Is your worldbuilding is populated enough?

[Tempokai]

I was accidentally thinking about LOTR, and realized that the population density of that world is sparse. Freaking Mongolia levels sparse. Taking to account the movies it looks like there's 50k max people living in that Europe long continent.

Sure, it can be said that's just overlooked and only bits and details that push the story further are there, it doesn't make sense that only couple of thousands had come to aid in that last stand battle and so on. It feels like Middle-Earth underpopulated.

Other fantasy stories can be vague too. One writer will write that X city has Y people living in it, and it's more immersive, while that shoujo korean novel I've read about girl living in countryside and then in capital feels exactly the same even when that capital is said to be "biggest city in the world" and it doesn't feel like that way because interactions and just descriptions of passerbys is minimal.

It's all about context, as far as I understand. Take Earth, say it's Japan, and pretty much you know how many people are there and it doesn't feel empty even if the story is all about two teenagers in a Tokyo. Don't have enough context or description and suddenly it feels like a theater with 3 people in it performing.

So, what is your world's population density? Do you written enough context or description to feel that the world is empty or overpopulated or just an ordinary one?

 

[Sergeandgreen]

Well, at the moment i try to balance introducing and describing side characters and moving the plot forward. You can't stop at every corner and tell how many people are waiting at the traffic light. To circumvent that problem, i let the character do something in the towns and cities he visits. Like asking for information, buying something at a stall, finding someone in the crowd, etc.

But in general, despite there being cities in the millions, if we consider the whole world, it is only sparsely populated. The population is more or less reset every few thousand years because immortals go brr.

Another problem i realized is that just showing there are a lot of people doesn't necessarily make it appear lively or alive if the other people are just automatons.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I think it's more on the movie rather than world when it comes to LOTR. Other thing I want to mention, armies were usually not as big. @Assurbanipal_II @Paul_Tromba @Hans.Trondheim Will correct me if I'm wrong about armies.

As for your question, I have not written a single fantasy yet. I have plans for one, and the denstity will be high. Not overpopulated, but far from being barren. I will have to do it for that novel to work.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

I was accidentally thinking about LOTR, and realized that the population density of that world is sparse. Freaking Mongolia levels sparse. Taking to account the movies it looks like there's 50k max people living in that Europe long continent.

Sure, it can be said that's just overlooked and only bits and details that push the story further are there, it doesn't make sense that only couple of thousands had come to aid in that last stand battle and so on. It feels like Middle-Earth underpopulated.

Other fantasy stories can be vague too. One writer will write that X city has Y people living in it, and it's more immersive, while that shoujo korean novel I've read about girl living in countryside and then in capital feels exactly the same even when that capital is said to be "biggest city in the world" and it doesn't feel like that way because interactions and just descriptions of passerbys is minimal.

It's all about context, as far as I understand. Take Earth, say it's Japan, and pretty much you know how many people are there and it doesn't feel empty even if the story is all about two teenagers in a Tokyo. Don't have enough context or description and suddenly it feels like a theater with 3 people in it performing.

So, what is your world's population density? Do you written enough context or description to feel that the world is empty or overpopulated or just an ordinary one?

I think it's more on the movie rather than world when it comes to LOTR. Other thing I want to mention, armies were usually not as big. @Assurbanipal_II @Paul_Tromba @Hans.Trondheim Will correct me if I'm wrong about armies.

As for your question, I have not written a single fantasy yet. I have plans for one, and the denstity will be high. Not overpopulated, but far from being barren. I will have to do it for that novel to work.

Late medieval Europe without plague. So somewhat dense. As for army sizes ... They can vary depending on the period and the prosperity of the fielding party in question.

 

[CarburetorThompson]

Unless your story focuses on economic shifts and governmental politics I think you just should not mention population. Gives too many additional things to think about which don’t benefit the story. Show population through scenes and character interactions and have the reader infer from that

 

[Nolff]

I was accidentally thinking about LOTR, and realized that the population density of that world is sparse. Freaking Mongolia levels sparse. Taking to account the movies it looks like there's 50k max people living in that Europe long continent.

Sure, it can be said that's just overlooked and only bits and details that push the story further are there, it doesn't make sense that only couple of thousands had come to aid in that last stand battle and so on. It feels like Middle-Earth underpopulated.

Other fantasy stories can be vague too. One writer will write that X city has Y people living in it, and it's more immersive, while that shoujo korean novel I've read about girl living in countryside and then in capital feels exactly the same even when that capital is said to be "biggest city in the world" and it doesn't feel like that way because interactions and just descriptions of passerbys is minimal.

It's all about context, as far as I understand. Take Earth, say it's Japan, and pretty much you know how many people are there and it doesn't feel empty even if the story is all about two teenagers in a Tokyo. Don't have enough context or description and suddenly it feels like a theater with 3 people in it performing.

So, what is your world's population density? Do you written enough context or description to feel that the world is empty or overpopulated or just an ordinary one?

My expertise is in the fanfic department. Need I say moar?

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

I was accidentally thinking about LOTR, and realized that the population density of that world is sparse. Freaking Mongolia levels sparse. Taking to account the movies it looks like there's 50k max people living in that Europe long continent.

