From: Bruce Hollebone (hollebon@cyberus.ca)
Date: Mon 29 Jun 1998 - 21:55:38 EEST
Trotsky <TTrotsky@aol.com>:
> But the Colymar don't border Torkani lands, so this can't be right.
>Neither do the Torkani live next to Mt Quivin; their southern border runs
>along the Dogbone Hills just north of Torkan's Vale (which is Telmori
>territory).
Alex Ferguson <abf@cs.ucc.ie>:
> Anmangarn: area around Tarndisi's Grove, between the Starfire Ridges and
> the Thunder Hills.
I will cheerfully admit that I misinterpreted the Colymar write-up in KoS.
Foolishly, I hadn't carefully worked out the full migrations of the tribes through
Quivinland and thus assumed that the Torkani were the south-western neighbours of
the Colymar. Of course, I found the Questlines article only this last weekend. *sigh*
Now I have some ret-conning to do.
I have some assumptions I'd like to check, if people don't mind.
David Dunham notes that historical agricultural densities are 1-2 people/sq. km for
dry farming and up to 6-12 people/sq. km for irrigated land.
(See: http://www.pensee.com/dunham/facts/food.html )
The Questlines article has 18,000 Colymar on a package of land about 60 by 100 km
(pre 1613). Assuming that 50% of the land is arable (overly generous perhaps) this
gives us a population density of 6 ppl/sq km, excluding the added load of towns and
cities. Even including a fertility bonus of 10% from Ernalda (or whomever), this would
mean that the Orlanthi have a pretty sophisticated irrigated agricultural system and
are fairly densely packed in their farming vales. Apparently, Tarsh is the richest
province of the Empire, so I assume that Sartar is also fertile, even though it is
mountainous.
So, given the populations in Questlines, a clan would be about 1000 to 1200 people,
living in about 200 nuclear family units/steads, each farming 1 to 2 sq km (250 to 500
acres). Presumably, much of this is odal pasture lands, with smaller irrigated
grain/alfalfa/fallow fields in a multi-year rotation and small market gardens.
Irrigation and cattle both mean ready souces of water, brooks and streams from
Skyfall Lake and/or Creekstream River.
So, rural Quivinland is a rich country of heavily farmed, fertile farm valleys watered by
innumerable brooks and streams. The cattle graze in the valley floors, the sheep on the
hill sides and the goats in the unpopulated moors on the hilltops. It sounds a lot like
Wales or Nova Scotia, but decidely more fertile.
How does that sound?
Bruce.
Bruce hollebon (at) cyberus.ca
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