Which is both better land (certainly than Sartar, probably than Volsaxiland too), and a "later" historical analogue than is normally used for the Heortlings. (Alas the Iron Age Britain was less thoughtful in its bookeeping, though granted may not have been that much lower.) It's not utterly infeasible, but as I say, it's pretty high to be taking as any sort of "baseline" -- certainly it hardly seems to support much of an idea of Sartar as "difficult" country to farm (and graze, and hunt, which let's recall has been implied are both major parts of the subsistence economy, and certainly don't help when it comes to "packing 'em in").
> The Colymar have a population density of about 25 people per square mile
> - which admittedly is pretty high, but not outrageous. When we measure
> population density in Sartar, we usually ignore the empty areas (Quivin
> Mountains, Colymar Wilds, Upland Marsh, Storm Mountains, etc), but if we
> look at figures for RW population density, those empty areas are usually
> factored in (thus medieval Scandanavia with its tracks of marginal lands
> has a very low population density - but that number would be much higher
> if we only measured Denmark, coastal Norway, Scania and the lands around
> the Malaren).
Sure, I certainly don't expect numbers anything like _that_ low (and couldn't manage them by any means even if I did). (I don't know that I've seen the Colymar wildlands excluded from any such count, and I don't think the Upland Marsh can really be said to be _in_ Sartar, I'll throw in as bonus quibbles.)
> Volsaxiland and the Heortland plateau should be more densely populated
> than Sartar - just look at the terrain!!! Let's give the Volsaxiland
> river valley a population density of about 50 people per square mile,
> which would make approximately the average for 11th century Kent or
> Essex. Give the river valleys on the Heortland plateau a population
> density of about 65 people per square mile. This is also somewhat high,
> but not outrageous.
Granted we're stuck with 500,000 Heortlanders to put _somewhere_, so the numbers are going to end up on the high side on way or another (as they likewise are for Sartar), ultimately I've to suck it up, in one form or another. I don't have an accurate measurement of the land area of H., but by eyeball it doesn't look to me much less than 10,000 sqm. Given the much larger cities on the plateau, and its generally more 'Westernised' character I'd personally be happier to see a somewhat higher number for that area, and somewhat lower for V.
Cheers,
Alex.
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