Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 octaviusiii May 16, 2007 5:13:09	Well, I've been lurking for a while, often using the boards as my own personal reference guide, as they should, and I've often stumbled across the Khorvaire Underpopulation threads. They got me intrigued by the demographics of the continent. Thus, I have number crunched the day away and produced regional areas in square kilometers and miles and demographic tables for all the listed races. I know there are other threads that have done similar things in the way back when, but there was never a complete number set that I could find so I just made my own. I apologize if this is a repeat, but I figured that someone else might find my work interesting. I also apologize for the awkward format - I don't know how to do tables in the forums! It's comma delineated, so to see it properly: copy and paste into a new text document save the file change the file extension from .txt to .csv to view it in Excel. Enjoy! Population Densities and National Areas Show
#2 zombiegleemax May 25, 2007 6:27:08	That's interestingly useful. Thanks a lot!
#3 octaviusiii May 26, 2007 14:40:29	No problem. I knew there were other data junkies out there!
#4 okaynowa May 31, 2007 9:56:42	This is relevant to my interests. [/lolcat] Octavius-- I see a little glitch in the Karrnath line of the first file. Not sure if the problem is in the original or just my copy. The comparisons you offered for size and population density are really illuminating-- great idea. The cross-referencing on the third table is my favorite part. It's quite suggestive about where a character of race X is likely to be from, and what the chances are that the party might run into an NPC of race Y. (Especially interesting-- the table suggests meeting an orc is 15 times more likely than meeting a half-orc. Heck-- you're twice as likely to meet a kobold as a half-orc. Makes House Tharashk suddenly seem a little more exotic.) For my campaign, I generally up the total populations while keeping the same ratios. The exact numbers don't matter to my players so much as the composition of a crowd-- and your work here will make a handy reference for that. Well done!
#5 octaviusiii Jun 02, 2007 19:17:05	I concur! In the original files, the populations were connected to formulas and a multiplier, so I could say "I want the world to be 7x the population" and it would change the populations and the relevant statistics. By the way, I've recently heard that some stats, especially for areas, might not quite match up properly between the ECS and the other campaign settings. For reference, my areas come from Five Nations for the nations listed, as do their populations. Other numbers come from the ECS. Lastly: the Karrnath line should be fixed soon - I'm on a crap-all hotel internet connection, so it may take a bit.
#6 octaviusiii Aug 27, 2007 15:20:27	*Resurrection!* I can now say, three months later, that the Karrnath line is fixed. Also, I took the percentages from this thread (not those at the top but more towards the bottom) and made a generic spellcaster population table. If you're good at Excel, you can use these numbers to weight, say, Druids to be more in the Eldeen Reaches than other nations. The numbers are in the top post. Yay demographics!
#7 _radagast__dup Aug 27, 2007 16:41:34	Hmm.
#8 octaviusiii Aug 29, 2007 5:34:04	By the way, some little factoids: Khorvaire is roughly the size of North America, and the largest nation is Breland, with just under a fifth (19.1%) of the continent ostensibly under its control, and 23.7% of the population under its flag. Humans are the most populous race, with 43.2% of Khorvairians being Human. 3.8% of the population falls under the category of "other." 0.3% of labeled populations are half-orcs. Although gnomes are the majority in Zilargo, Zil gnomes are outnumbered by Brelish and Aundairian gnomes, which form a combined total of 67.7% of all gnomes on the continent. Only 13.7% of gnomes are from Zilargo. A full 1.7% of the population are Changelings - this is roughly comparable to the proportion of Anglicans in the US, or about the proportion of people from Minnesota (if it were the US). It's more than shifters, lizardfolk, kobolds, gnolls or half-orcs. Lastly, Thrane is the most densely populated nation, with the population of Kansas and six times the area, coming out with a density roughly that of Mongolia.
#9 okaynowa Aug 29, 2007 9:03:04	That little quirk with the population density actually plays into 4th edition's proposed "points of light" philosophy quite well. It also suggests that the Empire of Galifar was largely a PR campaign. It's interesting to note that the dwarven populations of Karrnath and the Mror Holds are just about even. I wonder what influence dwarven clans had on the development of the Karrnathi warlord culture, and vice versa. The Player's Guide to Eberron discusses the inter-clan rivalries of the Holds; I imagine relations between the Mror dwarves and the Karrnathi dwarves might be even more strained. Traditionalist vs. "integrated" dwarves? Highland vs. lowland? All sorts of fun stories hiding in the numbers there...
