Population in countries

[Galastro]

Hi all!

I've been reading "The Road of Kings" now, I thought I might sum up the total population in the world of Hyboria. So I looked at every country and tried to get the population for every country, BUT I have some gaps. Can you guys fill in the gaps. Maybe I search/read really bad. :-D (late nights)

The missing countries are:

Border Kingdom
Cimmeria
Ghulistan
Hyperborea
Hyrkania
Iranistan
Khitai
Kush & the Black Coast
Shem
Turan

Hope you can help me!

Thanks in advance!!

 

[iltharanos]

http://hyboria.xoth.net/gazetteer/nations.htm has some population figures, though not having Road of Kings I have no idea if it is consistent with that book's figures.

 

[thulsa]

http://hyboria.xoth.net/gazetteer/nations.htm has some population figures, though not having Road of Kings I have no idea if it is consistent with that book's figures.

No, the figures on the website are not consistent with RoK.

For example, I figured Asgard would be quite sparsely populated (due to the harsh northern environment), and put the population at 630,000.

RoK, on the other hand, has "numerous people, estimated around 5,349,550 blond northerners in all". (A number which seems rather exact for an "estimate", but that is another discussion... :wink: ). RoK also states that there are 10,900 villages and 67 towns in Asgard.

Those number seem ridiculously large to me. That's a lot of villages and lots of people. It is certainly not how I envision the cold northern wastelands (and believe me: I live in Norway, which is basically the modern-day equivalent of Asgard (!), and we are not more than 4 million people even today... 90% of which live in the far south of the country).

However, this is a fictional setting, so use whatever figures make sense to you!

- thulsa

 

[iltharanos]

Over 5 million? :shock:

Er, that does seem a tad much for a cold northern wasteland. It must be artificially large 'cuz of all the protein they get from the fat lazy polar bears that can be slain with little to no trouble. Yeah, that's it. :?

 

[Bregales]

Get 'em while you can, they're a dying breed, though America's fearless leader says 'taint so. For what it's worth, I wouldn't want to mess with an angry polar bear, they can (and have) bit through a solid frying pan like it was butter (over 2 thousand pounds per square inch jaw pressure). Then again, I wouldn't want to cross an angry Asgardian either.

 

[Damien]

I know this isn't exactly what you're looking for, but if you really need some population figures for some reason, and can't find them in the sources, you can make them up.

http://www.rpglibrary.org/utils/meddemog/

If you can guess at overall size of the area you need a population for, you can get a relatively accurate population, give or take. I know it's not 'official' in any way, but it will help if all you really need is solid numbers.

 

[The King]

For example, I figured Asgard would be quite sparsely populated (due to the harsh northern environment), and put the population at 630,000.

I prefer by far your figures but how did you obtain such a number?

Those number seem ridiculously large to me. That's a lot of villages and lots of people. It is certainly not how I envision the cold northern wastelands (and believe me: I live in Norway, which is basically the modern-day equivalent of Asgard (!), and we are not more than 4 million people even today... 90% of which live in the far south of the country.

The reason for such low population is evident: scarcity of food. With such temperatures you can't grow anything (because it doesn't have the time to) and most usual herd animals (cows and sheep) can't survive these harsh winters. Thus you can only live with hunting and fishing (if you're living on the coast).
But if you kill too many games you exterminate the races and you have nothing left to eat (though I heard there were some case of cannibalism in some remote Siberian region. :shock: ).

How logical Spock would have concluded.

 

[Yogah of Yag]

I assume that Hyboria is dominated by wide, open spaces, vast landscapes with human habitations few and far between, and large cities, sprawling urban centres being rare. The small hamlet probably is most commonplace. Just imagine Texas, the Deep South, the Dustbowl of Howard's day. Conan would have to journey for a long time before finding a Starbucks!

 

[iltharanos]

I know this isn't exactly what you're looking for, but if you really need some population figures for some reason, and can't find them in the sources, you can make them up.

http://www.rpglibrary.org/utils/meddemog/

If you can guess at overall size of the area you need a population for, you can get a relatively accurate population, give or take. I know it's not 'official' in any way, but it will help if all you really need is solid numbers.

That is an awesome site. Now to resist the urge to start crunching numbers.

 

[Damien]

It's worth noting in a discussion of the believability of populations that when Medieval Western Europe hit its 'population boom' around 1300, it may have housed as much as 80-100 million people. 'Course, the Plague showed up less than 50 years later... whoops. Shoulda kept an eye on that rat population.

 

[thulsa]

For example, I figured Asgard would be quite sparsely populated (due to the harsh northern environment), and put the population at 630,000.

I prefer by far your figures but how did you obtain such a number?

I simply made up the numbers, based on how I envision the different nations of the Hyborian Age.

So Asgard, Hyperborea and the rest of the north should be sparsely populated; Stygia, which is said to be in decline, I put at around 2 million; Aquilonia and Nemedia, who are feuding against each other, at 5 and 4 million, respectively; and the east (in my vision) teems with people: Turan (12 million), Vendhya (14 million), and Khitai (24 million). But these latter also have a lot of territory to cover and cultivate.

I guess everyone won't agree with these numbers either, but in my opinion, as long as you get the the general "feel" (ie. northern wastelands vs sprawling city-states of Turan) the exact numbers don't matter all that much.

I know this isn't exactly what you're looking for, but if you really need some population figures for some reason, and can't find them in the sources, you can make them up.

http://www.rpglibrary.org/utils/meddemog/

If you can guess at overall size of the area you need a population for, you can get a relatively accurate population, give or take. I know it's not 'official' in any way, but it will help if all you really need is solid numbers.

I've seen that "calculator" before (and the article upon which it is based), and from what I can see, it seems like Vincent Darlage used this tool to generate (at least some of) the population figures in RoK. The detailed breakdowns of villages, towns, cities, ruined castles, etc. in the book seem to indicate so. In the case of Vanaheim and Asgard (and possibly others), the calculation seems to be rather far off.

- thulsa

 

[Yogah of Yag]

I'm not Head Chair at the Mathematics dept. nor an accountant, so I think the excessive number-crunching takes away from the imaginatory, fantasy aspect of REH's tales as well as the RPG experience in general.
It should be adjective-heavy, not digit-encumbered.

 

[Bregales]

(lol) I rather tend to agree with you Yogah, but it's still a neat tool to see. My respective D&D GM's all like it, and one has had it on his website for quite a long time apparently (I dont' pay attention to those links), but I go more for abstract terms than detailed breakdowns in my Conan game, but in something like D&D it can be very useful.

 

[Paluka]

I think that many of the demographic numbers in The Road of Kings are not very well thought out. The preciseness of the figures used in the book just make this more annoying.
I think the flavor of the book is excellent, but for real numbers I think you just have to use a little common sense and math. I brought up some of these issues in a thread a long time ago and Vincent seemed annoyed and uninterested.

 

[Orkin]

I agree that the numbers are too big.

These days, our technology can support many more people per square mile than the technology in earlier days.

Europe today doesn't have a fraction of the wilderness that it did even a few centuries ago.