The plague spreads most directly by the infected being called into positions of power, thus spreading them across Orid Xem. I'm not sure if it's coincidence or outright developer interest, but it appears the Blighted are more likely to be called to positions of power. This may be because the Blight makes them immortal (though I have no confirmation so far), because they met an adventurer of the Museum, thus elevating them in the game's choosing pool for some reason, or because the developer indeed wanted a Blight to be hard to contain and so intentionally made this mechanism. Regardless, it's very interesting indeed.
I'm starting to think the Blight was a bit of a mistake.
(Other than that, I love your writing; a shame this turn was so short.)
I'm divided on the subject: on one hand, it gave us a hell of a villain/challenge beyond the vanilla ones while still staying vanilla. On the other, the world might not survive it (and I pity the fort that gets a blighter as an Outpost Liaison like I have - at least I knew what I was dealing with and healed him with DF Hack, even if only temporary. Even if the caravan guards had killed him, I don't know if dragging the blood through the fort infects everyone; I'm reminded that there
are syndroms that turn dwarves just by touch, like some of the rain in
Archcrystals, where fort apocalypse was barely avoided after a dwarf took a
nut without gloves... or infected the gloves... or ate it... something like that, but still pretty niche).
I reclaimed Eskon as a test (I'm going to crash the game so it's not saved) and Moldath appears in practice as "Friendly" and as broker as a profession. Also how are you even able to play him in this condition?
Bloody bugs after bloody bugs. I got Kikrost before I reclaimed, but while I was taking Rovod, Kikrost got called back to the stupid hillock. I can confirm however with a 90% accuracy that locking people in ROOFED tiles/rooms without entrances or exists keep characters inside.
After I reclaimed now, my fort lost its barony. No great loss. Also, my baron was supposedly mine, but in fact had the title for that conquered vault.
Other bugs include sites often crashing when I reclaimed/unreclaimed. I managed to bypass this by taking over an adventurer for a short while, retiring that adventurer, then successfully reclaiming.
Edit: My female elf disappeared between saves. Also the river I drained filled again. Thankfully, I'd channeled a lot around it so now half the map is flooded (yes, thankfully, because the river mouth is still blocked and the water can disperse faster now).
$%@#$%@$%@$%@$%@$%@$%%&$%&*%&$%@$%!#$!At least I got that goblin in that I'm going to have squads murder repeatedly until I get named reptiles (new ones original from this map and unrelated to those from Eskon).
I am curious where that elf went, maybe she got promoted because I upped many of her skills (especially in elf-related matters, like plant gathering)? It'd be interesting if someday she'd ascend to Princess/Queen. I'd copy, retire and save, except it takes ages for a game to save (between 5 and 10 minutes). Well, I'll find out when I retire before I post the save, I suppose.
Ah, I discovered why my map is more flooded than it should be by an expanded river: apparently the puddles I drained also regenerated.
$%@#$%@$%@$%@$%@$%@$%%&$%&*%&$%@$%!#$!Edit: Rovod's gone too. As are all my bins and barrels.
More edit: Looks like the bins and barrels were... misplaced. Somewhere. I don't know from where they're getting them back, but they are. That's something, I guess.
$%@#$%@$%@$%@$%@$%@$%%&$%&*%&$%@$%!#$!
Finally, something went right. Seven named reptile people!