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I have a lumberdwarf who died in combat with a wild animal. His rotting body is outside, as well as... his ghost. I assume he is a full blown ghost, however he is listed as a "ghostly lumberdwarf" not a "ghost" and he seems to disappear and reappear. I read that I can make him stop haunting the fort by giving him a proper burial. Between the options of coffin and memorial slab, I chose to dig out a graveyard and give him a nice marble coffin (I assume this is the right choice, as he still has a corpse). Then when I hit "q" I could either use for burial or create a tomb. I created a tomb and assigned it to the ghostly lumberdwarf. What exactly is the difference? The dwarves don't appear to be collecting the corpse so I thought I'd ask for some advice and take it easy before the situation gets more severe and I have to call the ghostbusters. Thanks for the help :)

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You definitely want to change it to burial. A Tomb is just something that some nobles demand, before their deaths. You may need more coffins, as anything that needs burial will be put into the first available coffin. Fortunately, coffins are relatively cheap to make.

As it stands the game seems to think that the tomb should be used to bury the ghostly lumber dwarf when it dies. Which seems a bit like a bug, since you shouldn't be able to assign buildings to things that aren't members of your civilization.

So to sum up: change that coffin to burial, and build a few more (also set to burial) just to be safe.

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  • Ok thanks but I think I read on the wiki that you can only use coffins for burial if the person in question is alive. In other words, is it possible to say use for burial for the lumberdwarf even if he is dead?
    – Evan Adler
    Commented Jul 11, 2015 at 21:21
  • Yes, you can. It is tombs that can (should) only be able to be made for living entities. To quote the wiki--The only way to bury pets, caravan guards, and other dwarves is to use the "Use for Burial" option. This will cause the burial receptacle to be automatically assigned to a dwarf/pet on a first dead, first serve basis.
    – Nick
    Commented Jul 12, 2015 at 2:21
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As an alternative to a coffin, if the body is non-recoverable, you can create a Stone Slab in the masonry, then Engrave it dedicated to that dorf in a craftsdwarf's workshop, and finally install it as a memorial somewhere. This will put the ghost to rest (and if the slab is particularly pretty, will also generate moderate happy thoughts from dorfs passing it. Win win)

As to the coffin, it may be a better bet to just set it freely available; if you have more coffins marked "available for burial" than you have dead dorfs, the survivors will automatically try to move his body into one. Creating a tomb works much the same as creating a room - and should have been applied to the living dorf.

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