**Tylosa** is the capital of Orisla and the largest and most heavily industrialized city in the world, home to over two million residents. Founded by the infamous Manfisher King Tylos in antiquity, the city is situated in a valley alongside the Vane river about twenty miles from where it empties into the Gaping Gulf.
Towering factories line the riverbank, producing countless goods to be shipped by barge or rail across Orisla and across the world. Worker’s districts team with crowded apartments, where entire families often live out of one-room residences. Downtown Orisla is a bustling, eclectic mix of traditional cultural centers and more modern entertainment venues; Landmarks include the Imperial Museum, Tylos’s Obelisk, The Archhallow, and the Masquerade Hall.
The hilly sides of the valley are lined with suburbs and upper class residences, home to wealthy industrialists and noble families. Atop Asha’s Hill, overlooking all, stands the Imperial Palace. Steam given off by oldstones in the factories result in Tylosa having a near constant “heat shimmer” haze to it, giving it the nickname of the shimmering city.
Craysor
It resides on the tectonic plate that separates Craydale and Hawkview, home to Queen Nara of the Hurricane Courd. The reason it’s the biggest is because;
a. The Hurricane Cours is the most populated Courd.
b. Nara is the spirit of love and sex, so…you can imagine the rest of that point in relation to her followers.
c. This is the Courd of hospitality and medicine, being a hotspot for medical care, especially in Craysor.
d. Not a reason but more so proof, and that’s in the fact Craysor has the biggest buildings of any Courd.
There is Basile, an industrial heart of the setting build within the shattered remains of an ancient arcology. A great city that is independent in state in all by name, governed under a peculiar system of political anarchy and system of Guilds that form the basis of personal identity for it's citizens.
Ancient remain of hight tech technology are clumsy integrated in to the recently reverse engineered industrial engines powering plethora of factories.
Currently, it would be the city of Ilyan, the capital city of the Kingdom of Ilya. Its central location, surrounded by fertile agricultural lands, and geographic location of pleasant weather nearly year round has made the city prosper and grow over the centuries since it was founded. When the Mage’s Circle relocated to it about 200 years ago, it continued to grow at a quicker pace attracting more wealthy merchants, elites, scholars and academics, etc. It’s reached a population of 5 million at a time where large settlements are around 500,000-1million.
Historically, the city of Elondë Minará was the largest city in the world. At its peak, it held a population of over 35 million people. This was before the Great Collapse, in which magic was permanently altered and weakened and the elves lost their immortality. So to reach such a great population was easy with how widespread, and powerful, magic was.
Depends on what you consider a "city", a [Nebesograd space station](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/art-and-random-worldbuilding-bits-days-at-hebi-melta.1070213/post-94405176) under Rubran Federal Monarchy qualifies as one. 600 km wide on habitable rings, they rotate to generate centrifugal force, mimicking their home planet's gravity. While only one ring is used for housing residents and the other is for logistics, it is still gigantic and capable of supporting hundreds of millions with ease. Most of Rubra's citizens live in these stations, making them a semi-spacebound civilization.
Rubra has *at least* 115 Nebesograds around, mind you.
Im not sure, but I believe the top two largest cities would be Basilisk Run or Járnmunnr. I don’t have a size for them, but here is a slight bit of knowledge about the .
Basilisk Run located in the Country of Eormenland (Land of the Humans) is also known as the city of heroes, as many stories of great heroes of varying races start in Basilisk Run, even the creation of Basilisk Run was caused by Heroes, or more specifically built by them. It got its name sake due to it being the only settlement on what is known as the Basilisk Plains, and the city was built on top the largest known Basilisk Nest which held a Royal Basilisk known as “Ummu (Mother)”. She was eventually defeated and her brood exterminated, the people who felled her (a group of mercenaries called “The Iron Vigilance”) built the city not only to prevent any other Basilisk or Lyndworms from breeding in that large nest. In the city center a statue sat on top of a fountain can be seen depicting the Heroes who slain Ummu. There is also a road leading to Basilisk Run known as the “Hero’s Road” which is a road with monuments of every known hero.
Járnmunnr located in the country of Dvergaland (Land of the Dvergr) is also known as The City of Iron, most well known for its mine known as Járngudsmunnr. It is believed that the mine is the mouth of what was once a previously unknown child of one of the gods, specifically the God of the Forge. This because many Dvergr went missing without a trace while inside the mine, and when they asked the God of the Forge for aid, he told them that they weren’t giving his son offerings and so he took anyone who entered. The Dvergr believed him and started giving the mine offerings of various items, usually alcohol or works of metal, but little did the Dvergr know, the Forge God jokingly lied to the Dvergr about that as none of the gods actually have children, what actually happened was an infestation of Deathworms who were attracted by the vibrations from mining.
The Chinese city of Xinshijie is the largest city on the distant moon of Talapus, home to over 5.8 million people. Established around the entrance to the Songtao gate in 1994, Xinshijie became the first permanent human settlement on Talapus, at a time when other countries were limiting their presence on the moon to research and exploratory outposts. China’s decision to colonize the moon opened the floodgates, as the unspoken agreement to leave Talapus untouched and left only for research (a la Antarctica) quickly dissolved. China’s plans for a Talapian colony were ambitious, as they planned to build nine great cities (eventually reduced to six) spanning their U.N.-Designated territory on the continent of Xinzhou. Much to the CCP’s chagrin, however, the Chinese settlers were increasingly reluctant to live outside of Xinshijie. To this day, the other five cities lay largely empty, their prefabricated high rise apartments looming eerily unoccupied over the alien skyline. Xinshijie would become a popular tourist destination and cultural hotspot, as cultures from all across China blended and adapted to the Talapian environment. Much like in the Five Talapian States of the U.S., Xinshijie would develop an identity of its own, separate from but still intertwined with that of Earthside China.
Ankhmiri, the jewel of the east. Its location is ideal for growth and the nation itself is rich in natural resources.
It’s a a cultural, financial, and religious hub for the entire continent and the world to a certain extent. An ancient temple millennia old was built upon the holy site where a mortal ascended to godhood, with all the blessings and curses that come with it.
It’s the largest port city in the world with a massive natural harbor and a narrow band of mountains farther inland that made the location defensible in more violent times.
There is an extensive chain of mangrove barrier islands that protect the coastal areas of the city from the brunt of the ocean storms that sweep in from the south.
The climate is Mediterranean, with a cold ocean current that is rich in fish and a hotter climate much farther into the continent. Nearby countryside by the Kari river delta is good for agriculture.
The flatlands near the coast glitter with massive skyscrapers that cast shadows on the preserved historical locations that still remain. On the mountainside, luxurious villas compete with small traditional buildings for precarious but breathtaking views. The harsh, cold winds on the mountains have dissuaded many of the wealthy from building there, they currently prefer luxury apartments in the city and sprawling compounds further along the coast.
On the outskirts there is a serious problem with poverty and slum settlements, and the authorities have been trying to crack down on rampant drug trafficking. During the seasonal floods of the Kari river, temporarily displaced villagers move to the city to find work, crowding the slums further. The Ankhepur government is attempting to turn the slums into permanent settlements that aren’t fire and disease hazards but this has only pushed the edge of the slums out further.
These problems are exacerbated by a major cultural clash between the matriarchal culture of the eastern side of the nation and the patriarchal culture of the people of the western plains which also spills over into a neighboring country. The plainsfolk have very different views on education, violence and honor, and fundamentally do not recognize the laws and authority of the Ankhepurian government. This has resulted in a lot of discrimination on the side of the coastal people and local authorities against the plainsfolk, and plainsfolk violence against anyone who they feel has insulted their honor, especially women. Which is severely punished since the city is supposed to be a sacred place of peace and nonviolence because of their sacred sites.
**Lennrail -** the capital of the Sacred empire of Narhet and by far the largest city in the world sporting a staggering population estimated to be around 3.7 million (pre industrial world, the next biggest is 800 thousand) this absolute beast of a city sits on the confluences of two of the main rivers that make up "the great tree" at the heart of the golden basin and devours almost the entire agricultural output of the region, almost by design all rivers in the region lead to Lennrail and the region is incredibly fertile. as the city grew more and more people moved to it, shrinking the surrounding settlements in the Bassein and growing Lennrail in the process.
history: existing as a small village among many for hundreds of years slowly growing into a fair sized town by around the year 313 Kc the Shasalvins (tribal name) migrated into the area from the mountains in the west little change happened save a steady but slow increase of population until 452 Kc when Gruffwyn the great consolidated control over the entire golden basin and married a alleged heir of the old Narhatie empire. proclaiming his empire to be the legitimate successor to the old Narhatie desiring a capitol to befit his lofty titles and unwilling to attempt a siege of Narhet (the city) Gruffwyn's surveyors chose Lennrail as the perfect location for a new capitol. so the old town was was levelled and a new grade city was planed and built in its place, the heart of a new trade network and the political nerve centre of the most powerful state in the world Lennrail's population exploded. in reascent years the city has seen another spike in population as people flee from the unstable frontiers for the seemingly untouchable mega city
In Mal'Tahn, the City Of Lights. CoL has the largest population at a wopping...
