Post/Author/DateTime	Post
loseth 03-20-07, 09:40 AM	Using the population information in the ECS, I did some calculations and came up with the following rates of urbanization. How do you explain them? What do they tell you about the nation in question? Percent of Population Living in Towns, Cities or Metropolises Valenar 43% Zilargo 24% Q’Barra 13% Darguun 11% Breland 9% Droaam 8½% Karrnath 8% Thrane 7½% Aundair 6½% Eldeen Reaches 3% Shadow Marches 3% Lhazaar Principalities 1½% Talenta Plains ½% Mror Holds unknown (due to hidden cities)
SSj3goblin 03-20-07, 12:27 PM	Illogical Eberron demographics strikes again.
loseth 03-20-07, 03:44 PM	Illogical Eberron demographics strikes again. But I wonder if we could invent some logic to help the demographics make more sense. For example: Valenar (based on the ECS and Races of Eberron) -- The high level of urbanization is, surprisingly, due to the fact that the 45 Valenar war clans are nomadic and despise town life. They roam the wide open countryside, stopping only to tend seasonal ranches. They do not, however, wish to share their beloved countryside and the Valenar keep all non-Elven Valenar residents in a few designated urban settlements (sort of like urban 'Indian reserves'), from which the townsmen cannot leave without first obtaining permission and the requisite papers from the appropriate Valenar governor. As a result, about 80% of non-Elven residents of Valenar are urban, while almost all elves lead nomadic lives. Zilargo (Based on the ECS and Races of Eberron) -- Gnomes thirst for knowledge and intrigue, neither of which can be found in the countryside. Country gnomes are looked down-upon by their more sophisticated urban counterparts. Fortunately for the race, gnomish skill with magic allows marvels of architecture and machinery that make cities comfortable, satisfying places to live. Q'Barra (Based on the ECS and information on lizardfolk from the MM) -- Q'Barra is one of the most dangerous places on Khorvaire, and as a result, isolated hamlets and thorps are not really feasible; they're simply too hard to defend. Most of the settlers live in towns and large villages defended by stockades and earthen defences. A similar process has affected the lizardfolk, who have an instinctive tendency to band together when threatened. Sonce the lizardfolk of Q'Barra are pretty much always threatened, they have developed larger and better-defended communities than would otherwise be typical for their race. What do you think? Can we come up with more explanations for these seemingly whacky demographics?
goblin_pride 03-20-07, 04:16 PM	Darguun and Droaam are just too wild for the statisticians to get accurate figures for the demographics. This, along with all other population projections for these up-and-coming nations are varied and in most cases assumed to be wrong at the time they're written. It's a necessary evil to include the obviously flawed numbers in academic projections due to the fact that many times the numbers for Darguun and Droaam are viewed by political and military leaders when making decisions about border garrisons and troop strengths. Better to have confirmable demographic figures that are much lower than the actual than to use numbers that are obviously and blatantly over-inflated.
loseth 03-20-07, 04:20 PM	And some more demographic fun based on the ECS: The Races of Khorvaire (approximate numbers in thousands) 6675 Humans 1450 Dwarves 1285 Half-Elves 1090 Gnomes 990 Halflings 875 Elves 735 Orcs 520 Goblins 290 Hobgoblins 265 Changelings 165 Shifters 130 Bugbears 120 Lizardfolk 100 Gnolls 95 Kobolds 45 Half-Orcs
loseth 03-20-07, 04:22 PM	Darguun and Droaam are just too wild for the statisticians to get accurate figures for the demographics. This, along with all other population projections for these up-and-coming nations are varied and in most cases assumed to be wrong at the time they're written. It's a necessary evil to include the obviously flawed numbers in academic projections due to the fact that many times the numbers for Darguun and Droaam are viewed by political and military leaders when making decisions about border garrisons and troop strengths. Better to have confirmable demographic figures that are much lower than the actual than to use numbers that are obviously and blatantly over-inflated. So, perhaps the population figures for the cities are roughly accurate, but the numbers for rural inhabitants are underinflated, leading to the illusion of a high rate of urbanisation...
goblin_pride 03-20-07, 04:33 PM	So, perhaps the population figures for the cities are roughly accurate, but the numbers for rural inhabitants are underinflated, leading to the illusion of a high rate of urbanisation... Possibly, assuming you actually have real numbers for the population of the cities in the nations perceived as brutal or hostile to the race of the person in the field doing the counting. I can't see alot of statiticians making the journey to Great Crag to count the population. I would imagine most of those academic and diplomatic missions never get beyond the safety of Brelish soil. Never underestimate the willingness of a government bean-counter to "fudge" or guess the numbers if the actual task of investigating the numbers is unpleasant in some way. The numbers used when making projections for Droaam and Darguun will be either extremely high or extremely low compared to the actual numbers in most cases.
mahavira 03-21-07, 11:47 AM	The simple answer to the problem of determining the populations of Darguun or Droam (at least as much as can be done in nations as disorganized as those) is to hire hobgoblins or bugbears to do it. Wynarn University has started accepting students from less traditional sources (I think 5 nations mentions medusae for example) and surely some such students would be pleased to do some work only they can realistically do. Send a medusa to droaam and a hobgoblin to darguun and give both enough money to hire bodyguards for safety.
goblin_pride 03-21-07, 12:03 PM	The simple answer to the problem of determining the populations of Darguun or Droam (at least as much as can be done in nations as disorganized as those) is to hire hobgoblins or bugbears to do it. And then hope you haven't paid an enemy agent to give you wildly under-inflated figures so that you won't know exactly how many are there until they come pouring across your borders in obscene numbers. Remember, this is Eberron, the guy you're paying to show you the way to the BBEG's secret fortress might just be one of his minions. Otherwise it wouldn't be much of a secret, would it?
mahavira 03-21-07, 12:48 PM	Charm person. Lots of money. Hiring city goblins with no special loyalty to Darguun. Anyone you hire to do anything could be an enemy plant, if you're concerned about it there are countermeasures. I was also thinking in terms of academic research rather than governmental, in the latter case a hat of disguise or a longstanding changeling agent is a perfectly good solution.
Dragom 03-21-07, 01:47 PM	Ruralization is to take more advantage of farming and resource gathering. If your people aren't that big on farming then they will cluster in towns... I think that would explain Valenar, Zilargo, Q'barra and Darguun at least. Remember that gnomes eat 1/4th as much humans. And if working under threat of raids farmers usually live in town and farm on the edge just outside the walls.
Darth Syntax 03-21-07, 02:44 PM	The urbanization rate in Zilargo is shockingly (and to my mind unacceptably) low. If anyone is going to pull off high levels of urbanization it's going to be the Zil. I always envisioned Zilargo having something like 75-86% urbanization myself.