Urceans
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| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 650+ million | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Urcea | 643,436,738 (2030) |
 New Harren | 6,502,552 (not including Nysdrine people) |
 Lariana | 4,501,596 |
 Tierrador | 3,561,323 |
| Languages | |
| Julian Ænglish, Lebhan, Latin | |
| Religion | |
| Catholic | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Caenish people, Garán people, Gassavelian people, Nysdrine people | |
The Urcean people are a nation native to Urcea. Urceans include several major ethnic groups, predominant among them being the Riparians or "valley Urceans". The other primary groups are the Caenish people, Garán people, Gassavelian people, and Ænglish people.
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; accordingly, it refers to periods of deviation from Levantine identity.
Most historians agree that a separate "Urcean" identity probably originated as a subculture of individuals living along the Urce River around the 3rd or 4th century. These people could best be described almost as "suburban" in temperament and their relation to Urceopolis, the center of the continent-spanning empire. While the Urceopolitans themselves retained a proud and distinct Latinic heritage, and indeed exemplified what it meant to be Levantine, the residents of neighboring towns, cities, and farms during the high and late imperial period began to take on cultural signifiers that were divergent from those of the city, despite having been the "core" of Levantine identity and society since the Adonerii had settled Levantia a millennia prior. Regular interaction with Gaelic people as well as a shared political worldview likely drove the establishment of this "River Region Subculture," although many historians also now believe that these people were predominantly Catholic long before the overall conversion of Great Levantia later in its history.
Language
Urcea has three officially recognized languages, Julian Ænglish, Latin, and Lebhan, of which only Julian Ænglish is spoken on a regular basis by a vast majority of the population, used in business, personal, and official contexts. Abroad, Urceans speak Julian Ænglish, and their presence has made it an important language of diplomacy and business in Crona and especially in the Nysdra Sea Treaty Association states.
Religion
Being a member of the Catholic Church - practicing or otherwise - is considered to be a vital part of Urcean identity, so much so that Protestant 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. Accordingly, Catholicism and elements of it permeate every part of the culture of Urceans, ranging from pop culture references of scripture, to popular legends of Saints, to the legal and cultural structuring of the week around Sunday, the day when many Urceans attend Mass.
Culture
The Urcean culture is an Occidental culture with some recent influences of Cronan culture and society. Urceans have many of their own unique social and cultural characteristics, such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine and folklore. Most of these traditions and mores developed from the bend of Gaelic and Latin people, incorporating earlier cultural traditions while iterating and creating new ones throughout history. Religion and politics both heavily influence Urcean culture and worldviews, with belief in Organicism and strong adherence to the Catholic Church reflected in nearly every social institution. Urceans are largely viewed abroad as strongly conservative politically and socially, though this view is thought by most scholars to be a generalization, with a wide array of viewpoints and geographical expressions of those views present throughout Urcean society.
See also