A fairly macabre Dwarf Fortress mod.
Adds the ability to butcher dwarf corpses, then craft objects, construct buildings, and perform cult rituals from their remains, to Fortress Mode. Why let perfectly good materials go to waste just because Urist McTenderflesh died of old age? Designed to be as plug-and-play as possible, requiring only two minor manual edits in entity_default.txt. Tested and working with Dwarf Fortress 0.44.05 and DFHack 0.44.05-r1.
Check the releases page and download the release package targeting your version of Dwarf Fortress.
- Manually modify
[ENTITY:MOUNTAIN]in<Dwarf Fortress>/raw/objects/entity_default.txt.- Permit killing, eating, and crafting trophies from the remains of sapient races:
[ETHIC:EAT_SAPIENT_OTHER:ACCEPTABLE] [ETHIC:EAT_SAPIENT_KILL:ACCEPTABLE] [ETHIC:MAKE_TROPHY_SAME_RACE:ACCEPTABLE] [ETHIC:MAKE_TROPHY_SAPIENT:ACCEPTABLE]- Enable this mod's buildings and reactions:
[PERMITTED_BUILDING:CHARNEL_PIT] [PERMITTED_REACTION:BUTCHER_CORPSE] [PERMITTED_BUILDING:DWARF_SKULL_TOTEM] [PERMITTED_REACTION:POLISH_TOTEM] [PERMITTED_REACTION:SMEAR_BLOOD] [PERMITTED_BUILDING:ALTAR_TO_ARMOK] [PERMITTED_REACTION:CONDUCT_BLOODLETTING] [PERMITTED_REACTION:COMMUNE_WITH_ARMOK] [PERMITTED_BUILDING:OSSUARY] [PERMITTED_REACTION:CARVE_DWARF_BONE_BLOCKS] [PERMITTED_REACTION:CARVE_DWARF_BONE_SLAB] [PERMITTED_REACTION:CARVE_DWARF_BONE_POT] [PERMITTED_REACTION:CARVE_DWARF_BONE_MECHANISM] - Merge the contents of
raw/with<Dwarf Fortress>/raw/. - Generate a new world with the modified raw files.
- Uses DFHack to automatically clear the
dead_dwarfflag from any of your fallen units, permitting the use of dwarf corpses in workshop reactions. - Adds four new workshops, the Charnel Pit, Dwarf Skull Totem, Ossuary, and the Altar to Armok, all of which are detailed in the sections below.
- Adds a new material template type for dwarf bone.
- Adds a new inorganic material type, dwarf bone, to enable crafting and construction with dwarf bone.
- Dwarf bone is a magma-safe economic material initially reserved for carving dwarf bone blocks and large pots.
- Adds two new inorganic material types for bestowing divine blessings or smiting the wicked, used in the reactions for the Altar to Armok workshop.
- Adds a new plant type, dwarf beard, to enable crafting and decoration with dwarf beard.
- Dwarf beard is never found growing in the wild, cannot be embarked with, and (hopefully) does not appear in trades.
b w Shift+c
A 5x5 workshop used to dismantle the dead. A worker with the Butcher labor enabled can construct and use the Charnel Pit to butcher corpses belonging to anything, even his fellow dwarves. It is advised to place a corpse stockpile near any Charnel Pit you construct to optimize throughput.
Butchering a corpse at a Charnel Pit always yields 1 stack of 15 meat from the creature butchered. Butchering a corpse at a Charnel Pit also yields the following materials regardless of the type of corpse butchered:
- 5-9 dwarf bone
- 3-5 dwarf skin
- 1-3 dwarf fat
- 1 dwarven beard thread [35000]
- 1 totem
Dwarf skin is compatible with the vanilla Leather Works workshop. Dwarven beard thread is compatible with the vanilla Loom workshop, and derived materials are compatible with the vanilla Clothier's Shop workshop.
| Reaction | Hotkeys | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Butcher corpse | a b | Butchers a corpse. |
b w Shift+t
A 1x1 workshop that mimics buildable dwarf skull totems. A worker with the Bone Carving labor enabled can construct one using a totem from the Charnel Pit's Butcher corpse reaction. Dwarf Skull Totems are purely cosmetic and have no other effects on any creature, though creatures with the appropriate BUILDINGDESTROYER token value will still target them.
Dwarves may polish or smear dwarf blood on any specified totem to gain a little extra experience in Bone Carving.
| Reaction | Hotkeys | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Polish totem | a p | Polishes the totem. |
| Smear blood | a s | Requires 1 large dwarven bone pot containing dwarf blood. |
b w Shift+o
A 3x3 workshop used to carve dwarf bone. A worker with the Bone Carving labor enabled can construct the Ossuary from 1 dwarf bone and use the workshop to process dwarf bone into more specialized materials.
| Reaction | Hotkeys | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Carve pot | a p | Carves 1 dwarf bone into 1 large dwarven bone pot. |
| Carve blocks | a b | Carves 1 dwarf bone into 4 dwarf bone blocks. |
| Carve mechanism | a t | Carves 1 dwarf bone block into 1 dwarf bone mechanism. |
| Carve slab | a s | Compresses 2 dwarf bone blocks into 1 dwarf bone slab. |
b w Shift+a
A 3x3 workshop used to honor the God of Blood. A worker with the Bone Carving labor enabled can construct a Shrine to Armok, which may be used by any dwarf seeking to offer their blood in sacrifice or to commune with Armok Himself. Shrines to Armok are generally located away from the main thoroughfares of any Dwarf Fortress in places chosen especially to honor Armok, lest He grace unwary witnesses with His divinity.
