Thus Spake Zarataylor/ExaltedNumbers
izzylobo [02-24-2004 11:52 AM]
>>I thought there were originally 500 Solars and 500 lunars.
The exact number of Lunars and Solars is kept vague. "over three hundred" Solar sparks were captured in the Jade Prison - of those, the Bone Colossus captured around half when it shattered the prison - so around a hundred and fifty Solar sparks escaped (and wasn't Lytek happy to see them back). Of those that were captured by the Colossus, fifty were turned over to the Yozis as payment for services rendered (teaching the Deathlords how to taint Solar essences), and the rest were corrupted into Abyssal sparks.
But!
There were a handful of Solar sparks that were never placed in the Jade Prison. The inhabitants of the Invisible Fortress, for example (some of whom's Higher Souls later ended up as Deathlords). There were others - these were the poor suckers who the Wyld Hunt forever hunted, killed, and waited for the Spark to show up in another body - and then lather, rinse, repeat. There might have been as many as a couple of dozen of these.
And!
Another (very small) handful were Infernally tainted, and managed to escape the Usurpation, fleeing to Malfeas - where, presumably, they live still, (Most of the Yozi-tainted Solars died utterly convinced they'd been found out, and that this was part of a general purge of the disloyal, not a complete turnover of power - more fools, they...)
Last!
There's always the possibility that some handful of Solars have used things like the Dragon King stasis chambers, or a sorcerous stasis bobble, or such, to survive until the present day.
So how many Solar sparks are there? As many as you need there to be. Probably more than a hundred and fifty "new" Sparks - probably less than two hundred fifty.
There are as many Lunar sparks as there are Solar sparks (total, including corrupted sparks). There are 100 Sidereal sparks. There are somewhere around 100 Abyssal sparks (but this number could change, as it is possible to redeem Abyssal sparks, and possible to corrupt more Solar ones).
The total Terrestrial population is also vague. The Realm has around 10k Dynasts - this is a fairly constant number, due to the manipulations of the Empress. They also appear to have somewhere around 5-6k Lost Eggs - non-Dynastic Terrestrials.
Lookshy has around 3000 Terrestrials (it varies from slightly over to slightly under, depending on casualties, recruitment, defectors, etc.) - many of these come from the rest of the Scavenger Lands, which reduces the total in that area.
The rest of the Threshold also has Terrestrials - around on in ten thousand or so, but this is an average, and fluctuates wildly (so Halta has many fewer Terrestrials than average, while the cadet houses of the Northern satrapys have almost as many Terrestrials, ratio-wise, as the Realm does).
The numbers I generally use are -
- Solars - ~200
- Lunars - ~400
- Abyssals - ~100
- Infernals - ~50 (slightly over)
- Sidereals - 100
- Alchemicals (in creation) - handfuls before the Yugash breakthrough.
Terrestrials
- Realm
- Dynasts - ~ 10k
- Lost Eggs - ~ 5k
- Lookshy
- Gens - ~ 1.5k
- Recruits - ~1k
- Other - ~600 (at present)
- Scavenger Lands - ~4k
- Threshold (incl cadet houses) - ~8-10k
This is based on the assumption that the Realm is the most populous, the Scavenger Lands a (very) close second, and the rest of Creation equals the population of either of them, just about (keeping in mind that one whole Direction is mostly water, and the other two nastily hostile the deeper you move into them).
Comment: Here's a hypothetical (and fuzzy) breakdown of Solars and Lunars by Direction.
- East (Including the Scavenger Lands): 90 Solars, 130 Lunars
- North: 30 Solars, 90 Lunars
- West: 30 Solars, 90 Lunars
- South: 40 Solars, 90 Lunars
- Realm: 10 Solars, 10 Lunars
Distribution of Abyssals is based on DeathLord; of Sidereals based on where their missions take them.
-- JesseLowe (July 15, 2005)
