Those skeletons at starting point are pretty much all JTG, I think. Basically, he used to make a brand new character, and then proceed to carve swastikas into grass and childish stuff like that. It apparently bothered some people, so they killed these new characters. He'd just make a new one and the whole thing would repeat. Once he got a dozen of his characters killed in short succession. Point is, I've never heard of someone getting murdered without any provocation. This doesn't mean it never happens, as it could go unreported, but it is very unlikely to happen to you. And even when it happens, a lot of powerful players hate people who kill innocent newbies, so the murderer usually meets swift death. But in the end, you're free to settle anywhere you want - any advice I give you is just advice.
As for the purple blotches, they are wild crops. This is where most of us got our starting wheat and other stuff from. Do note that the map is out of date, so most of these wild crops don't actually exist any more.
Anyway, forests exists all over the map, the circles have nothing whatsoever to do with forests. That map has colour filter for danger levels, so it can make it hard to identify forests. Try using
this map, it's easier to discern terrain types on it. While we're talking maps,
this map is also useful, as it shows the most recent danger levels as well as most of the settlements in the game.
For logging in, I managed to do it just five minutes ago, so you should be able to log in. If you can't, file a bug report.