Even as it achieved fractal complexity by modeling feline alcohol poisoning, procedural bardic traditions, and delayed-action thermonuclear dragonfire, the creators of Dwarf Fortress—brothers Tarn and Zach Adams—have maintained still loftier ambitions for their legendary fantasy sim. In recent years, that effort has been guided by one goal: Creating magic. Procedural, universe-specific magic, interwoven with the unique cosmology and mythology modeled each and every time the player clicks the “create new world” button.
For a game already setting a high watermark for simulational complexity, it’s an incredibly ambitious endeavor. It’s taken a decade. It’s demanded a complete scripting overhaul, aided by the heroic effort of Bay 12 Games’ first non-Adams programmer, Putnam. Frankly, it’s almost strained believability. And it’ll start arriving later this year.
Tarn Adams confirmed that Dwarf Fortress’ first Myth and Magic update will land before the end of the year in a short announcement video, embedded above. His goal, he said, was to create “procedural magic systems that go beyond combining spell effects and go straight to the fundamental cosmological makeup of the universe,” enabling “magical situations that you cannot get any other way.”
It’s a notion Adams has shared as we’ve spoken with him about his Myth and Magic ambitions for years, going back to 2017: By creating a procedural magic system that’s anchored in each world’s simulated creation myths and cosmology, Dwarf Fortress wouldn’t be generating world variations to play within—it would become an entire fantasy setting generator, conjuring universes with their own emergent forms of magic that are as fundamental as the laws of physics.
“It allows your fortresses to pursue magical research that really feels like discovery,” Adams said.
(Image credit: Kitfox Games)
The video’s only a minute long, but it offers some brief glimpses of magic-wielding Dwarf Fortress figures in action. A goblin sorcerer teleports a cat. A dwarven wizard repeatedly force-blasts a goblin against a wall. A six-limbed fly-man holding four magic staves macerates a hallway full of enemy swordsmen with a barrage of magic bolts. A necromancer curses an innocent dwarf with undeath, and they immediately start ripping into a nearby comrade.
“Now, there will be magic effects that blow things up,” Adams said over footage of magic projectiles rapidly demolishing a dwarven outpost. “There will also be magic materials, enchantments, rituals, ancient ruins, everything that makes fantasy what it is—with every piece tied into how that particular universe works, down to its bones.”
The first Myth and Magic update doesn’t have a release date yet, but Dwarf Fortress is available on Steam and at the Bay 12 Games site now.
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