It -was- mentioned somewhere that from the start, you'll be absolutely dependant on your Channeler. All land is devestated, and even to build your first settlement, you'll have to cleanse/imbue that piece of land. I'm not sure wheter or not you start with any settlers or such, though.

I'm not sure I like the prospect of having to find a settlement, because depending on your luck, it could take many turns before you actually get to start to play the actual game. This could be a deciding factor in some cases, if the game remotely adheres to classic 4x gaming. If some find their settlement or settlers very early on, it could in the worst case scenario end up as a deciding factor in who takes the lead. I don't mind wild cards, but this one is one I could see as potentially frustrating, wheter the problem is real or just percieved.

I don't think the city just rises out of the ground because of a spell, I think the settlers still build it like in Civilization, but you have to imbue the land with power to make it "habitable" again after the cataclysm. At least this is what I have mustered from it all. I actually agree with you both, thinking that your idea is a neat one, Polistes but considering it is turn based and not an RTS I would have to say that it would get pretty frustrating to not have a city after like 3 turns even.

Thats not to say that powerful magic couldn't make a city rise out of the ground. If not a city then a tower or fort.

I would hope, given the RPG element, that even if it did take several turns for your Channeler to found a city, he/she would have had the time to actually develop certain skills/abilities (ie encountering PvE, picking up resources,etc) that the immediate city builder wouldn't and that these skills/abilities/items could be translated in benefits somewhere else. Thus providing yet another strategic choice for the player to make and avoiding a possible disadvantage (as it most certainly was on the higher levels of Civ).

ps and yes, it would be seriously cool to watch your channeler raise something like superman's Fortress of Solitude from bones of the earth (and then watch my channeler raze it!!)   

Given that you are alive at the start the game you have been born to parents to live in one of the few scattered pockets of liveable space remaining in the world. This means that you start with a tribe. But it IS possible that you could get kicked out and have to find another. Being a channeler you can keep the ground you walk on liveable so only and any followers would be able to travel to another liveable pocket.

While it would be incredibly difficult, it IS a kickass way to start the game. Wandering alone in the desert wasteland with only your magic to sustain you. Looking for a tribe to begin all over again.

It was my impression that cities could only be founded on certain "fertile" tiles (of which there would be some, but not many, naturally existing), however that doesn't mean that other terrain is not useful or cannot be worked.  My impression is that the ground within your territory gradually grows based on your alignment and magical focus, however you may imbue certain tiles (specifically) to be "fertile" in order to found cities.