This isn't quite right; when the Yoonie was founded, it was one of the largest and most important towns of Scotland, at the time a bishopric, later an archbishopric, and at various times the ecclesiastical and secular capital. Of course, _now_, the toon is totey, and the university is largely infested with sassenach undersgrads, as well as the odd heretic (person who believes strict functional programming languages are better than lazy ones). I'd not say that 4000 was by any means infeasibly low, in this case, though.
> I don't think these [WF 7 Sartar High Council scenario] figures can be
> used in this way. The support for this rebellion was too patchy for
> these figures to be reliable guides to relative sizes.
The High Council are the (supposed) rulers of Sartar, not a conspiracy meeting for the express purpose of plotting rebelion. The numbers are, I'm quite sure, intended to represent total numbers of the groups being (allegedly) represented. Of course, they've been so well-Gregged as to be of very dubious value.
Me:
> >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%.
> True, as far as it goes. But urbanisation can be postulated in terms of what
> percentage of working hours are spent in non food producing activities. 20
> people who spend half their time in other activites counts the same as much as
> ten who spend all their time.
This is true. Any guesses what the population of Clearwine, in the territory of the Ernaldori clan (speciality: farming), containing a significantly-sized temple to Ernalda, have as their main occupation? (BTW Joerg, it's the Konthasos, to the NE, who're supposed to be the (main) vine-growers, rather than the people living round Clearwine, confusingly enough.)
If one wants a sliding-scale Urbanisation Index, I'd guess at something like 0.1 for Clearwine, ranging up to perhaps 0.5 for Boldhome. If you want to find a 1.0, I nominate the DH Tripolis.
> >if it (Clearwine) serves
> >as a trade centre for the Balmyr (and others) too, then you'd expect a
> >concurrent rise in importance, and population.
> I thought Wilm'skirk was the primary centre for the Balmyr?
I suspect the Balmyr don't refuse to trade with the Colymar, just because they're supposed to be part of the Wilmskirk confederation. (I assume they are, can't find a certain reference to this, though.)
> >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.
> I think you are misreading it. It says that "This (small city) is the largest
> size that an average city reaches before it must bring in food from beyond
> the immediate region". That's not the same as self supporting.
Well, this all depends on one's definition of "self-supporting" and "immediate region", if hairs really must be split. It seems silly to suggest that any community of 1,500 people in the middle of prime agricultural must, perforce, have 13,500 people sitting around outside feeding them, which is what this over-literal "10% urbanisation" argument might lead you to believe. This is particularly true of a country where it is known that the largest city has a large amount of agricultural land _inside_ it, never mind anyplace else.
Alex.
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