My dwarves have survived their first year. The religious preferences of the starting seven were not shown until we arrived, long after I had already assigned skills. I was fortunate enough that one of the starting seven chose to be a faithful worshipper of my chosen deity (Tunur the Amber of Charcoal). Even better: it was the dwarf with military skills, who was also the expedition leader! I dubbed her the High Priestess, and gave her a fancy (relatively, for now) room. All the others, who are pagans, got simple 2x2 cells.
No more worshippers of Tunur arrived until the next spring, when I got 3 additional priests.
Work during the first year has gone mostly toward basic secular needs -- living spaces, a modest farm, a still, and so on. High Priestess Udib and one pagan are training with hammers for defense of the temple, should it be needed. So far, the only hostiles have been some kobold thieves (a group of 3, and a group of 2, both of which ran off without stealing anything) and some wolverines, which harassed our dogs until we sent in the hammers. And then the butcher. One of the pagans who arrived in the spring of 101 is an expert with swords, and another is a hunter/marksdwarf. These will be added to our temple guard as well.
Construction of the temple proper has not yet begun, but some of the preparations are underway. We have begun to remove the top layer from the western plateau, and to construct a defensive wall in the northwest. Many of the trees from the eastern shrubland have been harvested, and charcoal production has begun. When the plateau surface is ready, and the wall is in place, the next step will be construction of the charcoal base. Udib wants a diameter of 40 urists, but some of the other priests worry that the crown atop such a massive base may be beyond our resources, and are arguing for a reduction of scale. We shall see....
Meanwhile, the plateau itself serves as our "temple". While there is no building or altar yet, there is always the open sky. Our prayers will be heard.