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[KtosoX]

Hmmmm... the only way to get to the bottom of this is checking out your world and that specific embark. Upload your save somewhere and post the link here. I'll check it out as soon as I can.

[nightwhips]

A mysterious fire on embark decimates my dwarfs

...so you lost 7/10^ths of a dwarf? That must have been messy.

+1 because the word decimate is overused by people who don't understand its meaning.

American HeritageŽ Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

    1. To destroy or kill a large part of (a group).
    2. To inflict great destruction or damage on: The fawns decimated my rose bushes.
    3. To reduce markedly in amount: a profligate heir who decimated his trust fund.
    4. To select by lot and kill one in every ten of.

See sense 1

[Dochappy]

ok I'll upload the folder.
I'll reload the world and see if I can find that same embark again

[forsaken1111]

A mysterious fire on embark decimates my dwarfs

...so you lost 7/10^ths of a dwarf? That must have been messy.

+1 because the word decimate is overused by people who don't understand its meaning.

American HeritageŽ Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

    1. To destroy or kill a large part of (a group).
    2. To inflict great destruction or damage on: The fawns decimated my rose bushes.
    3. To reduce markedly in amount: a profligate heir who decimated his trust fund.
    4. To select by lot and kill one in every ten of.

See sense 1

I fully realize that the word has been used wrong so often that the common understanding of it has changed. That doesn't make it correct, simply popular.

[Frogwarrior]

you guys remind me of this

[forsaken1111]

calling someone a nazi isn't very nice.

[Frogwarrior]

is it nice to say you remind me of a hilarious video?

[Jimlad11]

deleted

[Dochappy]

ok think I have figured it out. found the embark site and picked everything like I did last time. I noticed in the animal section it showed me taking 1 fire snake. I don't know why  it was checked though. Could that have wiped everyone out ?

[KtosoX]

Weird... Vermin can be tamed, but I don't think you can embark with them.

I picked a calm temperate area to embark and chose one of the presets for the dwarfs
...

I assume l n p has some presets? Is it possible that one of them is bugged? Or maybe someone modded in surprise fire snakes on embark?

[Flare]

I fully realize that the word has been used wrong so often that the common understanding of it has changed. That doesn't make it correct, simply popular.

Language shift with popular usage. A word is correct when a large percentage of people use it under the same understanding.

In any case, next time I embark I would bring a firesnake with me.

[Corneria]

Posting to support the "decimate != annihilate" camp.

Posting because people have no reason to shit all over a thread for a perfectly acceptable usage of a word simply because the original and mostly obsolete definition is not the same as the current one. There is no reason to say it doesn't equal annihilate either, since the usage here is not the same as annihilate's.

Congratulations guys, you knew something about the word that OP didn't. A+.

[Frogwarrior]

And if the original meaning is obsolete we should be freaking CELEBRATING that we don't need a word for the systematic, horrifically cruel subjugation and dismantling of an entire culture.

[Mount]

So forcibly wrenching this discussion back on topic.. fire snakes actually CAN start fires?  I had an old fortress that was literally crawling with them, and never noticed anything catching fire (not even the booze stockpiles, and there WERE firesnakes noodling around in the larder...)

I thought firesnake ignition, like rodents of unusual size, was a myth.

[Girlinhat]

They can, under certain circumstances.  I think it's primarily grass, which is why they live so deep in the earth, away from grass.

Also:

there WERE firesnakes noodling around in the larder...