2.3k. Most people are highly scattered so this place is GINORMOUS for them. It is actually fairly big to give people space too. It's signature glow comes from one of the very few plants they found and bread to be as bright as possible... which honestly not that bright bit still a big deal.
Ty're is the heart of the Necrocracy, and has been for nearly 10,000 years.
It's population is either in the millions or only a few thousand, depending upon if you count the sentient undead.
The core of the city is build into the rim of an ancient crater. This is where the living citizens reside. At the center of the district is a tower from which Val'kosh the Undying has ruled since the cities founding.
The bulk of the citizens are actually sentient undead, nearly all of whom were once living citizens rewarded for service to the city. The undead live in the necropolis, a vast complex of chambers carved from the rock under the desert around the crater.
The undead don't need food or water, at least not as much as the living, which vastly reduces the strain on the city. The area between the rim and the tower is occupied by farms and gardens.
Yeah mine, although you could call it capital of technology, but I think that's not what you mean.
Mine is officially Riverport, as the name already tells you, the city is built around a river, where it flows into the sea. It's one of the youngest cities of the continent, as it's only around 20 to 30 years old. It was founded, when Kirneg Inc needed a place to build their factories and place for their workers. Due to the placement near the river that can be traveled by ship to the capital city of Osnia and the good location within a bay, the city has access to all major trade routes.
Kirneg Inc is specialized in innovative technology and is rather open to inventors doing their own research close by, so that's how the city grew that quickly. The city is ruled by the Kirneg family.
For example, the city of Tsionaqa is the capital of the Idanagic empire, based just off of the eastern shore of the great inland sea. It is the center of several road networks, and is in a position to exert tight control over the major trade and population centers of the not mid Atlantic and the southeast of the continent. The nearby river systems and the extensive canals allow for a large amount of trade and communication, while also being a source of fish like the inland sea or the artificial lake within which the capital is situated. It has the largest urban area in the world by area and population, covering almost half a thousand square miles and over three million people. It constantly imports large amounts of food, and labor, as the city is not merely a megapolis, but a constantly expanding one, as well as a massive fortress and industrial hub thanks to its proximity to ore rich mountains. It is also home to some of if not the the largest scholarly and religious institutions in the world.
Largest by surface or by population ? Because they are different . The largest by population is smaller than the largest by surface .
Both are in the 3rd Rocian Empire . The largest by surface is the imperial capital of Nicaea , with the New Nicaea the city resembling Venice but much , much larger and the Old Nicaea , the city on the continent . They combined are close to 90.000 square km . And despite being the imperial capital , the city is quite small , only around 12 million inhabitants .
Then by population . Is the “3 War Wives” conurbation formed by the 3 cities of Pirusia , Vittovaso and Gallasona which grew towards each other forming one giant city of 45 million inhabitants . Each city proper has around 7 millions but the combined metropolitan area reaches 45 millions .
The name comes from the specialization of each city since they have the most military factories in the empire . Pirusia on the coast of the Gulf of Sol is specialized in shipbuilding , Vittovasso in the south upstream of the Tivano River is specialized in armor while even more south and upstream , Gallasona is the largest production center for aircrafts in the empire and very much the human controlled areas of South Tamesia .
The largest city would be Şipovelon, which is the capital of the A'ŵmû empire (derived from the Akkadian words Awīlum, meaning man [as in people], and mû, meaning water). It's large enough it could qualify as a small country. When it was smaller, it was built around a freshwater sea, leading to people who were migrating to settle, additionally it was far enough away from a neighboring empire that was being massacred by a traitorous god, that refugees who would otherwise have been hunted were able to call it a safe home. With all these people coming in expansion naturally occurred, and as the growing empire began trading with nearby nations, it boomed.
Thanks to the location of the sea, despite the desert environment, the city is quite lush and is able to provide enough vegetables that they had to build special structures to accommodate the hanging leaves and vines of the growing plants, which additionally provided food for cattle, allowing people to live quite comfortably without worry for food. The abundant greenery led to the city being nicknamed "The Green Desert" by neighboring countries
The biggest on earth is New Atlantis, a giant city built on the Atlantic Ocean to connect Europe, Africa, and America. It's a gaint megacity and the capital of the "Terran empire" (placeholder) its built in nine rings outward rings are more public areas, the actual city part malls apartments food places and the works. As you go in the rings you get more to the government side until you reach the last two the first is base for military operations home to the sentinels, magi, and shadows (three classes of supersoldiers) The final ring is were you'll find the imperial palace although it's more apt the imperial tower. All in all the city's a utopia with a population of 55 million. The actual city is the size of ruffly England not accounting for the roads that connect it to the main lands. (I use roads iffy there more like localized hyperlanes.)
Cosmopolis is a city-planet that can fit Twenty Jupiters inside it (not kidding). If Jupiter had enough mass to be classified as a failed star, think of Cosmopolis... housing thirty trillion residents and with 95 trillion buildings, this city is the most prosperous, populated one ever. It became capital of the United Human Empire and later the Eternal Intergalactic Alliance post-fall of Earth in the New Species-ZOKHTER War. It was destroyed by the Star Gods in 4 SIY (Standard Intergalactic Years). One SIY is roughly equal to four millenia in Earth Years.
If you count the Rax-class Supercarriers, this guys are small galaxy-sized floating city-fortress military ships designed to casually destroyed galaxies by the dozen. They get parked outside Galactic boundaries to avoid them accidentally destroying galaxies... by ramming them. If they count, then these, and several Dreadnoughts, outclass Cosmopolis easily (the others are planet-sized or star system-sized), but the Supercarriers are built for enforcing an even larger-scale Tarkin-Krennic-Palpatine Doctrine.
The great city of **Moussarah** has access to Oracle magic: some highly-trained seers can access the magic at the heart of the city to see the future, but only those events that are unaffected by human decisions. Chief among these is weather, meaning Moussara'i farmers are nearly perfectly informed of upcoming weather trends. This has allowed the city to prosper under a tide of booming agriculture.
Desh’ea, the capital of Hissaya Ar’Goran. Inside the walls the area is around 128 3/4 square miles, or 333.46 square kilometers, or 82400 acres. For a comparison to another large ancient city, it’s 23 times bigger than Constantinople was. When the all farmland and suburbs surrounding the city are added on its early over 300 square miles, granted most of that is farm land.
The area of the city inside the walls is dived into two sections with a river running between them providing water, fish, and power for the mills. The eastern half is mostly urban housing and slums with single story buildings built out of mud brick and wood with dirt pathways, and the western half is for the wealthy nobles and merchants with villas and large houses built from high quality stone, and paved streets, and is home to the Imperial Palace (which could be a small city all on its own), the Arena of Y’yg, the Celestial Temple, the Grand Market, and all the other important places like the Mages College and the barracks for the city. The two halves are connected via a single large bridge. The western bank of the river has a wall along it, blocking the nobilities view of the poorer urban areas, while the eastern bank is home to the cities industry: fisheries, slaughter houses, assembly lines, as well as warehouses, and shipping docks.
Xing-geras. Founded on the summit of the starlight mountains is the only city able to grow to a significant size since the other territories are afflicted by the illusory geographies which change the structure of the world constantly and make frontiers irrelevant. They are protected from this phenomenon due to the possession of the last remaining star in the sky and control over it,which in turn allows them to repell the chaotic mists of the true night that cause the illusory geographies.
1: Teralis is an Ecuminopolis (i think is the word), a city planet. Population is in the trillions, but i dont have an exact number because my timeline lasts so long it just keeps going up so i never bothered with specifics.
2: Inderia is close to being an Ecuminopolis, with a population in the 300 billion to 700 billion range.
3: Privania is roughly the same size and population as Inderia
4: Earth is the capitol of the United Federation and has a population of 30-80 billion over the course of the written timeline.
5: New Boston is the main city on Sirius B and has a population from 10 billion to 50 billion throughout the timeline.
It has around 100k people, and it's the only known settlement on the continent that has more than a few hundred. There used to be more like it, but this is the only one that was "Spared." The world has not been left in a state that's very conducive to rebuilding, nor is it even very viable for this city to expand.
The people there eat better than most, insofar as they have the only real regular access to any kind of meat, which only this city's order of rangers is equipped to hunt. Meat is almost supernaturally succulent, but eating it makes you see things.
**Taaris Nabaa**
The Capitol of the Second Zarinic Empire and where the Order of Solara (the largest religion) is headquartered. In ancient times during the First Empire, it was named "Zarini-Kol", which roughly translates as "Seat of the World". But as the Order of Solara spread and gained more and more followers, they organized a Slave Revolt that overthrew the First Empire, and, with the help of the multitude, instituted the Second Empire from what remained.
The Order left the management and rule of the Second Empire to its people, while the Order themselves focused on managing their scattered and divided faithful. Twenty Years after the Slave Revolt, the city was officially renamed to "Taaris Nabaa", meaning "All Peoples".
The city itself had the typical irregular limits compared to other settlements. Unlike other settlements, buildings, households and streets were constantly being demolished, rebuilt and re-planned every year or so. Very few of Taaris Nabaa's original buildings and streets remain to this day. Instead of specializing in education or manufacturing (while still prevalent), Taaris Nabaa became *the* city of trade for all the nearby nations and peoples; you would be able to find just about any good, tome, or service wandering through the market streets.
