Dangerous question time.
In the 3e sourcebook “Silver Marches”, the tearout map for Silverymoon has 826 structures, not including those of the wall, but including that one island.
The populaton, on pg 54, is listed at 37,073. That’s about 45 people per structure.
1/2 Some of those structures are only about 12 feet square. The grand houses appear to only be around 500 square feet, ~18×28.
The whole city is about 1750 feet long.
I know, in earlier times, people made do with smaller homes, but this seems quite small.
Am I missing something?
2/2— Random.Queriant (@RandomQueriant) November 2, 2019
To add to that. Blocking out the map in 250 foot square blocks, I come up with an area of about 41 acres, which puts it at about 1/10th the population density of Kowloon Walled City, which benefited from what we'd call mid-rises today.
I'm seeing about 12 floors for Kowloon.
3/2— Random.Queriant (@RandomQueriant) November 2, 2019
1)
Yes, in this case, you are missing something.
Have you ever seen Portmeirion (the coastal village in North Wales)? [It’s the setting for THE PRISONER classic tv series.] see: “https://portmeirion.wales/ ” Notice how some dwellings are literally built on top of each 2)
…other, with all of them dug into a beautiful, treed landscape? I drew quite a few "street views" of Silverymoon that unfortunately never saw print, but there is a single pic of it in the 3e baseline FRCS "big beige book" that hints at this multilevel, "dug in"..#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 2, 2019
3)
…architecture. Much of the city is like a layer cake of building levels, built up from the river (especially on the north or “main central business district” side). Moreover, both the Palace and the city walls contain large amounts of living quarters, the 4)
…former for courtiers and envoys, and the latter for city street workers, guards/constabulary, and guests (the retinue of envoys). Silverymoon does have (slender) apartment blocks; see my lore for mentions of them (the "spires and balconies" of the city).#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 2, 2019
5)
Most of those 12-foot-square buildings are akin to glassed-in gazebos, and are the skylights/air intakes and exhalers of much larger structures buried beneath them. Like the EL district of Chicago or certain “down below” dwellings in London (UK), there are 6)
…underground streets in Silverymoon, though most of them are more like a series of walking courtyards with dwelling doorways opening off them than they resemble modern North American city "streets for cars."#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 2, 2019