So I'm on to my 4th game now, game 3 was the best run. In game 3 I died running away. Not because I did anything out of the ordinary, but because it's impossible to shake pursuers. Same thing in game 4 now. I'm being pursued by a train of hate. All im doing is running, running running around, in straight lines, in curves, trying to hide behind trees. When i rest to recoup stamina because it's constantly running out, I take a hit. I can't engage because the bow does minimal damage and I have 5 arrows. All I can do is keep running and running and running .. In game 3 I was running for maybe 500-1000 turns before I finally circumbed. How many turns will I have to run and run and run this time before dying?

They never give up. But I'll keep running and count the turns I have to run for to shake them or until I die .. 379 turns more running .. lost 3 pursuers when i crossed a bridge, but one guy never game up. Crossed back over the river, he kept following me, eventually we ran into a spell caster and then an archer who quickly finished me off.

Please tone down their drive to pursue, I can't actually believe some farmer or trader would be so determined to hunt down a dark elf defending themselves. 

And I thought I saw NPC's fighting each other once. Do they do that? Because it's odd when I've got both villagers and fishmen chasing me together. Are they living in harmony? With a pact to attack all foreigners?

Edit : Game 5 - Dark Elf / Necromancer - died running again. Running and running and running. I had a score of 612, does that mean I was running for about 600 turns, since i had about a dozen turns of peace at the start. My dagger expired in no time at all. Left me with rocks to throw. lol. Didn't even have time to gather enough rocks at the start to craft an axe. First it was a trader then there were just elves everywhere. I can't get a lead on them so when i rest i take a hit. They whittle me down eventually.

The problem with this pattern is that I have to wade through very uninteresting and frustrating games to get a game where I can survive and get into it a bit.

Game 6 - Dark Elf / Necromancer - I've chopped down a tree, havent managed to cut it into wood yet. But no worries - look, here's another hate train, 355 hp worth of enemies on my tail. I'm not even going to bother playing this one out. I can see the future.

It's difficult for me to understand your playstyle, but maybe if you can help me, I could make some adjustments to the game. 
Why do you keep running instead of fighting? Do you run away from enemies into locations you've not discovered yet, where more dangers can await? I admit I didn't want to have an empty world, so a lot is going on everywhere, but unless you run forward blindly the situations you describe shouldn't happen. With 379 moves you could probably move through a big chunk of the world. It's about six region maps away. Almost all early-game enemies are slower than you, so I can't imagine you could run that long and not escape. Your enemies have stamina and need to rest too.

On your screenshot there are soldiers. You can't meet them unless you move toward their keep.

I think I can finally see the issues some of you may have in the early game after watching this video.
I'll implement a pursuit range, and probably nerf traveler speed by 10% so he can't keep up for that long.
I'm considering making the first map a "no-wander" zone. Enemies will still pursue when aggroed, but won't come in on their own. This should give enough time to make preparations before picking a fight.
I'll add some form of strength comparison in the enemy tooltips, so it's easier to judge the encounter for new players before engaging.

Traveler speed was reduced, no-wander zone created in the starting region and strength comparison added in tooltip.
I was on the fence with adding pursuit stop to AIs, but I skipped it for now because it would make it easy for ranged characters to abuse the mechanic. Let me know if it's too hard to escape by using the terrain, so I'll know if something has to be done further.

I'm currently on my best run with a Dark Elf Inquisitor (L4). My only other good run was with a Dark Elf Nomad (L2 / 3824 pts). My other 6 games were 755 pts and less.

I'm being much more cautious this game and have avoided being ganged up on. I listened to your advice and kind of read between the lines of what you said to realize that I have to deal with enemies when i see them without moving far or else i have to flee before they detect me. I can't run around too much to flee once detected - that will lead to death. But fleeing is a grand tradition of adventurers everywhere. I think it's a problem if fleeing is a death sentence. I note that the changes you've made might help in the early game in this regard.

I think there may be some balance issues with some of the classes, but not sure. I'll be interested to revisit what i percieve as the weaker classes with my stricter play style. The inquisitors 1st level immolate is powerful and necessary, and icebolt isn't too bad on their approach. I'm not that impressed with fireball but it does have a huge AOE (maybe even a little too big) so we'll see. 

I guess I can reflect and say, well now I'm playing more cautiously, with more of a view that this is a short range roguelike, particular at that boundary of NPC detection, and not an adventure game or RPG (even though it looks and feels like it a lot). I do wish there more places to hide though, more cover and opportunities to lose pursuers.