This topic is another spin off of the discussion on other low magic settings (http://www.birthright.net/forums/ind...showtopic=2736). The other spinoff (slightly related to this one) can be found here: http://www.birthright.net/forums/ind...showtopic=2739

Now as I was going through my calculations on the prevalence of Scions and wizards and such, I started to take a good look at the population levels listed in the BRCS, and they seem very low. For example, given the reported size of a typical province (40x40 miles), in a level 5 province we end up with a population density of 12.5 people / square mile. Even if we reduce the size of the province to about 30x30 miles (which I think is more typical after a quick scan of southern anuire), we get a population density of 22.2 people / square mile which is still low (MMS:WE, which I know I refer to quite often, says that the "typical" medieval kingdom has a population range of between 30-160 people / square mile). This is especially true when you consider that in Anuire at least, level 5 provinces seem to reflect the beginnings of truly urbanized/developed areas. Most larger domains have capital provinces of levels 5 or 6. Larger Provinces represent major urban centers, which should have greater populations to suppot them (I've only been able to count seven such provinces in all of Cerilia: Anuire in Avanil, the City of Anuire, Ilien, One in Kal Kalathor in Vosgaard, Two in Muden, and Ariya).

Going back to MMS:WE, I tried to figure out some decent levels of population that would not only expand the scion/wizard base (assuming the proportions I mentioned in the first thread I cited above), but also expand the population of Anuire beyond the roughly 1.5 million people at which the current table places it (which yields a very general estimate of about 10-11 people per square mile).

Basically, I worked from one principle, that generally, 2 adults are required to provide enough labor for every acre of staple crops under cultivation. There are 640 acres to every square mile, but for every agricultural square mile only about 75%-90% (I used 75%) of the acreage is devoted to staples. So in the 900 square miles of a typical province there are 576,000 acres. If all the land in the province was given over completely to agricultural pursuits, this would yield 432,000 acres of staple crops and 864,000 people. However, it is very unlikely that all of the land would be used for this purpose. Indeed, it would be very atypical.

Working from the a consideration that the typical medieval maximum population density would be reached somewhere between province levels 5 and 6, I developed a progressive chart as to just how much land was cultivated in each province, from 1% for a level 0 province, to 40% for a level 10 province.

MMS:WE also mentions that typically between 6.67-20% of a province's population is urban. Since I had already calculated the peasant/rural population, and didn't want all sorts of weird percentages that would result of calculating what the result of the unknown urban pop + the peasant pop and what not would be, I just added this percentages on top of the rural pop (the difference in acuracy would typically be within 1-2% anyway). Purely on my own estimate, probably about half of this urban population should live in the largest city in the province, while the rest would be divided among smaller population centers.

Province Level..........%Cultivated........Rural Pop.........%urban.......Urban Pop

0.............................1%.................. ...8,640................0%..............0
1.............................3%.................. ...25,920.............6%...............1,555
2.............................5%.................. ...43,200..............7%...............3,024
3.............................8%.................. ...69,120..............8%...............5,529
4.............................11%................. ..95,040..............9%...............8,553
5.............................14%................. ..120,960............10%..............12,096
6.............................18%................. ..155,520............12%..............18,662
7.............................22%................. ...190,080...........14%...............26,611
8.............................27%................. ...233,280...........16%...............37,324
9.............................32%................. ...276,480...........18%...............49,766
10...........................40%.................. ..345,600............20%...............69,120

Province Level...........Total Pop............Density.............BRCS Density

0..............................8,640.............. ...9.6....................0
1..............................27,475............. ...30.5..................1.1
2..............................46,224............. ...51.4..................4.4
3..............................74,649............. ...82.9..................7.8
4..............................103,593............ ...115.1................11.1
5..............................133,056............ ...147.8................22.2
6..............................174,182............ ...193.5................33.3
7..............................216,691............ ...240.8................44.4
8..............................270,604............ ...300.7................66.6
9..............................326,246............ ...362.5................88.8
10............................414,720............. ...460.8...............111.1

So Medoere, for example, instead of having 21,000 people and thus being limited to about 21 blooded individuals, would end up with a population of 224, 511 and about 225 blooded individuals.

These calculations don't even contradict the BRCS neccessarily, since that document makes it clear that the numbers given represent taxpayers, who would probably be landed gentry (whose peasants would pay taxes to them, not the royal coffers), and well to do urban peoples, such as guildsmen and merchants.

However, my tables give a slightly better estimate as to the actual populations of Cerilian provinces.