Land Nations Starting Under Water??

[Davidious]

ok guys, wonder if some of you can help me out. just getting ready to start a mp game with some friends but we got side tracked by some issues about starting underwater.

One of the guys, playing on the Cradle of Dominion map with Tien Chi got randomly assigned a water province as a starting location. He played the game out a little ways and said the province functioned as a 'land' province for him, but as a 'water' province for people trying to cast ranged spells against him. Is this a feature or a bug?

Does talking Water Cult normally grant the nation the ability to have their starting province underwater? (Tien Chi in the above example was not Water Cult).

Is there any circumstance in which a nation other then Atlantis and Ryleh are allowed start underwater?

What happens when modding maps and someone does end up starting under water (even if they were not supposed to)? In other words, does the game treat their home province as a land province, a water province, or some other combination of the two?

thanks in advance for the help.