D&D (2024) Sword Coast population data from 2024 D&D Pocket Expert

[Paul Farquhar]

That's crazy big. Idaho only has 2 million people

But Idaho is crazy empty. The population of London is around 9 million. That’s modern, of course, but it tracks with the Sword Coast moving out of pseudo-medieval and into “early modern”, as is already established in other media.

 

[Parmandur]

Population of Luskan seems too low, given the area covered by the maps, and the scale of the architecture. Large villages / tiny towns do not have huge stone bridges spanning multiple islands. 20k would be a more reasonable figure.

OK, to get into the weeds: the OG population given in FR5 was 16,000 which is the population for which the city was built up. However, in the 1370s the Arcane Brotherhood and the piraye captains are destroyed, and the city falls into Ruin. The Arcane Brotherhood is restored in 1486, and start rebuilding the city and reestablishing their pirate captain front (all of thia is novelel shenanigans by Salvatore). So "current" Luskan is a new town building up a larger old ruined city.

 

[Parmandur]

That's crazy big. Idaho only has 2 million people. And ancient Rome was never that big. I get that the realms is more 19th century than it is medieval, but that's just huge.

The rural population in the Sword Coast most be massive to feed all the cities.

No, Waterdeep is fed by Golden fields, an Abbey dedicated to using high level Cleric and Druid magic to mass produce food thwt was established by one of Greenwoods players.

Waterdeep's ballooned population is a direct result of taking D&D magic to a logical consequence.

 

[occam]

That's crazy big. Idaho only has 2 million people. And ancient Rome was never that big. I get that the realms is more 19th century than it is medieval, but that's just huge.

The rural population in the Sword Coast most be massive to feed all the cities.

London reached a population of 2,000,000 in the mid-19th century...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

OK, to get into the weeds: the OG population given in FR5 was 16,000 which is the population for which the city was built up. However, in the 1370s the Arcane Brotherhood and the piraye captains are destroyed, and the city falls into Ruin. The Arcane Brotherhood is restored in 1486, and start rebuilding the city and reestablishing their pirate captain front (all of thia is novelel shenanigans by Salvatore). So "current" Luskan is a new town building up a larger old ruined city.

It seems unlikely that evil wizard school plus pirates made up over two thirds of the population!

But I seem to recall there was some sort of plague in the Sword Coast Leg Ends computer game, which is a more likely candidate for such a huge reduction in population.

 

[Parmandur]

It seems unlikely that evil wizard school plus pirates made up over two thirds of the population!

But I seem to recall there was some sort of plague in the Sword Coast Leg Ends computer game, which is a more likely candidate for such a huge reduction in population.

Without the Arcane Brotherhood around, Luskan became a ghost town...literally, choked with Undead and not functional anymore. The 4E FRCS Luskan was a dungeon location, not a city. The novels fixed it in time for SCAG to restore the Arcane Brotherhood, and the pirates, and the population to begin recovering. But the point is, the build-up of the infrastructure was for a larger, different population, the current population is clearing our and re-occupying.

 

[sevenbastard]

Waterdeep's ballooned population is a direct result of taking D&D magic to a logical consequence.

A labor force of undead? The ultimate green energy. Skeltons produce no greenhouse gases, consume no resources, and can't unionize.

If you take D&D magic to it's logical conclusion most jobs would be outsourced to undead, animated objects, and bound extraplanar beings. The mending Cantrip replaces 100 of jobs. It makes sense people go adventuring unemployment would be sky high.

 

[Parmandur]

A labor force of undead? The ultimate green energy. Skeltons produce no greenhouse gases, consume no resources, and can't unionize.

If you take D&D magic to it's logical conclusion most jobs would be outsourced to undead, animated objects, and bound extraplanar beings. The mending Cantrip replaces 100 of jobs. It makes sense people go adventuring unemployment would be sky high.

That's what Eberron does.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I blame myself for Icewind Dales low population.

In the 5E Icewind Dale campaign we kind of messed up and 10 Towns became 1 Town.

My bad.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It seems unlikely that evil wizard school plus pirates made up over two thirds of the population!

Hey, it's a college town!