D&D 5E Crash-Course On The Forgotten Realms

[Zardnaar]

I'm not talking about the size of the books, I'm talking about the actual size of the city physically within the setting. Think Kilometers instead of page count.

Biggest cities in FR used to be in places like Calimshan and Mulhorand.

The numbers fluctuate a bit though between editions. I think 3.0 was the last one to have population figures for most of Faerun.

Waterdeep is usually around 100k, BG usually smaller than that.

Both are smaller than RL Venice fir example.

 

[Salthorae]

Waterdeep is ~ 3.8 miles long and 1.5 miles wide, map with scale

Baulder's Gate is ~ 1.13 mi wide and ~ 0.78 mi wide on the walled portion. If you include up to the edges of the GF9 5e map, it looks to be ~ 1.32 mi wide by 1.32 mi long

So I'd say that Waterdeep is bigger physically and population.

Here's a slightly different 5e map/view that looks to be ~ 1 mi long by 1 mi wide in the walled portion. It is more complete in showing the wrap around of buildings, but they are super narrow and long.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Biggest cities in FR used to be in places like Calimshan and Mulhorand.

The numbers fluctuate a bit though between editions. I think 3.0 was the last one to have population figures for most of Faerun.

Waterdeep is usually around 100k, BG usually smaller than that.

Both are smaller than RL Venice fir example.

Skuld and Calimport were the largest cities in the setting in 2e; if I remember right, Calimport had a reported population of like 2 million! When they dropped the population figures for 3e, they blamed "corrupt pashas" for the previous figure for Calimport - apparently said officials had inflated the population count to enrich themselves.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Skuld and Calimport were the largest cities in the setting in 2e; if I remember right, Calimport had a reported population of like 2 million! When they dropped the population figures for 3e, they blamed "corrupt pashas" for the previous figure for Calimport - apparently said officials had inflated the population count to enrich themselves.

You sure Waterdeep was the city with the 2 million population from what I remember.

 

[gyor]

You sure Waterdeep was the city with the 2 million population from what I remember.

At one point, but it got retconned lower. In my head I just assume the larger population referred to the total population in territory controlled by, Waterdeep and not just the city.

 

[Demetrios1453]

You sure Waterdeep was the city with the 2 million population from what I remember.

"Calimport is the largest, grandest city in all of the Empires of the Sands — and it never for a moment lets anyone forget it. Larger than Athkatla, larger and richer than even Waterdeep, Calimport has a population of over 2,000,000 humans and non-humans of every known race and type." - Empires of the Sands (1988), p. 54.

The population figures in that particular accessory are really over-inflated for the setting, such as Athkatla in Amn having 425,000! No wonder they were changed later.

Calimport's population dropped to a more reasonable 212,000 in 1998's Empires of the Shining Sea

 

[MonsterEnvy]

At one point, but it got retconned lower. In my head I just assume the larger population referred to the total population in territory controlled by, Waterdeep and not just the city.

It seems that is correct. The City itself has a smaller population, but all the lands around it have a ton more. This is the number given in the 3e era.

1,347,840 (City of Waterdeep, Metropolis, 132,661)

This is the current info on population.

The City of Splendors is certainly the greatest of the Sword Coast cities and perhaps the greatest cities on the face of the world. It’s home to as many as two million people, though an accurate census is all but impossible since so many come and go, visiting the open city to trade and otherwise seek fame and fortune. Waterdeep is a stable and generally peaceful city, where the rule of law is enforced by a huge and well-equipped watch further backed up by some of the most powerful personalities in the Realms.

 

[ParanoydStyle]

Re: Dungeons & Democracy:
The Eagle Knights from the kingdom not literally called Eagleland in Pathfinder's Golarion campaign setting are the closest I've seen, but a DM would have to consciously play up that aspect of their identity. That said I wish magocracy was a real thing, of all the fake-ass forms of gov't that's the one I want to try living in the most. As a muggle, obviously: much as the thing that gives you power in a neofascist capitalist corporatocracy is money, and I have none of that.

I had a feeling Waterdeep was the biggest city in Faerun. I vaguely recall something officialish (maybe it was just the Age of Worms adventure path?) saying that the Free City of Greyhawk was the Flanaess equivalent of Waterdeep, and that the City of Splenda Splendors was the Faerunian equivalent of Greyhawk.

5th Edition is (as a couple people noted with differing tones) strongly focused on Western Faerun (the Sword Coat Specifically), and Middle & Eastern Faerun may as well not exist at all in the current edition. I'm okay with that. For now. One of these days I'm going to make (or alter) a fantasy TTRPG setting where someone "invents America" so to speak.

***​

Right now I'm working on an affectionate parody/weirdo remix (more the latter than the former) of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. So, while my ignorance of the Realms is VAST and there is plenty I want to learn across all sorts of topics, right now I've narrowed down what I want to figure out first and foremost.

The mythal, Aghairon's dragonward* was cast around Waterdeep by the big A (duh) in the mid-11th century DR, for reasons that are, when you get right down to it, really, really freaking stupid. It's not like he did it in response to the Dragonrage, which would have made perfect sense, the next dragonrage was 350+ years off: instead some heroic metallic dragon flew back to the city and some people got scared so PERMANENT DRAGON BAN. The Dragonward is said to cause any creature with draconic blood** that tried to enter the city to be overcome with an overwhelming urge to leave the area, never to return. However, this article about a song dragon (song dragons are cool!!!) with a name that is just way, way, way, way too long makes frequent reference to Waterdeep having HIDDEN dragons living there, in HIDING.

How exactly do you hide from an area-wide magical effect that overcomes you with an overwhelming need to not just leave, but leave and NEVER COME BACK?

I really hope the answer is anything but "crappy writing/crappy worldbuilding".

* Tangent: why on EARTH Oerth Abor-Toril would this have been evocation instead of abjuration in any edition? It is downright EMBLEMATIC of the college of Abjuration; it literally has WARD in the name. I also don't know why 3E bothered listing a school at all, it's not like a mythal is something PCs can meaningfully interact with, at least 99% of PCs.
** It's weird, because I would say that Waterdeep: Dragon Heist forgot about the dragonward considering the prevalence of dragonborn PCs and NPCs who certainly have draconic blood, except that there is literally a sidebar within the first five pages of the book to remind you about the Dragonward.

 

[tetrasodium]

One of the biggest difficulties will be the fact that st fr changes to explain each edition's changes and considers all of its novels to be cannon. A lot of those novels handwaive things irrelevant to the story and that handwavium makes a huge mess if you start looking too long or thinking about the (lack of) interaction between things that logically should

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Dragon Heist forgot about the dragonward considering the prevalence of dragonborn PCs and NPCs who certainly have draconic blood, except that there is literally a sidebar within the first five pages of the book to remind you about the Dragonward.

Dragonborn are not actually dragons. It only keeps True Dragons out. There is a Dragon NPC in Dragon Heist but he has the item that lets one ignore the Dragonward.