So, this came up in another thread pertaining to a PFS scenario...but posting the question here seems relevant.
According to canon, the interior of the Isle of Kortos is untamed wilderness.
Yet the city of Absalom was founded 4000 years ago and is the largest city in the known world.
How does that work?
Are the people of Absalom violently agoraphobic? Or is there some other factors that keep them from spreading across the island? I know that the Kortos Mounts are very high -- but even those would seem to be conquerable by magic and 4000 years of constant civilization.
I would also think that most of Kortos would be given over to food production to feed Absalom.
I understand that having an untamed wilderness right next to the big city is fun -- as it makes for easy access to adventures. But does it make sense, even in a fantasy setting?
CJ
Creative Director
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So, this came up in another thread pertaining to a PFS scenario...but posting the question here seems relevant.
According to canon, the interior of the Isle of Kortos is untamed wilderness.
Yet the city of Absalom was founded 4000 years ago and is the largest city in the known world.
How does that work?
Are the people of Absalom violently agoraphobic? Or is there some other factors that keep them from spreading across the island? I know that the Kortos Mounts are very high -- but even those would seem to be conquerable by magic and 4000 years of constant civilization.
I would also think that most of Kortos would be given over to food production to feed Absalom.
I understand that having an untamed wilderness right next to the big city is fun -- as it makes for easy access to adventures. But does it make sense, even in a fantasy setting?
CJ
I'd be curios to see where you're reading the phrase "Untamed wilderness" in Golarion canon. In the Inner Sea World Guide, the closest we come to that would be us saying that much of the isle is unsettled.
Having wilderness areas to adventure in be relatively close proximity to one of the core adventure sites in our setting IS very important, though... important enough to stretch believability if we must.
That said, the Isle of Kortos is perhaps bigger than you might think. At about 200 miles across, it's about as wide as California. Heck... the distance from my home town of Point Arena to San Francisco is about 130 miles or so, and I can confirm that even today in 2011, that drive brings you through some pretty untamed wilderness.
And the world is full of monsters, undead, and savage humanoids. Civilizing the wild just isn't as easy as we have it, even with magic and such, and the wild fights back.
Also, you can have relatively untamed areas in close proximity to major population centers. Look at the Pine Barrens in NJ - not too far away from NY city and Philly.
It´s probably as big as Ireland or Japan´s Hokkaido, which are pretty big, and apparently the mountains are taller. The mountainous interior would likely be too inconvenient for most people/creatures to ´settle´, and thus will certainly count as ´wilderness´, even if it´s not ´unknown wilderness´.
Close to Absalom there will certainly be produce farms, but stuff like grain and other less-perishables would probably just be bought from low-cost producers like Geb with undead farm laborers... Not that mountains are usually heavily settled or used agriculturally in any culture. I wouldn´t be surprised if the Centaurs´ major business involved cattle herding, which could in fact be making productive use of most of the land, but the higher mountains are also inconvenient for that (and herding cattle probably doesn´t count as ´settled land´ anyways).
Absalom is also really unique as a god-created City, not a normal one grown from a nation per se... from the beginning it would have existed without infrastructure on the island, and focused everything on links with other nations, and if that works, no reason to change it.
Another possibility is that the Isle used to be more settled and civilized but that many things have gone wrong since the death of Aroden.
Also, the rulers of Absalom might think it convenient to have monster-infested wilderness in areas where invaders/besiegers are going to be camping.
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That said, the Isle of Kortos is perhaps bigger than you might think. At about 200 miles across, it's about as wide as California. Heck... the distance from my home town of Point Arena to San Francisco is about 130 miles or so, and I can confirm that even today in 2011, that drive brings you through some pretty untamed wilderness.
This is actually pretty interesting, when you consider what the tapestry shortcut has done from season 4 of PFS onwards - that is a long way.
The Isle of Kortos is a pretty darned big island.
It's roughly the size of the real-world islands of Tasmania, Sri Lanka, and Hispaniola (Haiti + Dominican Republic). It's about three-quarters the size of Ireland. It's ten times the size of Long Island and five times the size of the "Big Island" of Hawaii.
All of these real-world islands have been inhabited for millennia, and all of them have undeveloped "wilderness" areas-- many of which aren't that far from cities. (Okay, Long Island doesn't have too many of those, but you get my meaning).
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I would have to look up my references, which I'm sure deal with Pathfinder Society, but it's not like the island doesn't have buildings on it. There are lots of seige castles and staging areas where civilizations past and present have made attempts to conquer Absalom. Lots of relics have been brought to the land as well, which allows for interesting finds if you are brave enough to travel the ruins in that untamed wilderness. Most of my best information from Absalom came from going through the Field Guide, the starter quests and all things Society. I'm sure there are other sources, as I'm perpetually finding new things about all sections of Golarion. If you need some more specific references, I can hunt them down for you...
It always reminded me of Vancouver Island up here in British Columbia. Victoria is a large established city, but the rest of teh island (definitely not uninhabited) has a lot of wilderness and ruff terrain.