Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="mythusmage" data-source="post: 1647803" data-attributes="member: 571">Khorvaire is not Australia. Khorvaire has the resources Australia does not. Australia has the population it does because it is a barren land. European or even American levels of fertility are few and far between.First, Khorvaire is a dang sight larger. It's some 5,000 miles across east to west. 'Bout half that north to south. Khorvaire is about the size of Asia. With a smaller population than California. With that level of population the civilized folks should be living along rivers in city states, with the interior inhabited by roving bands of nomads.Let me put it this way, Asia as a whole last had that few people back before the first pre-Sumerian towns were established in Mesopotamia.Eberron presumes a 14th century level of technology. Twenty-six million people in a fantasy Asia is not enough to maintain that technology and the infrastructure needed to support it.Furthermore, even if Khorvair had about 150 million people, the peoples of Khorvair don't have the infrastructure necessary for nations of the size presented on the maps. Going by the write-ups the Five Kingdoms are more like the Five Counties. The feel is small nation, not large.To put it another way, when I look at the map of Thrane and the space between Sigilstar and Morningcrest I don't see a a month long trek but a day long hike.Dammit, if you're going to present huge countries they should look like huge countries.As for the Last War, even with a pre-war population twice the size it is now there wouldn't have been enough people to sustain the fighting over the distances involved.No, Eberron tries to present a population the size of Italy's in a land the size of the old Soviet Union, with the level of organization and government seen in feudal times. It doesn't work. It can't work.Even with magic. Even with magic more prevalent and more affordable than is found in modern day Khorvair. Because you need people to maintain things. People Khorvair does not have. Remove 90% of Europe's population and see what happens to her road and rail network alone.So it's a fantasy. Whoop. The better fantasies make sense where the mundane details are concerned. At least the hobbits of The Shire had visible means of support. As it stands Eberron is a world with no visible means of support, and that's an unhealthy way to live.</blockquote>

Verification