Gassavelian people

The Gassavelian people are an ethic group native to Levantia. Descendants of Uzdehzani refugees fleeing the Oduniyyad Caliphate in the 7th century, the Uzdehzani ruled over an eventually married into the native Latinic, Gaelic, and Istroyan, with the resulting Gassavelian culture being firmly established by the 12th century. The new Gassavelian culture retained much of the legacy of the Uzdehzani but adopted elements from all of the local cultures they incorporated, forming a new culture and ethnicity in the process. Uzdehzani were historically Nestorian until the creation of the Kingdom of Gassavelia, after which time they adopted the Holy Levantine Empire's Catholic faith. Nevertheless, Gassavelians retained many novel and unique religious practices and doctrines, which partially influenced their embracing of Protestantism in the 16th century. The Gassavelians lost national independence to Urcea and Faramount at the end of the Great Confessional War, after which time they returned to the Catholic faith. Despite the division of their Kingdom, Gassavelians retained a high degree of autonomy in Urcea and were eventually given the autonomous state of Gassavelia just prior to the Red Interregnum. In Urcea, not unlike Caenish people, many Gassavelians view themselves as being a special extension of the Urcean ethnicity rather than a separate people due to their related Latino-Gael heritage.