Because any dwarf can perform either of the functions provided by a Shrine to Armok, it is heavily recommended to restrict access to the intended worshiper by profiling Shrines to Armok with Shift+p.
| Reaction | Hotkeys | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Conduct bloodletting | a b | Fills 1 large dwarven dwarf bone pot with blood; may kill the dwarf who performs the ceremony. |
| Commune with Armok | a c | Requires 1 large dwarven bone pot filled with dwarf blood; may bestow random boons on the faithful. |
Successful communion with Armok always bestows the following boons to faithful worshipers:
- An intense but temporary feeling of awe
- The added display name "Devotee of Armok"
Successful communion with Armok may also bestow any or all of the following boons:
| Blessing | Probability |
|---|---|
| BRAVERY+5 | 10% |
| EXTRAVISION | 5% |
| LAW+5 | 10% |
| LOYALTY+5 | 10% |
| LIKES_FIGHTING | 5% |
| MARTIAL_PROWESS+5 | 10% |
| NATURE-5 | 10% |
| NO_AGING | 1% |
| NO_DIZZINESS | 5% |
| NO_PHYS_ATT_RUST | 5% |
| NOEXERT | 5% |
| NOFEAR | 5% |
| NONAUSEA | 5% |
| NOSTUN | 5% |
| PEACE-5 | 10% |
| POWER+5 | 10% |
| SPEED_PERC+5% | 5% |
| VIOLENT+5 | 10% |
- There is no known way to limit
CORPSEreagents to a specific creature type. Trial and error has also revealed that there is no way to use a corpse's base material type (except forMEAT, oddly enough) for the product of a reaction. The Charnel Pit will therefore happily butcher any corpse, miraculously and mysteriously transforming its remains (except for its meat) into the dwarven equivalent. - Some item types like bone, skulls, hair, and skin have no equivalent or functional item token (attempts to use
CORPSEPIECEwill crash Dwarf Fortress) and cannot be produced directly as the product of a reaction that keeps the resulting product true to the source creature and not, specifically, to the source creature's corpse. Where possible, the next best thing has been included as an alternative for each of these. - It's not possible to define custom item classes, so there is no way to make buildable dwarf skull totems short of defining an entire workshop to mimic the process.
- Item stacking in reactions is buggy. The Dwarf Skull Totem workshop's Smear blood reaction should consume 10 dwarf blood; it only consumes 1 dwarf blood.
- Because liquids inside workshops don't make the transition into being puddles or pools of their associated material, the Dwarf Skull Totem workshop's Smear blood reaction effectively does nothing.
- As a workaround to the above, one can Smear blood on a single Dwarf Skull Totem repeatedly and then deconstruct the target workshop to produce a lovely red mess on surrounding tiles. Workshops built on pools of blood will clean the tile beneath them, however.
- The boiling stone method of delivering inhalable symptoms is unreliable, as dwarves performing reactions in any given workshop may occasionally not be breathing or manage to hold their breath through the resulting cloud of symptom-infused vapor.
- Unfortunate passersby, including wandering animals, may also be caught up in any syndrome vapor cloud.
- Thread manufactured from animal hair may be used to suture wounds, but it may not be used in the manufacture of cloth; cloth made from animal hair thread may not be used in the manufacture of clothing or other goods.
- Thread manufactured specifically from dwarf hair and (presumably) the hair of any sapient will not match any stockpile options and is, therefore, impossible to stockpile.
Q: Is Cannibalism compatible with other mods?
A: In theory? Yes. In practice? Absolutely no idea.
Q: Is Cannibalism compatible with <older version> of Dwarf Fortress?
A: Dwarf Fortress 0.43.05 and DFHack 0.43.05-r3 are the oldest versions that Cannibalism has been confirmed to work with. Feel free to fork the project and modify it to suit your needs.
Q: Will Cannibalism support newer versions of Dwarf Fortress?
A: Yes, with one caveat. As Tarn Adams patches whatever oddness caused civilized races to stop butchering their own dead, the dependency on DFHack may be dropped entirely.
Q: Does Cannibalism let me butcher live dwarves?
A: No; the mechanism for using live creatures as reagents in a reaction is either undocumented or nonexistent. If you wish to butcher your dwarves, you must somehow turn them into corpses beforehand.
Q: Does Cannibalism interfere with traditional burial?
A: No. Fallen dwarves may still be dumped in garbage dumps, placed in corpse stockpiles, interred in coffins or casks and/or commemorated with memorial slabs, crushed beneath dwarven trash compactors, dropped into pools of magma, or whatever your preferred method of disposing of corpses may be. Cannibalism merely lets you do entertaining things with their remains.
Q: Why won't my dwarves butcher any of their corpses?
A: Cannibalism relies on DFHack to automatically set the dead_dwarf flag of all fallen dwarves to false when they die to permit your dwarves to use the corpses of members of their own civilization as reagents in a reaction. This mod won't function without DFHack.
Alternatively, the remains of your fallen corpses may be too far away for the Charnel Pit to work with them. Consider placing a corpse stockpile closer to your workshop.
Q: Will my dwarves return as ghosts if I butcher their corpses with the Charnel Pit?
A: Yes. Because the reaction consumes the corpse of your fallen dwarves, if you want to lay them to rest after butchering their remains, you must build and engrave a slab to honor their memory. The Ossuary has a crafting option to craft slabs from dwarf bone blocks, if you wish to honor your fallen with a memorial constructed from bits and pieces of themselves.
Q: Why can't I build constructions with dwarf bone?
A: Dwarf Fortress automatically marks any stone material you can craft blocks or large pots from as a reserved material. You must use the Stone submenu of the Status (z) menu to permit the use of dwarf bone.
Q: How can I report a bug, request a feature, or ask a question?
A: Create a new issue and apply the either bug, feature request, or question labels from the menu on the right.
Cannibalism is licensed under the MIT license.