Sure, it can be said that's just overlooked and only bits and details that push the story further are there, it doesn't make sense that only couple of thousands had come to aid in that last stand battle and so on. It feels like Middle-Earth underpopulated.

Other fantasy stories can be vague too. One writer will write that X city has Y people living in it, and it's more immersive, while that shoujo korean novel I've read about girl living in countryside and then in capital feels exactly the same even when that capital is said to be "biggest city in the world" and it doesn't feel like that way because interactions and just descriptions of passerbys is minimal.

It's all about context, as far as I understand. Take Earth, say it's Japan, and pretty much you know how many people are there and it doesn't feel empty even if the story is all about two teenagers in a Tokyo. Don't have enough context or description and suddenly it feels like a theater with 3 people in it performing.

So, what is your world's population density? Do you written enough context or description to feel that the world is empty or overpopulated or just an ordinary one?

Oof! I've just realized I've messed up. That hits me right there. Thanks!

 

[2wordsperminute]

My worlds, whether it's for my story or for D&D, always feel underpopulated because I just don't think about it. I tend to think on a much smaller scale than I should when worldbuilding. Sort of works for my current story because it's not meant to have huge cities (for the most part), but I still usually don't do a good enough job of showing that there are still people living in those cities.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

I think it's more on the movie rather than world when it comes to LOTR. Other thing I want to mention, armies were usually not as big. @Assurbanipal_II @Paul_Tromba @Hans.Trondheim Will correct me if I'm wrong about armies.

As for your question, I have not written a single fantasy yet. I have plans for one, and the denstity will be high. Not overpopulated, but far from being barren. I will have to do it for that novel to work.

You right. Most armies would range from 15 people with supplemented support peasants to several hundred bannered troops. That's not including the possibility of cooks, servants, animals, and smith's tailing the armies as personal travel support.

 

[melchi]

I think in the 11th century London was considered one of the bigger cities in Europe and had around 30,000 people living there. So big is relative.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

It always feels to me like I don't give enough clues to population sizes but I have had people tell me otherwise so... no idea (and most of my world building was for RPGs).

 

[foxes]

If you remember that you can fit all the people in the world into a cube with a side of one kilometer. And compare the difference between 8 billion now and 40 million in the Middle Ages. That cube shrinks by a factor of 200. All right, that's bullshit.
So, in the village where my great-grandmother lived, there's no one in an area of 40 kilometers. You can put your protagonist there in the forest, like on a desert planet....
I mean, in Lord of the Rings, the world is 7 million square kilometers. 1,000 people per square kilometer. In the Middle Ages, that's 5 people per kilometer. I think if you go the way of the Fellowship, that's five people per kilometer they've met. Оr just happened to miss them.

 

[QuercusMalus]

Volume 1: Density is probably roughly 3 billion. Down more than half from it's peak of 8 billion.

Volume 2 onward: set ~50 yrs after Volume 1. Population is probably a fifth of what it had been in Volume 1.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

To elaborate on @SailusGebel 's point...

European medieval armies aren't that big; Edward III's army in Crecy is around 7k while Philip VI got around 20k. For the Chinese/East Asian ones, scholars are more in doubt, but they do have estimates of up to 250k (almost an exaggeration, considering that accounts written at that time claim up to million soldiers/warriors). Heck, even during the Great Northern War, the Swedish Carolean armies are just around 40k-50k max (do correct me on this, but yah, Swedish Kingdom's sparse population is one of the reasons Sweden lost its Great Power status after Charles XII). One of the reason for this is the complexity and difficulty of logistics. In an era where wage and food for the common foot soldier is obtained through plunder, or the noble's pockets, raising huge armies is kinda difficult to achieve...well, I guess, maybe it's quite different if you're an East Asian.

If I may also mention, Philippine islands was conquered with only 300+ Spanish soldiers in late 1500s, though they were supplemented by a few thousand natives from different local chiefs (datus).

Big national armies only began to appear during the Revolutionary France-Napoleonic period, where France started conscripting common folk to replenish manpower and create more regiments to fight against kingdoms and empires wishing to 'kill' the republican spread (and defend its borders on all sides). I guess it peaked during the Second World War with countries drafting entire populations to fight against their enemies.

But yeah, those are historical stuff. As for my fiction...

My work in Arc 2 did center on population density of the tribes and peoples on my MC's side, especially as it is a kingdom-building one. That world, Cherwind, is one with intermittent, yet almost eternal, warfare between humans trying to colonize, and beastmen trying to fight off colonization. My MC's gotta balance between people admitted to soldiery and those who should be left to run economics, as an army marches in its stomach.

Another one is in Arc 4, where elvish population got decimated, though in this one, it's more on the topic of emigration and immigration, and the political shenanigans associated with it.

 

[Deleted member 166076]

My "Her Beasts" series is set in a primitive beastworld with a rather minimal population number. The MC is literally sent there to help advance civilization so that the locals don't go extinct. So the largest city-kingdoms might have 1,000 people whereas most tribes and smaller cities are less than 200 people.

My dungeon core stories are a bit more vague due to the lack of mobility of the dungeon masters. However, it's also a medieval magic world setting, so it's probably something like millions world wide rather than the trillions our world has nowadays.

 

[Rezcore]

Oh God no, and each subsequent protagonist is hell bent on thinning the herd even more