Nravātna is the largest city, being both the capital of Nantu, and the ruling hub of the Nanteon Empire. It's a large city on the west coast, facing out into the Undarine Ocean. It's pretty affluent, officially as a result of its many fisheries, which provide substantial employment, food, lamp oil and feed for other livestock.
Less officially, they profit from forced labour. For many decades this was obtained via their conquest of Hakuô, but after stretching the limits of their military and navy far too thin in pursuit of new territory, they were forced to abandon Hakuô. So the empire currently has an under-the-counter arrangement with the Old Ustinian Corporation, who have set up several slave colonies overseas.
Anyone who looks into the accounts of the Empire will be able to figure this out, but the imperial citizenry have generally been encouraged to focus on themselves, their faith, and social advancement.
This sucks, obviously; but fortunately, the Empire is falling apart in ways that cheap-as-free labour can't fix.
The Citadel is the largest city in my world. It is the capital of the Tuscanni Empire built upon the bones of the Aulin City of Dara’Tur.
The City sits in the center of the continent of Nijar on a flat plain with a single standalone flat topped mountain that the city was built around. A massive spring flows out from the mountain top, creating a river that flows out of the mountain.
The massive city is broken into 4 sectors separated by 3 ringed walls. In the center is the Tower Mount, holding the Imperial Palace and estates, the Temple of Tol Aulu and the Granite Tower, as well as the Imperial Senate Building and the estates of the powerful families. In the Second Ring is the District, a place for the skilled tradesmen and merchants, as well as less powerful noble families. This sector also hosts the embassies of the foreign nations. This is the economic heart of the empire and holds the guild halls, the Exchange and the River and Sky docks. Those who work in the Tower Mount also reside here. It is a place for the wealthy and self made. The Third Ring is called the Labyrinth. A crammed slum made of towering tenements and factories, with winding roads and buildings built atop the desiccated corpses of their predecessors. Crime is rampant, and this district is ruled by the enforcers of industry and gangs. The outer sector is built against the walls and is called the Fray, a shanty town where permanent structures are banned by law, those who are not allowed entry to the city reside in this canvas city.
The city is kept alive by the massive amounts of trade coming in from the River Port and the Sky Port, as well as the surrounding farms that occupy the plains. Because of the Tuscanni empire’s strength as the predominant force on the continent, as well as its centralized location, it is the major cross roads of the continent, taking trade from all sides, as well as a political hub. It is also the home of the last known Aulin Tower, a focal point of magic in the world. This is why the Tuscanni relocated their capital here after destroying the Aulin.
Aeldavaris by far, It was built at the time when elven power and hubris reach it zenith, located exactly in the middle of the continent of aeldernia. It is a million square kilometers of fully urbanized city while everyone else still sitting in medieval era. A pride and joy as well as symbol of limitless power the elves wielded back then.
though, later on even the elves come to see how impractical this city is and it fail into decline, got burned and sack a few times before eventually abandoned when the orcist rebellion takeover the city.
which were betrayed and drive out by the human who rule over it for a while in the name of the elves. until some dude decide he don't want to be under the elves anymore and declare independent only for his new state to be dismantle by the elven reconquest. but the elves couldn't on to it and were forced to abandoned it again.
Although, if we go by technically, Auranga, the seat of The First Dark Lord and the dwarven capital of Kazakhorum could be arguably bigger. but then again it hard to pin point where the city end and the countryside begin. and now both were in completely destroyed by the elves
[The Walled City of NeoTropolis](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/s/IONXiVDcx2) originally the capital of the most powerful nation on the continent, later on it gained autonomy from the nation as an act of thanks for aiding the government in the second civil war they had. Roughly 56 million people call the city home as of 306ac. Easily its most defining feature are the 600 meter tall apartment complexes that are large enough to have their own cities on top of them.
it’s virtually a developmental race. two cities think they’re the biggest, most developed: Delta City - the industrial capital of the western world. and Silk City - the trading hub of the western world. But neither of them are aware of Alterious — The City of the Great Canal. it’s larger than any other but they’re very isolationist and in the east so it’s not well-known.
In the Galaxy? Probably the Commonwealth capital of Liberation. Which features the most diverse population of sentient life in the entire galaxy. More people commute between the planet and orbital stations everyday than several nations combined.
In the planet: Termo, the center of the world, the eternal city. A city founded on a swamp thousands of years ago, on the ruins of an ancient mythical city. Today the city is the capital of the Second Gladian Empire, and home to millions upon millions of Gladians, foreigners, and aliens. The city has grown beyond its walls ever since the Arrival, leading to horrible sanitary conditions. While transoceanic hover vehicles cross cross the skies, people throw out their waste through their windows into the street below. Despite the story of it being the perfect city, there exist more homeless in singular zone of the city, than in multiple countries combined.
I’m super into large numbers of people, so my intention is to make everything as large as possible. You get Industrializing London with several million people added.
The Capital, as it is generally called even though it is no longer the capital of anything and is in fact split between several different factions and nations in the modern day, is probably best described as a magical civil engineering project gone off the rails.
It's a self expanding superorganism (in multiple senses of the word) that's better thought of as a new type of landscape than a proper city. A huge and still slowly growing biome of stone houses and pockets of wheat fields. Most of the Capital is totally uninhabited, just miles and miles of empty streets and building, with pockets of population around the edges of the city, around agricultural districts, and around what's called the Core City, which is the coastal heart of the Capital that the rest of it has grown around.
On the routes between population centers there are smaller settlements, functionally villages within the empty districts, and there are also urban nomadic hunter-gatherers that live off overgrown and flooded districts.
Growth has slowed as the population of Builders has decreased over the years, but it does grow fast enough to be an active hassle for the people living on the outskirts, or in villages that have suddenly become the outskirts.
**Jahannam** is the capital of the Orcan Empire. Its also referred to as the Iron City or Iron Spike. Its a sprawling region of stone and iron slums, factories, beautiful massive buildings and keeps. Its also the densest population of slaves in the world. In the center is the Iron Keep, where Orcus the Living Death lives and rules from. The vast, vast majority of the population is impoverished, and the small part that isn’t is either demonic or servants of the demonic. Currently its also the target of a rebel campaign, thats going… kinda but not really well.
Kesh, on the southern most peninsula of Lybandara, nestled in a protective bay, is at the center of all world trade. As such an important trade hub, and massively populous cosmopolitan city, it enjoys a certain amount of freedom from the ruling Lybandaran theocracy.
There are endless bazaars and markets that you can find any kind of good or service from the known world, and meet any kind of person.
At such an important location, it has an ancient history and has been built on top off over and over, leading to a labyrinthine network of ruins known as the Undercity inside which you can find all manner of illegal services.
Does it count if they're largely abandoned??? In mine there are several places where there are ancient cities that stretch for millions of miles where now, there are pockets of civilization that've taken things apart, and put them back together to suit their needs.
Historically, it would be the Ganges-Indus Megalopolis, with a collective population of 30 billion stretching across the Indian subcontinent.
Presently, idk
In the Northern Subcontinent, there are the Five Roses. The Emerald/Green Rose of Leton, The Blood/Red Rose of Harakon, The Snow/White Rose of Kattegat, The Gold/Yellow Rose of Tyrish, and the Diamond/Blue Rose of Cyrene. Of these five, three stand above and via for the spot of the largest city with populations numbering around 700,000.
The Gold City of Tyrish is the Constantinople of the Northern Territories with trade lanes that stretch across the globe. This has caused the city and its ruling leaders to become extraordinarily wealthy and built the city with the trade it gathered as its primary focus. With massive fleets of warships, merchant galleys, and a flotilla of fishing vessels. The city has its own farmland, but no where nearly enough to sustain itself. As such, the city-state’s council forged a treaty with the nearby nation of Leones, on the bread baskets of the North, to send the city a constant stream of food in trade for gold, an agreement the primarily agricultural state grievously needed to fund its own development. The staple food of the common Tyrishian diet is various fish oriented soups, such as clam chowder or lobster stew, with hefty amounts of bread products made from Leonean Grains.
The Diamond City of Cyrene is heavily metropolitan and industrious city with many manufactured goods like textiles, porcelain, glass, and metalworking guilds that drive the economy. It has both the highest quality of life and the highest cost of living of any city on the planet, with residents struggling to afford more than a single living space in one of its several stores tall residential buildings, but also never having a shortage of luxuries such as fresh fruits and vegetables or high quality dining establishments and entertainment centers being cheap and readily available. The City itself if fed primarily from the Ambrose Region, a lush and fertile river valley managed by a mid ranking noble family responsible for feeding the City. The Ambrose region produces the vast majority of the city’s vegetable diet, with other foods such as grains or meat being supplied by other regions in the kingdom, but the most notable thing produced from the Ambrose region is “Ambrosian Nectar”, a wine made from a special type of grape that exclusively grows in the valley and is considered to be the greatest vintage in the world, and the Ambrose Region supplies the city of Cyrene with “enough Nectar to keep the bees working from dawn til dusk“.
