Isurians

Isurians are an ethnic group native to west Sarpedon. They are closely related to both the Cartadanian and Pelaxian peoples. Their historic homeland is Isuriana, a land mostly part of modern-day Caphiria, and Isurians are well-integrated within the culture of Caphiria. Within Caphiria, ethnic Isurians are also present in large numbers in the provinces of Suvera and Santicino. Isurians also played a major role in the Pelaxian colonization of Vallos, and their descendants played an important role in the establishment of the Delepasian culture.

Independence
As the Second Imperium experienced significant chaos during the 12th century, local Isurian nobility began to involve themselves in the Caphiric Great Civil War and other inter-Caphiric conquests in order to achieve greater autonomy and extract additional promises from Venceia. The predominantly Christian Isurians backed Marius Oratonius and Isurians fought in the Oratonian faction at the Battle of Silanus, after which time the local nobles were given extensive political and economic autonomy from officials in Venceia. These nobles continued to govern the region in Venceia's name, with several of their number receiving designations as or other legitimating titles. As the Imperium began to collapse in 1170, the leading nobles gathered in Ozcalo - modern Oscalcum - to elect a King to lead them. Bermudo I was elected as King, traditionally on 1 June, signalling the beginning of an independent Isurian Kingdom. Notably, correspondence from King Bermudo I between 1170 and 1172 did not portray the new Kingdom as being in opposition to Venceia, but a necessity to protect the property and territory of the Isurian nobility. After the Second Imperium's final collapse in 1172, Bermudo refused to recognize the republican regime based in Venceia, and from that time onward the Isurians emphasized their place as an independent peer Kingdom in Sarpedon.

Language
The Isurian language developed in tandem with the earliest versions of the Cartadanian language, both emerging out of the being spoken in western Sarpedon during the middle and latter half of the first millennia. Most scholars describe Isurian as a regional dialect of what is referred to as Aleo-Cartadanian, or Old Cartadanian, first recorded in the 9th century. Contemporaries generally regarded Isurian as part of the general northwestern Proto-Cartadanian language, though minor variations continued to develop through the reign of Caphiria's Second Imperium. Significantly, continued interaction with people speaking the earliest iterations of the Pelaxian language introduced several novelties to the Isurian dialect not present further north. A late Second Imperium document dating to around 1150 written in Isurian attests clear divergences, divergences that were likely greater in the spoken form than the written form. With the emergence of an independent Isurian Kingdom in the 12th century, a minor cultural renaissance occurred among the Isurians which included many new written stories, songs, and other cultural artifacts that entrenched the Isurian language. Although the Isurians were eventually included in both the Third Imperium and Carto-Pelaxian Commonwealth, local administrators continued to use Isurian for most day-to-day documents, and local artists and writers continued to create an Isurian linguistic canon that survives to this day. In 1870, the Caphirian government began a program of standardizing written Isurian; this program not only streamlined the language but introduced some Latin terminology to improve written mutual intelligibility between the Caphiric Latin majority and Isurian minority.