Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24302820-20170111200900/@comment-24302820-20170114113719

I should probably have done this as a blog post, but since I already started the thread here...

By 'city' I mean population centers greater than ten-thousand people. Since the number of these communities get unwieldy on a global scale, I am taking the total number of these cities for a nation, and cutting them in half. This will give us the most important trade centers. To generate these numbers I'm taking from S. John Ross's notes, as do so many world designers. I'm using GIMP and our global map of Midian to find the area of each nation or region. I then determine the average population density; this gives me a total population. I then take the square root of that population, and multiply it by 25, since Midian's technological level is more Renaissance than Medieval (at least in many areas) and Midian is more urban in character. To account for large internal areas that are unpopulated or sparsely populated, the average population densities are usually notably smaller than the figures from Medieval Europe.

Moving on to the Killian Empire, because I've spent way too damned long on Formour, it is 680,024 square miles. Let's keep it simple: 100 per square mile. Very mountainous, but very dense where it's liveable. Also, it's pretty cold, and they're cold-blooded. This is a population of 68,002,400. This gives us 20 fucking cities. Since the number of Formourian cities is pretty much cut in half, let's just make this an explicit thing for the remainder of this project: the number of 10k+ cities, cut in half. I'll just need to keep this in mind for later, that we need to double the results if I want to later add more cities. Even so, this is quite a few cities on the map for the empire.

The Heldannic Confederation--actually, the entirety of the Freeholds--is 1,499,000 square miles. At 40 people per, this is 59,960,000, which is way too damned many white people. At only 30 people per square mile, this is still 44,970,000. Dropping it down to only 20, we get 29,980,000. Still a lot, but with lots and lots of big empty spaces. Keep in mind that this is only 2/3rds of the absolute minimum under Ross. This is 13 cities proper (with one just barely missing the cutoff) so cut in half it's 7 mapped trade cities.

Ebonstone's published population is only 510,000. That seems a bit low, but I'll work with it for now. This is a grand total of one trade city. Doubling the urban population gives us three cities. These three are pretty easy to identify. Thank you, Butch.

Tex stated that the entire population of the Association would be 3.3 million. This works out to 4 total cities (none of which are even close to 100k) so our division gets us 2. Congratulations, Hogan, you're our #2.

The Northern Protectorate is 892,936 square miles. If we give them 60 people per square mile (favourable climate, but a young nation) then we have a population of 53,576,160, which is way, way too damned many. With a population half that, we still get 26,788,080. I'm going to have to live with that, but know that it's quite a few native Osterreans, as well as quite a lot of bleed-off of population from the Killian Empire. By way of comparison, Ross gives England at 40, Germany and Italy at 90, and France topping out at a hundred. The 6D4x5 random roll he offers averages (rather strongly) to 75. This could be the metric that I use for much of the Elder Kingdoms. While I'm on the subject, I could put that as the average for Byzant as well (but possibly higher). I can also treat the Elder Kingdoms as a unified whole in order to find the population/city data. I really can't think of another way to handle this. For Byzant, keep in mind that there's still a big desert that would reduce the overall average density. So anyway, back to the NP. Our population gives us a dozen cities, with one missing the cutoff by 40-some odd people. I can still comfortably cut this down to six on the map without losing any sleep.

The Orcken Highlands are 961,209 miles. The population would be pretty low, what it being really shitty and the war and all. The population density would only be 25 per square mile. I was thinking of dropping it down to 15, but then remembered Orck fecundity. This is a population of 24,030,225, giving us 15 cities. If I did drop it down to 15 per, the population is then 14,418,135, for 12 cities. Halved, this is 6. Revising the size a bit, we get 916,050 square miles, a population of 13,740,750, and 9 cities. Rounding down, this is 4 trade cities. The Valley is 757,054 square miles. The population is much, much higher, as the Valley is pretty sweet. The population density in the south would be easily a hundred per. This is a total lowlander population of 75,705,400, resulting in 21 cities. The combined Orck population would be 89,446,150, for 23 cities. Let's see, if I cut it in half and round down, this is 11 cities. Subtracting the 4 already placed, we have 7 additional Orcken cities to put on the map.

The Osterrean Gothic territories cover 1,952,904 square miles. The land is decent enough, and it's already stated that there are numerous old cities there. Plus, the oldest human settlements are there, which gives the Goths more time to build. However, the current technology there isn't as good as it is in the Middle Realms, to include agricultural improvements. Allowing for vast open spaces (and I want quite a lot there) plus intertribal conflicts, the population density is only 30 per square mile. This would make the Gothic population in Osterre notably higher than that of the Heldannic Confederation, with a total of 58,587,120 people. This gives us 19 fucking cities, which is still a bit much, but fortunately these are going to be spread out over a wide area. Halving and rounding, we have 9 cities on our map.

The rest of Osterre is much, much easier. There's canonically only one Firpish city, and none of the other people of Osterre have the numbers or concentration to merit large cities.

I think I'll tackle the various islands before tackling the rest of Suditerre. Since these island nations are not fully fleshed out yet (nor are there plans to do so anytime in the near future) I will treat them as large geographic units, instead of by nation. Collectively, the Greatsea islands are 934,217 square miles. I included that more northerly archipelago as being part of the Killian Empire. Because reasons. It really won't change anything. Using 60 people per square mile as a default, we get a total population of 56,053,020 and 18 cities. That big archipelago south of Suditerre is 930,351 square miles. These islands are cold, dry, and really kind of shitty. We'll put their population density at only 15 per square mile. This results in a population of 13,955,265, and 9 cities. We'll round down, and put 4 on the map. There are only four islands in the Grim Sea that are large enough to go on the map. There's one in the Sea of Chaos that isn't scarily close to the Elves, and two big ones in the Trackless. Let's shove them all together, and use 60 people per square mile as a default. This is a total of 1,254,820 square miles, 18,822,300 people, and ten cities. It's easy enough to figure where the five cities should go on the map. I was going to put both Andale City and Westport on the trade map, but then realised that the former lacks a deep harbour, so most of its international trade goes through Westport, even though Andale City is larger.

The Elven Homeland is 1,333,783 square miles. They've been there a while--and are immortal--but have a very low reproductive rate. More importantly, it's important to Elven culture that they keep their green spaces open. A density of only 15 per square mile still gives us 11 cities. While it has been canonically stated that there are only two international trade cities for the Elves, they would still have population centers with trade among them. We can put our two international trade cities down pretty easily, leaving us just three others to figure out.

Now on to Byzant and the Elder Kingdoms. *Sigh.* Since the borders are deliberately fuzzy--and this goes double for parts south of the equator--I'm going to have to keep things pretty loose. Byzant is a huge place: 3,880,700 square miles. Using our default of 60 per square mile, this is a population of 232,842,000. This produces 38 cities, or 19 on the map. In the aggregate, the Elder Kingdoms (other than Zar, the Association, or any island nations) are 10,680,340 square miles. We'll keep the population density at 60. This is a total population of 640,820,400, resulting in 63 cities. Even our cutting in half, this is still 31 cities. Looking back over the whole map, I peppered a handful more in Suditerre, just because. Okay, fuck it. This portion's done.

I want to note that the placement of cities in Suditerre south of the equator is by no means going back on our promise to leave that area open for development by the game's players. I am only using these as placeholders so that the global trade system works out. If someone wants to develop any of these areas (like what has already been done for Zar and the Association) and wants higher or lower population figures, different locations for their cities (or numbers of these cities) then go right ahead, and we'll adjust things on our end accordingly.