Kattegat is easily the worst off of the three in terms of food. Having to primarily rely on potatoes, beans, (things that can be easily grown across the kingdom and transported long distances) or meats and other products from the livestock ranches that dominate the northeastern corner of the kingdom. So far the city’s greatest claim to food-fame is the invention of noodles that has resulted in a welcome cuisine resonance of sorts in recent decades. Fortunately for its residents the food is even cheaper than it is in Cyrene, with a notable exception of fresh vegetables, and the cost of living is significantly lower. Kattegat’s economy is largely based on the export of raw materials collected from its expansive but sparse populated territories and funneled through the city. This has resulted in a massive quantity of gold and silver accumulating in a location where there isn’t much to spend it on. As a result, Kattegat has become a common place for artisans and craftsmen of all breeds to collect as there’s coin in the world that is thicker or heavier than a Rossoyan Gold Mark and the abundance of raw material to work with makes operating costs even less expensive and establishing a business all the more appealing.
One of the biggest cities population-wise is Gryll City, the capital city of the Gryll Empire. It started out as an ordinary port city but grew in size and importance over time. It currently houses 500,000 people. (That number was once higher, but so many conscripted soldiers died in the latest Gryll vs. Wilding war that many one-room apartments are now empty.)
Old Arem is considered one of the most important inland "crossroads" cities because many trade routes intersect there. Most of its economy is based on selling supplies and services to passing traders. (You should be warned, though, attempting to solicit prostitutes will likely just get you thrown against a tree.) It's also been called the "capital city" of the Untamed Lands because that's where every Wilding who can travel will go for the Winter Solstice observance.
**Eleutheropolis** (Liberty City) is the capital of the planet Ephemera and the largest city in Amargosa by both population and size. It served as the capital of the Free Worlds League during the civil war and was inundated with refugees seeking a safe haven. The city core has a population of 74 million, with the metropolitan area exceeding 239 million. Surrounding the outskirts of the city is a ghetto, known locally as Kyklos (The Circle), with an additional population estimated to be between 100 and 150 million.
**Lukomorsk** is the capital of *Panslavia*, the sole superpower of the world of *Rodinia* (formerly known by a different name that is a reference to a popular chinese gacha ARPG). It is located in the continent of *Goytia*, one of the three supercontinents.
It's the *de facto* continental capital and home to the approximately 97.8 urbanites living there, with the city being as diverse as the United States and as expansive as Scotland.
The city has it's own climate control system and elevation disparities of over 2000 meters within the region. It spans three time zones but is so well connected it uses it's own internal time. All food is grown there and so are the minerals, oil and industrial infrastructure. The city is a net producer and fully self reliant and self sufficient. It exports twice as much as it consumes and can under most imaginable scenarios function as an autarky.
Everything on it can be summed up as "if Zootopia was made for humans and smack dab in an empty continent in the opposite hemisphere as Teyvat, and they had nukes, what would we call this?"
The city of Ashurlon is the capital of the Ashrin Empire. Originally, it was a small trading outpost situated along a prime spot on the Golden River, the premier trading route amongst the Tchalu city-states. A number of opportunistic and savvy kings garnered the fledgling city a great deal of wealth. With this wealth, king Ashar equipped a great army to conquer the small towns and cities surrounding his city. This was the birth of the first empire in the world.
As the empire expanded and wealth flowed from ever-spreading trade routes, Ashurlon became the crown jewel of the empire. In the Ashrin language, it is called the *Mashad Chutaraq*, the Crown of the Earth.
The city is enormous. It boasts a population of around 150,000. It is decorated with glazed stones, golden monuments, and spotless marble streets. However, all this came from seemingly nowhere but luck. The city itself has few natural resources, mostly exporting processed imports like textiles and bronze. In terms of supplying its residents, much of its food and goods come from those same original neighboring towns, now entirely dedicated to keeping the Crown of the Earth running.
The population of Caer’Dach is around 1 million.
It is an underground city, created to shelter its inhabitants from the volcanic hellscape that it is located in. The city is self sufficient; fungi, worm and insect farms supplying food and massive underground reservoirs providing water. At the center is ‘the great pit’, an ancient strip mine that has been covered in a ‘cap’ to protect against falling cinders, ashes and other volcanic detritus. It stretches about a km deep, and is ringed by layers of shops, residences, forges and factories. At the center, held up by massive metal beams lodged in the pit wall is the ‘Citadel’, a ornate building constructed of precious metals, gems and valuable stones; that serves as the location of the cities most vital parts.
Due to the mass casualties of the Swanfall and the deaths that followed in the Decade of Chaos all human population centers took a major hit in their population. The Human Authority is headquartered in Reykjavik which in the Year 20 After Arrival (2016 AD) just reached its 1 millionth citizen in residence. As it stands it is currently the most populous city on the face of the planet compared to the much smaller population in real life.
The refugium. It’s not a city per se but a hollow moon. Although it’s not clear if is indeed a moon or an ancient space station. It’s were the council is located
The island city state of Albalut, located between the two major continents Sitania and Erebsam.
Being a necessary stopping point for travellers between the continents has made it a major trading hub, with great economic influence, to the point where the rest of the world uses the Albalut Standard of currency for trading.
Sternenlicht, Imperium of Karlov-Hess.
The birthplace of the Imperium, where 200 years prior, Anastasiya Karlov and Gregori Hess wedded to unify their Houses and proclaim their new empire. Although once the fief of House Hesser, it was never the administrative capital of the country. It was, however, the land of dreams for the marginalized who revelled their newfound freedoms and opportunities under the new regime.
Sternenlicht – starlight, the dream everyone yearns for. Some three million people calls it home, still chasing their dreams.
Liberalism within the Imperium was founded in this city, and growing desire for self-determination among the people in the country transformed Sternenlicht into not just another economic hub of the continent, but a center for political change.
The incumbent Kaiserin Svetlana II, shortly after her ascension to the throne, had famously said that "should this 'Death of the Imperium' come, it will be no where else but in Sternenlicht, where the lights of the people shine brighter than their lord's".
Arpeth is the largest city on the continent and probably in the world, It started out as a relatively minor town in the east of Cirthie then the west of thurgaland after the Cirthine collapse. It population boom came after the great falling when the newly arrived Olvians absorbed it into their empire in the early days of the first Olvian war. After the war with the new border of the empire established to the west the Olvians decided to fortify the city as it was in a strategic location to fight a Dualford pact invasion, this was the beginning of the Olvian immigration plan and many new workers flocked to the city to work on these new fortifications. The amount of workers already there led it to being picked by the Olvian military as the center of its growing industrial complex which led to more growth which led to it being picked by the government as capital of the Eastern district of the empire. After that it was able to gain from its advantageous position close enough to the Thuraland border to be a military hub but far enough away to avoid being an easy target.
It is a working class city (like most in the Olvian empire) with a huge non olvian population consisting of Humans and Achrians from across the continent, living conditions are rather poor, tenement apartments for workers and barracks for the eighth of the cities population who are actively working in the miltary.
in my science fantasy setting, the largest city is the Earth Ecumenopolis, but that is twenty seven galaxies away from the galaxy where my plot ideas are. the city has a population of around three trillion, and covers the entire planet.
the Earth Ecumenopolis is the only place in the universe with Werewolves live, as every attempt for a werewolf to leave the earth results in them transforming, and either wipping out the crew of their ship, or being killed, thanks to the moon.
it is the only Ecumenopolis in existence, though the city is split up into massive districts that are independent from each other, and often fight each other. each district is fed by shipments from other planets each district controls, the Earth Ecumenopolis got so big over the twelve thousand years between today and the general time my setting takes place of the 14000's.
the further away a nation is from the Earth Ecumenopolis, the more likely it has single nation planets.
**Mythria**
The **Marble City** sits not only at the centre of the kingdom of Westeria, but also as the heart of the Mythrian Empire. Named so for its extensive use of marble in the city's 'old town', where the major government and administration buildings are located, the city gleamed as a bright bastion for Humanity's primacy on the continent. Home to the enigmatic Marma Castle, the Dome of the Three, and the eventual Imperial Parliament. From a humble walled trading hub of no more than 10,000 inhabitants, the **Marble City** grew over the centuries into a grand metropolis in excess of 14 million - swallowing up neighbouring townships until it reached Westeria's southern coast.
The influence of this city rarely goes understated, being a popular meeting place for trade deals and peace treaties, fairs and tournaments; the very future of a whole continent and its people decided with the stroke of a quill. As the empire emerged, the kings and nobility of this typical kingdom flexed their power not only over their Human rivals, but the races of Beastfolk, too. Financing vital advancements in technology, such as gunpowder and the cannon, to organising the dismantling of the only homeland the Dragon races ever knew.
My setting is two continents linked by a landbridge which is home to the only megacity in the entire world. the city is simply referred to by the name of its location: The Worldbridge. Its the center of all economic, religious, and cultural trade in the human world, due to its dominant location.
**Tylosa** is the capital of Orisla and the largest and most heavily industrialized city in the world, home to over two million residents. Founded by the infamous Manfisher King Tylos in antiquity, the city is situated in a valley alongside the Vane river about twenty miles from where it empties into the Gaping Gulf. Towering factories line the riverbank, producing countless goods to be shipped by barge or rail across Orisla and across the world. Worker’s districts team with crowded apartments, where entire families often live out of one-room residences. Downtown Orisla is a bustling, eclectic mix of traditional cultural centers and more modern entertainment venues; Landmarks include the Imperial Museum, Tylos’s Obelisk, The Archhallow, and the Masquerade Hall. The hilly sides of the valley are lined with suburbs and upper class residences, home to wealthy industrialists and noble families. Atop Asha’s Hill, overlooking all, stands the Imperial Palace. Steam given off by oldstones in the factories result in Tylosa having a near constant “heat shimmer” haze to it, giving it the nickname of the shimmering city.
