The density of such towns times the area they are spread over. For the density, see the next question, not that it will help much.Originally Posted by Spiral Thoughts
Very highly variable depending on social structure, technology, natural resources, etc.2) How closely would these towns/cities be? Is it unusual to have them spaced far apart or spaced close together? Is it true that towns/cities tend to appear near water (and how rare is it to live away from water)? The impression seems to be (in novels) that societies consisted primarily of European countryside and only a few towns and cities here and there. I also heard that this impression is wrong. That is the reason behind this question.
The amount of land is fairly fixed as there is a fixed amount of lightweight "continental" crust It varies a bit with sea level (The Bering Land Bridge, Doggerland), flexing of the continental plates (Hudson Bay), aggregation and uplift of material from oceanic subduction (The American Cordillera), and from undersea volcanoes breaking the surface (Iceland, Japan, Hawaii). What land there is though is made up of "chunks" called "cratons" and they shift around, sometimes splitting, somethings smashing into each other. Right now Africa is splitting up and India is crashing into Eurasia. There is a bit of a tendency for a cycle where most of the land comes together at once in one giant supercontinent, and then it all splits apart again. So two major landmasses is fine. Right now earth has two major landmasses, the Americas, and Africa-Eurasia, with a few smaller independent chunks (Antarctica, Oceania).3) How many landmasses must exist on an Earth-like planet? In Glumdomy (planet name), there are two landmasses. One is significantly larger than the other. The larger one is Persussa (nation continent) and the smaller one is Bulldosa (nation continent and where my novel takes place). They don't have a separate concept for nation and continent, as the only two nations have full control over the only two continents. Is it plausible to have only two major landmasses? Only, only, only, only~
Single early modern level nations controlling entire supercontinents completely enough and for so long that the concepts of continent and nation are completely merged seems extraordinarily unlikely.
Some islands are hills/plateaus on flooded sections of continent, like the British Isles. The rest are the tops of undersea mountains.4) That brings me to question four. There is another nation but it isn't considered a nation by the Bulldosing people (and I'm writing from their perspective). It is an "Island Conglomeration". My question is, how are islands formed? Is it possible for there to be a ridiculous amount of islands scattered all around the oceans, substituting for the landmasses that "should have been" there? How closely can islands be together (as in my island conglomeration)? Also, the Valazi Isles run roughly in a circular fashion around the continent of Bulldosa and I want to know if that is possible and if it is possible, what would need to happen for it to be possible on my planet?
Mountains are associated with boundaries. When continental plates come together, they both get pushed up. The Himalayas and associated ranges are the best example of this. Where an ocean plate subducts under a continent, the continent gets pushed up, and scrapes up the top layer of the ocean along the forward edge, further inland, you'll also get volcanoes. The American Cordillera (The Rockies and associated ranges) formed this way. Where an oceanic plate subducts under another oceanic plate, you get an arc or cluster of volcanoes. The Aleutians, Japan, and the Philippines are all results of this. Tripple junctions where three boundaries come together are particularly significant, Japan sits on a pair, and the Philippines sits on THREE triple junctions. The Azores were also formed by a Triple Junction. Finally there are hotspots which just cause volcanoes to appear anywhere. Hawaii, the Kerguelen Islands, Yellowstone Plateau, and possibly Iceland are all results of hot spots, Iceland is also on the divergent boundary between North America and Eurasia.5) I don't understand mountains. Why are these weird pointy-thingies constantly popping up everywhere and what does that bode for Bulldosa (which has mountains in the north [I am not set on keeping the mountains to the north, I just figure, hey, mountains - to the north!])? Is it unusual to live near a mountain? If so, why? If not, why not? Is there a chance that these mountains could be volcanoes? How are those created, again?
I really don't see how you could manage that for the whole planet, or even a whole continent without a serious application of magic, or rendering it completely inhospitable, like Venus.6) Early on in my creative process, I decided that the sky is overcast (lots of gray clouds, rumbling, and the like) nearly every day of the year (people know the sun exists, especially when it pops out of the clouds in strands, but also because it does appear in its full glory every now and again). Is this possible? How is this kind of climate even developed and how would it change the composition of the planet (specifically the landmasses)? It can't created by magic (magic doesn't exist there).
They must flow strictly downhill, but need not come from mountains. Since mountains tend to induce rainfall, and are the highest points, they do tend to be the origin for a lot of rivers, particularly on their windward sides.7) I've read a lot of the river and water articles. I'm not convinced I understand them, though. Must rivers come from mountains? I intended a sharp cliff somewhere in Bulldosa with a waterfall, but I have no idea why that would even happen . . . @_@ the planet is so amazing . . . how everything works . . . how can anyone be sad knowing such beauty? @_@ Maybe it's the confusion that gets them. Is there a better place to turn to for watery formation information?
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