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Deadman McSpirit, Ghostly Engraver has risen and is haunting the fortress!
~ In-game message that appears when a ghost manifests.
(ghost) sucks the wind out of (victim)
~ In-game report of what a ghost can do to someone.

Ghosts are minor antagonists in the indie construction and management simulation video game Dwarf Fortress. They are the restless spirits of those who have perished, haven't been put to rest or memorialized properly, and have risen as a restless spirit to haunt and torment the living. They are one of the night creatures.

Although the identity of the ghost can be any intelligent creature that was once a part of the player's fortress, they will most commonly be the titular dwarves, with visiting humans being the second most common.

Regardless of if the individual had a positive or neutral personality in life, they will still retain an abusive, stalking and villainous nature their entire duration as a ghost. Those who were angry and murderous in life, will retain these traits as a ghost and act even worse, being able to possibly murder or possess others in that state.

Due to the procedural generation of the world and civilizations in the game, coupled with the fact that many elements can be customized by the player, the strength, personality and disposition of ghosts vary greatly. However, a well-maintained fortress can prevent ghosts from appearing altogether.

Biography[]

History[]

Df ghost sprite

Sprite of a dwarven ghost.

The history and detailed mechanics behind ghosts within the lore of the game is never explained, but given the fact that the requirements of moving on after death is so specific, it can be assumed that the unseen, enigmatic deities of the game control these things. Given the supernatural nature of these ghosts, it is extremely likely that the deities are the ones behind the punishment of souls who haven't been properly put to rest.

Just about every single prominent intelligent creature in the game believes in at least one deity, except for elves, who believe in "forces" (but share the same game mechanics). Whether all deities, some are just one is in control of souls moving on after death is completely unknown.

It is also unknown how long ghosts have existed within the game's lore, but it can be assumed that they've existed since the start of life itself. If playing the game in Legends Mode, which is a text-only form of the game that only shows pre-generated history and stories, ghosts can also be seen there as well, although the game will word someone's actions as if they were always a ghost, instead of separating someone's life from the moment they became a ghost.

Gameplay[]

Df ghost portrait

Portrait of a ghostly dwarf.

In the classic version of the game, or if ASCII mode is enabled in the premium version, ghosts will appear as a white "Ñ". In the premium version, the main races will appear as they did in life, but with green transparent skin, and will also be naked. If the creature is an animal person, it will retain its original appearance and color it had before death. After a citizen of the player's fortress has died, they must be buried in a coffin or memorialized by properly carving their name on a slab, because if the deceased is not dealt with in either of these methods, the deceased person's spirit will rise after some time, haunting others.

Note that only intelligent creatures capable of becoming a citizen can return as a ghost, meaning that ghostly animals and pets that resided in or near the fortress cannot exist. Not every single dead citizen will come back as a restless spirit, as it seems to be a combination of a random choice within the game, coupled with personality traits and mental states the deceased person had. They can sometimes be seen in the citizen information menu, under the "others" tab, alongside other types of guests and visitors:
Df ghost list

Although the game lists them as "undead", they are not categorized as such, as they do not have the properties of zombified individuals. Ghosts will float around the player's fortress aimlessly, abusing and burdening anyone they can find. Their behavior ranges from simply inconveniencing others to outright injuring or murdering them, despite their incorporeal nature. The most harmless type of ghosts will simply wander around, occasionally simply misplacing some items, floating near the location of their death and scaring others that happen to see them. By extension, the citizens being scared by the ghosts can help in accumulating stress, which can pass on to the ghost version of these same people when they die and aren't memorialized or buried properly.

As expected, ghosts can materialize through just about anything, but are still somehow blocked by other things. The more banal and harmless ghosts can halt the progress of many things in the player's fortress, due to dwarves being scared out of their wits and cancelling any jobs they were doing at that time. If the deceased individual has violent and murderous tendencies in life, or simply had negative personality traits, and/or they fell under a certain mood at the time of death, these negative traits will remain in the individual as a ghost, making them much more dangerous. Visitors of a fortress, usually after taverns are established, can also become ghosts after death, but will eventually leave once a certain in-game timer expires.

Df ghost anim

A ghost of a female elf constantly flickering in and out of view.

Once a coffin is available for the deceased's remains, or if a slab is engraved with the deceased's name, the ghost will vanish, finally putting the restless spirit to rest. A slab is a viable option for someone if their body cannot be found or reached. If there are always enough coffins and blank slabs in a fortress, the player does not have to deal with any ghosts. If the coffin or slab is removed or destroyed, the ghost will return as a "murderous ghost" every time, furious that they are once again trapped in the astral plane.