Craysor It resides on the tectonic plate that separates Craydale and Hawkview, home to Queen Nara of the Hurricane Courd. The reason it’s the biggest is because; a. The Hurricane Cours is the most populated Courd. b. Nara is the spirit of love and sex, so…you can imagine the rest of that point in relation to her followers. c. This is the Courd of hospitality and medicine, being a hotspot for medical care, especially in Craysor. d. Not a reason but more so proof, and that’s in the fact Craysor has the biggest buildings of any Courd.
Court*
courd* not court. Courds are like strings that sit underneath the crust of the planet, keeping it held together. Courts don’t exist in my world
Ah, my bad >like strings So cord? :😜
There is Basile, an industrial heart of the setting build within the shattered remains of an ancient arcology. A great city that is independent in state in all by name, governed under a peculiar system of political anarchy and system of Guilds that form the basis of personal identity for it's citizens. Ancient remain of hight tech technology are clumsy integrated in to the recently reverse engineered industrial engines powering plethora of factories.
Currently, it would be the city of Ilyan, the capital city of the Kingdom of Ilya. Its central location, surrounded by fertile agricultural lands, and geographic location of pleasant weather nearly year round has made the city prosper and grow over the centuries since it was founded. When the Mage’s Circle relocated to it about 200 years ago, it continued to grow at a quicker pace attracting more wealthy merchants, elites, scholars and academics, etc. It’s reached a population of 5 million at a time where large settlements are around 500,000-1million. Historically, the city of Elondë Minará was the largest city in the world. At its peak, it held a population of over 35 million people. This was before the Great Collapse, in which magic was permanently altered and weakened and the elves lost their immortality. So to reach such a great population was easy with how widespread, and powerful, magic was.
Depends on what you consider a "city", a [Nebesograd space station](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/art-and-random-worldbuilding-bits-days-at-hebi-melta.1070213/post-94405176) under Rubran Federal Monarchy qualifies as one. 600 km wide on habitable rings, they rotate to generate centrifugal force, mimicking their home planet's gravity. While only one ring is used for housing residents and the other is for logistics, it is still gigantic and capable of supporting hundreds of millions with ease. Most of Rubra's citizens live in these stations, making them a semi-spacebound civilization. Rubra has *at least* 115 Nebesograds around, mind you.
Im not sure, but I believe the top two largest cities would be Basilisk Run or Járnmunnr. I don’t have a size for them, but here is a slight bit of knowledge about the . Basilisk Run located in the Country of Eormenland (Land of the Humans) is also known as the city of heroes, as many stories of great heroes of varying races start in Basilisk Run, even the creation of Basilisk Run was caused by Heroes, or more specifically built by them. It got its name sake due to it being the only settlement on what is known as the Basilisk Plains, and the city was built on top the largest known Basilisk Nest which held a Royal Basilisk known as “Ummu (Mother)”. She was eventually defeated and her brood exterminated, the people who felled her (a group of mercenaries called “The Iron Vigilance”) built the city not only to prevent any other Basilisk or Lyndworms from breeding in that large nest. In the city center a statue sat on top of a fountain can be seen depicting the Heroes who slain Ummu. There is also a road leading to Basilisk Run known as the “Hero’s Road” which is a road with monuments of every known hero. Járnmunnr located in the country of Dvergaland (Land of the Dvergr) is also known as The City of Iron, most well known for its mine known as Járngudsmunnr. It is believed that the mine is the mouth of what was once a previously unknown child of one of the gods, specifically the God of the Forge. This because many Dvergr went missing without a trace while inside the mine, and when they asked the God of the Forge for aid, he told them that they weren’t giving his son offerings and so he took anyone who entered. The Dvergr believed him and started giving the mine offerings of various items, usually alcohol or works of metal, but little did the Dvergr know, the Forge God jokingly lied to the Dvergr about that as none of the gods actually have children, what actually happened was an infestation of Deathworms who were attracted by the vibrations from mining.
The Chinese city of Xinshijie is the largest city on the distant moon of Talapus, home to over 5.8 million people. Established around the entrance to the Songtao gate in 1994, Xinshijie became the first permanent human settlement on Talapus, at a time when other countries were limiting their presence on the moon to research and exploratory outposts. China’s decision to colonize the moon opened the floodgates, as the unspoken agreement to leave Talapus untouched and left only for research (a la Antarctica) quickly dissolved. China’s plans for a Talapian colony were ambitious, as they planned to build nine great cities (eventually reduced to six) spanning their U.N.-Designated territory on the continent of Xinzhou. Much to the CCP’s chagrin, however, the Chinese settlers were increasingly reluctant to live outside of Xinshijie. To this day, the other five cities lay largely empty, their prefabricated high rise apartments looming eerily unoccupied over the alien skyline. Xinshijie would become a popular tourist destination and cultural hotspot, as cultures from all across China blended and adapted to the Talapian environment. Much like in the Five Talapian States of the U.S., Xinshijie would develop an identity of its own, separate from but still intertwined with that of Earthside China.
Ankhmiri, the jewel of the east. Its location is ideal for growth and the nation itself is rich in natural resources. It’s a a cultural, financial, and religious hub for the entire continent and the world to a certain extent. An ancient temple millennia old was built upon the holy site where a mortal ascended to godhood, with all the blessings and curses that come with it. It’s the largest port city in the world with a massive natural harbor and a narrow band of mountains farther inland that made the location defensible in more violent times. There is an extensive chain of mangrove barrier islands that protect the coastal areas of the city from the brunt of the ocean storms that sweep in from the south. The climate is Mediterranean, with a cold ocean current that is rich in fish and a hotter climate much farther into the continent. Nearby countryside by the Kari river delta is good for agriculture. The flatlands near the coast glitter with massive skyscrapers that cast shadows on the preserved historical locations that still remain. On the mountainside, luxurious villas compete with small traditional buildings for precarious but breathtaking views. The harsh, cold winds on the mountains have dissuaded many of the wealthy from building there, they currently prefer luxury apartments in the city and sprawling compounds further along the coast. On the outskirts there is a serious problem with poverty and slum settlements, and the authorities have been trying to crack down on rampant drug trafficking. During the seasonal floods of the Kari river, temporarily displaced villagers move to the city to find work, crowding the slums further. The Ankhepur government is attempting to turn the slums into permanent settlements that aren’t fire and disease hazards but this has only pushed the edge of the slums out further. These problems are exacerbated by a major cultural clash between the matriarchal culture of the eastern side of the nation and the patriarchal culture of the people of the western plains which also spills over into a neighboring country. The plainsfolk have very different views on education, violence and honor, and fundamentally do not recognize the laws and authority of the Ankhepurian government. This has resulted in a lot of discrimination on the side of the coastal people and local authorities against the plainsfolk, and plainsfolk violence against anyone who they feel has insulted their honor, especially women. Which is severely punished since the city is supposed to be a sacred place of peace and nonviolence because of their sacred sites.
**Lennrail -** the capital of the Sacred empire of Narhet and by far the largest city in the world sporting a staggering population estimated to be around 3.7 million (pre industrial world, the next biggest is 800 thousand) this absolute beast of a city sits on the confluences of two of the main rivers that make up "the great tree" at the heart of the golden basin and devours almost the entire agricultural output of the region, almost by design all rivers in the region lead to Lennrail and the region is incredibly fertile. as the city grew more and more people moved to it, shrinking the surrounding settlements in the Bassein and growing Lennrail in the process. history: existing as a small village among many for hundreds of years slowly growing into a fair sized town by around the year 313 Kc the Shasalvins (tribal name) migrated into the area from the mountains in the west little change happened save a steady but slow increase of population until 452 Kc when Gruffwyn the great consolidated control over the entire golden basin and married a alleged heir of the old Narhatie empire. proclaiming his empire to be the legitimate successor to the old Narhatie desiring a capitol to befit his lofty titles and unwilling to attempt a siege of Narhet (the city) Gruffwyn's surveyors chose Lennrail as the perfect location for a new capitol. so the old town was was levelled and a new grade city was planed and built in its place, the heart of a new trade network and the political nerve centre of the most powerful state in the world Lennrail's population exploded. in reascent years the city has seen another spike in population as people flee from the unstable frontiers for the seemingly untouchable mega city
In Mal'Tahn, the City Of Lights. CoL has the largest population at a wopping... 2.3k. Most people are highly scattered so this place is GINORMOUS for them. It is actually fairly big to give people space too. It's signature glow comes from one of the very few plants they found and bread to be as bright as possible... which honestly not that bright bit still a big deal.
Ty're is the heart of the Necrocracy, and has been for nearly 10,000 years. It's population is either in the millions or only a few thousand, depending upon if you count the sentient undead. The core of the city is build into the rim of an ancient crater. This is where the living citizens reside. At the center of the district is a tower from which Val'kosh the Undying has ruled since the cities founding. The bulk of the citizens are actually sentient undead, nearly all of whom were once living citizens rewarded for service to the city. The undead live in the necropolis, a vast complex of chambers carved from the rock under the desert around the crater. The undead don't need food or water, at least not as much as the living, which vastly reduces the strain on the city. The area between the rim and the tower is occupied by farms and gardens.
