Population Demographics
by Bruce HeardThe Poor Wizard's Almanac places the population of the Heldannic
Territories in AC 1010 at 250,000 people, 15,000 of whom living in
Freiburg. Although I may live to regret taking this number for
granted, I'll still move ahead with demographic calculations
(that's what spreadsheets are for).
In general I've made a few assumptions that will affect all the
following results. For example, in AC1010, the Order was operating
at full capacity - that is financially and farming-wise, with a
small margin for economic mishaps. For example, I've assumed 85% of
the population to be rural, with the remainder essentially living
in the towns. The rural population of 212,500 can naturally feed
itself, but also generate enough surplus to support another 55,900
population. This is enough to feed the 37,500 urban population and
another 18,400 people. The land forces are part of the urban
population. The navy and troops in Vanya's Rest are not counted in
the population, so their supplies should come from the 18,400,
leaving a surplus for 9,921 people which is either stored in
granaries or exported. Here is the breakdown:
Total Population: 250,000
Rural: (85%) 212,500
Urban: (15%) 37,500
Freiburg: 15,000 people
(5,000 military, 750 priesthood, 9,250 townspeople)
Altendorf: 4,800 people
(960 military, 240 priesthood, 3,600 townspeople)
Hockstein: 4,300 people
(860 military, 215 priesthood, 3,225 townspeople)
Grauenberg: 3,800 people
(760 military, 190 priesthood, 2,850 townspeople)
Other*: 9,600 people
(3,168, military, 480 priesthood, 5,952 townspeople)
By "Other" I mean all the villages and commanderies that dot the
land. This breaks down into:
1. 20 villages with an average 298 villagers, 24 priests, and 53
local military
2. 68 small commanderies with 31 military (as described in earlier
material) which would be spread out in the rural areas, near the
borders, coasts, along the roads and rivers, and near strategically
important areas.
This puts the total military figures at:
10,748 for the town garrisons
4,961 for Vanya's Rest
3,518 for the Navy and Luftflotte
for a total of 19,227 military or close to 8% of the total
population
The priesthood is either counted as part of the urban population or
the rural population. Considering the role of the priesthood in the
rural areas is to develop and exploit the land precisely to support
the military, they can be counted entirely as a productive part of
the farming community. In general, the priesthood breaks down as
follows:
Urban: 1,875
Rural: 15,938
Total: 17,815
The average abbey houses 220 people, so it is safe to say the Order
operates 72 abbeys in the rural areas.
The makeup of the priesthood (not including priests serving in the
military) comes to:
3 primates
178 abbots and bishops (1% of the total)
1,603 priors and chaplains (9% of the total)
16,028 serving brethren (90% of the total)
In general, the Voice includes 20% of the non-military priesthood
numbers (3,563), the Heart 35% (6,234), and the Hammer 45%
(8,016).
The military breaks down into three corps: the Army, the Navy, and
the Luftflotte (the warbirds), as follows:
Luftflotte: 25 light warbirds and 2 heavy warbirds
545 knights
688 squires
276 priests
Navy: 41 ships (either galleys or sailing ships). The
average crew per ship includes:
4 knights
11 marines (lt. Inf.)
6 archers/crossbowmen
3 marine sergeants
20 sailors
4 squires
1 chaplain
Rowers, who are essentially condemned criminals and prisoners of
war, are not included above. Any additional troops are usually
drawn from the army.
Navy personnel adds up to:
164 knights
451 marines
246 archers/crossbowmen
123 marine sergeants
820 sailors
164 squires
41 chaplains
The army represents the bulk of the Order's military
forces.
1,310 knights
1,141 sergeants
2,410 men-at-arms
4,210 lt. Infantry (pikemen)
4,017 archers/crossbowmen
1,310 squires
1,229 chaplains
81 serving brethren (artillery)
All troops added together, the totals come as follow:
2,019 knights
1,264 sergeants
2,410 men-at-arms
4,661 lt. Infantry (pikemen)
4,263 archers/crossbowmen
2,162 squires
1,546 chaplains
81 serving brethren (artillery)
It's interesting to see that the entire Order can only field a
grand total of about two thousand knights. If one also counts the
chaplains of the Hammer and the chaplains serving in the military,
this amounts to roughly 2% compared to the civilian population. The
entire Order itself amounts to roughly 37,000 people. The chaplains
and the knights are the only reliable portion of the population can
be relied upon for law enforcement inside the Order and among the
civilian population. With an ethnic population that is potentially
hostile and where both able-bodied males and females would be
likely to take arms, a general revolt could involve as much as a
quarter of the civilian population, or a whopping 52,000
insurgents. Indentured soldiers are likely to stick with the Order
(but not necessarily), therefore the critical need to keep the
civilian population both unarmed and unwilling to fight.
Among the knights (including the army, navy, and luftflotte), is
the following proportion of officers:
13 Grand Knights (incl. four Landmeisters, an admiral, and other
upper echelon commanders)
112 Knights Banneret, incl. 69 ship/warbird captains
409 Knights Bachelor, incl. 68 Hauskomturen
1,485 Brother Knights
The Artillery: Although artillery personnel is counted as
part of the armed forces above, here is the breakdown of siege
weapons themselves:
Army:
40 ballistae, mangonnels, or light catapults
10 light belchers
3 heavy belchers
Navy
82 ballistae, mangonnels, or light catapults
41 heavy catapults
21 light belchers
0 heavy belchers
Luftflotte
108 ballistae, mangonnels, or light catapults
68 heavy catapults
118 light belchers
30 heavy belchers
This clearly demonstrates that a vast portion of the Order's 446
siege weapons is airborne. It also helps explain how critical to
their entire military apparatus the warbirds are.
More later on taxes and budgets.