Areas With a Greater Concentration of Sorcerers?

[Palanan]

Are there any regions, in any of the published settings, which are known for a greater-than-average concentration of sorcerers?

And if so, what causes are given for this?

[Kelb_Panthera]

In Faerun (naturally), in both Thay and Halruua both wizards and sorcerers are much more common than in most of the rest of the setting. Bloodlines that yield arcane casters are nurtured or even lightly enforced by the states' laws or culture. Both have a -preference- for wizardry but will make do with sorcerers when they crop up. If you count holders of the magical training feat as such, even if they don't actually have levels in sorcerer or wizard, that number spikes even higher for Halruua and the various elven nations see a spike too.

Nothing leaps to mind for any of the other settings WotC or TSR before it have produced. Arcane magic is distrusted in Dragonlance and outlawed in most of Darksun. I don't remember anything from eberron about any one nation producing more arcanists than normal though I do think I remember Riedra on the continent of sarlonna trying to supress their numbers. Eberron on the whole is a bit more magical than most settings, even if it is generally low-level and magictech stuff. Greyhawk I honestly know very little about except what I could glean from the stuff that had the serial numbers filed off in the "generic" default setting for 3e. I could, of course, be wrong about any of that but I'm sure someone will be along to correct me if so.

[Fizban]

Mechanically, I don't think any setting has ever seriously interacted with the demographics rules, so that'd be a flat no.

Fluff-wise, plenty of places say there's "more" magic around, and racial descriptions in particular will say things like elves or kobolds venerate their naturally talented magicians, but that's it.

The Ghostwalk setting has a nation centered on Sorcerers and Monks, specifically a female-sorcerer-only version of Spellcasting Prodigy, and a male-monk-only Wis version, which are both supposed to be granted to unborn children via a spell. But they're also 1st level feats you have to take and which don't actually require you to start in those classes, so whether they actually increase the number of sorcerers/monks is still up to the DM.


Keep in mind that the number of PC-classed NPCs provided by the standard DMG demographics is a tiny percentage to begin with, though significantly more pronounced if you divide the 90% of the population in Village or smaller settlements into small Thorps. Come to think of it, since I now know the DMG does make it explicit that even Towns are in a distinct minority, I should probably refactor the true percentages there. Which will have a huge range, since a middle range Thorp of 60 people has the same base 11 PC-classed NPCs as a middle range Village of 650.

So anywhere from roughly 25-20% 1st level PC-classed NPCs, around half of which are spellcasters at 1st level, down to fractional percentages. Which is why Eberron had to add the Dragonmark feats to even pretend that actual personal magic could be nearly as widespread as they want: when 90% of the population is commoners, magic cannot be widespread unless commoners can have magic.

[Khedrac]

Although the setting pre-dates 3rd Ed (and therefore the concept of sorcerers) this is probably true for Alphatia in Mystara. It would also be true for all the Mystaran's elven areas as well.

Reasoning:
1. BECM D&D had all elves as the class "Elf" which combined the abilities of a Fighter and a Magic-User (OK, except in the Hollow World where you needed an Int of 16+ to cast MU spells).
2. Converting elven areas to 3rd Ed (and later) should give a preponderance of elves with magical abilities.
3. The Sorcerer class fits the concept of a race with innate magical abilities better than Wizard (even though Wizard is the successor to the Magic-User class).
4. Logically therefore there should be a lot of Sorcerers in Alfheim and the other elven areas.
Similar logic goes for the countries which gave better rights to spell-casters (Glantri, Alphatia) - everyone who can cast spells will learn some just for the citizenship benefits (though in Glantri Clerics, and possibly Paladins and other divine casters, are actually illegal).
However, Glantri is not a good fit for this as there is also a fair degree of jealous guarding of power (so not teaching those who can how to become a full citizen).
Alphatia, though also granting full citizenship to clerics etc., was settled by refugees from another world who were naturally talented with magic so again, having an above-average rate of producing Sorcerers makes sense.

Similar logic can be applied to other campaign worlds if you know the areas where magical bloodlines are likely to crop up.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Kelb_Panthera
In Faerun (naturally), in both Thay and Halruua both wizards and sorcerers are much more common than in most of the rest of the setting. Bloodlines that yield arcane casters are nurtured or even lightly enforced by the states' laws or culture.

