Population of the Lunar Empire
If you add up the population figures for the Lunar Empire in the Imperial Lunar Handbook 1 it comes to 7330000 including the provinces. This compares with the population of the Roman Empire at somewhere between 45 and 120 million depending on which estimates you use. Personally for the high point of the Roman Empire I think the population was at the higher end of this range - perhaps 100 million. The Lunar Population is more like that of Egypt in Hellenistic times (about 7 million).
The main reasons for the fairly low population of the Lunar Empire compared with the Roman Empire are:
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The Lunar Empire is less than half the size of the Roman Empire. |
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The population of Glorantha has had to grow from nearly nothing at the Dawn to its current level in only 1617 years. |
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There have been some major disasters in Glorantha at the end of the First and Second Ages which must have severely reduced the population - e.g. the Dragonkill, the destruction of the Empire of the Wyrms' Friends, the destruction of the Middle Sea Empire, the Arkat-Gbaji Wars, the Syndics Ban and the Closing. |
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Even in the Third Age the Empire probably lost a lot of population during the Seleric War and virtually the whole army in the Night of Horror. |