On my long "to do" list, this is present.
>> Certainly there's a fair bit which couldn't
>> be cultivated with modern technology never mind
>> anything in Glorantha.
> Very true! And the same is not true of anywhere in > Britain, as anyone who's met a wandering sheep on a > lonely bit of rock can tell you.
I'm reminded of Sam Philipp's old "no cows, though - they'd roll off" digest comment from 1994 about Scotland and its highlands. Once you get to bedrock right under the vegetation, any thoughts of "cultivation" mean something similar to pot-gardening (like on the Aran Islands).
>> Nothing similar to the great forests of ancient
>> Britain appears on any
>> map of Sartar I've seen. That difference alone would
>> create a population several times the RW one.
> The "great forests of ancient Britain" were gone > before the Romans arrived, cleared by agriculure to > make downlands and so on, so this is hardly > surprising.
Sartar (and also northern Volsaxar) has quite a bit of bedrock instead of soil, and its share of wetlands and impenetrable bushland to complement the forest expansion it has. Arable land usually can be found in the broader river valleys, about halfway up the slopes before it becomes steep. Most of the lower regions get flooded too often to serve as fields, but are good cattle pasture.
>> I'd much rather find a time when there was
>> recognisable overpopulation
>> for a similar mix of land types and use that as a
>> basis. Particularly
>> as the only complete set of figures I'm aware of
>> from that time is the
>> Doomsday Book which only covers England
> Confused: are you saying that at the time of the > Domesday Book, England was at maximum population or > even over-population? Not that I have enough > knowledge to say that you're wrong, but I'm surprised.
No, Donald pointed out that the Domesday Book marked the end of the Saxon/Danish colonisation phase, not overpopulation.
(A similar situation to the period after the Belgae colonized southeastern Britain (at the expense of previous Celts pushed west or north), when Caesar arrived.)
But this means that this was a stage of population saturation - larger scale colonisation ended because the best land for a good new start wasn't up for the taking any more. Any further immigration would have to be compared with the pre-Dragonkill immigration to Heortland, where refugees had to take up marginally suitable land.
Compare the Balmyr lands in the First Wave - everything between the Kitori lands and the Stream except the east held by the Torkani - and the situation after first the Sambari ousted the Torkani, then the Locaem and Kultain the Balmyr and Sambari.
The three small tribes (Curtali, Bacofi, Sylangi) managed to settle where Kitori interest was weaker. They took better lands when the Kitori were overcome in Tarkalor's campaign.
The Volsaxi also expanded north then, lessening the population pressure to the south.
Still, we need to place some 35000 Volsaxi south and west of Whitewall. (Roughly 3/4 the number of the Ostrogoths who subjected Italy, or one third to one half of the Helvetian migration.)
I'm planning to produce a vectorized map system where I can enter estimates on soil suitability etc as a bonus. Then we can talk crop efficiency etc., and calculate maximum sustainable numbers and whatever.
Although I guess that these are things many people don't want to know - "after all, this is fantasy"...
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