>>56652052More or less.
In older versions once your fortress reached a certain size/wealth an economy system kicked in, where, as described, jobs, prices, etc. etc. are set by the state or random nobles.
A dwarf can enter a special mood which prompts it to try to create an Artifact-quality item. For some moods, this also results in a boatload of skill-XP which catapults them into being Legendary in the relevant skill.
Legendarily-skilled dwarves were considered to, just by virtue of hanging around the fortress while being that skilled, have already paid everything the fortress could ask of them and more. So most of the economy didn't apply to them. They don't buy things, they just commandeer them. etc. etc.
Of course at the time the economy was also a screaming dumpster fire which typically resulted in a large proportion of your population becoming homeless, starving vagabonds literally overnight when it kicked in, so it was kind of a race to get as many legendary dwarves as possible to have a skeleton of 'something still works'
Amusingly, the one thing that would destroy the fortress' ability to get anything done with remarkable efficiency was the production of any kind of coinage.
