A town in the tropical rainforest, on the coast

With what grows here (yams and other tubers, rice), this land can feed a town of about 16,000 people from farms less than a day's cart from its walls, about the size of York around 1377.

Build a town in the tropical rainforest, on the coast

A town of 10,000 here

Its grain comes from 20 km around, 1 day by cart (comfortable). About 690 villages and 79,000 country people farm it, and the town keeps about 40 scholars. Grown to 40,000 people, its grain comes from 40 km around, 2 days by cart (strained). On the water, ships can bring part of the grain: for a city of 150,000, 90% of it keeps the haul within a day.

In history

Melaka was founded around 1400 by Parameswara, a prince driven out of Singapura, at a fishing village of the Orang Laut, the sea people, at the mouth of the Bertam river. He employed the Orang Laut to patrol the strait, drive off pirates and steer merchants to his harbour. Within a century it was the great market of the strait, with four harbour masters: one for the Gujaratis, one for southern India, Bengal, Burma and Pasai, one for the islands, one for China, Annam and the Ryukyus. The town mined tin and planted sago, but it bought its rice, and its sultans courted the ruler of Ligor for steady supplies.

On the Atlantic coast of Brazil, under a rainforest climate, the Portuguese founded Salvador in 1549 as a fortress on a cliff above the Bay of All Saints. The town grew on two levels, an upper town on the escarpment and a lower town along the harbour. It was Brazil's first capital until 1763, the seat of its first diocese from 1551, and a great port for sugar and for the enslaved Africans brought to grow it, many of them Yoruba speakers. Around it lay the Recôncavo, the rich farming district of the bay.

How large a city?

Living there

Its woods spare enough to burn: about 3,500 tonnes of wood a year for its hearths and workshops. Provisional figure.

Its market sells grain, rice, flax, cotton and sugar cane, and buys iron. About 110 market towns stand in its countryside.

About 30% of what its people eat does not come from the fields. Of that share: herds 25%, fish 50%, gardens 25%. That is some 1,700 livestock units on 25 km² of pasture, and about 730 fishers in 180 boats. Hearth estimate.

What makes it hard

• A trading port on a strait does not feed itself. Its rice comes by sea from friendly rulers, and an enemy who cuts that supply can starve it without a battle.
• Pirates work the narrows. A harbour that wants ships must pay a fleet or the sea people to patrol the water and guide merchants in.
• Merchants of many nations share the quays, each group with its own harbour master. When a newcomer arrives, the old communities can turn the court against him.
• Traders go where they are treated well. A badly run port loses its ships to a rival port.
• On a cliff coast the town splits in two: the harbour below, the fort and the great houses above, and every load landed has to climb.

Hard years

About one year in 8, the harvest falls below four fifths of a normal one: the town is short of some 1,400 of the 4,700 tonnes of grain its land gives it, and the water lets it bring the gap in. A plague that kills 39% of the town, as the Black Death did in Europe's towns, would leave about 3,100 km² of its fields idle.

What it can make

Grain, Rice, Flax, Cotton, Sugar cane, Spices, Dye plants, Orchards, Herbs, Maize, Horses (at a cost), Cattle and hides, Cheese, Pigs and bacon, Goats, Honey and wax, Silk, Ivory, Timber, Charcoal, Fish, Salt fish (at a cost), Pearls, Shipyards

What it lives on

Yams and other tubers, Rice

Underground

What a city digs depends on the rock under it: Granite, Volcanic rock, Ultramafic rock (peridotite, serpentinite), Schist and gneiss, Marble, Limestone and chalk, Sandstone, shale and clay, Salt beds, River gravels and sands

Found here

Gathered (Rerum): Açaí Berry, Açaí Palm Heart, Activated Charcoal, African Buffalo Hide, African Buffalo Meat, Beeswax Block, Beetle Wing, Brazil Nut Pod

Hear it

• The town: City in the Jungle (album RPG Ambiences Vol. 8)
• The market: Medieval Village Marketplace (on Patreon, Guardian tier)
• The quays: Medieval Harbor District (on Patreon, Guardian tier)
• The countryside: Walking in a Jungle (on Patreon, Guardian tier)

Tropical Rainforest in Biomes: plants, animals, hazards and sounds

The same climate

A town in the tropical rainforest, A town in the tropical rainforest, on a river

By city size

1,000, 3,000, 10,000, 30,000, 100,000, 300,000, 1,000,000

Sources

• Wikipedia contributors, Malacca Sultanate, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2026. en.wikipedia.org
• Wikipedia contributors, Malacca City, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2026. en.wikipedia.org
• Wikipedia contributors, Salvador, Bahia, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2026. en.wikipedia.org

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