Karameikos - Vaults of Pandius

The Demography of KarameikosTheDEMOGRAPHYofIn this article we provide an overview of thepopulation of Karameikos – how manypeople inhabit the Grand Duchy, which races,how the population is spread among thecountry, population density, and so on. First,we will see how Karameikos is described inofficial supplements, then we will suggest adifferent approach to the issue of Karameikanpopulation, based on population figuresinspired by a comparison with real-worlddemographic data in the Middle Ages. Thegoal is to present figures which are more inline with those of European Middle Agecountries, while preserving the low-magic,mostly-wilderness character that identifiesthe Karameikan region.KARAMEIKANPOPULATION INOFFICIAL SUPPLEMENTSThe Grand Duchy of Karameikos is perhapsthe oldest defined setting of what would havelater become the world of Mystara. As such,its description in the official sources hasundergone a series of changes, at least one ofwhich was quite thorough.In early D&D supplements – like 1981’sExpert Rulebook, 1983’s Expert Set,adventure modules B6 – The Veiled Society,B10 – Night’s Dark Terror, and X10 – RedArrow, Black Shield – the Grand Duchy wasdescribed as a nearly-unsettled land, mostlywilderness, without proper urbanby Simone Neri (Zendrolion)settlements. At this stage, the only town ofthe country was Specularum (which was saidto be inhabited by about 5000 people). Othersettlements were village-sized: for example,Threshold and Luln had 500 people each,Rifllian 170, the whole gnome population inthe Highforge area was 620, and so on.Later supplements, starting with GAZ1 – TheGrand Duchy of Karameikos, increased theurban population of the country tenfold:Specularum became a large city of 50,000people, Threshold and Luln towns of 5,000,Highforge a gnomish town of 7,500, and soon. Unfortunately, GAZ1 gave no figures forthe country’s total population. Subsequentsupplements, namely the three booksbelonging to the Poor Wizard’s Almanacseries, at last gave their own estimates aboutKarameikos’ population, setting it at about300,000 not counting humanoids - 250,000humans, 40,000 elves, and 10,000 otherdemihumans. TM2 – The Eastern CountriesTrail Map also gave a total population figureof 280,000, without explaining if this numberactually included demi-humans or not.Now, while this 300,000 figure is quiteacceptable for a mostly-wilderness countrylike the Karameikos shown in earliersupplements, it is quite difficult to use it withthe tenfold-increased urban population ofGAZ1. In fact, even considering onlysettlements with 10,000 people or more(namely Specularum, Kelvin, and FortDoom), we end up having an urbanpopulation which amounts to about 30% oftotal population – which is not at all in line6THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #1