Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Yora" data-source="post: 8327787" data-attributes="member: 6670763">In my setting, the supernatural forces that govern the weather and plant growth in the wilderness are exceptionally pronounced and unpredictable. Rituals and prayers to the gods of the forests and the sky, and sorcerous wards can decrease the severity and impact on farming, but every domain is on a timer and eventually the land will no longer be able to support the population, leading to decline and eventually force migration to other places. Since the constant environmental changes create as many new farmable areas as they destroy, there is an equilibrium for how much space is available for farming. And over time the cultures have figured out how much societies can afford to grow and still be able to adjust their food production to deal with environmental changes, and to read the signs to migrate away before an area becomes permanently unsustainable.There are no thousand year old cities in that setting. The oldest ones are maybe 500 years at the most, and with people knowing that cities more than a couple centuries old have their days counted, they don't see any new immigration and have no opportunity to grow really big.A side effect of this is that over the aeons, there's been a buildup of hundreds of abandoned and ruined small cities throughout all the known lands. And in many places, the current city is the third, fourth, or fifth settlement build on the same place, as it's suitability for farming comes and goes.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Yora, post: 8327787, member: 6670763"] In my setting, the supernatural forces that govern the weather and plant growth in the wilderness are exceptionally pronounced and unpredictable. Rituals and prayers to the gods of the forests and the sky, and sorcerous wards can decrease the severity and impact on farming, but every domain is on a timer and eventually the land will no longer be able to support the population, leading to decline and eventually force migration to other places. Since the constant environmental changes create as many new farmable areas as they destroy, there is an equilibrium for how much space is available for farming. And over time the cultures have figured out how much societies can afford to grow and still be able to adjust their food production to deal with environmental changes, and to read the signs to migrate away before an area becomes permanently unsustainable. There are no thousand year old cities in that setting. The oldest ones are maybe 500 years at the most, and with people knowing that cities more than a couple centuries old have their days counted, they don't see any new immigration and have no opportunity to grow really big. A side effect of this is that over the aeons, there's been a buildup of hundreds of abandoned and ruined small cities throughout all the known lands. And in many places, the current city is the third, fourth, or fifth settlement build on the same place, as it's suitability for farming comes and goes. [/QUOTE]

Verification