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Theoretically, 50.
I have seen several people on the leaderboards with up to 53 - I am not sure how they do it. I believe the people with over 5 million village elders are not shall we say.. legitimate.

Clickable HyperLinks:
>VV2 LeaderBoards<     >VV2 Guides<
>Stew Recipes<     >Puzzle Solutions<

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SPOILER ALERT! The information above might spoil the game for those people reading this thread who are inspired to find the solutions for themselves. For this reason it is written in the same color as the background. if you wish to view this text, click and hold the main mouse button, and drag your mouse over the empty appearing space above, starting from the TOP (to avoid inadvertently clicking on the hidden hyperlinks at the bottom). This will highlight the text, making it visible. Thank you!