Nthing the "bloody great waste of time". When I embark on a challenge fort (as opposed to a conventional fort) where I see if I'm dwarf enough to survive on a Terrifying triple-aquifer glacier, I generally name my group something like "The Poor Doomed Bunch of Fools".
In my previous fort, literally every third engraving was of the heroic death of Bugi Strappeddates being struck down by the giant eagle Prarieshowers. It got extremely aggravating, because my historians would never engrave tales of MY dwarves' heroism, they were too busy telling of the glory of Bugi goddamned Strappeddates, who wasn't even a member of my civilization. I ended up killing my first historian, but his replacement did the exact same thing.
"Remember when our one and only Axedwarf fended off a triple ambush of goblins, killing thirteen of them in about a minute despite the fact that the second one broke his shoulder and made him drop his axe? That was pretty badass, right? So how come your engravings are never about that? **** it, you're no longer a historian, you're a wrestler on guard duty next to the magma pipe for the rest of your life!"
Maybe I was being unfair to my historian. Maybe in his world, the story of Bugi Strappeddates was equivalent to our world's Battle of Thermopylae and they told all kinds of tales and fables about it.
Oh, but this topic is about GOOD engravings, not engravings I'm tired of seeing.
Ziriloshtest "The Firey Mess"
Engraved on the wall as a superiorly designed image of a donkey. The donkey is burning. The artwork relates to the heat-induced death of the donkey in Battlegreed the Grave of Thieves in the early spring of 214.
Olum Rakas "The Dispersal of Strangers"
Engraved on the wall is a finely-designed image of Cata Peltpraise the elf. Cata Peltpraise is burning. The artwork relates to the heat-induced death of the elf Cata Peltpraise in Battlegreed the Grave of Thieves in the early spring of 214.
See, we had this magma vent that connected to the surface, and the fortress was in a forest/grassland, so about once a year we'd get these massive forest fires that would obliterate everything on the map except my fortress, thanks to my habit of building uselessly massive walls. Coincidentally, the main entrance would often be closed for maintenance during the early spring, so elven merchants had a habit of getting caught in the wildfires. I even have a screenshot of this particular doomed merchant and his donkey.
This map is also notable for being the only map I've ever played where natural features caused more damage to the ecosystem than my dwarves did.