Cities,towns and villages

[thatoneguy1]

I am making a map of my world and right now I am working on the human kingdom how many cities towns and villages should i have in a kingdom, I do not want to have too little but I do not want it to be crowded either also should a fort be placed in a place thats difficult to reach like high in the mountains, deep in a dense forest or on an island protected by evil ninja, monkey, assassin, sharks that glow when you feed them cheese?

 

[adampjr]

REad this: Medieval Demographics Made Easy

 

[wordwalker]

The place to put a fort isn't in some out of the way spot, it's at a border where invaders might cross (including if it can be a launching point for your own invasions), especially where you can protect and tax trade. The best spots are where the terrain funnels an area's travel down through one point-- a mountain pass, a river leading in/out of a lake. If there's a fort out in the middle of nowhere it means the area used to be more important (or the generals think an invader might make it important), or it's just a pleasure palace-- or it could be a Hidden Training Base or controlling some magical resource only found there.

 

[wordwalker]

REad this: Medieval Demographics Made Easy

Easy is right. One (occupation) per X people (and one guess what the most common trade is?). Exactly what we need for these basics.

 

[Asura Levi]

It is a really incredible article. You can figure out with more security how your villages and cities look like without guessing too much.

Even if it became somewhat far from earth historical numbers, when you have some 'template' to work out from you have more consistency, and we know consistency matters a lot in writing.

 

[ecdavis]

Remember sources of water should be nearby, especially for larger towns and cities. Unless your world has an advanced society, fresh water will be needed for mills and businesses as well as for drinking water. Feeding the larger towns and cities would require nearby fields for crops and animals, or at the very least a very good road system. Fort high in mountains are more secure, but harder to supply and in winter months could be impossible to navigate. Forts neear borders would be the best thing. Also realize that the material for building the fort (and the cities) has to be fairly near, especially if they are using stone. Quarries or forests should be a reasonable distance away.

I'd say there are usually not too many large cities in each kingdom -- again, assuming you're creating more of a medieval type of fantasy setting. Big medieval cities were not nearly as large as most people think they were and were not pleasant places to live. I'd suggest using more smaller towns, a couple of larger towns and maybe one small to medium size city that would probably be where the King or ruler lived. Villages were much more common in Medieval England than were what we would consider towns or cities. My world uses a ducal system, where a small community surrounds the estate of a Duke who provides protection for them.

 

[skip.knox]

That's an excellent article. I won't quibble but I'll add a wrinkle. The guidelines in the article will produce a rather uniform landscape. As ecdavis and others have suggested, geography will modify that. The presence of a large, navigable river, for example, or a range of mountains will change the distribution of towns. The fertility of the soil will change the distribution of villages and even the type of agriculture practiced. Think central Spain versus the Low Countries.

So, if you are starting more or less from scratch, start with that article. Then throw in your geography and see how that changes things. Then throw in your fantastical elements to provide still more interesting variations. For example, would a winged people be distributed differently? How about giants or mermen? Some fun!

-= Skip =-