Why are city states so popular in fantasy?

because in the 'swords and sorcery' day thats how societies functioned. City-states.

>Nuremberg
>Hamburg
>Danzig
>Bremen

the correct term would be "Reichsstadt"

Germany was almost exclusively city states for the majority of its history. As part of the HRE they had little political cohesion and tons of self autonomy, making it an imaginary country. The only real countries in the HRE/Germany at the time were Austria, Bohemia and Brandenburg(Prussia) The rest of Germany was made up of tiny political bodies ruled by whoever. There were some countries in Germany in the 1400's which were literally just a farm and a castle. Most were city states though

Still has.

Pic related

REMOVE THIS

Oh I know dude, the bordergore is next level

>common throughout history
>well known in Fantasy material
>easy to flesh out as a setting
>not too big, not too small
>easily expanded into larger settings when needed
>lots of room for adventure and intrigue

City states are pretty much perfect to set an adventure in.

Now remove the wealthiest, most well-governed parts, and you have Germany today.

Yes, of course. That was the whole point of Bismarck, was that he managed to unite them. The goal of French foreign policy since Richelieu had been to prevent this, until Louis Napoleon fucked things up because he was torn between his student-era idealism and his national interest and his total conviction that he was the smartest guy ever.

Yes, we're talking about why citystates are so popular in RPGs, so the stereotype (which I'll freely admit is unfair) is what drives the DM's decisions about how to draw his maps.

There were other sizable nations in the HRE, Bavaria was important during a variety of times, Sachen was a reasonably large, others rose and fell but it is an oversimplification to say that only Austria Bohemia and Brandenburg/Prussia were real countries.

Because they existed in real life

My apologies. I was thinking about including Saxony but decided not to since they were part of the Bohemian crown for a long time and then were never too big afterwards. I completely forgot about Bavaria. I wasn't trying to analyze the structure of the HRE, just trying to give a brief overview to someone who seemingly knew nothing about it.

Fair enough.

They were common in the late medieval and early renaissance. Some were rather powerful also.

I think he's probably thinking more of Italy's.

Everything important happens in a 5 km radius. Also, looks more "democratic" than feudalism to uncultured eyes.

I'll be the stupid one and ask...

What is the definition of a city-state? When does it get so large that it is no longer a city-state?

When it contains more than one city.

Florence

It's probably the ideal size state for a representational democracy, which is generally how they're presented in fantasy.

The ones that aren't are operated more like feudal baronies with an overlord running the show.

Because you can use them for near any setting, from Medieval, to Renaissance, to Cyberpunk

Essentially a city able to exert it's influence on the surrounding area and mint it's own coinage.

It's able to dominate nearby settlements and smaller towns and make them rely on it for aid and remove those settlements independence.

In Italy the sphere of influence was the condota and was around 10 miles but certain city states like Florence or Venice could extend further. The larger it is the more the line blurred between city state and kingdom/principality

Sparta is special in all regards though.
I mean it had two kings, and a council of elders. They made a triarchy, a triumvirate state, where everyone was legally equal.
Shit's weird yo.

But yeah, a lot of city states were monarchies.
Syracuse, Athens, Rome, all had monarchs during their time as a city state. (The tyrants of Syracuse and Athens, the kings of Rome)

We tend to call them "Free cities" or "Free imperial cities" in English.
Either way, those weren't the only Imperial city states. Free states were special in that they didn't answer to anyone but the emperor.

You also had the north Italian city states, and the various prince bishoperics which did oversee swathes of territory outside of cities, but were de-facto city states.

The definition of a city state is pretty diffuse, but generally it refers to any state which consists of a city and territory which is dependent of the city.
That is to say, the city is central part of the state, and everything springs from that.

So say Venice can claim status as a city state, despite having a colonial empire with vassal kingdoms and duchies, because the city of Venice is the central part of the state and everything else is separate and dependent territory of the city.

Or Novgorod is a city state because every part of government was centred in the city of Novgorod, it was named after Novgorod, its inhabitants identified with the city, and the land was dependent territory of the city, but it was larger than Metropolitan France at the time.

So really, there's no hard and fast thing.

I mean Rome was pretty much the defining power state for centuries, and you can make a pretty good case for that being a city state until the end of the republic.

because, especially in older times, cities were the center of action, it provides a whole lot more potential, and easier access to goods, than the barren countryside, where most of your people are farmers who can only offer meager reward

Small regions held by local lords with vast wildernesses between them filled with ruins, monsters and more. I'd say it started with Tolkien since we only see a handful of proper civilized regions with swaths of monster-infested territory between, but it was really codified in fantasy gaming by Gygax and Arneson with their inclusion of Avalon Hill's Wilderness game map and rules for its inclusion into OD&D and then exacerbated by Judge's Guild's Wilderlands of High Fantasy setting.

here's a better pic