How does strategic difficulty work in multiplayer?

[RetroNutcase]

Just a question I've been going over in my head if I ever run a server: I assume most resources are shared in multiplayer, but how do orbs work? Is the settlement restricted to the number of orbs set in the Strategic Difficulty, or does each player get access to that many?

I ask, because if it's the former, I somehow see the game getting near impossible if you're supposed to split 9 orbs among several players...

[Wanderer]

Like spell-creation resources, orbs are duplicated into each player's private stockpile of available resources.  So each player gets their own unique pile of orbs to use.