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[Samuel]

So, my miner died () and that kind of sucked because I had brought him up to Accomplished by having him mine out my entire fortress (including a large silver vein) singlehandedly. I felt kind of resposible, seeing as how I'm the one who ordered him to make an upwards ramp beneath a rather large lake, without making sure he had a way out other than the long fall down the shaft the water was to flow down (I also flooded a fair portion of my fortress, by the way). So, I set about making him a tomb worthy of him, including a sarcophagus and statues made from the silver he himself mined, in a room he created, with the walls engraved.

Given that whatever gets engraved seems to be largely random, I was hoping against hope, that at least a couple would be about Tholtig (the miner in question) in some way. So... The engraver got to work, made a few about the creation of Claspedwhispers (which, again, Tholtig built alone), fair enough, he made a few about the appointment of the expedition leaders (who did nothing since they arrived. Tholtig is rolling in his sarcophagus), and... at least half a dozen depictions of a Marsh Titan (a specifically named one) killing elves, dwarves and humans alike throughout history.

I found this odd. Putting aside how the heck Urist McSuckyTombEngraver even knew about the Titan's body count, why is he so obsessed with this thing? Why would he not engrave a single other event from history which does not directly involve his home fortress, or this titan? Would other engravers be similarly obsessed? Did they encounter this thing on their travels?

Interestingly, All the kills are in one place: The Reticent Swamp. How do I find this place? Do I dare seek out a creature so dangerous that my Engraver seems to think he has to warn people about through his art?

[TherosPherae]

You have it lucky.

My engravers are obsessed with engraving either one of my army dwarves surrounded by random objects (bluejays, gauntlets....), and a fight between Cog Mistymetals (a dwarf) and Therset Creatureearth the Cave of Skunks (a mountain titan). As far as I can tell, the only things that happened in this fight were:
Cog got his left eyelid busted up.
Cog got killed.

These appear repeatedly in sculptures and engravings, with only intermittent pictures of my dwarves making artifact or masterwork stuff.

[Internet Kraken]

I believe the Reticent Swamp is the place you embarked in, or you are at least close to it. Dwarves will be obsessed with making engravings of any important historical events that happened in the area you embarked in, even if they have nothing to do with your fort. Anything that happens in your fort is peanuts compared to these events. Which is why my fort is covered in images of some random human taming jaguars (and an Ogre beating dwarves to death with a backpack, but that's not the point). That Marsh Titan murdering elves is the most important historical event in your area. You can probably expect a visit from him some time in the future if he is in such close proximity.

Of course, I could be wrong. This is just my explanation for Engravers being obsessed with (seemingly) random events.

[Samuel]

Hmm, that's possible. It's a swampy area. I haven't seen the Titan yet (I'll check again what his name is later), so I'm a little worried he might be dead. 'Course, if he's alive, he'll most likely kill my entire fortress when and if he shows up, but I'd enjoy the epic battle while it lasted.

[Svarte Troner]

Like the others said, I think it has something to do with the area. For instance; My engravers were running around engraving pictures of some Human taming polar bears 80 some years before my fortress was even founded. And low and behold, that fortress was on a tundra. I had entire corridors devoted to pictures of this guy taming fucking polar bears, and now I imagine him riding into my fortress with an army of polar bears slaughtering all my dwarves.

[Lord Darkstar]

That's why I prefer statues for decorating a tomb. Just have your mason get busy making statues. Then you can put all the "titan kills" statues somewhere it doesn't matter, and put the local events statues where you want them that is important to you. Just be ready to make a LOT of statues.

[Hyndis]

I use multiple dwarves making decorative items. I also prefer statues.

That way I can reject the statues I don't like and send them back to the forges for melting. I only keep the statues I like. With more dwarves making them I get much more variety to work from.

[slothen]

I'm lucky.  All that's happened in my embark area throughout history has been some elf hero being killed by lions.

[silhouette]

In my last fort, my dwarves kept making statues of pam thunderstorm, or something like that.
Aparently pam freaking tamed giant EAGLES, ALONE, and this was on his second journey!
His first journey was probably just scouting the area out.

Pam is a human.

[ledgekindred]

Yeah, the couple areas I've let my engravers at are covered with pictures of my dwarves founding the fort, some human taming eagles in the year who-cares and a various dwarves being appointed bookkeeper, military commander, etc.  There are a couple of goblins being struck down but that's it.

I'm not going to let my engravers do much until there has been a lot more stuff happen in the fort.  I have an axe squad with over 100 kills combined (I'm still only in year 1055) so I figure a couple more years like that and I'll start testing engraving on out of the way parts of the fort and see if they put anything relevant up.  Like my dwarves killing stuff.  Or if they'll still be obsessed with some dude and his birds.  I'll make sure they are engraved in some part of the fort where, if they suck, I can dig them out and be damned with their tantrums about art defacement.

[silhouette]

Though a human taming giant eagles alone is pretty epic, first he has to catch them...

[ledgekindred]

Oh actually the best engraving I have is of some kobold triumphantly holding up a stolen sock. 

It's the only thing that's ever been stolen from my fortress and that only because it was outside on a rock somewhere while I was holed up waiting for a siege to enter my deathtraps and let my military (who I call "the deathmongers") descend on them.

So I get this mental image of this kobold who returns home to his cave, or village or wherever it is that kobolds live.  The other kobolds all gather 'round because this is the first kobold thief to ever come back from a thieving expedition to my fort.  They are expectantly waiting to see what glorious artifact he's about to pull from his thieving bag.  Everyone knows it's gonna be good considering the way that fortress is defended.  He strikes an heroic pose, with one foot on a rock and the hand holding the bag resting nonchalantly against his hip. Reaches in, and with a flourish, whips out and holds aloft, for everyone to see...

... a ratty, stinky old dwarf sock.

The gathered kobolds all "ooooh and "aaaah" because frankly they are kobolds and dumb as a nut and have no idea that this is an old smelly sock that not even a dwarf could stand to wear anymore. 

[kilakan]

You guys are lucky all I have is engravings of a demon who escapes from the underworld and started a religion about enjoying children....

[Zaik]

Seems like there should be some kind of limit on how long these things stay around, i genned a world for 1750 years and my dwarves were engraving crap that happened in 6.

I was like wtf? :/

[Samuel]

You guys are lucky all I have is engravings of a demon who escapes from the underworld and started a religion about enjoying children....

I don't want to know what you mean by "enjoy".

Speaking of statues, how do you view what a statue is of? I tried hitting k and putting the X over it, but nothing happened when I hit Enter. It's bothersome. One of the statues next to Tholtig's Sarcophagus could be of the poor bastard's widow banging one of the expedition leaders engraved on the wall for all I know.