Re: Size of the Clanking City

• In WorldofGlorantha_at_yahoogroups.com, Stephen Tempest <e-g@...> wrote:
  >
  > "Lawrence Whitaker" <lawrence.whitaker@...> writes:
  >> 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.)
  

Speaking as someone who spends a fair bit of time digging up ancient cities, you'd be surprised at how big they can get and how little land is, sometimes, devoted to agriculture.  

> What do they eat?

Anything on a sea-coast with a good port imports food. Many of the largest cities in antiquity had no hope of feeding themselves on their surrounding farmlands and imported food in vast quantities. Rome, Alexandria, Kyoto. and so on.

Since the business of the Machine City was not food-production, it seems appropriate that it would be imported (or produced in dwarfstyled  vats under ground by hordes of faceless Infrared Drones). Serve Zistor! Zistor Is Your Friend.

> 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

It's a machine city ruled by a mechanical god. I'm sure they can work around the food problem. When was the last time you saw a dwarf farmstead - and we all know how big their populations are.

Jeff             Received on Tue 02 Oct 2007 - 12:59:16 EEST