Author Topic: Population of the continents and Battlemasterra  (Read 6290 times)

Antonine

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Population of the continents and Battlemasterra
« Topic Start: December 22, 2017, 04:10:28 PM »
So about a month ago I got curious, gathered up the region data from each continent I played on, and did some number crunching so I could work out what the total human population of each continent was. 

Here's what I found:

East Continent

Population: ~1.6 million
Realms: 13
Cities: 24
Largest city population: 95,000 (Ibladesh)
Area: 374,867 sq. miles

Summary: This is roughly equivalent to the population of England and Wales circa 1000 AD. By contrast, however, England and Wales only had two realms at 1000 AD and even back in 700 AD only had about 11 realms. And the largest city in England and Wales at 1000 AD was London which only had a population of 10,000 people (which made it very large) and there were only about 10 cities in the entire country and which, excluding London, had populations ranging from 3,000 to 6,000 people.

However, the total land area of England and Wales is only around 58,000 square miles while the East Continent is only barely smaller than the size of France, Germany and Ireland all combined.

Colonies

Population: ~400,000
Realms: 9
Cities: 8
Largest city population: 30,000 (Oritiolon)
Area:  570,601 sq. miles

Summary: By contrast, the population of Ireland was about 600,000 at around 1000 AD and there were 9 realms on the island. But even by 1300 AD the population of Dublin was only about 11,000 in 1300 AD. But the total land area of the island of Ireland is just 32,595 square miles while the total land area of the colonies is larger than France, Spain, Portugal and Italy all combined!

Dwilight

Population: ~2.6 million
Realms: 12
Cities: 37
Largest city population: 90,000 (Giask)
Area: 596,312 sq. miles

Summary: Many of the cities of Dwilight are depopulated which means its total potential population is probably somewhere between 3 to 4 million people. That would be roughly equivalent to the population of England and Wales at the medieval peak of 1300 AD. However, Dwilight is only slightly larger in square mileage than the Colonies (I know, right???) meaning that Dwilight is larger than France, Spain, Portugal, Italy AND Ireland all combined! By contrast, the combined population of those countries was over 33 million in 1300 AD.

Beluaterra

Population: ~1.4 million
Realms: 11
Cities: 26
Largest city population: 52,500 (Wudenkin)
Area: 449,187 sq. miles

Summary: The population of Beluaterra is about the same as the population of Denmark, Sweden and Norway at around 1300 AD. However, Beluaterra is roughly the same size as France, Germany, Austria, Czechkia, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg all combined.

***

Conclusions:

The populations and sizes of the continents bear no relation to each other whatsoever. Also, utterly bizarrely, the Colonies are larger than either Beluaterra or the East Continent. Battlemaster, based on continent size, should have a population of well over 100 million but actually only has a population of about 6 million.

On the other hand, if you ignore continent size then a lot of other things are more reasonable. The East Continent is about the size of England and Wales at the end of the Anglo-Saxon era and is fragmented to about as many political entities as England and Wales were around 700 AD. So by that standard, army sizes and noble numbers make sense for the population - 2,000 soldiers counts as a large army and a decent sized realm will have maybe 20 to 30 nobles in it, corresponding to the number of powerful nobles you'd find in a typical Anglo-Saxon kingdom.

But what doesn't make sense given the population level is the number of cities or how large they are.

At the end of Anglo-Saxon era, Winchester, the capital of Wessex, had a population of about 6,000 people and the largest city in Great Britain (London) had a population of only about 10,000 people - which is about the same as the smallest city on the East Continent.

None of this means that much of course, and shouldn't make any difference to how we play the game, but hopefully you'll all find these facts and figures as interesting as I did when I put them together :)