"Towersoared is going to be a repository of architectural insanity if I have my way. I've got several design files full of mad ideas but more suggestions are always welcome."
—Battlecat, creator of the fort
Towersoared is an ongoing community fort in the Dwarf Fortress forums run by user Battlecat. It follows the architect Cog after he was cast out of the Mountainhomes for daring to think they could be improved. Starting in a desert, and expected to die by his rulers, Cog started making a fantastic fort, with a massive dining hall extending to a glass dome, a massive spiral staircase, and an entrance that shouted to the heavens "You see that, Mountainhome? Towersoared will be a masterpiece!" In contrary to normal Dwarf Fortress form, Cog created one of the most successful fortresses in the history of the game. Its magnificent design and powerful military have ensured that few could harm it, even from the inside.
It can be found here
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"Towersoared" provides examples of:
- Aggressive Negotiations: Nokast Zakospdesmo Stuxulustru Oson, Law-giver of the kingdom of Ozud Zogast attempts to negotiate a surrender of Towersoared to the goblin nation. Derm takes him on in a one-on-one fight, resulting in the death of the diplomat and the most challenging fight Derm has had to date.
- The Alcoholic: Well, yeah. It's Dwarf Fortress. But Durhak and Argonnek take it a lot further than their peers.
- Always on Duty: Derm. He's done nothing but train for 20 years straight, not pausing even to build relationships. This becomes standard practice for the rest of the military as well.
- And I Must Scream: Several captured goblins had been sitting in storage for at least a decade.
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Attention Deficit Creator Disorder: Many projects for the fort are started, and Battlecat really had to buckle down to complete them. - Author Avatar: Cog.
- Badass Army: Towersoared's army becomes this, eventually having to take turns going one on one against forgotten beasts after Derm retires from hunting them. Rarely do any members take even Scratch Damage.
- Batman Gambit: Syntic sets one up to catch a saboteur by creating a deliberately inefficient system full of holes through which the saboteur can mess with the project at hand. It fails when a different project is sabotaged.
- Big Fancy House: Everyone who lives in Towersoared gets one, which succeeds in royally irritating the count.
- Blood Knight: Derm the Soulchopper. He becomes bored enough with killing forgotten beasts that he lets the rest of the military take them on while claiming any colossi or dragons that may appear. Many of his monologues are about how dull his current fights are. This can also apply to Battlecat, seeing as the Fun of Dwarf Fortress resides in setting things up that may or may not put the player at a disadvantage.
- Bored with Insanity: Catten goes insane while mining, continuing to dig at a feverish pace. Eventually she snaps out of it by switching over to the military and using her strength gained from years of mining.
- Broke the Rating Scale: Derm's Fighting, Axe, and Sheild skills were listed at 140, 131, and 37 out of 15 respectively (15 being Legendary), and were given the tag "Unknown".
- Cannon Fodder: The goblin and kobold armies, oh so much.
- City of Gold: With a dining hall beneath a great glass dome, massive living quarters for everyone, and two huge murals made of cut gems.
- Civil War: Discussed and averted. With the might of Towersoared, taking control or independence from the Mountainhome would be very simple, but Cog states he did not found the fort for that purpose.
- Colonel Badass: Derm all the way. Even his own army could not take him down.
- Corporal Punishment: Due to a combination of a poorly timed mandate and a jail too small to hold the prisoners, Syntic is forced to beat two citizens. With a pick. Unfortunately, both of them die at his hands. Syntic does not take it well.
- Cultured Warrior: Derm is occasionally played as this, coming up with a poem or two about his prowess.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Every battle against Derm. Applies to all members of the military, but Derm was the first.
- A Day in the Limelight: Dwarves who had been phased out because their stories weren't all too notable or the user they were assigned to had stopped responding would get a brief return at the request of their user. Of course, in-character entries were written up by the holders of assigned dwarves as well.
- Death from Above: The ceiling is dropped on two separate forgotten beasts that could not be killed by contemporary means. See also Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies. Also used on some Happy Fun Stuff that's trying to invade the fort, in order to not risk exposing melee units to disease.
- Do-Anything Soldier: Garet the Weaponsmaster is set up to be this, trying to master every weapon.
- Doomsday Device: Averted, oddly enough for a Dwarf Fortress game.
- Draft Dodging: Because of the war with goblins, and the Mountainhome's poor shape, a draft had been instilled, with many dodgers fleeing to Towersoared.
- Dramatic Irony: The reader knows who is sabotaging Towersoared, but Syntic and Cog do not.
- Dress-Coded for Your Convenience: Alluded to, but was ultimately shuffled into the remaining projects.
- Drinking Contest: Catten ends up challenging a member of the first human caravan to trade with Towersoared to a drinking contest. By the end, both get black-out drunk and become good friends.
- Elite Army: With Derm at the helm. Very little has managed to even scratch Towersoared's army.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Shorast the Unlucky, after being the only member of the military to be gravely injured. Eventually he takes a level in badass after being renamed Barret.
- Gender Is No Object: And neither is pregnancy. This is Dwarf Fortress, that's how we roll.
- Ghost Town: Eventually, Oldtowersoared is abandoned, everything having been moved to the grander parts of the fortress. This becomes a plot point when an unsuspecting dwarf is asked to pull a lever in Oldtowersoared by the saboteur, releasing a nightwing.