Very interesting, thanks. Are there any sources that go into this in detail?


Originally Posted by Fizban
The Ghostwalk setting has a nation centered on Sorcerers and Monks, specifically a female-sorcerer-only version of Spellcasting Prodigy, and a male-monk-only Wis version, which are both supposed to be granted to unborn children via a spell.

Is the spell administered as a state policy, or at the parents’ request, or under some other circumstances?


Originally Posted by Khedrac
Similar logic can be applied to other campaign worlds if you know the areas where magical bloodlines are likely to crop up.

That’s what I’m looking for—areas in campaign worlds where these bloodlines are more common, for any reason.

[Fouredged Sword]

Anywhere within the range of a particularly friendly silver dragon would have an increase in sorcerers with access to cold spells.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Anywhere with races that are more prone to being sorcerers (especially those with sorcerer as a favored class). Areas with lots of kobolds, for instance, would tend to have higher concentrations, just from them.

Also, anywhere with dragons or half-dragons, and not just because dragons themselves have sorcerer casting, but because they interbreed with other creature types (a lot; way more than with other dragons, even), and sorcerer bloodlines tend to come from them. Likewise with non-celestial magical creatures that breed with humanoid types (since celestials tend more towards being divine casters).

[Silent Alarm]

I don't remember anything from eberron about any one nation producing more arcanists than normal though I do think I remember Riedra on the continent of sarlonna trying to supress their numbers. Eberron on the whole is a bit more magical than most settings, even if it is generally low-level and magictech stuff.

In Eberron as a whole Sorcerers are sourced from any number of possible explanations:

Dragonmarks granting sorcerer powers
You are influenced by one of the progenitor dragons
You have fiendish or celestial blood in your bloodline
You were born in a manifest zone or while a particular plane was coterminous
You are a descendant of a Dragon
You were selectively breed by House Vadalis

Essentially, the point here is that there are plenty of sources for Sorcerers across all of Eberron. In Khorvoire, of the Five nations, most Sorcerers stem from the Dragonmarked houses, but they are by no means the only source of them. If you want a location where Sorcerers might be the MOST common? I'd say the village of Arcanix, as it is literally built on top of an Overlord whose entire premise is whispering the secrets of magic into the minds of spellcasters of Arcanix and the Arcane Congress. Beyond that, the Demon Wastes, Droaam, and the Shadow Marches.

Something to note however is that most "spellcasters" in Eberron and most spellcasting services are provided by Magewrights and Adepts so being able to distinguish a young Sorcerer, to a highly educated Magewright might be a little difficult.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Very interesting, thanks. Are there any sources that go into this in detail?

Shining South has some stuff on Halruua and Unapproachable East has info on Thay.

[Psyren]

In Golarion, exotic or historically magical lands like Varisia, Nex, Geb, or the Mwangi Expanse tend to have higher populations of sorcerers than other places in general. On top of that, sorcery manifests through bloodlines, so you'll get areas that have high concentrations of specific kinds of sorcerers depending on what is happening there. For example, places like Cheliax, Nidal, and the Worldwound tend to have sorcerers with fiendish bloodlines, while areas like the Mana Wastes and Kyonin tend to have sorcerers with wild, chaotic or even fey-themed bloodlines. Elemental Bloodlines meanwhile pop up in areas with lots of genies like Katapesh and Jalmeray.

Sorcery is less commonly tied to dragons in Golarion than it is in D&D settings - most Golarion sorcerers tend to be Arcane bloodline. That one can ultimately come from dragons too but it can also just be the result of any amount of wizardry or sorcery further up the family tree.

One interesting region in Golarion is the island Hermea - there is a gold dragon there named Mengkare that is basically using the entire island for genetic engineering types of experiments, trying over the course of several generations to tailor the bloodlines of the humans there for this or that purpose, most commonly trying to suss out the roots of arcane ability. One consequence of the dragon's tinkering is that the island has a comparatively high population of wizards and sorcerers, or at least a high population of those with the necessary talent/spark.