Bing's EitB LVII thread

[BING_XI_LAO]

Do I have a lurker? 
I am happy to play without one, but my incompetence might degrade the match quality.

[RefSteel]

If you'd like a dedlurker, try posting a request for one in the setup thread - but be aware that a dedlurker is unlikely be able to help much if you don't post frequently about the game!

[RefSteel]

The shallow waters along this shoreline support a vast bed of enormous bivalves, many with shells wider than the spread of a tall man's arms, and most weighing at least a quarter of a ton.  They anchor a benthic forest of seaweeds, corals, and the creatures that live in and among them, all adapted to the special environment created by the giant shells.  Harvesting the meat from such monstrous clams requires great expertise in the peculiar demands of their fishery, but their massive shells make valuable building materials as well, and skilled Patyceran clam-fishers can cut the clams' muscles, pry them apart, and harvest the shells along with the meat.  Would-be clam fishers without the necessary skill inevitably fail in their attempts to prize open the massive shells or to wrench the whole from the sea floor shelf to which they are anchored, and face risks enough from the sea itself to dissuade all but the most reckless:  Between the shallow shelf and the irregular shapes lent it by the gigantic clam shells, the breakers can be violent as they roll in from the sea, and boats must use caution whenever moving among them to keep from being dashed on boulder-sized clams or the rocks of the shore.  This does offer an advantage to such boats as manage to establish themselves among the clam beds with good soundings and preparation, at least when facing would-be attackers who have to make their way among the dangerous breakers and avoid running aground on a huge bivalve shell, so locals warn that guarding the clam beds against enemy incursion is of even greater importance than may at first appear.

Your start:

   
(The Platyceran Shelf is a coastal clam with a forest on it:  A 2/1/2 tile with fishing that gives 25% defenses instead of 10% and becomes 4/1/2 with a workboat, boostable by all the usual seaside buildings.)

And your first set of options:

Cardith Lorda (Philosophica/Expansive/Adaptive) of the Kuriotates, with Animal Husbandry OR Calendar

OR

Amelanchier (Philosophical/Raiders) of the Ljosalfar, with Cartography OR Fishing OR Hunting

OR

Ethne the White (Creative/Organized) of the Elohim, with Mysticism

(Or you can throw all three back for a different set of three.)

[BING_XI_LAO]

I pick Ethne. Thanks.
Cool starting info!

[RefSteel]

Cool starting info!

Thanks! There are a couple more too: One of the abilities of the Elohim civilization is that they start with all the "Unique Features" on the map visible (as though you had once explored just those tiles). I didn't unfog most of my additional landmarks, but I did so with two of them because those two would have been unique features if the mana provided by Letum Frigis and the Broken Sepulcher weren't considered too powerful. So the landmarks I replaced them with will be visible to you in the starting save (like the "official" unique features) and they each have a little write-up.

One that you may have seen last game, making a re-appearance here:

Rumors are spreading about the site of a terrible battle between the living and the dead that took place soon after the glaciers receded from an ancient vault. Many died and rose again to do battle against life, and the master of the undying army was only thrown down and destroyed when one who dared stand alone against it in the face of the deathless hordes transformed the power of the vault itself. Tales vary with the tellers and the audience and with time, but it is said that Syraethe, the mysterious general who led the living army, ultimately gave her life to effect the transformation in a last and desperate stand. Some say her courageous spirit still watches over the site where the vault once stood, but all agree that afterward, when the corpses were carried away - some perhaps still restless - and cairns or tombstones raised above them all, then whatever became of Syraethe's spirit, her body was never found.

And one that's new to this game:

Rumor whispers of a titanic struggle between legendary beings wielding now-forgotten magics beneath a frigid sky, amid vast sheets of snow. The glaciers where the battle took place, and even the frozen bedrock below, were torn asunder, hurled outward, by the force of devastating spells, and the very fabric of the world around them was strained and twisted by the power unleashed there. Now, long after the battle, some say snow and sleet still fall ceaselessly around the basin thus torn open by magic power; some say volcanic vents rise from the earth beneath, burning hot enough to melt even hail in mid-air as it falls. It may be that both are true - that the residue of the two great powers and their meeting still do battle across the basin and its walls, leaving power of another kind behind - for there are tales of a river that flows around the basin without beginning and without end, forever rushing downhill in an eternal circle, impossible in any other part of the world. The river is said moreover to overflow its banks in time with the sun's yearly cycle, annually reclaiming rich volcanic soil from the snow, and thereby to turn the icy basin where the battle raged into one of the most-fertile lands of the south. The tales of this place might never have spread nor ever been believed were it not for the astonishing drawings of the river made by the famed and ingenius explorer Maurits Cornelis, for whom and for whose work the basin now is named.

[BING_XI_LAO]

I decided to be a hipster and settle a tile inland instead of on the coastal hill (screencap from previous turn)
Felt that pigs/shepp are better than fish/clams, also slightly improves capital location in regards to future distance maintenance since I assume most settlements will be to the west. Gives slightly more room to the "marginal" eastern coast settlements

[BING_XI_LAO]

Settled a few cities, nothing special to report so far though.