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Fantasy Kingdoms, scale, and era
Dec. 6th, 2012 11:14 amI've been poking websites to find out what 'city' meant at different bits of history. Turns out early on it usually meant somewhere smaller than Dereham. Like, Norwich: "The Domesday Book states that it had approximately twenty-five churches and a population of between five and ten thousand." (wiki). Or "By the time of the Domesday Book, in 1086, Norwich was one of the largest towns in England with a population of about 6,000. Although that seems tiny to us settlements were very small in those days, a typical village only had 100 to 150 inhabitants. By the 14th century the population of Norwich had probably grown to about 10,000." Dereham's 15K would be, like, woah, huuuuuuuge! Entire millennia of human history couldn't get their head around having that many people in one place.
I feel I have learnt this before, but I can't get my head around the scaling down necessary to imagine this stuff. I mean, my town is tiny, it only has five churches and two high schools and a weekly market! ... ah, yes, that's quite a lot, really.
( Read more... )
Fantasy novels seem to have scales set at 'one spectacularly large city', the fantasy equivalent of a London or Venice, anomalously huge, or 'at least one continent'. I can't think of one set between a couple of counties. Stories wander all over the map, and the map is gigantic. I know we can blame Tolkien for just about everything, but I also blame America. ( Read more... )
Place names from real history can work excellent well for fantasy versions. Like, from the War of the Roses, there were battles of Wakefield, Mortimer's Cross (complete with signs and portents), and Hexham, that I think sound like an Undead campaign waiting to happen.
Casualty figures for Wakefield on wiki: about 2500 casualties.
That seems a lot more in fractions-of-Norwich.
The Battle of Towton is on a whole other scale. Wiki: "largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil".
"According to chroniclers, more than 50,000 soldiers from the Houses of York and Lancaster fought for hours amidst a snowstorm on that day, which was a Palm Sunday. A newsletter circulated a week after the battle reported that 28,000 died on the battlefield."
That's actual multiples of Norwich. *shudders*
Sometimes looking at history for inspiration feels really ghoulish.
... hence the undead armies...
I looked earlier in history as well. Tudors and that have had a whole lot of story about them already, hard to be remotely original or file the serial numbers off enough. Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms covered much smaller chunks of Britain and still managed to have a whole lot of fighting.
Also I like it when Anglia was a Kingdom. And some of the others had good names, like Mercia, which was the Midlands. It's supposed to be meaning border people, but it's only Mercy if you don't look it up.
( Read more... )
So I wandered around looking at maps and forgot my original population-research aims. But found plenty of good inspiration places.
At some point I will do actual work. It's just actual work requires actual concentration, and if you end up skating off to learn the history of the Brythons it's a problem, rather than a refreshing changes.
I feel I have learnt this before, but I can't get my head around the scaling down necessary to imagine this stuff. I mean, my town is tiny, it only has five churches and two high schools and a weekly market! ... ah, yes, that's quite a lot, really.
( Read more... )
Fantasy novels seem to have scales set at 'one spectacularly large city', the fantasy equivalent of a London or Venice, anomalously huge, or 'at least one continent'. I can't think of one set between a couple of counties. Stories wander all over the map, and the map is gigantic. I know we can blame Tolkien for just about everything, but I also blame America. ( Read more... )
Place names from real history can work excellent well for fantasy versions. Like, from the War of the Roses, there were battles of Wakefield, Mortimer's Cross (complete with signs and portents), and Hexham, that I think sound like an Undead campaign waiting to happen.
Casualty figures for Wakefield on wiki: about 2500 casualties.
That seems a lot more in fractions-of-Norwich.
The Battle of Towton is on a whole other scale. Wiki: "largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil".
"According to chroniclers, more than 50,000 soldiers from the Houses of York and Lancaster fought for hours amidst a snowstorm on that day, which was a Palm Sunday. A newsletter circulated a week after the battle reported that 28,000 died on the battlefield."
That's actual multiples of Norwich. *shudders*
Sometimes looking at history for inspiration feels really ghoulish.
... hence the undead armies...
I looked earlier in history as well. Tudors and that have had a whole lot of story about them already, hard to be remotely original or file the serial numbers off enough. Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms covered much smaller chunks of Britain and still managed to have a whole lot of fighting.
Also I like it when Anglia was a Kingdom. And some of the others had good names, like Mercia, which was the Midlands. It's supposed to be meaning border people, but it's only Mercy if you don't look it up.
( Read more... )
So I wandered around looking at maps and forgot my original population-research aims. But found plenty of good inspiration places.
At some point I will do actual work. It's just actual work requires actual concentration, and if you end up skating off to learn the history of the Brythons it's a problem, rather than a refreshing changes.