOT sell things made with animals or wood to the elves. They really don't like it.

[voidwerks]

Dwarf Fortress is ‘officially’ out today. I should resist the temptation, but I know how this is going to go. I must dig. And I do not know when I will come back out of the hole.

[bertydee]

Big day for the Dwarf Fortress fandom. Please be respectful and don't ask us to do anything today

[this-has-returned]

Dwarf Fortress x Deep Rock Galactic - Infopage

Mostly posting this here as a central hub for information and updates on my Dwarf Fortress x Deep Rock Galactic fanfic experiment thing.

Also adding various author’s notes on this post as well...

Parts:

Part 1 is here!

Part 2 is here!

Part 3 is here!

Part 4 is here!

Part 5 is here!

Part 6 announcement is here! Thanks again!!

Part 6 is here! (CW: violence and gore)

Status: Completed! All parts are done and posted!

Chronology:

It’s important to note that I’m not posting these parts in any particular order. As scene ideas come to me, I post a new part. If I were sitting down and writing these out long-form (as I would with a proper book), I would be implementing a lot more planning and arc organization. However, there will be times were stuff seems like it got mentioned in passing, and I might come back to it in a later part, which might also take place before a previously-posted part.

It’s also worth mentioning that I’m not writing headcanon lore stuff in any particular order, either. Again, I would normally plan out when I introduce certain nuggets of information.

However, if I do the amount of planning that I normally do when writing, you’d not see any of this until the final story was actually done. I usually write in a splatter pattern; I’ll do chapter 1, then 8, then 6, then 7, then 3, then 11, etc.

This is why I’m releasing these in “parts” and not “chapters”. It’s intended to be a loose collection of memories, rather than a single, cohesive narrative.

Headcanon Stuff:

So obviously I’m implementing a lot of my own worldbuilding and fan theories in this, particularly where Deep Rock Galactic is concerned. This is mostly because I’m a science fiction writer, and would not be able to write within the Dwarf Fortress setting.

Fantasy writers continuously impress and amaze me. I’ll stay in my sci-fi lane for the vast majority of this.

Also, as far as the DRG characters are concerned: I’m using a mix of fan theories from the community, as well as headcanon stuff here. I made up Klaus’s name, for example, but the community has really investigated who mission control is, as a person, and I want to use some of that. I’m also trying to keep a lot of the fan theories around Karl intact, during the few times I plan to mention him.

As far as Reiner, Thorn, Ulla, and Donner are concerned: They are not intended to be the box-cover characters of DRG. Instead, they’re supposed to be a random selection of potential player characters, with custom loadouts and cosmetics applied.

As of writing this, I haven’t really described their appearances in detail yet, but they’re non-standard. I’m not trying to impose my headcanon on the cover art characters.

[fluffysminion]

Dwarven sensitivity

Dwarves in dwarf fortress are very sensitive - they have more opinions than a human on the internet and being out in the rain once is enough to permanantly traumatise them. 

Tattered socks, a well documented cause of tantrum spirals

However, what I've actually been thinking about recently is dwarf senses, and how they navigate underground without the need for constructing lights. I'll break this into two parts because I think there are multiple factors at play and I think the answer to how they get around is different in the fort and in the mines.

The Fort

As I said earlier, dwarves have a lot of opinions about things, materials, colours, shapes and so on. This leads me to conclude they must be able to see within the fort itself, because colour is not a thing identifiable with touch. other races can find their way to dwarven taverns as well, though it would often be better for them if they did not. So if they can see there must be light, but how? I propose the existence of a symbiotic bioluminescent lichen that grows on the walls and floors of the fort, producing enough light for humans to make it to the bar and for dwarves to see across the hall that there's a statue of a slug over there and they don't like it.

But if there is something growing on the walls how does it get there? The answer is simple - on the dwarves.

A typical dwarven high boot. It is coated in mud. It is lightly coated in Urist McDwarf's dwarf blood. It is also covered in Armok knows what else.

Migrants from other forts arrive regularly bringing new and exciting spores with them, and since lichens grow slowly on rock I doubt dwarves would bother to remove them unless they are growing over a particularly noteworthy engraving. Thriving forts often have some systems for cleaning dwarves but at that point they'll already have established populations of light-emitting organisms.

The Mines

So what about newly excavated areas? Most animals that burrow find their way by a combination of smell and touch (wonderfully combined in the star-nosed mole), which is why I have depicted the fortress dwarves as having whiskers.

A dwarf woman with whiskers (not the beard kind)

Whiskers are sensory hairs that extend the sense of touch into the space around the animal, and can be sensitive enough to pick up air currents, useful for navigating underground warrens. Smell, touch and even taste are enough for human geologists to identify most minerals, so it's reasonable to expect dwarves to know what they are digging through even if they can't see it.

[kinsey3furry300]

Dwarf Fortress is an Absurd masterpiece in the vein of Camus's The Stranger, discus.

[warcrimesimulator]

I hate how acknowledging unfairness in the world is seen as "childish". Maybe children are right. I don't think you should be proud of the fact that you've become complacent with the state of your miserable existence and took on this loser "it is what it is" mentality. Things can be better.

[cuddlecryptid]

Since Dwarf Fortress came put recently I wanted to write some basic tips that are pretty commonly used so that new players can get a leg up on fortress management.

- Cleaning grime off the floor is a huge timesink for dwarves, so it's a good idea to cut a path to a river and put a floodgate in front of the water leading into your base. That way you can just flip the gate open and closed to wash all that grime away! Putting the lever next to the gate helps keep things organized.

- Dwarves are all generally addicted to alcohol, which slows down their work. Avoid the temptation to make a still, and instead encourage them to drink pure water.

- Dwarves need vitamin D the same as the rest of us! Make sure they spend lots of time on the surface so they don't get sick.

- Elves love trees, and will pay extra for wood crafts and goods.

- Giving dwarves in Strange Moods what they want is enabling behavior. Let them calm down until they start acting like an adult.

RB with your helpful tips and tricks!

[zimcard-artblog]

Local ghoul attempts to lead an army yet has zero clue on what leadership is and ends up leading half of the army off of a cliff. Man.

Macio tends to overestimate herself and at the same time doesn't take the time to understand herself because she has clung onto the identity has a "Grim Reaper" and thinks that "I'M the GRIM REAPER! I deserve THIS and THAT! I can do ANYTHING without any training!" without a smidge of self reflection that she doesn't necessarily HAVE to be the "Grim Reaper" and that she can be HERSELF.

Problem is, she was born without any sort of guidance to figure herself. Unlike Blixter and Square, the two had family and people who support them and thus they ended up overcoming their personal turmoil and are now doing better. Meanwhile, Marci had no one and surrounded herself with people who have high expectations about her, eventually realizing she's just some kid with a scythe and were heavily disappointed with her, eventually abandoning her in the process without offering guidance.

She doesn't know how to cope in a healthy manner because she never had anyone to give her an example so she's just there causing trouble to gain any form of attention because deep down she just wants company. She doesn't realize her needs and that what she's doing is both destructive AND  self destructive, unaware of her own consequences because at least she has an audience and whatnot.

She's a troublemaker but also lost! But don't worry, at one point, she ends up joining the gang (Lycan, Blixter, and Cudda) and is part of the family as their little sister. She's still one chaotic ghoul but now she has a family who'll help her grow as a shape.

In this essay I will---