Ionian Plateau: Difference between revisions

The Plateau was the home of human settlement for long stretches during the prehistoric era. [[Gaelic people]] came to settle the region early in their history, prior to their presence in [[The Valley (Urcea)|the Valley]]. [[Ancient Istroya]]n arrivals and later [[Adonerum|Adonerii]] settlers and explorers did not travel up the Plateau, gradually settling the Valley and elsewhere and trading with the plateau's Gaelic population. During the rise of [[Great Levantia]], Gaels from the Valley and elsewhere were gradually pushed out of the Valley and other key parts of Levantia and were relocated to modern day [[Carna]], [[Dericania]], and the Plateau, which retained a Gaelic character deep into the Great Levantine age. Mining operations on the Plateau would introduce [[Latinic people|Latin]] settlers to the region, but they were never a majority of residents and most quickly married into the local population, undergoing the process of [[Urcean_people#Historic_Urceanization|Urceanization]] as occurred elsewhere throughout southwestern Great Levantia. As the political authority and military power of Great Levantia began to wane, tribes and clans of Ionians began to encroach into the valley, and this encroachment is thought to have enhanced Urceanization by introducing new Gaelic rulers over the urbanized Latin population. Once Great Levantia collapsed, the Plateau divided itself into hundreds of tribal polities, most organized loosely around cities built by Great Levantia during the period of its existence but ruled over by local families that exercised control over herds of cattle and other animals, the primary form of wealth in early medieval Ionia.

==Culture==

Many of the themes of Ionian identity appear within [[Arts_and_literature_of_Urcea#Highlands_literature|Highlands literature]], which refers to the literature of the people of the plateau.