Exactly: fiddled very little. As the range 600-2000 was apparently determined by observation, and since large variations in clan sizes within a tribe would be somewhat unstable, I'd expect to see average clan size for each tribe vary by getting on for this amount.
> The RQ GM's book says the maximum urbanisation is 10%.
Urbanisation is a pretty vague, nay, woolly concept. It's somewhat artificial to assume that everyone in a settlement of 999 produces 110% of subsistence values of food, and everyone in a settlement of 1000, 0%. It depends on the nature of the settlement, and obviously isn't this clear-cut a transition in any case.
> (I also thought Clearwine was
> wholy Colymar. It might be near the Balmyr, but I didn't think any
> Balmyrians lived there.)
Probably not many (other than the "married in" kind), but if it serves as a trade centre for the Balmyr (and others) too, then you'd expect a concurrent rise in importance, and population.
> That average is scraping he bottom of the
> classifications of urbanisation in the RQ GMs book.
By the classifications of RQIII:3, a small city or smaller (up to 3000 people) can be self-supporting, so wouldn't necessarily count against maximum possible urbanisation. Towns/stockades certainly wouldn't, in my view.
> And why is Clearwine a
> stockade if its so much bigger than all the others?
You mean, why isn't it a City? Perhaps because: it has no City Wall; it doesn't mave a permanent market; it has no City Ring; it's a net food exporting place; and it doesn't have that Urban Feel to it.
> Unless an official Sartar Pack appears, we are not going to know the "answer".
> For the time being, 1,500 is too big for my vision of Clearwine.
I personally feel that it would be Very Odd Indeed were as large a tribe as the Colymar, in as densely populated an area, to have no town of more than 500 people. They clearly have no other settlements of even close to the size of Clearwine, after all.
> If nothing
> else, it means there are going to be too many temples there, and I want my
> players to travel when they go looking to sacrifice for divine magic.
I think there _are_ a lot of temples there: or at least, one big Earth temple. A great place for your Orlanth initiates to go if they want Cloud Call; otherwise, tough.
If anyone simply _doesn't like_ the "official" KoS figure, I heartily encourage 'em to treble it, quarter it, ignore it, or whatever. Maybe the Lunar spy counted the populace on a markey day, or holy day, or on Come See the Lunar Spy day. Or maybe he is playing a sly double-bluff, and is trying to make it sound as if he's underestimating the fighting strength of the Colymar, while in fact he's talking it up for his purposes. Cunning, eh? Had you all fooled. But 1500 works for me.
Alex.
End of Glorantha Digest V1 #11
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