03-18-2012, 10:24 AM
Havard Wrote:I think Aldarron has a very good point that this depends on what you consider the extent of the Kingdom of Blackmoor. The comparison to Denmark is interesting because, at least according to Cthulhudrew's figures, Blackmoor is significantly larger than mainland Denmark. Again relyig on Cthulhudrew's estimate that Blackmoor covers an area of "Approx. 51,750 sq.mi." the populations seem very low, especially if you look at this guide for determining medieval populations: http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/blueroom/demog.htm
-Havard
Havard that site is a great find. I'd limit some of the stuff there to only certain kinds of places but the mechant/SV chart is an awesome resource.
One of the things from that site that's only relevant to certain kinds of places is the pop density info.
I found that 51,750 sq mi figure curios too. I don't know how he derived it, so I tried figuring out the sq mi from scratch. Looking at the FFC hex map and doing an extremely rough counting of 10 mile hexes yeilds something in the neighborhood of 20 x 30 hexes for the area east of the misaugua and north of the root rivers. That's 600 hexes times 86.6 square miles per hex. That yields 51,960 square mile.
Bugger all if that aint close. I didn't try to account for water areas but parts of the land extend beyond what I counted so it comes close to balancing out.
I'm sure Cthuldrews figure is a more careful counting than mine.
The d20 maps appear to be on exactly the same scale. I'm sure Dave L. has this all figured out for sure.
So, if you go with Alex’s 262,500 figure you get a pop density of 5.07 persons per square mile. That is actually a very reasonable figure for a northern country with long winters (October to April) and a primarily hay based agriculture. (FFC specifies that a domesticated form of bison (i.e. cows) are the agricultural base. Garbage pits of despair also mention sheep.)
Similarly low and even lower population densities are estimated for similar places, such as medieval Norway,
http://books.google.com/books?id=PWP6LX ... ay&f=false
Much the same can be said of finland, Iceland, and so forth, so upon reflection, Alex’s figure, is probably about correct with that number being spread between country , towns and cities.