D&D General World size and climates (Eberron population vs size)

[Crimson Longinus]

Can you point me to the source of this (as I want the exact number)?

It's the map scale bars on the maps of each edition. I don't have the books at hand, so I don't have the exact numbers. Sorry.

Here is a scale comparison from Reddit.

 

[BrokenTwin]

I think one thing to remember in regards to needing enough people outside the cities to feed the cities, is that it's a setting where low-level magic is commonplace to the point of industrial revolution. So food can likely be produced in much higher quantities than would typically be assumed in a fantasy setting.
I do agree that the original land sizes were overly large for their function though.

 

[Ramon26]

Ancient Rome had an estimated population of 1 million people, but the city of Rome had only about a population around 25K at the start of the 1400s, but many would still have considered it a relatively bustling city of its time, despite the fact that it was a shadow of its former glory. But there were a fair number of larger urban centers in Europe around the time of the 1400s, including in the rest of Italy, which had populations in the 200K+ range (e.g., Milan, Florence, Naples, etc.). Plus, a lot of these European cities were hammered by the Plague.

Moreover, one also has to consider that the year is 998 YK, and the continent of Khorvaire is still recovering from a one-hundred year war, which also featured its share of famine, drought, disease, and other issues. There were areas in Germany, particularly in the nothern regions, that took decades or centuries for their populations to recover from the Thirty Years War.

two things :

1. when exactly are you talking about? Because the Roman empire at it's greatest had a populaion of nearly 70 million people, and that was in ancient times. Korvaire is a continent almost as big as north America that has thousands of years of history and has a technological developpment closer to early industrial europe, but the whole population of the continent is less than Frances population in the 1700'.

2. I really like the comparisone with the thirty years war because this is actually kind of similare in the scale of the conflict and the the fact that the two are devastating civil wars that divided and decimated the populations of the empires. The problem is that the Holy Roman empire was aproximatly 357,022 square kilometers (this is current germany but still) and Korvair is about 9,826,675 square kilometers (this is current USA but still). During the 30 years war, the population of the Holy Roman empire was about 25 millions and it lost between 4 and 8 million people due to the war and the famies that ensued while Korvaire, that is more than 20 times bigger, has a population of 15 million with no one country having more than 4 million people. In a more technologically advanced world than the thrity years war, an equivalent territory to the Holy Roman empire during the war in Korvaire would have less than 600k people in it... that is almost nothing in a teritorry about the size of current day germany.

Sorry if those are a lot of numbers but I think that these numbers explaine fairly well the problem with the population. I personally like to bump the population to a similare level of european countries in the early 1800, so Breland having 43 million people is pertty good if not on the low side concidering that Germany had a little over 20 million people in 1810 and that Breland is 3 times bigger than Germany. For Sharn, I just go on a whim and say it has between 2 and 2'500 million people which is enourmouse if you compare it to the most populouse city in the 1800 Europe which was London with a little less than 1 million inhabitants (followed by Paris with 500k). This emphasises the enourmity and importance of Sharn wihch is kind of like the London of Eberron, the largest city by far of the continent and the most prosporouse, while still being smaller than the enourmouse metropolises of the modern age.

 

[Ramon26]

Sorry, i sent the message twice and i don't know how to delete one of them so i'm editing this one to be smaller

 

[Aldarc]

two things :

1. when exactly are you talking about? Because the Roman empire at it's greatest had a populaion of nearly 70 million people, and that was in ancient times. Korvaire is a continent almost as big as north America that has thousands of years of history and has a technological developpment closer to early industrial europe, but the whole population of the continent is less than Frances population in the 1700'.

Ancient Rome, the City not the Empire. It's been several months, so my memory and engagement is a bit rusty, but I believe the conversation was about city populations.

 

[Ramon26]

Ancient Rome, the City not the Empire. It's been several months, so my memory and engagement is a bit rusty, but I believe the conversation was about city populations.

Yhea, it was about both the city's population and the population problem of the over all world itself. And even for just the city, Rome at it's greates point, it once housed about 1 million people. I know that this is the best point in it's whole ancient history but still. And besides, you can't really compare the anciant Roman population with a much more advanced Brelish one. Sharn is supposed to be a gigantic city even for our world's standards, so comparing it to the anciant city of Rome is inacurate and unfaire, that's why I made the comparison to London in stead (and even that city is supposed to be tiny compared to Sharn)

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Climate zones will scale with the size of the world, so with a smaller world the tropical and arctic regions will be closer.

My recommendation: Don't shrink the map. Having more space to work with if you need it is good. And in Eberron, since you have fast long-distance travel options, there isn't even the minor issue of having journeys potentially be longer than you want.

Go with your idea of multiplying population numbers to get something that feels right to you. You mentioned having heard x10 being used, and I'd probably just go with that. It's a very simple solution that doesn't introduce any real problems.

 

[Aldarc]

Yhea, it was about both the city's population and the population problem of the over all world itself. And even for just the city, Rome at it's greates point, it once housed about 1 million people. I know that this is the best point in it's whole ancient history but still. And besides, you can't really compare the anciant Roman population with a much more advanced Brelish one. Sharn is supposed to be a gigantic city even for our world's standards, so comparing it to the anciant city of Rome is inacurate and unfaire, that's why I made the comparison to London in stead (and even that city is supposed to be tiny compared to Sharn)

I was comparing the population of ancient Rome with the population of Rome during the late Middle Ages.

But let's be clear here. There has been about three months between the this thread's death and your thread necromancy. I am not sure what you are actually arguing in regards to Sharn, Breland, or Eberron. What is your thesis or point in debating population statistics? What are your stakes in this topic?

 

[Ramon26]

I was comparing the population of ancient Rome with the population of Rome during the late Middle Ages.

But let's be clear here. There has been about three months between the this thread's death and your thread necromancy. I am not sure what you are actually arguing in regards to Sharn, Breland, or Eberron. What is your thesis or point in debating population statistics? What are your stakes in this topic?

Nothing really, I just like to discuss about this kind of world building detail. Besides, I just found the thread so it's normal that my opinion on it comes now. If you want to forget about it because sou feel like you said what you wanted to say, then I'm not forcing you to stay. I myself have said what I wanted to say so honestly, this will probably be the last message I send here unless there are other replies to my opinion or if someone wants me to explain my opinion more.

 

[delericho]

Sharn is one of the travel hubs in the setting. So while it only has 200,000 permanent inhabitants, at any time there will be many more who are en route to somewhere else.