I was just wondering what are the biggest cities of Tamriel based on population. I'm guessing Imperial City is the biggest but not sure what thetop 5 would be.

I have a feeling that the biggest most impressive cities are in the summerset isles

Based on reproduction, I′d go with cities in High Rock and the imperial province first... The imperial city it self is probably the biggest...

The IC would most likely be the biggest. But ofcourse the war might have had a negative effect on population.
Alinor on the isles is probably also rather big, And its far from war and turmoil.
And as Fishy said, Cities in Highrock. I believe that in the third era, Wayrest was the biggest city in the province, and there is no reason to believe it has been overtaken population wise.

I'd imagine that it would have suffered greatly from the war too, seeing as the Thalmor would need rather large amount of soldiers as well...

True, though I would place it below the other two in population size anyway. I can't see the Altmer building up a large population while at the same time pursuing their "pure blood" ideals.

It's quite hard to judge. These games don't really give us a sense of scale, as they can't because that would be to demanding. All we have are written accounts, from which The Imperial City stands out of course. The cities on the Summerset Isle (Alinor) are likely big, as well as some in High Rock. Maybe Mournhold, not to mention Vivec City. I have a feeling that Solitude is actually very big, and I think I've read that Senchal in Elsweyr is rather large. But it's hard to tell.

Well, Vivec is destroyed ofcourse. I don't know about Mournhold though... It depends on how far into morrowind the lizards got. And wether people from southern morrowind fled to Mournhold, or people from Mournhold were fleeing for the onmarching Argonians.

According to the game, Whiterun would be the biggest city in Skyrim, but plagued by war and the fact that Skyrim is a rather uncomfortable place to live, I doubt wether any city in Skyrim would be among the most populated. I know nothing about Senchal though. But I can't imagine it to have more inhabitants then places like the IC or Wayrest.

Vivec is described in a pamphlet as one of the biggest cities in the east... What that means exactly I don't know, personally I'd think that there were only two really large cities in the east (Mournhold and Vivec) to begin with. So i'm not sure if that that title means anything. Solitude always seemed huge to me in book descriptions, but it's unlikely to be bigger then the larger cities in High Rock and Cyrodiil.

That's true. I didn't really take the present situation of Morrowind into account when writing that. As for Whiterun, I find it a bit strange, since it's never been the capital of Skyrim (to my knowledge), though it is a trading hub because of its central position so it would make some sense.

I just remember reading in the first edition of The Pocket Guide to The Empire that Senchal covered all of the eastern tip of the ''Something-Something''-Peninsula of southern Elsweyr. And it gave me the impression that it was rather large, despite the fact that most of it was mostly slum. However, it's not as big as IC or Wayrest as you say. That's rather obvious.

Whiterun has to have been the capitol of Skyrim once at least, during the time of Olaf-One-eye the guy who caught a dragon in Dragonsreach... That guy was the High King of Skyrim and I'd imagine there might have been more.

Maybe. Who knows? Skyrim seems to have had far to many capitals over the years. Even Winterhold was the capital once.

True, killing 90% (or something like that) of their children will surely stunt population growth.

I dont know o.o Some cities in daggerfall is reeeallyy big x)
But i dont know lore wise.
And imperial city isnt that big,

That is probably propoganda...


Not in game, but it's probably a lot larger when you look at it "for reals"

Imperial City would be the largest in terms of population potential, even despite the sacking.

I'd say second-largest would be either Torval or Senchal. Southern Elsweyr is pretty much nothing but cities with miles of jungle between them.

That a large number of Khajiit are less than half the size of a human also allows them to sustain much larger populations as well.

This is ignoring in-game representations of those cities right?

IC should be of the largest, but felt so tiny in oblivion.

And with nothing but jungle, how are the huge communities going to sustain themselves? Farming is pretty much not possible in jungles. And while Senchal is ofcourse in a convenient location for trade, Torval isn't..

Actually, Saltrice plantations thrive in Pelletine. Elsweyr's the major exporter of Saltrice in the Empire, second only to its export in Moon Sugar in terms of value.

Torval is surrounded in jungled farmland.

Khajiit's in the Pelletine area live in a Agrarian society where farming and agriculture makes up most of the economy. They could make it happen. Torval and Senchal are probably big in terms of population and are the biggest cities in Elsweyr. But most of the cities in High Rock / Hammerfell area must be huge.

1.) The Imperial City - The Imperial City is sprawiling metropolis and if you take what the 1st PGE says entire communities live on jewel encrusted bridges and such and the city is spread across multiple islands, not just one.
2.) Wayrest - Wayrest was, if I recall correctly the largest city in High Rock, surpassing its rival Daggerfall some time ago.
3.) Sentinel - Sentinel, aside from Wayrest, is one of the most prosperous cities that profit form the Illiac Bay and the Crown Jewel of Hammerfell.
4.) Senchal- Last I heard, Senchal had turned from an overpopulated slum to a Khajjit paradaise of wealth and prosperity.
5.) Alinor - I don't buy into the euthonizing for population control bit, but Summersets xenophobia and isolation certainly places their city on the low without an influx of merchants and travelers like the other major cities of Tamriel.

These are just my pics however.

I think that the Illiac Bay has too many population centers to make any of them rival "Largest City in Tamriel". Being the largest city in the Illiac Bay is like being the Richest Family in Kentucky. I'm more tempted to put Torval and Senchal above anything in High Rock or Hammerfell.

There is actually plenty of commercial agriculture that can be done under a jungle. Shade-grown coffee anyone?

My two cents: Going off the http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111120114305/elderscrolls/images/thumb/6/66/EETC_Trading_Map.jpg/529px-EETC_Trading_Map.jpg and running under the assumption that trading hubs=money=population and cosmopolitism, then the biggest coastal cities in Tamriel are Stros M'kai, Dusk, Woodhearth, and Soulrest. Presumably a lot of trade goes up the Niben, but the EEC cannot operate up there. I'd imagine Dusk and Woodhearth are places the EEC is allowed to do business in the Dominion and so they may not be as much a trading hub and more a "designated foreigner zone."

It's interesting though that the EEC operates pretty heavily in Soulrest, but not as much in Senchal. Politics or money?

Senchal has a bad history of being the hub of the black market and popular spot for pirates to anchor up. Though that was before it got better.

Could be, but I'd have to disagree. It could just be a form of vertigo but I could have sworn reading Wayrest was massive source of population and wealth. The Illiac Bay's situation as such a vital comercial entity and shear number of lives lost there and the ability for the region to bounce back so quickly and frequently implies a huge concentration of people to me. Hammerfell in paticualr is densely populated on the coast as well. Anyway, those are just my jabbs at it.