World population in AO is insanely cooked by durza
Probably only a millionish living people in the world
Wouldn’t be shocked if there were more Atlanteans than humans
This makes the abyss sea au even more realistic 
If only Vetex would stop adding the most ridiculous cataclysms into the lore
some islands feel like their listed population is way too small
like i refuse to believe whitesummit only has 10 assassins (if i remember right)
Exactly bro like how are the assassins relevant at all with 10 guys in their og base
It’s probably just counting the 10 assassins always on guard duty + the assassin boss (forgor his name)
I mean Ravenna is most likely the largest power in the Bronze Sea, if anything, most powers use their army as meat shield because their main power are the sea curses
Now yes Ravenna has almost complete control of the Bronze Sea (except Redwake, Cernunno and non nation factions), so it definitely has a lot of population to its disposal, mainly coming from the Ravenna island itself, but also from Shell Island.
The reason is bcs the place is very secluded and kinda hidden, it’s similar to what happens on whispering, except that it’s right at the doorstep of the dark sea, so yeah it’s guaranteed to get attacked
I personally imagine the majority of fighting still occurs between the regular armies in the War Seas, while curse users (assuming both sides have equal strength/number of them) serve usually as just deterrence and last resort defenses
reason for that being curses are incredibly rare and losing a curse user is a loss that could possibly take decades to replace and so kingdoms would want to use them sparingly and only when necessary (ex. when an opposing kingdom in war brings a curse user into a battle)
none of that is mentioned in-game as far as i remember but thats how i imagine war would be handled with curse users involved on both sides
I guess that does make sense, but as i said, curses are the true changer of a war, i mean, that’s how Winterveil ceased to exist, they didn’t believe in Sea Curses and Ravenna one upped them with the apocalypse bringer which lead to its quick demise.
yeah theyd still be the biggest factor in war
its a slightly different situation but if winterveil’s king (i forgot his name) had atleast gotten a draw against Nero then winterveil would likely still exist
I guess, but at the time that Kessler (the winterveil king) and Nero had fought, the capital was already destroyed, and who knows how many curse users would’ve ravenna (general julian is guaranteed to not be there)
i dont think the capital of winterveil was already destroyed before Nero won (if i remember right akursius keep is what used to be winterveil after Nero destroyed it and had a fort built on it)
i dont think theres anything that mentions how many curse users Ravenna had back then but its likely winterveil atleast had multiple, so if Nero lost its safe to assume Ravenna wouldve fully lost the war
i wish there was more info about the winterveil war in specific but i think we’ll get it someday
There isn’t any info regarding both of kingdom’s curse user count, at the bare minimum is 1, but Nero had a far more stronger curse than Kessler
I’m pretty sure if both sides have curse users the curse users duel and whoever wins destroys the army like what happened with Winterveil. If is a general draw (Cassia town) and both curse users are defeated they both retreat. Numbers would still be useful in this case because curse users have limited stamina and if the battle is won before the curse duel ends then the opponent curse user can be overwhelmed
I guess it is possible, i never said that numbers aren’t worth it though, they are worth it since they serve part in minor conflicts or just general siege, but if a kingdom were to have multiple strong curse users, let’s say there was a kingdom that has the lightning curse, earth curse, explosion curse, tide, wave, and idk, let’s just say they have multiple cursesthat are kinda strong.
The entire War Seas can very well be under their control, but that’s only for conquest, keeping that control takes much more than just haha curse go brrr, you need dem troops to protect and enforce your claim.
I mean the Atlanteans would have to go all around the Pelion rift
or they can climb over
Pretty sure redwake would survive
tiny problem
food issue
you see, redwake is a man made island above a sea
which means unless they import soil, its difficult to grow crops
especially since the water there is salty
they also cant really import fruits and veggies because of the spires blocking ships and such, and because they have nothing useful other than a tiny bit of tourist attraction
knowing the war seas as it is, there wont be many tourists
not to mention, theyre in a really secluded space, cant send ships into dark sea for treasure hunting cause of pelion rift, but because theyre in the corner of the war seas, they dont have much connection compared to more central islands like palo, so no economy (which, by the way, would explain lack of guards, them unable to defend against jaw pirates, and using primitive tools like bone sabers, etc)
so, they rely on fish to sustain themselves
this is backed up in the story since the chief asked the player to stop shura since its damaging their food supplies
now heres the problem
fish live in water
in the abyss sea, normal seawater becomes toxic seawater
you can get water poisoning if you expose yourself for long enough
yada yada fish can get infected and turn into fish-lanteans
uh
fish-anteans?
fish-fish?
whatever, the point is people will eat that fish
and get infected
by the time the news arrives (which, as stated earlier, is a bit difficult due to it being secluded and hard to reach), it might be too late
heck, by the time news arrives, the entire population might as well be infected
redwake is a prison, one you’ll never escape from (okay last part might be a bit overexagerated)
You got northern spires and the hermit island being part of jaws, also pretty sure a community of berserkers hunting sea monsters for fun could bear small food poisoning