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Posted By: jodyjuice03 Dec 23, 2003 - 10:44 am

I have 4 clans in my story that inhabit a small country called The Clan Lands. My main character's clan is called the Sadoni, and I'm working on the village right now. I can't decide how many people would live in a village. I want it to be a lot, but still logical. I'm thinking about 40-70 people? Could that be right?

This is really bugging me because when war erupts, the clans are going to unite into one big force, after one of the clan is destroyed. With that said, if every village has around 40-70 people, and unification of those villages yield only about 300 fighters, (lol) that would suck really bad.

Can anybody help me with that?

P.s. Before anyoene asks, I do plan on having the unified clans to join forces with others, but that doesn't come until later.

Posted By: Eleika Dec 23, 2003 - 10:58 am

I think a village can have 2-300 people and still be called a village.

Posted By: jillstar Dec 28, 2003 - 10:08 pm

Here's a site that describes populations and other aspects of fantasy village life.

http://www.io.com/~sjohn/demog.htm

Posted By: manji Dec 28, 2003 - 10:12 pm

my town has a thousand people in it and we're considered a large village.

Posted By: Rogue Dec 28, 2003 - 10:53 pm

Even though you have three main villages in the Clan Lands that doesn't necessarily limit the population of the country. I'm assuming that the Clan Lands is similar to Scotland. There could be hundreds or even thousands of people living scattered throughout the hills and countryside that aren't particularly associated with any specific village, but when the country is threatened they would muster to form a substantial army.

I don't think that would be too much of a stretch for a reader provided you explain that hundreds of warriors poured from the hills to answer the call to arms. If you suddenly introduce a 10,000 man army they might not buy it, but a passing explanation that many clans choose to live outside the authority of the villages might suffice for the reader. Good Luck!

Posted By: Queen Ehlana Dec 30, 2003 - 12:13 am

Err... Does it really matter how many people are in a village?

Posted By: gypsychic Dec 30, 2003 - 06:53 am

Well, it certainly evokes a certain feeling in the reader, versus that evoked by "city" or "town" - so I think the writer should have at least a general feeling of how many people that feeling represents, in order to portray the setting accurately. And by accurately I mean in a way that would jibe with the general readership's preconceived notions.

Posted By: My~Precious Jan 03, 2004 - 10:42 pm

Hey, in a fantasy anything goes so chuck in 4000 if you want