Sapient

!!UNKNOWN!!  · xTATTEREDx  · +FINE+  · *SUPERIOR*  · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡  · ☼MASTERWORK☼

A sapient creature is a creature that can learn and improve skills. This includes all creatures recognized as conventional citizens of a civilization, but also several more "primitive" ones like troglodytes and trolls.

In the raw files, sapience is defined with the creature token [CAN_LEARN]; or [INTELLIGENT] which also allows the sapient creature to speak.

Overview

Sapient creatures have a number of mechanics unique to them, behaving in most cases exactly like your dwarves do in fortress mode: they can do jobs and learn skills, need to eat, drink and sleep, have needs, and don't handle stress well, which in extreme cases can lead to tantrums, insanity, and constant complaints to your mayor. Seeing the corpses of other sapient creatures stresses them out as well, though they get slowly accustomed to it until they don't care about anything anymore and will then prefer to drown their worries in booze instead, even if they weren't [ALCOHOL_DEPENDENT] before. Sapient creatures need to get married before they can have children together, unless they're the likes of troglodytes who reproduce just like animals even when "civilized".

Sapient creatures understand the concept of citizenship and will petition for it, once they are members of the fortress for some time, but don't have full rights yet. Accepting such a petition will make them a member of your civilization as well, and even foreign dwarves can show up in subsequent migrant waves, if they were granted your citizenship at another fortress before.

Depending on a civilization's ethics, there are certain actions they may not allow if it involves a creature that is considered sapient. These are cannibalism (regarding any sapient race, not just one's own), making trophies from killed enemies, slavery and torture. For instance, only goblins will practice the butchery and eating of sapient creatures, and go so far as to "require" the killing of enemies and strangers. Even if a creature would be otherwise milkable, no civilization will ever milk a sapient creature, and there is no ethics token to allow this behaviour.

Defining sapience

"Bibo ergo sum. I drink, therefore I am." — Urist McThinker, dwarven philosopher

An alpaca, probably not sapient, reacting to stimuli.

As a practical definition, as far as Dwarf Fortress is concerned, sapient creatures are any creatures that have the [CAN_LEARN] token (and by extension, also [INTELLIGENT]). However, on a more philosophical level, regardless of the raw token and underlying mechanics, the game may represent sapience in a wide variety of other ways; modelling abilities and interactions that might more conventionally be associated with personhood or the concept of a soul.

Though closely related, and often used interchangeably, sentience should not be confused with sapience. Although, functionally (and in the real world), the lines between two can be a bit blurred, most creatures, as represented by the game, can be considered sentient; they can feel and experience emotions and react to stimuli, exclusive of their capacity for abstract thought and reasoning, and the ability to educate themselves.

Ethical implications

The most immediately noticeable implication of a creature being classed as sapient, is that different civilizations will have different proscriptions regarding the treatment of other sapient beings, as well as that of their own citizens.

Ethical proscriptions on sapients by civilization

Entity	Kill (citizen)	Kill (enemy)	Kill (stranger)	Eat (butcher)	Eat (enemy corpse)	Enslave	Trophy (sentient)	Trophy (citizen)	Torture (example)	Torture (fun)	Torture (Information)
Dwarf	Capital punishment1	Acceptable	Acceptable	Unthinkable2	Unthinkable	Capital punishment1	Shun	Apalling	Unthinkable	Unthinkable	Unthinkable
Elf	Justified (if extreme reason)	Acceptable	Acceptable	Unthinkable	Acceptable	Exile	Unthinkable	Unthinkable	Acceptable	Unthinkable	Misguided
Human	Justified (if good reason)	Acceptable	Justified (if no repercussions)	Unthinkable	Unthinkable	Acceptable	Acceptable	Acceptable	Acceptable	Acceptable	Acceptable
Goblin	Personal matter	Required	Required	Personal matter	Personal matter	Acceptable	Acceptable	Personal matter	Acceptable	Acceptable	Acceptable
Kobold	Exile	Required	Required	Unthinkable	Unthinkable	Unthinkable	Unthinkable	Unthinkable	Unthinkable	Unthinkable	N/A3

Notes:

1. Capital punishment is not considered an execution by dwarves.
2. A sapient being killed in fortress mode can never be butchered.
3. Kobolds have utterances, rather than speech, and cannot communicate with other entities.

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Elves (and once, a particularly deranged and dissident dwarf^†) have claimed that they are more ethical than dwarves, citing what they see as often harsher punishment for the mistreatment of intelligent beings. This is of course nonsense, not least because of the implication that elves are "intelligent", but also as every dwarf knows that fifty hammer blows is the only fitting punishment for any serious crime.

† The dwarf in question was sentenced to the almost unheard of punishment of more than fifty hammer blows.

Modding

Though never defined on a creature exclusive of the [CAN_LEARN] token by the game, the [SLOW_LEARNER] token should allow the definition of a creature that can learn but isn't considered sapient.