Everyday Life in Ishgard (HW Spoilers, sorta)

[WhiteArchmage]

I see about three options.

First is the Sea of Clouds, since it has a farm, but: a) it's pretty recent, much like the colonization of Camp Cloudtop, and b) it's pretty small and isn't quite sure what to grow.

While it's possible that no merchants are allowed IN, no one says Ishgardian merchants aren't allowed OUT, they could certainly go from Coerthas Central to their closest neighbors (either Gridania or Mor Dhona) either trade or buy supplies and head back, the cold weather would stave off spoiling for a while (also in CCH, Eft meat! granted, one of the sidequests has you get said meat because the soldiers are sick of rations). This would also widen the gap between the classes, since the lowborn would barely be able to afford this food.

And lastly, Ishgardians ARE paranoid b-tards, they could probably endure a 10 year siege

[SirPhoebos]

This intrigued me a bit. I guess they could live off the meat of the monsters in the central/western highlands. There is also some minor vegetation and fishing areas. It does seem a bit odd. Also, by editing your original post, you can bypass the character limit.

Thanks for the forum tip. While hunting can be an important part of the diet for small populations, you run into issues supporting a city like Ishgard where you have a dimishing return on calories as you go from grazing ->herbivore -> predator. In short, there would need to be huge herds to be able to support those numbers Dangerous monsters have an additional problem: the process of subduing it would leave you at a net loss of calories. And then you have the additional factor that many of these monsters are dragons, and are not just animals but effectively part of an enemy military force. If there were enough of them that the people of Ishgard could live off their meat, then they could just overrun them.

While it's possible that no merchants are allowed IN, no one says Ishgardian merchants aren't allowed OUT, they could certainly go from Coerthas Central to their closest neighbors (either Gridania or Mor Dhona) either trade or buy supplies and head back, the cold weather would stave off spoiling for a while (also in CCH, Eft meat! granted, one of the sidequests has you get said meat because the soldiers are sick of rations). This would also widen the gap between the classes, since the lowborn would barely be able to afford this food.

That's certainly possible, and I hadn't thought about traders from Ishgard. One of the consequences of this would be that the merchant classes become empowered, and would soon be competing with the traditional nobility for status and power. It would not be far-fetched that in the future Ishgard's society becomes more like Ul'dah.