List of peoples of Cusinaut

The different peoples of Cusinaut number in the hundreds or thousands and are grouped into dozens of different language groups. The official population count of the various ethnic groups in Cusinaut is highly uncertain, both due to limited infrastructure to perform censuses and due to shifting humanitarian conditions resulting from The Deluge. Many of these peoples vary greatly in population, with only the largest groups being able to be recorded in this glossary.

A-D

Acuera

The Acuera are a stateless, seminomadic people living on the northern fringe of Cusinaut and the Boreal Zone. They number at about thirty thousand people. They first travelled to the area from the south in the 3rd Century BC. During the existence of the Northern Confereration and its successor, Algoquona, a large portion of the Acuera people worked for both states as pathfinders and skirmishers, and this is reflected in their marginalization as a people outside of those few living in the Algosh Republic.

Algosh

The Algosh are a people native to north-eastern Cusinaut and were the primary political group in control of Algoquona. They are among the most populous peoples of Cusinaut numbering just around 30,000,000. They are native to the Algosh Republic, which is the state of the Algosh people.

Ashkenauk

The Ashkenauk are a people native to north-central Cusinaut and are the primary population of Ashkenang. They number at roughly eighteen million persons, which is split between the Toposa Ashkenauk, Yanota Ashkenauk, Atakapa Ashkenauk, and Mishauk tribes. The Toposa live near the border of Maloka and Sabnaki, the Yanota and Atakapa in the heartland, and the Mishauk on the fringes in the north and west. They are unified by a common dialect and ancestry, and were one of the predominant peoples in the Northern Confederation. Ashkenauk polities are reliant on mass politics and more centrally organized than most of their sedentary neighbors (aside from the Algosh), and their form of M'acunism emphasizes the sacrifice of part of their food to household Kānenaka and local spirits. Unlike other traditions, the Ashkenauk burn their offerings in ceremonial square pits lined with brick and pour the ashes into rivers instead of bloodletting. Large sacrifices are seen as ostentatious bragging, while consistent small offerings are taken as humble and honest.

Canandaigua

The Canandaigua are a constituent people of New Yustona and number about 450,000 people. They are closely related to the Gowandis people, and are unique among peoples of Cusinaut in not having what is considered to be a "senior branch"; oral tradition and archaeology speak of what is known as a "great split", cleaving a single people into two similarly sized groups rather than having an offshoot of one people from another as is common in Cusinaut. This split is thought to have occurred in the 1400s or as late as the 1560s and is traditionally ascribed to a difference in Kānenaka. Unlike other Kānenaka-related splits, traditions say that the two figures each side recognize were brothers and great heroes who fought the Algosh. Despite shared heritage and cultural mores, the split have created a historical rivalry between the two groups which has seen major conflict erupt between them, even during the period of the relative peace of the Northern Confederation. These borders between these two peoples has shifted consistently shifted as both sides have vied for good agricultural lands and hunting territory. The Canandaigua lands sit on the coast north of the Honeoye, but unlike their southern neighbors they do not have a strong maritime tradition and their territory is relatively undeveloped.

Cheektowaga

The Canandaigua are a constituent people of New Yustona and their population is about 1.78 million people. WIP

E-H

Gowandis

The Gowandis are a constituent group of New Yustona and are comprised of about 470,000 people. They are closely related to the Canandaigua people, but are unique in that neither group of people are considered the original "parent group" as the two had an approximately equal division during the 1400s or 1500s. More details can be found under the entry for the Canandaigua. The land of the Gowandis sits to the west of the Canandaigua and south of the land of the Saranac, and like the Canandaigua their land is relatively undeveloped and organized along traditional lines. The largest city among the four peoples of what was the Nysdra Provisional Republic and is presently northern New Yustona is Cohocton, which sits in Gowandis territory and served as the provisional capital city of the Republic. Although it sits inland unlike the large cities of the Honeoye, Cohocton is sited along a major travel route into the interior of Cusinaut which bypasses the mountain ranges to the west of New Yustona, making it the site of significant Occidental investment and trade. It is one of the few cities within the former Republic recognizably built using Levantine urban planning methods. During the period of the Northern Confederation, Cohocton served as the de facto diplomatic capital city of the Confederation as it was the only city where permanent Occidental embassies were allowed. Most of the embassies were closed following the conquest of the Gowandis by the Algosh, and the former embassies provided lavish estate homes to senior Algosh military officials until the city was liberated.

Great Chenango

The Great Chenango are constituent members of the Chenango Confederacy and consist of about 4.8 million people, and make up a majority of the population of the Confederacy. WIP

Hasinai

The Hasinai are a people in northern Ashkenang numbering 20,000. They settled in their current homeland after migrating from southern Maloka around the Fourteenth Century and at their height numbered 110,000. They were one of the few groups to resist Algosh invasion directly, and as a result, were crushed and a large number of them (as many as thirty thousand) being spread across Algoquona and disintegrated as a community. The remaining community is one of the poorest in Ashkenang.