#10 octaviusiii Aug 29, 2007 15:00:00	It's interesting to note that the dwarven populations of Karrnath and the Mror Holds are just about even. I wonder what influence dwarven clans had on the development of the Karrnathi warlord culture, and vice versa. The Player's Guide to Eberron discusses the inter-clan rivalries of the Holds; I imagine relations between the Mror dwarves and the Karrnathi dwarves might be even more strained. Traditionalist vs. "integrated" dwarves? Highland vs. lowland? All sorts of fun stories hiding in the numbers there... Canada's a good example of how minority populations can integrate (or not). Francophones are mostly in Quebec, but not all of them are Quebecois, and each province and territory has a second, francophone flag, even if there are only a few francophones in the region. I could see a population that tries to set itself apart - dwarves, say - using their nation as the center of a national identity but seeing themselves as a nation that transcends borders. The Mror Holds may be home to dwarves, but Karrnathi, Brelish, Q'barran, Lhazaar, etc. dwarves being proud of their unique heritage and drawing on that as well, creating symbols for their own brand of dwarvenness.
#11 okaynowa Aug 30, 2007 9:01:52	I could see a population that tries to set itself apart - dwarves, say - using their nation as the center of a national identity but seeing themselves as a nation that transcends borders. But "Mror" national identity is tenuous, given the holds' established inter-clan feuds. And Brelish or Q'barran dwarves may find a certain pride in the concept of the Mror Holds, but the Karrnathi dwarves live right there next to them, practically equal in number, and yet didn't join up. I choose to interpret those numbers as the Karrnathi dwarves rejecting either the Mror Holds or the individual clans that make it up. "My family has lived in this rath for five generations, and I'll die under my warlord's banner before I sit at a table with a Doldurun clan dwarf." At least, that's the interpretation that appeals to me.
#12 octaviusiii Mar 16, 2008 17:01:38	So I'm doing some more things with the numbers, specifically working out how much of the land is inhabited. Would people be interested in seeing my results? Or maybe even my equations so they can figure out how dense they want their inhabited Khorvaire to be?
#13 skrap-san Mar 17, 2008 2:28:26	Yes please.
#14 octaviusiii Mar 17, 2008 2:59:33	Yes please. Okie dokie. My assumptions are based off Medieval Demographics Made Easy by S. John Ross. He posits that farmland can support 180 people per square mile and that a maximum population density is somewhere around 120/sq. mi. Since real population density in Khorvaire is about 0.64/sq. mi. (roughly half the density of Western Sahara), I figured that there were 'inhabited' areas and 'uninhabited' areas, i.e., lands where the rule of law existed and did not exist. I guessed at appropriate densities for the various inhabited parts of the lands and went from there. My equations are: For inhabited land:
#15 octaviusiii Mar 17, 2008 23:18:36	More numbers, this time Urban/Rural ratios. Sounds a bit dull, but I wanted to know how many people were in the cities and towns. Those cities without given populations were given the average population for their size based on the DMG numbers. I included marked towns, villages, hamlets and thorps because I figured they were marked because they did more than support the surrounding countryside, which is why they were marked. Interesting tidbits: 7.95% of Khorvaire lives in a town or city. A full 53% of the population of Valenar is urban, while only 0.58% of the Talenta Plains is urban. 25.22% of Zilargo is urban compared with Breland's urban populace, which is roughly 9%. Fittingly, Breland is the most urban of the Five Nations and Aundair is the least, with only 6.61% of the population being urban.
#16 octaviusiii Jun 22, 2008 23:01:06	I just realized that I have access to Secrets of Sarlona and a map of Aerenal that I somehow missed in the ECS. I may just start working on them as well. Maybe one of them isn't as underpopulated as Khorvaire!
#17 igotsmeakabob Jun 23, 2008 1:06:39	Eberron is roughly the size of North America, and the largest nation is Breland, with just under a fifth (19.1%) of the continent ostensibly under its control, and 23.7% of the population under its flag. Do you mean Eberron itself, including Sarlona, Xen'drik, etc? Or did you mistype and mean Khorvaire?
#18 octaviusiii Jun 23, 2008 20:42:04	Do you mean Eberron itself, including Sarlona, Xen'drik, etc? Or did you mistype and mean Khorvaire? Yep. Meant Khorvaire (crap! I'll edit) I think the planet itself is the size of Mars, but I could be wrong.
#19 oid Mar 14, 2009 14:00:42	i have to say, seeing the numbers is one thing, but to read the compairisons is something totally different. it really gives you a feel for the size of Khovaire. great job