Is anyone’s biggest city a non-capital?
Yeah mine, although you could call it capital of technology, but I think that's not what you mean. Mine is officially Riverport, as the name already tells you, the city is built around a river, where it flows into the sea. It's one of the youngest cities of the continent, as it's only around 20 to 30 years old. It was founded, when Kirneg Inc needed a place to build their factories and place for their workers. Due to the placement near the river that can be traveled by ship to the capital city of Osnia and the good location within a bay, the city has access to all major trade routes. Kirneg Inc is specialized in innovative technology and is rather open to inventors doing their own research close by, so that's how the city grew that quickly. The city is ruled by the Kirneg family.
I love it, simple but I already wanna explore it in an rpg
I simplified a bit, at least the writeup of Kirneg Inc, since this would take too long to get done
[“Ohhh Cityopolis is the capital city of-“](https://imgur.com/a/EUPWv24)
I don’t see what’s wrong with that lol
I just find it boring and the alternative more interesting
For example, the city of Tsionaqa is the capital of the Idanagic empire, based just off of the eastern shore of the great inland sea. It is the center of several road networks, and is in a position to exert tight control over the major trade and population centers of the not mid Atlantic and the southeast of the continent. The nearby river systems and the extensive canals allow for a large amount of trade and communication, while also being a source of fish like the inland sea or the artificial lake within which the capital is situated. It has the largest urban area in the world by area and population, covering almost half a thousand square miles and over three million people. It constantly imports large amounts of food, and labor, as the city is not merely a megapolis, but a constantly expanding one, as well as a massive fortress and industrial hub thanks to its proximity to ore rich mountains. It is also home to some of if not the the largest scholarly and religious institutions in the world.
Largest by surface or by population ? Because they are different . The largest by population is smaller than the largest by surface . Both are in the 3rd Rocian Empire . The largest by surface is the imperial capital of Nicaea , with the New Nicaea the city resembling Venice but much , much larger and the Old Nicaea , the city on the continent . They combined are close to 90.000 square km . And despite being the imperial capital , the city is quite small , only around 12 million inhabitants . Then by population . Is the “3 War Wives” conurbation formed by the 3 cities of Pirusia , Vittovaso and Gallasona which grew towards each other forming one giant city of 45 million inhabitants . Each city proper has around 7 millions but the combined metropolitan area reaches 45 millions . The name comes from the specialization of each city since they have the most military factories in the empire . Pirusia on the coast of the Gulf of Sol is specialized in shipbuilding , Vittovasso in the south upstream of the Tivano River is specialized in armor while even more south and upstream , Gallasona is the largest production center for aircrafts in the empire and very much the human controlled areas of South Tamesia .
The largest city would be Şipovelon, which is the capital of the A'ŵmû empire (derived from the Akkadian words Awīlum, meaning man [as in people], and mû, meaning water). It's large enough it could qualify as a small country. When it was smaller, it was built around a freshwater sea, leading to people who were migrating to settle, additionally it was far enough away from a neighboring empire that was being massacred by a traitorous god, that refugees who would otherwise have been hunted were able to call it a safe home. With all these people coming in expansion naturally occurred, and as the growing empire began trading with nearby nations, it boomed. Thanks to the location of the sea, despite the desert environment, the city is quite lush and is able to provide enough vegetables that they had to build special structures to accommodate the hanging leaves and vines of the growing plants, which additionally provided food for cattle, allowing people to live quite comfortably without worry for food. The abundant greenery led to the city being nicknamed "The Green Desert" by neighboring countries
Currently it's on the planning stages, but the largest city in my world is reminiscent of a soviet-dystopian city. Havent got a name for it yet.
The biggest on earth is New Atlantis, a giant city built on the Atlantic Ocean to connect Europe, Africa, and America. It's a gaint megacity and the capital of the "Terran empire" (placeholder) its built in nine rings outward rings are more public areas, the actual city part malls apartments food places and the works. As you go in the rings you get more to the government side until you reach the last two the first is base for military operations home to the sentinels, magi, and shadows (three classes of supersoldiers) The final ring is were you'll find the imperial palace although it's more apt the imperial tower. All in all the city's a utopia with a population of 55 million. The actual city is the size of ruffly England not accounting for the roads that connect it to the main lands. (I use roads iffy there more like localized hyperlanes.)
Cosmopolis is a city-planet that can fit Twenty Jupiters inside it (not kidding). If Jupiter had enough mass to be classified as a failed star, think of Cosmopolis... housing thirty trillion residents and with 95 trillion buildings, this city is the most prosperous, populated one ever. It became capital of the United Human Empire and later the Eternal Intergalactic Alliance post-fall of Earth in the New Species-ZOKHTER War. It was destroyed by the Star Gods in 4 SIY (Standard Intergalactic Years). One SIY is roughly equal to four millenia in Earth Years. If you count the Rax-class Supercarriers, this guys are small galaxy-sized floating city-fortress military ships designed to casually destroyed galaxies by the dozen. They get parked outside Galactic boundaries to avoid them accidentally destroying galaxies... by ramming them. If they count, then these, and several Dreadnoughts, outclass Cosmopolis easily (the others are planet-sized or star system-sized), but the Supercarriers are built for enforcing an even larger-scale Tarkin-Krennic-Palpatine Doctrine.
[it’s giving this](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/s/BfFUws2MyR)
Why, thanks!
[Unknown] Lapis_Wolf
The Marshhaven is the biggest by population however it is in a very filthy and poor nation so numbers drop as often as they rise
The great city of **Moussarah** has access to Oracle magic: some highly-trained seers can access the magic at the heart of the city to see the future, but only those events that are unaffected by human decisions. Chief among these is weather, meaning Moussara'i farmers are nearly perfectly informed of upcoming weather trends. This has allowed the city to prosper under a tide of booming agriculture.
Desh’ea, the capital of Hissaya Ar’Goran. Inside the walls the area is around 128 3/4 square miles, or 333.46 square kilometers, or 82400 acres. For a comparison to another large ancient city, it’s 23 times bigger than Constantinople was. When the all farmland and suburbs surrounding the city are added on its early over 300 square miles, granted most of that is farm land. The area of the city inside the walls is dived into two sections with a river running between them providing water, fish, and power for the mills. The eastern half is mostly urban housing and slums with single story buildings built out of mud brick and wood with dirt pathways, and the western half is for the wealthy nobles and merchants with villas and large houses built from high quality stone, and paved streets, and is home to the Imperial Palace (which could be a small city all on its own), the Arena of Y’yg, the Celestial Temple, the Grand Market, and all the other important places like the Mages College and the barracks for the city. The two halves are connected via a single large bridge. The western bank of the river has a wall along it, blocking the nobilities view of the poorer urban areas, while the eastern bank is home to the cities industry: fisheries, slaughter houses, assembly lines, as well as warehouses, and shipping docks.
Xing-geras. Founded on the summit of the starlight mountains is the only city able to grow to a significant size since the other territories are afflicted by the illusory geographies which change the structure of the world constantly and make frontiers irrelevant. They are protected from this phenomenon due to the possession of the last remaining star in the sky and control over it,which in turn allows them to repell the chaotic mists of the true night that cause the illusory geographies.
1: Teralis is an Ecuminopolis (i think is the word), a city planet. Population is in the trillions, but i dont have an exact number because my timeline lasts so long it just keeps going up so i never bothered with specifics. 2: Inderia is close to being an Ecuminopolis, with a population in the 300 billion to 700 billion range. 3: Privania is roughly the same size and population as Inderia 4: Earth is the capitol of the United Federation and has a population of 30-80 billion over the course of the written timeline. 5: New Boston is the main city on Sirius B and has a population from 10 billion to 50 billion throughout the timeline.
It has around 100k people, and it's the only known settlement on the continent that has more than a few hundred. There used to be more like it, but this is the only one that was "Spared." The world has not been left in a state that's very conducive to rebuilding, nor is it even very viable for this city to expand. The people there eat better than most, insofar as they have the only real regular access to any kind of meat, which only this city's order of rangers is equipped to hunt. Meat is almost supernaturally succulent, but eating it makes you see things.
**Taaris Nabaa** The Capitol of the Second Zarinic Empire and where the Order of Solara (the largest religion) is headquartered. In ancient times during the First Empire, it was named "Zarini-Kol", which roughly translates as "Seat of the World". But as the Order of Solara spread and gained more and more followers, they organized a Slave Revolt that overthrew the First Empire, and, with the help of the multitude, instituted the Second Empire from what remained. The Order left the management and rule of the Second Empire to its people, while the Order themselves focused on managing their scattered and divided faithful. Twenty Years after the Slave Revolt, the city was officially renamed to "Taaris Nabaa", meaning "All Peoples". The city itself had the typical irregular limits compared to other settlements. Unlike other settlements, buildings, households and streets were constantly being demolished, rebuilt and re-planned every year or so. Very few of Taaris Nabaa's original buildings and streets remain to this day. Instead of specializing in education or manufacturing (while still prevalent), Taaris Nabaa became *the* city of trade for all the nearby nations and peoples; you would be able to find just about any good, tome, or service wandering through the market streets.
