Estimating the size of the Mortal Realms
Age of Sigmars Mortal Realms, a bunch of spheres or whatever hanging in the void, connected by Realmgates and a bunch of other magics.
But how BIG are they? Games Workshop has been a bit cagy, but, perhaps unwisely, they have left enough information behind for me to take a veeeery rough stab at an estimate.
THE SURFACE AND LAND AREA OF THE EARTH
As a start we can use the size and available land area of our own planet as a basis;
Surface area of earth = 196.9 million mi
Estimated land area of this is roughly 30%, so = 57,268,900
ESTIMATED SURFACE AREA FOR ONE MORTAL REALM
Its been stated that human can walk from the centre to the edge in "a lifetime".
So, assume a walking pace of 20 miles per day. (will likely go up in youth and down in age, this may be optimistic but at least its simple). That's 7,300 miles per year.
Lets say 70 years of walking as an optimistic average.
So that's a radius of 511,000 miles
If I jam this into an internet calculator that does equations for me I get = 8.2×10 11
Is that 8.2 billion square miles?
In raw numbers I think its = 82,033,581,529
If we assume, like earth, its 70% water we get = 24,610,074,458.7 square miles for one mortal realm.
Divide that by the earths land area = 57,268,900
We get 429.7284295437838
So best guess land area of each mortal realm is 420 TIMES the land surface of the earth?
ALL MORTAL REALMS COMPARED TO THE EARTH
To get the total available surface area of all mortal realms, x the raw number by eight = 656,268,652,232
But assume, like earth, that only 30% is 'land'
So estimated total land area for all the Mortal Realms is = 196,880,595,669.6 square miles.
I don't even know how to comprehend a number this big... But if we divide 196,880,595,669.6 by 57,268,900 we get=
3,437.82743635027
Shorten that to 3,437
So the mortal realms land surface in TOTAL are about three and a half thousand TIMES larger than the land surface of the earth.
ESTIMATED POPULATION OF THE MORTAL REALMS
Due to the influence of magic and cross-realm agriculture, plus likely massive depopulation in the Age of Chaos, plus are we counting Skaven? Goblins? Plus we know the core parts of each realm are more liveable for mortals in most cases.....
But as a nice round number we can say that before Fritz Haber, about 1800 our earth had about 1 billion people.
So X that by 3,437 = 3,437 billion mortals
About 491 TIMES more people than there are on earth at this moment.
AN ESTIMATE OF THE LAND AREA OF ONE CONTINENT OF HYISH
GW has been quite clever and, for most realms, not shown the full extent of the realm in any map. This means if they need more land area in the future they can just zoon out.
However with Hyish, the realm of light, they seem to have shown the whole thing in one go..
Eight large equal continents and a bit in the middle. Say the middle bit is roughly half the size of the major continents. Dividing the total by 17 might give rough size of Xintil
82,033,581,529 / 17 = 4,825,504,795.823529
Shorten that to 4,825,504,796 square miles
Hyish is clearly less hydrous than earth, but by how much, general impressions can be deceptive so I will say 50% water.
That gives me 2,412,752,397.911765 square miles
Earths land area is 57,268,900 square miles
Divide one by the other and we get 42.13023819056704
So, Xintil, the smallest central continent of Hyish in the realm of light, and the most liveable, is roughly 42 times larger than the entire land surface of the earth?
That's pretty intense.
Its so much insanely bigger than earth, even this zoomed in section of Xintil has probably several times more landmass than earth;
So lets throw up a best-guess spread of the earths area against this map;
So, even one of those very zoomed in areas, , say this little fragment of coasts and sea based around the Elidor range;
A dot on the map
Could be a giant combination empire/culture equivalent to some of the largest Empires our world has ever seen - bigger really. You could tell entire sagas set entirely within this square, based around travel and novelty, and never run out of new and very different cultures and places to visit.
SOME FUN QUESTIONS
What about rain? On earth very big continents often have deserts near the middle. Can rain clouds even make it that far over gigantic landmasses? Maybe the rain is coming from another dimension or something.
Travel - there would be a massive class difference between people, or magical beings who travel long distances, by flight, magic, or otherwise, or realmgates, because for most people even if they travel as much as someone travelling between every part of the British or Spanish empires at their greatest extent, they still haven't gone very far in relation to the size of the realm.
Story limitations for normal humans - its near impossible for relatively normal people to have stories where they range a long way between realm landmarks without the , whole story being the Odyssey or something. Yes there are realmgates, but they are point to point, even travelling across that red square by airship would be like circling the world probably multiple times.
On the other side there is so much room for strange forgotten or lost things, really an impossible-to-fill amount.
