[FR] Population of Suzail and Marsember (Cormyr)

[Tabarnak Smokeblower]

Hello all,

I haven't followed the FR story as it went through its different incarnations. I have the FRCS, and I just read some 2ndEd stuff (Volo's guide to Cormyr). I must say I came into contact with some contradictive information.

Would anyone know why the population of Suzail (Capital of Cormyr) went from 129,000 inhabitants to 45,000, and Marsember, from 47,000 to 36,000?

Thanks in advance for any info...

TS

 

[Katowice]

Three options:

1) Because of the war with the devil dragon chronicled in the Cormyr Trilogy.

2) Bad census data.

3) Population size was revised to "fit" into the 3rd Edition system for generating cities.

 

[Volaran]

I believe it was an effort to bring consistancy to the realms in 3e. I seem to recall Seak K. Reynolds talking about this shortly after the FRCS came out, though in reference to Calimport's listed population dropping by 90% between the 2E Calimport product, and the 3E FRCS.

 

[JeffB]

I believe it was an effort to bring consistancy to the realms in 3e. I seem to recall Seak K. Reynolds talking about this shortly after the FRCS came out, though in reference to Calimport's listed population dropping by 90% between the 2E Calimport product, and the 3E FRCS.

I remember this discussion as well, but I don't remember any details, so I guess my post is worthless

 

[Tabarnak Smokeblower]

I remember this discussion as well, but I don't remember any details, so I guess my post is worthless

A post is only useless if it doesn't raise your postcount

Incidently, thanks for the responses.

TS

 

[Faraer]

Everyone agrees the Calimport population given in FR3 Empires of the Sands is too high. The FRCS designers also tried to rationalize other population numbers according to this scheme. This, in my view, was totally unnecessary since Ed's original figures were perfectly well thought out already.

 

[Tabarnak Smokeblower]

cool thanks.

 

[seankreynolds]

{Everyone agrees the Calimport population given in FR3 Empires of the Sands is too high. The FRCS designers also tried to rationalize other population numbers according to this scheme. This, in my view, was totally unnecessary since Ed's original figures were perfectly well thought out already.}

There never was a consistent effort in FR to decide how big a "big" city, town, or village was. In some supplements a big city was 10,000, a big town was 1,000, and a big village was 100, while in another supplement a big city was 100,000, a big town was 10,000, and a big village was 1,000. In some cases there was an obvious competition in later products to prove that "their" area _really_ had the largest city in Faerun. It was ridiculous.

So when putting together the FRCS, we figured out the geographic area of each country, decided if overall it had a high, average, or low population per unit area (on a scale of 1-5, using known census data from real-world cities in various medieval countries and times), multiplied the population per unit area times the total area, and threw in a small variable to make the end results vary by about +/- 5% from that base number. That's how we got the results in the FRCS. And we showed them to Ed, who asked us to make some adjustments on the whole system (upward, factoring in magic's ability to keep people healthier, ensure better crop yield, etc.) and once those adjustments were made Ed was happy with the result.

So I stand by the numbers in the FRCS. It was the first systematic attempt to determine population in FR based on population distribution, terrain, and real-world census data.

 

[Mystery Man]

And thats....

Good enough for me.


Thanks SKR.

 

[Tabarnak Smokeblower]

[Most. Pertinent. Answer. Evah.]

thanks a lot sir, and kudos for the lot of it!

TS.