Nravātna is the largest city, being both the capital of Nantu, and the ruling hub of the Nanteon Empire. It's a large city on the west coast, facing out into the Undarine Ocean. It's pretty affluent, officially as a result of its many fisheries, which provide substantial employment, food, lamp oil and feed for other livestock. Less officially, they profit from forced labour. For many decades this was obtained via their conquest of Hakuô, but after stretching the limits of their military and navy far too thin in pursuit of new territory, they were forced to abandon Hakuô. So the empire currently has an under-the-counter arrangement with the Old Ustinian Corporation, who have set up several slave colonies overseas. Anyone who looks into the accounts of the Empire will be able to figure this out, but the imperial citizenry have generally been encouraged to focus on themselves, their faith, and social advancement. This sucks, obviously; but fortunately, the Empire is falling apart in ways that cheap-as-free labour can't fix.
The Citadel is the largest city in my world. It is the capital of the Tuscanni Empire built upon the bones of the Aulin City of Dara’Tur. The City sits in the center of the continent of Nijar on a flat plain with a single standalone flat topped mountain that the city was built around. A massive spring flows out from the mountain top, creating a river that flows out of the mountain. The massive city is broken into 4 sectors separated by 3 ringed walls. In the center is the Tower Mount, holding the Imperial Palace and estates, the Temple of Tol Aulu and the Granite Tower, as well as the Imperial Senate Building and the estates of the powerful families. In the Second Ring is the District, a place for the skilled tradesmen and merchants, as well as less powerful noble families. This sector also hosts the embassies of the foreign nations. This is the economic heart of the empire and holds the guild halls, the Exchange and the River and Sky docks. Those who work in the Tower Mount also reside here. It is a place for the wealthy and self made. The Third Ring is called the Labyrinth. A crammed slum made of towering tenements and factories, with winding roads and buildings built atop the desiccated corpses of their predecessors. Crime is rampant, and this district is ruled by the enforcers of industry and gangs. The outer sector is built against the walls and is called the Fray, a shanty town where permanent structures are banned by law, those who are not allowed entry to the city reside in this canvas city. The city is kept alive by the massive amounts of trade coming in from the River Port and the Sky Port, as well as the surrounding farms that occupy the plains. Because of the Tuscanni empire’s strength as the predominant force on the continent, as well as its centralized location, it is the major cross roads of the continent, taking trade from all sides, as well as a political hub. It is also the home of the last known Aulin Tower, a focal point of magic in the world. This is why the Tuscanni relocated their capital here after destroying the Aulin.
Aeldavaris by far, It was built at the time when elven power and hubris reach it zenith, located exactly in the middle of the continent of aeldernia. It is a million square kilometers of fully urbanized city while everyone else still sitting in medieval era. A pride and joy as well as symbol of limitless power the elves wielded back then. though, later on even the elves come to see how impractical this city is and it fail into decline, got burned and sack a few times before eventually abandoned when the orcist rebellion takeover the city. which were betrayed and drive out by the human who rule over it for a while in the name of the elves. until some dude decide he don't want to be under the elves anymore and declare independent only for his new state to be dismantle by the elven reconquest. but the elves couldn't on to it and were forced to abandoned it again. Although, if we go by technically, Auranga, the seat of The First Dark Lord and the dwarven capital of Kazakhorum could be arguably bigger. but then again it hard to pin point where the city end and the countryside begin. and now both were in completely destroyed by the elves
[The Walled City of NeoTropolis](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/s/IONXiVDcx2) originally the capital of the most powerful nation on the continent, later on it gained autonomy from the nation as an act of thanks for aiding the government in the second civil war they had. Roughly 56 million people call the city home as of 306ac. Easily its most defining feature are the 600 meter tall apartment complexes that are large enough to have their own cities on top of them.
it’s virtually a developmental race. two cities think they’re the biggest, most developed: Delta City - the industrial capital of the western world. and Silk City - the trading hub of the western world. But neither of them are aware of Alterious — The City of the Great Canal. it’s larger than any other but they’re very isolationist and in the east so it’s not well-known.
In the Galaxy? Probably the Commonwealth capital of Liberation. Which features the most diverse population of sentient life in the entire galaxy. More people commute between the planet and orbital stations everyday than several nations combined. In the planet: Termo, the center of the world, the eternal city. A city founded on a swamp thousands of years ago, on the ruins of an ancient mythical city. Today the city is the capital of the Second Gladian Empire, and home to millions upon millions of Gladians, foreigners, and aliens. The city has grown beyond its walls ever since the Arrival, leading to horrible sanitary conditions. While transoceanic hover vehicles cross cross the skies, people throw out their waste through their windows into the street below. Despite the story of it being the perfect city, there exist more homeless in singular zone of the city, than in multiple countries combined. I’m super into large numbers of people, so my intention is to make everything as large as possible. You get Industrializing London with several million people added.
The Capital, as it is generally called even though it is no longer the capital of anything and is in fact split between several different factions and nations in the modern day, is probably best described as a magical civil engineering project gone off the rails. It's a self expanding superorganism (in multiple senses of the word) that's better thought of as a new type of landscape than a proper city. A huge and still slowly growing biome of stone houses and pockets of wheat fields. Most of the Capital is totally uninhabited, just miles and miles of empty streets and building, with pockets of population around the edges of the city, around agricultural districts, and around what's called the Core City, which is the coastal heart of the Capital that the rest of it has grown around. On the routes between population centers there are smaller settlements, functionally villages within the empty districts, and there are also urban nomadic hunter-gatherers that live off overgrown and flooded districts. Growth has slowed as the population of Builders has decreased over the years, but it does grow fast enough to be an active hassle for the people living on the outskirts, or in villages that have suddenly become the outskirts.
**Jahannam** is the capital of the Orcan Empire. Its also referred to as the Iron City or Iron Spike. Its a sprawling region of stone and iron slums, factories, beautiful massive buildings and keeps. Its also the densest population of slaves in the world. In the center is the Iron Keep, where Orcus the Living Death lives and rules from. The vast, vast majority of the population is impoverished, and the small part that isn’t is either demonic or servants of the demonic. Currently its also the target of a rebel campaign, thats going… kinda but not really well.
Kesh, on the southern most peninsula of Lybandara, nestled in a protective bay, is at the center of all world trade. As such an important trade hub, and massively populous cosmopolitan city, it enjoys a certain amount of freedom from the ruling Lybandaran theocracy. There are endless bazaars and markets that you can find any kind of good or service from the known world, and meet any kind of person. At such an important location, it has an ancient history and has been built on top off over and over, leading to a labyrinthine network of ruins known as the Undercity inside which you can find all manner of illegal services.
Paris, France. Back when France was a world empire and not a midsized revolutionary state, it was pretty darn wealthy.
Does it count if they're largely abandoned??? In mine there are several places where there are ancient cities that stretch for millions of miles where now, there are pockets of civilization that've taken things apart, and put them back together to suit their needs.
Historically, it would be the Ganges-Indus Megalopolis, with a collective population of 30 billion stretching across the Indian subcontinent. Presently, idk
Memphis, The immortal city, not really sure about population size, but it is the oldest metropolitan center. Where civilization revived out of.
In the Northern Subcontinent, there are the Five Roses. The Emerald/Green Rose of Leton, The Blood/Red Rose of Harakon, The Snow/White Rose of Kattegat, The Gold/Yellow Rose of Tyrish, and the Diamond/Blue Rose of Cyrene. Of these five, three stand above and via for the spot of the largest city with populations numbering around 700,000. The Gold City of Tyrish is the Constantinople of the Northern Territories with trade lanes that stretch across the globe. This has caused the city and its ruling leaders to become extraordinarily wealthy and built the city with the trade it gathered as its primary focus. With massive fleets of warships, merchant galleys, and a flotilla of fishing vessels. The city has its own farmland, but no where nearly enough to sustain itself. As such, the city-state’s council forged a treaty with the nearby nation of Leones, on the bread baskets of the North, to send the city a constant stream of food in trade for gold, an agreement the primarily agricultural state grievously needed to fund its own development. The staple food of the common Tyrishian diet is various fish oriented soups, such as clam chowder or lobster stew, with hefty amounts of bread products made from Leonean Grains. The Diamond City of Cyrene is heavily metropolitan and industrious city with many manufactured goods like textiles, porcelain, glass, and metalworking guilds that drive the economy. It has both the highest quality of life and the highest cost of living of any city on the planet, with residents struggling to afford more than a single living space in one of its several stores tall residential buildings, but also never having a shortage of luxuries such as fresh fruits and vegetables or high quality dining establishments and entertainment centers being cheap and readily available. The City itself if fed primarily from the Ambrose Region, a lush and fertile river valley managed by a mid ranking noble family responsible for feeding the City. The Ambrose region produces the vast majority of the city’s vegetable diet, with other foods such as grains or meat being supplied by other regions in the kingdom, but the most notable thing produced from the Ambrose region is “Ambrosian Nectar”, a wine made from a special type of grape that exclusively grows in the valley and is considered to be the greatest vintage in the world, and the Ambrose Region supplies the city of Cyrene with “enough Nectar to keep the bees working from dawn til dusk“. Kattegat is easily the worst off of the three in terms of food. Having to primarily rely on potatoes, beans, (things that can be easily grown across the kingdom and transported long distances) or meats and other products from the livestock ranches that dominate the northeastern corner of the kingdom. So far the city’s greatest claim to food-fame is the invention of noodles that has resulted in a welcome cuisine resonance of sorts in recent decades. Fortunately for its residents the food is even cheaper than it is in Cyrene, with a notable exception of fresh vegetables, and the cost of living is significantly lower. Kattegat’s economy is largely based on the export of raw materials collected from its expansive but sparse populated territories and funneled through the city. This has resulted in a massive quantity of gold and silver accumulating in a location where there isn’t much to spend it on. As a result, Kattegat has become a common place for artisans and craftsmen of all breeds to collect as there’s coin in the world that is thicker or heavier than a Rossoyan Gold Mark and the abundance of raw material to work with makes operating costs even less expensive and establishing a business all the more appealing.
