Nothing in Dwarf Fortress is ever straightforward. Even something as simple as constructing several sorts of rooms entails a few counterintuitive procedures. Whereas you could think that all you need for a temple is an altar and the desire to worship, the fact is that adequate space allocation is required. It will not be entirely functioning without this phase, and your dwarfs may feel some spiritual discomfort as a result.

How to Construct a Temple

Assigning a room as a temple isn’t difficult, but it does require traversing Dwarf Fortress’s hierarchical menus in an unusual method. The first step is to designate a meeting hall zone for the space. This is possible through the zones menu (z.) Simply choose a meeting space from this list and then fill in the blanks with the location of your temple.

You may add a new zone to the meeting hall from here by choosing it in the zones menu and then clicking the button that allows you to add additional, overlapping zones to existing zones. Simply choose a temple from the list of alternatives and you’ll be well on your way to some soul-soothing prayer. It’s worth noting that you may add a specific god to a temple by clicking the symbol adjacent to the one shown above. However, unless you have the room and finances for more specialized temples, it’s definitely a good idea to keep it non-denominational.

Temples are ideal locations for your dwarves to leave offerings. They will not attain their full potential, though, until some instruments are included. You’ll need to create storage space for the instruments before you can add them, and you can even designate a performer to the chamber. However, before your dwarfs may dance, you must ensure that the entire unoccupied floor area in the temple is at least 25 tiles.