Urcean people

The Urcean people are a nation and ethnic group native to Urcea. The Urcean identity is of early medieval origin. Their ethnonym is derived from peoples living close to the Urce River in antiquity, referred to in Lebhan as Urciona.

The Urceans largely descend from two main historical population groups – the earlier Latinic people of Adonerum and the native Gaelic people who inhabited Levantia prior to the Latinic conquest. While the Great Levantia period largely saw a degree of segregation between the politically empowered Latinic population as compared to the geographically and politically marginalized Gaelic people, there was nonetheless a degree of admixture and integration. By the time of the fall of Great Levantia, integration of the two cultures began in earnest in the Urce River valley, and by the time of St. Julius I, the residents of Urceopolis and the Urce River valley were in the throes of hybridization, beginning a truly unique, Urcean culture.

Besides the "core" Urcean ethnicity, sometimes called "valley Urceans" in relation to their origin in the greater Urce River valley region known as the Valley, other ethnic groups are sometimes considered to be part of the wider Urcean identity. Most prominent among these are the Caenish people of Canaery and the southern tip of Levantia.

Identity
Despite global classifications of Urceans consistently placing them as among Latinic peoples, and relations between Urcea and Caphiria and other states on Sarpedon are characterized by their cultural kinship, Urceans consider themselves neither Latinic or Gaelic but rather the descendants of both groups. While the concept of Urceanity derives from the cultural traditions of the country as well as the ethnic admixture of Gaels and Latins, immigrants have been known to be able to integrate into Urcean culture.

A vast majority of Urceans are divided into what are known as the Estates of Urcea, kinship-and-identity groups that bind families together. Deriving from the early voting tribes of Great Levantia and the socio-political client-patron relationships within them, the Estates have 25 distinct "Latinic" Estates and 25 distinct "Gaelic" Estates, with the latter being integrated during the latter Great Levantia period as part of the process of what sociologists call Urceanization. Distinctly, Urceans do not see themselves as the same Latin peoples who forged and lived within Great Levantia, instead claiming heritage both from Great Levantia and the Gaelic peoples that it conquered, seeing themselves as the direct descendants of neither but instead the product of both. In this way, Urceans view themselves as the "consummation of the whole history of Levantia" in the words of Kiravian scholar P. G. W. Gelema.

Historic Urceanization
"Historic" Urceanization refers to a process which occurred beginning approximately in the 3rd century and ending in the 9th century that saw groups of Latinic people and Gaelic people living in Southern Levantia begin to form a single, albeit broad, cultural continuum that could be identified today as "Urcean". Much, though not all of this process, was accompanied by frequent intermarriage among these peoples, especially in the midst of and following the collapse of Great Levantia.

Late Urceanization
"Late" Urceanization refers to any continuation of the process of the growth and adaptation of Urcean identity by groups of people at any time following the 9th century.

Religiosity
Being a member of the Catholic Church - practicing or otherwise - is considered to be a vital part of Urcean identity, so much so that and other faith Urcean nationals have assumed a completely different ethnic identity over the past five centuries known as Cisionian people. Cisionians assumed their identity not only from Urcean external views but from internal identity realization based on centuries of cultural isolation.