I dearly wish that I'd done a more formal write-up for this settlement. We started in an extreme desert, where an ancient highway met a river, and our first months were hell. There is hardly any arable land, just gravel where stone pillars meet sand. There is no wood, there is no animal life to hunt, none.
We were on a day left of food before the first raider attack. It was just one man They died to our guns, but we were poised to die regardless. Our potatoes were days from being grown, and there just weren't many other options for food.
So we butchered the raider and fed his remains to the nutrient paste machine- and so we survived a little longer.
Traders came after a time, and I hoped we might be able to recover enough to abandon the abhorrent needs of survival. Except the full moon rose, and one of the traders turned werewolf, as well as one of our own colonists. Somehow, in the ensuing gun battle, the traders turned hostile. Our werewolf died. Their werewolf, and six of their caravaners died, before the remaining pair fled.
We didn't have time to purchase food from them- but they left so many bodies behind. So many delicious bodies. We butchered them all. We processed them into meals, we tanned their hides into leather, and we never looked back. Even when the potatoes came in and many colonists rejected cannibalism in favor of standard fare, we never stopped our practice of butchering those who dared cross us.
Now, we flourish were no civilization should flourish. We grow bamboo to build with, and have comfortable rooms. Water towers draw up fresh water for irrigation and sophisticated plumbing. Solar networks and fused batteries provide reliable power. Potatoes and long pig are staple foods, and we have both in enough abundance to support our colony and more. We built a temple from stone to the great god, dead but dreaming. At dawn and dusk we worship with fervent prayer and supplication- and sometimes, when the stars are right, we worship him with the flash of the knife.
The screenshot is recent, showing how happy our newest arrival is with the settlement.
We're a bizarrely nice place in the middle of the desert, and we've succeeded in peace talks with all our neighbors, we just sacrifice and eat anyone who happens to try to disturb our quiet life of agrarian contemplation.
Rimworld.