Honeoye

The Honeoye are a constituent group of New Yustona and number at approximately half a million. They were previously one of the four main constituent groups of the Nysdra Provisional Republic, were a people dominated by Algoquona, and were a founding member of the Northern Confederation. They are unique among the peoples of Cusinaut as they have no known relations to other tribal groups or peoples; they are one of the few fully freestanding peoples in Cusinaut. Their lands exist on the eastern shore of Cusinaut just to the northeast of the pre-war border of New Yustona. With a large coastal territory, the Honeoye are known to be some of the most experienced mariners and navigators of the Nysdra, being some of the most prodigious and most productive fishermen of the northern Crona area. Consequently, the Honeoye are well-known for having a fish-based diet. Within the practices of M'acunism, the Honeoye are also well-known for their large sacrifices of fish, and during the 20th century, the Honeoye experienced large economic growth as a major exporter of fish for sacrifice to the other members of the Northern Confederation. The coastal cities of the Honeoye are well developed as a result and many of them have relatively modern port infrastructure and urban life by Occidental standards. The Honeoye hinterlands, however, are much like the hinterlands of the rest of Cusinaut - dense boreal forests with scattered villages who live largely along traditional lines, both in terms of social organization as well as technological development. Due to the relative wealth of the Honeoye, they were unique among the peoples of the Northern Confederation inasmuch as they were ruled by a King, rather than by a council or high chief. The Honeoye were extremely influential within the Confederation and began to be perceived as a threat by the 1970s. The Honeoye were perceived as the rival of the Algosh for control over the Confederation, with the former having commercial power and the latter military power. The tensions between the Honeoye and the rest of the Confederation were one of the points of contention that lead to the collapse of the Confederation and the War of the Northern Confederation. The Algosh conquered these extremely lucrative territories during the chaotic period in the late 2000s. The Honeoye were ruled by their own ethnic chief during this period of Algosh occupation, but had the least autonomy of any of the subject chiefs due to the threat posed to Algosh control. After independence, the ruler of the Honeoye has adopted the title of Regent rather than of King on a provisional basis.

I-L

Island Honeoye

The term "Island Honeoye" commonly refers to the approximately 425,000 people of the Third Republic of the Chenango Confederacy who are descendants of the maritime Honeoye people. The common Ænglish term "Island" is something of a misnomer as in the original language the term merely implied overseas. Settlement of the Third Republic area by these people began at some point in the 14th century as northern outposts for the fishing and maritime industries famous in Honeoye. Incorporated as part of the Northern Confederation, the Island Honeoye were originally subject to the Little Chenango peoples but became a freestanding member of the Confederation in 1834. The Island Honeoye established favorable relationship with the southern Honeoye and often supported the latter during the growth of Honeoye power within the Confederation which occurred throughout the 20th century. Many of the people who use this name are not strictly of Honeoye ethnic or ancestral origin, but became galley slaves to the Honeoye and settled along with their masters once freed from service. These individuals with ethnic backgrounds from across the Nysdra adopted the lifestyle and traditions of the northern Honeoye. For this reason, a vast majority of the Island Honeoye view their richer southern brethren as a distant relation and a majority have historically opposed political union.

Little Chenango

The Little Chenango are constituent members of the Chenango Confederacy and consist of about 3.2 million people. WIP

M-P

Mixcala

The Mixcalan people are a constituent group of New Yustona and are numbered at approximately 3.1 million people. WIP

Q-T

Rianee

The Rianee are a tribal, seminomadic people native to northwestern Cusinaut and a constituent people of Maloka. There are roughly 25,000 of them. Unlike most of their neighbors, they worship a dual pantheon of twin sun and water/ice/snow gods and are possibly admixed with a handful of ancient settlers from Alshar, though this theory is contested. They have some permanent settlements in central Maloka and parts of western Ashkenang, but primarily live at seasonal sites in the far north, where hunting and fishing are more viable for subsistence.

Saranac

The Saranac are a constituent group of New Yustona and number at approximately 350,000 people. They are related - albeit distantly - to the Algosh peoples. Oral traditions, confirmed by scholarly research, indicate that the Saranac broke off from the Algosh due to a difference in Kānenaka, a concept within the M'acunist religion relating to ancestor worship. This break is believed to have occurred in the 13th or 14th century. Consequently, the Saranac observe many similar festivals and cultural mores as the Algosh but with what could be described as "regional differences". During Algosh control in the 2010s, the government of Algoquona actively attempted efforts to culturally integrate the Saranac as within the Algosh people as part of state building efforts. These efforts, employing differing means of education and force, were actively resisted by the Saranac on socio-political grounds moreso than religious ones, though the underlying religious differences were featured in prominent Saranac rhetoric as well. The Saranac territory sits on the northern boundary of what was the Nysdra Provisional Republic's territory neighboring the Algosh core territories.

Schoharie

The Schoharie are a stateless people who originated in the southernmost region of what would become New Yustona. They were a founding member of the Northern Confederation and like many of their neighbors had developed an urban-based lifestyle. The Schoharie ceded a portion of their land to Urcea in the late 1800s which precipitated a large wave of out-migration. Decades later, the entire Schoharie territory was eventually conquered by the Urceans during the Restoration. Since their conquest, the Schoharie people have become stateless. A majority remained in the territory and integrated within Urcean society, becoming the first of the Cronin people. Many of the Schoharie people moved north into Confederation territory and integrated with the Mixcalans and Tepetlcali, but some small familial groups still retain a Schoharie identity and live apart in isolated villages. Another group of Schoharie migrated into Porfiria and became mostly integrated into Coscivian society.

Tepetlcali

The Tepetlcali are a stateless people native to western New Yustona. They number about 350,000 people, a majority of whom still live in their original homeland which has since been settled by the Mixcala people. A founding member of the Northern Confederation, the people and city of Tepetlcali exerted political hegemony over many of the tribes and cities of the southern part of the Confederation from the 1800s through the early 21st century. The city of Tepetlcali was destroyed by a joint Urceo-Mixcalan operation during the War of the Northern Confederation. The remaining third to half of these people live across the border from New Yustona in Iriquona, where most live as transient refugees. Their cultural origin is unknown, in part due to the immense destruction of records during the war, but oral traditions suggest they originated as one of the many isolated tribes of the southern Cusinaut area. Their closest ethnic relation appears to be the people of eastern Sabnaki based on genetic testing, though they share the same language as the Mixcalan people.

Tonawandis

The Tonawandis people are a constituent people of New Yustona and are numbered at approximately 1.56 million people. WIP