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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jürgen Hubert" data-source="post: 457938" data-attributes="member: 7177">Re: Speaking of urban sprawlsThe former... though it wasn't only wizards who encouraged people to move to the cities.What happened was this: Once upon a time, the power structures in Urbis were feudal at best - power was measured in how much land you owned, and most people lived in the countryside.Then, 1423 years ago, some wizards in the city of Atalus built the first Nexus Tower. The rulers of Atalus recognized a useful tool when they saw one, enthusiastically supported the creation of more Towers, and used the gathered magical energy to conquer half the continent.While the Atalan Empire is long gone, its lessons are not forgotten. Most rulers realize that their power base requires the magical energies from Nexus Towers, and plan their realms accordingly.The result is usually a city-state crammed full with people that hosts several nexus towers, and a large rural protectorate that supports it.Traditional family farms are mostly gone - most rulers regocnize that the food needs to be harvested with maximum efficiency to feed the cities. Thus, large plantations owned by merchants in the city are the standard. They just hire poor folks from the cities for the harvests and other crucial times, and don't keep more people around than necessary.Most people move to the cities out of sheer economic necessity - there simply aren't enough jobs in the countryside to support them. Better to live in the shadow of a Nexus Tower than starve...(Incidentally, don't believe that all city-states in Urbis are ruled by wizards - this isn't the case for the same reason why real-world nations aren't always ruled by generals of the army...)Some rulers do that - but economic pressures are the most effective. When merchants in the cities own all the land in rural areas, there simply is no way of supporting yourself and your family there...Well, there are a few regions of wilderness and hunter-gatherer societies that remain... but, well, they are so uncivilized!   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />At the "default starting time" of Urbis (1423 NA), the population density could be compared to that of Earth in about 1850 (especially Western Europe). There's still plenty of wilderness, but in many regions the wilderness is under retreat.There are certainly druids in the wild areas. As for urban areas... I want to put some in, but I'm still thinking about a good "hook" for urban druids.There's already a god of the harvest and agriculture, and a powerful one at that ("Kortus" - see the details on my home page) whose priests do the plant blessings...</blockquote>

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