Population Detail: Ma'helas

[Choinski, Burt]

NOTE: The following information was calculated with an Excel sheet I
made -- I plan to submit it to Wout when I feel it is ready to go.
Basically, you supply the city populations and number of forts and it
chews through a bunch of assumptions to determine the number of towns
and villages.  I have
tried to tweak it based on Ma'helas (yea, one data point :) so it may
produce strange numbers for other cultures (i.e. Katai).  There are four
"magic" numbers that may be tweaked to fine-tune the sheet: "Magic T"
affects the number of support towns per city; "Magic Tp" affects the
average population of each town; "Magic Vp" affects the average
population of each village; and "Magic CTS" affects the "City/Town
Scale" which adjusts the average town size based on the smallest city
size.

Feel free to use this tool and play with it.  If you find magic numbers
that make a more "realistic" fit, please let me know.

NOTE#2: All coordinates below (and in the future from me) are given as
"aa-bbcc", where "aa" is the map number, "bb" is the hex column starting
from the left (01 means first column on page) and cc is the hex row
starting from the bottom (01 means bottom-most hex).  Where an item is
near to a named city (within three hexes), a relative coordinate will
also be given, of the form of "name-path", where "name" is the name of
the object and the "path" is 1-3 directions to travel to get to that
point.  In this system, due north is "1", NE is "2", SE is "3" due south
is "4", SW is "5" and NW is "6".  Thus, the fort nearest to Matan is
located at 8-0112, or could be noted as "Matan-555"
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Ma'helas, as defined, has two cities (populations 31000 and 23000) and 4
forts (presumed to be towns) and a total population of 300000.  I have
added two additional forts on the hexes bordering the Desert of Sighs,
upping the number of fortress towns to 6.

Matan is supported by 7 towns.  Two are within the same hex -- Na'hal
(pop 2,090) and Orsas (pop 2,750).  Five more lie scattered about the
local area: De'sis [Matan-3] (pop 1670); Mesal at the crossroads
[Matan-11] (pop 3,180); Ca'sor [Matan-55] (pop 2,350); Ya'las
[Matan-222] (pop 2,680); Mo'non [Matan-6] (pop 2,810).

Hele is supported by 6 towns.  Two are in the same hex -- La'lel (pop
2,820) and Resas (pop 1,940).  Four more lie scattered about: Le'mis on
the river [Hele-334] (pop 3,060); Ne'pas at the crossroads [Hele-44]
(pop 2,190); Foso [Hele-122] (pop 2,850) and Ro'mas [Hele-55] (pop
3,400).

The 6 forts are Fort Me'hes [Matan-555] (pop 3,330); Fort Yere [08-0717]
(pop 2,310); Fort Ha'hos [08-0816] (pop 2,000); Fort Ku'las [07-3214]
(pop 2,340); Fort So'mon [07-3316] (pop 3,100) and Fort He'sa [07-3117]
(pop 2,970).

Location Information:
1) Fort Yere and Fort Ha'hos are strongly fortified against Chaos
incursions from the Desert of Sighs.  All "easy" routes into and out of
the desert have been fortified, warded and otherwise blocked.  To pick
your way through these barriers is a DIFFICULT Hull survival task,
failure indicating the triggering of some trap or ward.  Partial failure
indicates that you are stopped and do not cross over.

2) Fort Me'hes contains the primary shipyards of Ma'helas due to the
proximity of the fine hardwoods in the surrounding hills.

3) The town of Ca'sor is primarily a mining town due to the rich
minerals in the mountains to the north.
The quality of the metals has been dropping in the past decade,
indicating that the veins are nearly tapped out.  This has started a
wave of prospecting in the largely untouched mountain ridge known as
"Se'hal's Finger" north of Matan.

4) GM ONLY: The mountains in the area of [08-0519] are extremely rich in
minerals and the area is unihabited, though technically owned by the
crown.  Villages areas south of this are primarily concerned with
raising goats.

5) The "Rift of Matan" [08-0215] is a 7x2 mile valley deep in this
mountainous area.  Due to underlying geothermals, there is never snow in
the valley and it never gets colder than 50 degrees even in deep winter
(although the lone road in is snowbound from early November to late
April).  It is within this valley that the "Challenge of Matan" is held
every year starting on the Fall Equinox.  The Valley has a small forest
at its far end and a lake close to where the road leads in.  The lake is
continually fed by mountain runoff and is drained by a small underwater
tunnel in a section of the lake known as the "Judging Currents".  In
past years, part of the challenge has been to swim across the currents
and thus be judged by Matan...those who are not perceptive enough to
spot the under currents or strong enough to fight them if caught will be
sucked down to their doom.

6) De'sis is primarily agricultural, and the villages around here raise
25% of the country's crops.  On the southern side of De'sis, in the
croplands between the town and the coast, was one of the fiercest
battles of the war with Lemas, resulting in horrendous casualties.  On
certain nights the spirits of the fallen can be seen in battle over the
croplands.

7) North of Fort Mossal [08-0915] on the coast overlooking the straight
is a hidden fortress that has been slowly filled with non-perishable
supplies, weapons and ship parts for an eventual invasion of Ma'helas by
Vahear.

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Burton Choinski, Peritus Software Services Inc.
bchoinski at peritus.com