>Looking at the map in 'The Clanking City' this is clearly a smallish city
>that, whilst built on an island, is nevertheless compact. It is surrounded
>by open land, but a lot of it is sand, making only the area occupied by the
>city itself stable for building (and its reached its surface limits in that
>regard). Judging by the detail given, the city is approximately 500 metres
>at its widest point, and 1,100 metres in length - so say 550,000 sqm. Its
>obviously heavily urbanised too, above ground, and therefore densely
>populated for its size. Estimate the population in the region of 5,000 to
>8,000 people above ground, depending on influx (and pre-siege).
Sorry to be picky, but this is always something that bugs me with depictions of fantasy cities. (And Lord of the Rings movie version, I'm looking at *you* here.)
What do they eat?
The map shows no fields or farmland, and they're under siege anyway. Do they import enough food for 18,000 people through the teleportation gate from Seshnela? Or is one of the undocumented wonders of Zistor a technomagical device that produces endless amounts of food? Or is it a requirement to become a Cog of Zistor that your stomach is surgically removed and replaced by a photosynthesis cell? :-)
Stephen
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