The layout and brief background of my campaign area is thus:
Nentir Vale (where all the heroic tier action has so far taken place) is in the North.
To the South is the City State of the Invincible Overlord. When the empire of Nerath fell, this large port city was held by one of the Emperor's top generals. He and his family line became the "Invincible Overlords", holding civilization together. The City State has become a Lawful Evil center of civilization, bent on aquiring and hording.
To the West is some towns and castles of the "City State", as well as some free-towns.
Further West is the Rivertown of Scarrport, a festering hive of scum and villany, mixed with an elitist, distant nobility.
To the south are the deserts and the Drow.
To the East (at sea) are the Island Towns (some of them "City State" towns) and the City of Freeport.
What I need help with are realistic populations for the City State and the other areas (using a "Points of Light" basis.) Also, some idea of troop/army numbers would also really help!
I have done some research and reading, but the Points of Light setting is throwing my numbers all off. It would seem that there would be far less villages and farms in this setting than in a normal Nation State.
Anyhoo, help greatly appreciated!
PoL generaly has few villages/cities and is surrounded by unexplored wilderness, it's supposed to be a dangerous world, so "civilized" people group together for safty.
Most modern cities start at 50,000 people, however in medival times that was lower, around 10,000. Towns would probably have 5,000, and villages would be 1,000.
I'd say about 5-10% of a city would be in an army, perhaps 20% for millitary nations, though since it's a dangerous world, being higher wouldn't be out of line.
Some Real World Stats
The only real problem I am having is deciding in a Dark Ages / PoL setting how would the area around a city-state be laid out, and how dense would a population have to be in the outskirts to support a City-State with an approximate population of 40,000.
EDIT:
I used a website
qzil.com/kingdom/
and came up with these stats for the City State and its control area:
Full Army of the Overlord = 2 Vasthosts (4800).
Population 40,000
Gaurds 250
Other Towns 10,000
Villages 550,000
Isolated 400,000
Control Area: 130 miles X 150 Miles
25% settled
This gives me a decent visual of my City States zone. I must admit I am a bit surprised at the 1,000,000 population of the 20,000 sq. mile area.
That's a kick ass link! I'm gonna have to use it for my setting now just to make populations a little more consistent.
Here is the website that the calculator is based on:
www.io.com/~sjohn/demog.htm
Yeah, I'm using the PoL setting because I feel it offers the most opportunity for adventures. I'm using the Goodman Games Points of Light sourcebooks to fill out my campaign area.
The only real problem I am having is deciding in a Dark Ages / PoL setting how would the area around a city-state be laid out, and how dense would a population have to be in the outskirts to support a City-State with an approximate population of 40,000.
EDIT:
I used a website
qzil.com/kingdom/
and came up with these stats for the City State and its control area:
Full Army of the Overlord = 2 Vasthosts (4800).
Population 40,000
Gaurds 250
Other Towns 10,000
Villages 550,000
Isolated 400,000
Control Area: 130 miles X 150 Miles
25% settled
This gives me a decent visual of my City States zone. I must admit I am a bit surprised at the 1,000,000 population of the 20,000 sq. mile area.
You can probably go with that as your population limit, but in the end you are going to get ugly things when you try to impose some level of 'realism'.
40,000 people need 3,125 square miles of light forest for sustainable harvest as firewood (unless they have some magic rock that can be set on fire when you need to cook- a.k.a. 'Brynstan: Burning Stone'). That would be a 32 mile radius forest and that is just the fuel. Food is far more complex.
If they dont get the fuel then the rate of disease climbs in direct proportion to the percentage not getting fuel to cook their food. This in turn causes the population who can farm and import fuel to drop off. At 49,316 Fuel Wagons per day, every day, That probably five times the City population employed harvesting and importing firewood alone.
ESTAT DI RADU
Using Fuel to estimate population support: 358.4 acres of light forest per 56 square mile hex are under harvest each year.
Thats enough feul for 4300 people (a portion of which goes to the use of the Farmer/Wood cutter). The woodsman with his family of 5 probably produces enough firewwood for another 12 people per year, so 1262 living ruraly and employed in firewood harvest. If we assume our central hex (Sturmwarden) has a sustainable population then that would be people growing food for the town. At best it will be 4300-1262=3,038.
Geographical Area (392 square miles)
Population (4300)
Sturmwarden (3038)
Alignment Profile: Ruler (LG); 50% LN | 25% LG | 25% Other
A goodly portion of that Sturmwarden population live on tennant farms of about 19.5 acres each outside the town of Sturmwarden.
Okay, I did more fiddling with numbers yesterday and the numbers I currently have are:
City State Population 35,000
Gaurds 250
Army 4,800
Other Towns 25,000
Village 1,000,000
Isolated 440,000 isolated dwellings or itinerent workers and wanderers, Ship crews, etc.
Control Area: 100 miles X 300 Miles (30,000 sq. miles)
30% settled
The City State is a coastal city, so would profit from Island trade, and would be able to have wood, coal, and oil shipped in, brought on caravan, or aquired via river traffic.
Magical lighting would not be out of the question, especially for the nobility and merchant class.