Aasla's population corresponds to DotE figures, but the overall number for the land is almost twice as high. Although the map looks busy, more than 60% of the land is wilderness, and another 30% (+) borderland. Even with a total population density of about 10 people per square mile, we still have more than two million Havenites. As much population as farmland can support is urban (about 25%). The good news is that Haven's agriculture is sufficient but, alas, it does not permit exporting much food. As can be expected, the cost of living in Haven is rather high. Fortunately, business and industry are healthy, and the political regime remains fairly stable.
Not surprisingly, much of the realm's income originates from road and port duties. Revenues from urban income taxes rate close second, the vast majority of which can be traced back to the immense and wealthy city of Aasla and its sprawling sea port. Haven cannot afford to leave this city unprotected, which explains the large military force stationed there, and of course the large share of its navy, including four out of seven 12HD water elementals watching the harbor. The other three are located at Goltar, Songodir, and Palvaton.
Is there a reason why the kingdoms must be self-sufficient at food production? IIRC it has been stated elsewhere that Bellissaria is the bread basket of the Alphatian Empire, and that there is a whole merchant fleet shipping grain from the ports of Bellissaria to the mainland (including, I assume, Sundsvall and big cities like Aasla, and also certainly crowded Stonewall). The same thing happens in Thyatis City (and RW Rome).
ReplyDeleteNote that transporting grain by ship is much more efficient than by land, so in the case of a huge kingdom with a major city like Haven, importing food to its great port city may be a better option than moving it from all distant corners of the kingdom.
Hervé
Hi Hervé
DeleteTechnically, a realm may prefer not having to rely on food from a source it cannot control. There are political, economic, and military issues involved with being able to rely on one's own food sources.
However, as you pointed out, it may be easier to ship food than moving it across land. Yet, a realm in mainland Alphatia might also be able to collect and ship grain from one end of its own lands to major urban centers along its coasts and rivers. It should be just as, if not more, difficult to gather food from inland Bellissaria and shipping it all the way to Alphatia.
The core issue is whether Bellissarian merchants can deliver bread more cheaply than local market prices. Trollhattan, Draco, and Aasla (especially the last two due to their huge sizes) look like good places to make a profit, therefore, this is almost guaranteed to be taking place. They'd still sell their grain at or slightly below local prices in order to maximize profit. This changes the meaning of the stats as follows: a "self-sufficient" realm is indeed able to feed its people *if forced* to rely on its own resources (such as during a war) but the price of food would consequently be higher, and the political stability would suffer as a result.
Another issue is one of design. Many of the figures given in DotE are pretty shaky. As a general concept, it's OK to say Bellissaria is someone else's breadbasket, however, mainland Alphatia does have a lot of farmland as well. If food nonetheless remains scarce in mainland Alphatia, their rural population is either incredibly underdeveloped compared to urban areas, and/or utterly inept at farming (all of which begs questioning.) Is there a fantastic curse on Alphatian farmland that wasn't described earlier? Perhaps some unsolvable blight?
I'm looking at realms like Theranderol, Randel, Bettellyn... why would they not produce their own food or even export it? It would be actually tougher, therefore more expensive, to supply their inland towns that aren't on rivers all the way from Bellissaria. Besides, magic is available to both Bellissarians and Alphatians to preserve foodstuffs during shipping. I'm sure local peasants would be the first to try to make a handful of copper or silver, selling their stuff to the local towns. :-)
Another, unrelated question:
ReplyDeleteNavies, yes, but what about skyships? Submersibles? I guess your stats are for AC 1000, so before the buildup that leads to the war and the burning of the skyfleet in Aasla in WotI, but shouldn't there be at least one (or maybe in Sundvsall only?)?
The easiest answer is to assume part of a naval fleet consists of airships and/or submersibles. This leaves the matter wide open for interpretation. I could come up with a fleshed-out system to determine the number of "special" vessels, but is it really needed? I don't mind either way. If I did figure a way to do this, I would simply add an errata for the stats that have already been published.
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