The cloth map isn't shown, but instead what's shown is the rendered view with cloth map figures. This can be seen below, with poor Lady Procepinee buried to her waist and her first city completely obscured by the landscape. When zoomed out, the view does not switch to the cloth map, but rather there is a square of rendered land and fog of war surrounded by black.

Initially, the cloth map view worked as normal.

The only thing I did to cause this to happen was click on the Research Technologies button on the lower left bar in the main (map) view screen. I saw nothing happening, so I clicked again. When the game finally finished loading, I was in the Options screen with the "You have no scholars pursuing research!" message in front. Returning to the game produced this effect.

I checked the Options screen again, and the "Cloth Map Only" option was still selected. Deselecting it showed rendered figures on a rendered landscape until the cloth map zoom level, at which point it does switch correctly to the cloth map view. Selecting it again showed the same as the image below, cloth map figures on a rendered landscape.

After saving the game, exiting Elemental, and loading the game again, the bug persisted. New games that started with the the "Cloth Map Only" option deselected have the bug as well. If a game is started with the "Cloth Map Only" option selected, the game begins with a proper view of the cloth map at all zoom levels.