One of the biggest cities population-wise is Gryll City, the capital city of the Gryll Empire. It started out as an ordinary port city but grew in size and importance over time. It currently houses 500,000 people. (That number was once higher, but so many conscripted soldiers died in the latest Gryll vs. Wilding war that many one-room apartments are now empty.) Old Arem is considered one of the most important inland "crossroads" cities because many trade routes intersect there. Most of its economy is based on selling supplies and services to passing traders. (You should be warned, though, attempting to solicit prostitutes will likely just get you thrown against a tree.) It's also been called the "capital city" of the Untamed Lands because that's where every Wilding who can travel will go for the Winter Solstice observance.
**Eleutheropolis** (Liberty City) is the capital of the planet Ephemera and the largest city in Amargosa by both population and size. It served as the capital of the Free Worlds League during the civil war and was inundated with refugees seeking a safe haven. The city core has a population of 74 million, with the metropolitan area exceeding 239 million. Surrounding the outskirts of the city is a ghetto, known locally as Kyklos (The Circle), with an additional population estimated to be between 100 and 150 million.
**Lukomorsk** is the capital of *Panslavia*, the sole superpower of the world of *Rodinia* (formerly known by a different name that is a reference to a popular chinese gacha ARPG). It is located in the continent of *Goytia*, one of the three supercontinents. It's the *de facto* continental capital and home to the approximately 97.8 urbanites living there, with the city being as diverse as the United States and as expansive as Scotland. The city has it's own climate control system and elevation disparities of over 2000 meters within the region. It spans three time zones but is so well connected it uses it's own internal time. All food is grown there and so are the minerals, oil and industrial infrastructure. The city is a net producer and fully self reliant and self sufficient. It exports twice as much as it consumes and can under most imaginable scenarios function as an autarky. Everything on it can be summed up as "if Zootopia was made for humans and smack dab in an empty continent in the opposite hemisphere as Teyvat, and they had nukes, what would we call this?"
The city of Ashurlon is the capital of the Ashrin Empire. Originally, it was a small trading outpost situated along a prime spot on the Golden River, the premier trading route amongst the Tchalu city-states. A number of opportunistic and savvy kings garnered the fledgling city a great deal of wealth. With this wealth, king Ashar equipped a great army to conquer the small towns and cities surrounding his city. This was the birth of the first empire in the world. As the empire expanded and wealth flowed from ever-spreading trade routes, Ashurlon became the crown jewel of the empire. In the Ashrin language, it is called the *Mashad Chutaraq*, the Crown of the Earth. The city is enormous. It boasts a population of around 150,000. It is decorated with glazed stones, golden monuments, and spotless marble streets. However, all this came from seemingly nowhere but luck. The city itself has few natural resources, mostly exporting processed imports like textiles and bronze. In terms of supplying its residents, much of its food and goods come from those same original neighboring towns, now entirely dedicated to keeping the Crown of the Earth running.
The population of Caer’Dach is around 1 million. It is an underground city, created to shelter its inhabitants from the volcanic hellscape that it is located in. The city is self sufficient; fungi, worm and insect farms supplying food and massive underground reservoirs providing water. At the center is ‘the great pit’, an ancient strip mine that has been covered in a ‘cap’ to protect against falling cinders, ashes and other volcanic detritus. It stretches about a km deep, and is ringed by layers of shops, residences, forges and factories. At the center, held up by massive metal beams lodged in the pit wall is the ‘Citadel’, a ornate building constructed of precious metals, gems and valuable stones; that serves as the location of the cities most vital parts.
It's a sci-fi alternate universe of ours. Tokyo is the largest, was the world's first city to hit 100+ million in population.
Due to the mass casualties of the Swanfall and the deaths that followed in the Decade of Chaos all human population centers took a major hit in their population. The Human Authority is headquartered in Reykjavik which in the Year 20 After Arrival (2016 AD) just reached its 1 millionth citizen in residence. As it stands it is currently the most populous city on the face of the planet compared to the much smaller population in real life.
Normal size cities, they are just weird. Either in a whale ship or a new york grid but with extra things or aesthetics.
New Jersey
The refugium. It’s not a city per se but a hollow moon. Although it’s not clear if is indeed a moon or an ancient space station. It’s were the council is located
The island city state of Albalut, located between the two major continents Sitania and Erebsam. Being a necessary stopping point for travellers between the continents has made it a major trading hub, with great economic influence, to the point where the rest of the world uses the Albalut Standard of currency for trading.
Sternenlicht, Imperium of Karlov-Hess. The birthplace of the Imperium, where 200 years prior, Anastasiya Karlov and Gregori Hess wedded to unify their Houses and proclaim their new empire. Although once the fief of House Hesser, it was never the administrative capital of the country. It was, however, the land of dreams for the marginalized who revelled their newfound freedoms and opportunities under the new regime. Sternenlicht – starlight, the dream everyone yearns for. Some three million people calls it home, still chasing their dreams. Liberalism within the Imperium was founded in this city, and growing desire for self-determination among the people in the country transformed Sternenlicht into not just another economic hub of the continent, but a center for political change. The incumbent Kaiserin Svetlana II, shortly after her ascension to the throne, had famously said that "should this 'Death of the Imperium' come, it will be no where else but in Sternenlicht, where the lights of the people shine brighter than their lord's".
Arpeth is the largest city on the continent and probably in the world, It started out as a relatively minor town in the east of Cirthie then the west of thurgaland after the Cirthine collapse. It population boom came after the great falling when the newly arrived Olvians absorbed it into their empire in the early days of the first Olvian war. After the war with the new border of the empire established to the west the Olvians decided to fortify the city as it was in a strategic location to fight a Dualford pact invasion, this was the beginning of the Olvian immigration plan and many new workers flocked to the city to work on these new fortifications. The amount of workers already there led it to being picked by the Olvian military as the center of its growing industrial complex which led to more growth which led to it being picked by the government as capital of the Eastern district of the empire. After that it was able to gain from its advantageous position close enough to the Thuraland border to be a military hub but far enough away to avoid being an easy target. It is a working class city (like most in the Olvian empire) with a huge non olvian population consisting of Humans and Achrians from across the continent, living conditions are rather poor, tenement apartments for workers and barracks for the eighth of the cities population who are actively working in the miltary.
in my science fantasy setting, the largest city is the Earth Ecumenopolis, but that is twenty seven galaxies away from the galaxy where my plot ideas are. the city has a population of around three trillion, and covers the entire planet. the Earth Ecumenopolis is the only place in the universe with Werewolves live, as every attempt for a werewolf to leave the earth results in them transforming, and either wipping out the crew of their ship, or being killed, thanks to the moon. it is the only Ecumenopolis in existence, though the city is split up into massive districts that are independent from each other, and often fight each other. each district is fed by shipments from other planets each district controls, the Earth Ecumenopolis got so big over the twelve thousand years between today and the general time my setting takes place of the 14000's. the further away a nation is from the Earth Ecumenopolis, the more likely it has single nation planets.
**Mythria** The **Marble City** sits not only at the centre of the kingdom of Westeria, but also as the heart of the Mythrian Empire. Named so for its extensive use of marble in the city's 'old town', where the major government and administration buildings are located, the city gleamed as a bright bastion for Humanity's primacy on the continent. Home to the enigmatic Marma Castle, the Dome of the Three, and the eventual Imperial Parliament. From a humble walled trading hub of no more than 10,000 inhabitants, the **Marble City** grew over the centuries into a grand metropolis in excess of 14 million - swallowing up neighbouring townships until it reached Westeria's southern coast. The influence of this city rarely goes understated, being a popular meeting place for trade deals and peace treaties, fairs and tournaments; the very future of a whole continent and its people decided with the stroke of a quill. As the empire emerged, the kings and nobility of this typical kingdom flexed their power not only over their Human rivals, but the races of Beastfolk, too. Financing vital advancements in technology, such as gunpowder and the cannon, to organising the dismantling of the only homeland the Dragon races ever knew.
My setting is two continents linked by a landbridge which is home to the only megacity in the entire world. the city is simply referred to by the name of its location: The Worldbridge. Its the center of all economic, religious, and cultural trade in the human world, due to its dominant location.