Although ghosts are easily encountered in the game's "Fortress Mode", they can also appear in "Adventure Mode" if the player character visits an area that happens to contain ghosts. The player character can be instantly scared to death by a ghost if they're not careful, unless the player has a [NOFEAR] token, which makes them completely immune. If one dies in Adventure Mode, they will not rise as a ghost, meaning that only NPCs have this ability.

Ghosts can be very tricky for the player to spot. Although their existence can be easily seen in the citizen information menu, they can be very difficult to view naturally without the use of said list, as ghosts will constantly phase in and out of view. Every unit that is part of or near the player's fortress can be tracked by having the camera locked onto them. Ghosts, however, can only have this option used on them for roughly a few seconds, as tracking their movement this way can have the camera lose focus almost immediately once they disappear from view. Also, like creatures that can fly, they can float up and down different z-levels/layers, with a difference of being able to move through solid matter.

If the player embarks on an evil biome, it is very likely that ghost encounters will be very rare, if not completely nonexistent, due to half of these evil lands being "reanimating", which means that anything that dies in these areas will cause the deceased lifeforms to immediately be resurrected as a hostile undead version of itself, including detached body parts. Although ghosts can interact with people - usually hurting them, living creatures can not interact back in any way.

Actions[]

Depending on the temperament of the ghost, they can perform the following actions: suck the wind out of someone, cause a high fever, cause someone to dry heave and convulse, inflict excruciating pain, cause dizziness, cause paralysis, simply batter someone, possess someone into a throwing a tantrum, misplace someone else's things, aggressively throw objects around and howl loud enough so that the entire fortress hears.

Note that some of these dispositions are caused by a mechanic known as "strange moods", which is when a dwarf is randomly possessed by a mysterious force (likely a deity) to construct an artifact. The strange mood will disappear once the artifact is finished. The following list is what different types of ghosts will have the ability to do to someone.

  • Murderous Ghost: Caused by a fell mood, low altruism or slab/grave was deconstructed; can murder others.
  • Sadistic Ghost: Caused by a macabre mood or low altruism; can batter, scare or paralyze others. They can also scare others to death.
  • Violent Ghost: Caused by going berserk prior to dying, or had a high anger propensity; can batter others, possibly removing limbs.
  • Moaning Spirit: Caused by a melancholic mood or had a high depression propensity; they haunt one dwarf at a time.
  • Howling Spirit: Caused by being stark raving mad in life, or had a high stress vulnerability trait; prevents others from sleeping.
  • Angry Ghost: Caused by being possessed; possesses others to throw tantrums, may batter others.
  • Energetic Poltergeist: Caused by a fey mood or high activity level; topples furniture.
  • Secretive Ghost: Caused by a secretive mood or high bashful trait; misplaces items.
  • Troublesome Poltergeist: Caused by high immoderation; misplaces items and sometimes topples furniture, may also pull levers.
  • Restless Haunt: Caused by high gregariousness being as high as dutifulness, or caused by never completing any jobs; frequents the place of death, also haunts others thus causing them to have unhappy thoughts.
  • Forlorn Haunt: A "default" type of ghost that does not contain any of the previous requirements; simply drifts around the place of death and places they frequented when they were alive.

Personality[]

Ghosts are always mischievous, abusive, tenacious, controlling, obsessive, possessive and even downright murderous. There is no definite explanation in-game as to why ghosts behave this way. There are absolutely no methods of placating a ghost, as there is no action in the game that is able to cause a ghost to lose its hostility, yet still remain a ghost. Putting their spirit to rest is the one and only way to stop them.

Deceased individuals that had loved ones in their life will retain their attachments to them, however, this attachment will change from love to that of pure haunting and abuse. These attachments also extend to where they died, and what their occupation was, proving how much self-awareness the restless spirits have. Individuals with positive traits will not withhold these character strengths when rising as a ghost, as all positive and neutral individuals will automatically switch to harmful behaviors in spirit form. Those who had negative traits in life will also withhold said traits and carry them into their ghostly form, using them to cause harm and even death.

The least harmful activities a ghost can perform is to simply wander around, causing grief and fear toward others. The worst ghosts will do is kill and even brutally mutilate others, possibly creating even more ghosts if there isn't enough coffins or memorial slabs to cover their deaths. All of this proves that ghosts can never have a happy disposition, and will always act out negatively in their torment of being a restless spirit.

The supernatural deities in the game do not seem to have any connection to the behavior of ghosts, since after becoming one, they will never show any different behaviors depending on what deity they were following in life. Although there are deities with different levels of morality, as well as different spheres of influence, it doesn't make any difference in what the restless spirits do. Ghosts also seem to remember previous times they were a ghost, as a ghost that has been put to rest yet had their resting place or engraved slab desecrated at later time will cause spirits to return much angrier and more dangerous.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • Outpost liaisons can be ghosts, acting as normal as they would if they were alive.

External Links[]

  • Ghost - Dwarf Fortress Wiki

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