The awareness of near-infinity in AoS cultures really makes it a very different world to ours. There is always more.. no real limit so far as an ordinary life is concerned.
But how BIG are they? Games Workshop has been a bit cagy, but, perhaps unwisely, they have left enough information behind for me to take a veeeery rough stab at an estimate.
THE SURFACE AND LAND AREA OF THE EARTH
As a start we can use the size and available land area of our own planet as a basis;
Surface area of earth = 196.9 million mi
Estimated land area of this is roughly 30%, so = 57,268,900
ESTIMATED SURFACE AREA FOR ONE MORTAL REALM
Its been stated that human can walk from the centre to the edge in "a lifetime".
So, assume a walking pace of 20 miles per day. (will likely go up in youth and down in age, this may be optimistic but at least its simple). That's 7,300 miles per year.
Lets say 70 years of walking as an optimistic average.
So that's a radius of 511,000 miles
If I jam this into an internet calculator that does equations for me I get = 8.2×10 11
Is that 8.2 billion square miles?
In raw numbers I think its = 82,033,581,529
If we assume, like earth, its 70% water we get = 24,610,074,458.7 square miles for one mortal realm.
Divide that by the earths land area = 57,268,900
We get 429.7284295437838
So best guess land area of each mortal realm is 420 TIMES the land surface of the earth?
ALL MORTAL REALMS COMPARED TO THE EARTH
To get the total available surface area of all mortal realms, x the raw number by eight = 656,268,652,232
But assume, like earth, that only 30% is 'land'
So estimated total land area for all the Mortal Realms is = 196,880,595,669.6 square miles.
I don't even know how to comprehend a number this big... But if we divide 196,880,595,669.6 by 57,268,900 we get=
3,437.82743635027
Shorten that to 3,437
So the mortal realms land surface in TOTAL are about three and a half thousand TIMES larger than the land surface of the earth.
ESTIMATED POPULATION OF THE MORTAL REALMS
Due to the influence of magic and cross-realm agriculture, plus likely massive depopulation in the Age of Chaos, plus are we counting Skaven? Goblins? Plus we know the core parts of each realm are more liveable for mortals in most cases.....
But as a nice round number we can say that before Fritz Haber, about 1800 our earth had about 1 billion people.
So X that by 3,437 = 3,437 billion mortals
About 491 TIMES more people than there are on earth at this moment.
AN ESTIMATE OF THE LAND AREA OF ONE CONTINENT OF HYISH
GW has been quite clever and, for most realms, not shown the full extent of the realm in any map. This means if they need more land area in the future they can just zoon out.
However with Hyish, the realm of light, they seem to have shown the whole thing in one go..
Eight large equal continents and a bit in the middle. Say the middle bit is roughly half the size of the major continents. Dividing the total by 17 might give rough size of Xintil
82,033,581,529 / 17 = 4,825,504,795.823529
Shorten that to 4,825,504,796 square miles
Hyish is clearly less hydrous than earth, but by how much, general impressions can be deceptive so I will say 50% water.
That gives me 2,412,752,397.911765 square miles
Earths land area is 57,268,900 square miles
Divide one by the other and we get 42.13023819056704
So, Xintil, the smallest central continent of Hyish in the realm of light, and the most liveable, is roughly 42 times larger than the entire land surface of the earth?
That's pretty intense.
Its so much insanely bigger than earth, even this zoomed in section of Xintil has probably several times more landmass than earth;
So lets throw up a best-guess spread of the earths area against this map;
So, even one of those very zoomed in areas, , say this little fragment of coasts and sea based around the Elidor range;
A dot on the map
Could be a giant combination empire/culture equivalent to some of the largest Empires our world has ever seen - bigger really. You could tell entire sagas set entirely within this square, based around travel and novelty, and never run out of new and very different cultures and places to visit.
SOME FUN QUESTIONS
What about rain? On earth very big continents often have deserts near the middle. Can rain clouds even make it that far over gigantic landmasses? Maybe the rain is coming from another dimension or something.
Travel - there would be a massive class difference between people, or magical beings who travel long distances, by flight, magic, or otherwise, or realmgates, because for most people even if they travel as much as someone travelling between every part of the British or Spanish empires at their greatest extent, they still haven't gone very far in relation to the size of the realm.
Story limitations for normal humans - its near impossible for relatively normal people to have stories where they range a long way between realm landmarks without the , whole story being the Odyssey or something. Yes there are realmgates, but they are point to point, even travelling across that red square by airship would be like circling the world probably multiple times.
On the other side there is so much room for strange forgotten or lost things, really an impossible-to-fill amount.
The awareness of near-infinity in AoS cultures really makes it a very different world to ours. There is always more.. no real limit so far as an ordinary life is concerned.
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