- Glory Seeker: Thatdude's motivation became to be recognized on her own, without being in Derm's shadow.
- Government in Exile: After the Mountainhome falls, the King and three of his royal guard flee to Towersoared, despite the tension between the two forts.
- Hard Work Hardly Works: Averted. The strength behind every aspect of the fortress, from military to design, was created through good old fashioned elbow grease. The military uses dedicated training, sacrificing quite a bit. All the goods had been produced through practice, recycling any goods made of valuable materials but not quite up to snuff. Even on the meta level, modifications have only been used to make things tougher on the fort to little success.
- The Hermit: Comp becomes one, making his own home in the caverns, staying away from the rest of the fort unless a forgotten beast shows up.
- Heroic BSoD: Syntic after accidentally killing two citizens during their beatings mandated by the count.
- I Fell for Hours: Odok the miner fell in a cave in, and due to a bug, just hung in the air. Eventually, Battlecat was able to recover the dwarf, well after what he was working on was long completed.
- Inter-Service Rivalry: Between Derm's squad and all the others, seeing as how Derm tends to get most of the focus.
- I Will Fight Some More Forever: The goblin and kobold armies continue to siege at Towersoared, despite being destroyed each time.
- Keystone Army: Ocasionally, a goblin leader is killed, causing the rest of the invading army to scatter.
- The Leader: Cog when it comes to the fortress, Derm when it comes to the military.
- Lightning Bruiser: Derm, especially when he gets adamantine armor and an adamantine axe. Applies to the rest of the military once they get adamantine equipment.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: Asmel is the father of 18 kids, the most notable being the long running mayor, Zasit. So far, only one has died, killed in a legitimately unfortunate accident (one of the few in the game's community).
- Master of None: Syntic tries doing every job at his own leisure, gaining a bit of skill in everything, but never really matching the skill of the dedicated workers. Even after he becomes sheriff, he continues to move from workshop to workshop.
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Memetic Badass: Derm started by dueling a giant, then soloing Forgotten Beasts, and went up from there. Even by pure numbers, he is more powerful than Holistic Detective.
- Non-Indicative Name: Discussed. Cog notes how humans expect towers to rise up above the ground, rather than delve into it.
- Old Soldier: Discussed with Derm, who appears to be little more than middle-aged. Consensus is that the most badass death he could receive is to die of old age after taking on the Happy Fun Stuff.
- One-Man Army: Everyone in Towersoared's military is this, but non so more than Derm, who was even able to take on the entire rest of the Army by himself without one scratch during a hypothetical segment.
- Overnight Conquest: The Mountainhome falls rather quickly off-screen.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: The entire military feels like this to Derm, what with him being the first to be able to take on many or powerful enemies by himself.
- Redshirt: Played straight in the early stages of the fort with a handful of unclaimed dwarves. Averted more and more as the game goes on until a single death from the masses is seen as a big deal.
- Redshirt Army: The goblin and kobold sieges.
- Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies: Thatdude threatens to drop the entire mountain on everyone just to kill a forgotten beast that she could not kill with crossbow bolts alone, and noone could get close enough to melee it. Eventually it is taken out by a chunk of ceiling dropped on it.
- Rousing Speech: Cog gives one to the fortress at the start of every New Year's party. The one time the Baron tried to give one that went against Cog's ideal, Cog trounces him by describing all they accomplished.
- Running Gag: Unintentionally, dwarves keep dodging into the moat.
- Schedule Slip: Occasionally real life gets in the way. More so now thanks to Battlecat's newborn daughter.
- The Slacker: Asmel the mooch, who does very little if anything, and whose legacy will be carried on by his 18 kids.
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Played straight with an attempt at an aversion. Battlecat tries changing the size of goblins and giving Kobold's the ability to siege in order to provide a challenge for the army, but they are all destroyed by the forces of Towersoared. Forgotten beasts, for the most part however, remain pitifully weak after Derm is able to take them on his own, retiring after slaying 20 of them and leaving the rest for the rest of the military.
- The Spartan Way: Averted. See Hard Work Hardly Works.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Derm, especially in universe. It's a major motivation for Thatdude.
- The Stoner: Martini is fond of quarry bush leaves.
- Suicide Mission: Taken literally with the forgotten beasts in that it's become their mission to commit suicide. Usually on Derm's axe. Played straight with any sieges on Towersoared.
- Throwing Off the Disability: Ezum Lorbamsebir, whose legs were paralyzed by frostbite in her lower spine, eventually stands up in the middle of the dining hall after spending years mining and getting around without her legs.
- Took a Level in Badass: Absolutely everyone in Towersoared. The workshops are filled with legendary craftsdwarves, their military is unmatched, and their architecture a sight to behold. And all came from humble beginnings.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Forgotten beasts, sieges, and challenges by giants and ettins become so mundane that Derm eventually retires from fighting them. After that, the rest of the military takes turns fighting forgotten beasts, and draw straws in case of giants and ettins.
- Veteran Instructor: Derm as he ages, making a rather powerful military.
- War for Fun and Profit: It is implied that this may be the case with the constant goblin invasions and forgotten beast attacks despite any individual in their military able to turn back any such assaults, thus creating a power vacuum.
- War God: Readers refer to Derm as this in jest.
- World of Badass: Well, Fortress of Badass. See Took a Level in Badass.
