Ĥeiran Coscivians
Ensciryan Coscivians, also known as Ĥeiran Coscivians are a cohort of Coscivian ethnic groups. Today they comprise approximately one fifth of the Coscivian-Kiravian population and are present in most other Coscivian countries. Their cultural formation and ethnogenesis took place on the Northeastern Peninsula of Great Kirav, and was enriched through centuries of interaction with the historical peoples of what is now Faneria and the Kiravian Gaels, as well as other neighbouring peoples. The Ĥeirans are known for their magnificent literary, musical, and artistic traditions, their major role in sustaining the Insular Apostolic Church, their well-developed system of customary law, and an illustrious history of participation in exploratory, nautical, political, and military events of national significance. With a long history of emigration that accelerated after the conquest of the Northeast Provinces by other groups, such as the Eshavians during mediæval times, the Ĥeirans have a large and wide-reaching diaspora across the Kiravian Federacy and Collectivity.
| Ensciryans | |
|---|---|
| Population | 110 million |
| Stock | Éorsan (Akúvaric) |
| Language | Ensciryan languages |
| Religion | Insular Christian (predominant) Catholic (minority) |
| Subgroups | See below |
| Related Groups | Igórians, Vèuskans, Féinem, Kiravian Celts |
| Distribution | |
| Region | Eastern Highlands Eastern Seaboard Upper Northwest |
History
The traditional homeland of the Ĥeiran Coscivians is the Ensciryan Massif in inland Northeast Great Kirav, where their ancestors have lived a pastoralist or agro-pastoralist lifestyle for thousands of years. Harsh conditions in the Massif have made out-migration from the region a near constant, resulting in the settlement of Ĥeiran populations in surrounding lowland regions of Northeast Kirav, highland areas further south down the Aterandic range, and elsewhere; and at times the expansion of Ĥeiran-ruled highland polities into adjacent lowland areas, such as the Kingdom of Forlennon.
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It is not known with any great certainty where Proto-Ĥeirosēoran, the linguistic progenitor of the Ĥeiran and Cosco-Sēoran languages, was spoken, though the current leading theory posits that it coälesced somewhere in Kórsa and that, like the other first-order branches of the Cosco-Adratic family, it was brought there by one or more waves of migration from Éorsa during or before the Megalithic period. From there it is supposed to have spread northward and southward (though in what order is unknown) across the Eastern Highlands toward Enscirya and the Pelerins giving rise to the Ĥeiran languages, and also into the Great Basin, giving rise to the Cosco-Sēoran languages.
During the 8th Century anno Domini, Celtic Christian missionaries from Levantia arrived in Northeast Kirav to evangelise the local population. While their success along the coastal plain, among the predominantly Rurican/Kettist Eshavians and their relatives, was limited, they found their message far better received further inland among the Ĥeirans, perhaps thanks to great similarities in culture and lifestyle. By most accounts, the Ensciryans were wholly converted in under a century, hitting off a long period of rich cultural exchange with Celtic Levantia that would last until [whatever catastrophe severed contact with the Levantine mainland Church].
Northwest Portage
Ĥeirans, along with North Coscivians, participated in the Northwest Portage migration of the Xth century, during which people from the northerly parts of eastern and central Great Kirav migrated to the coastal Northwest, via the Y Trail and the Z Trail. Ĥeiran transcontinental migrants settled mostly in Ilfenóra, [NS/NI], and Venèra-Inokarya.
Postclassic
West Coast Ĥeirans
Also during the Postclassic period, Ĥeiran mariners increasingly ventured west through the Coscivian Sea and then down the Atrassic western coast of the island continent into what is now Farravonia. Sustained contact through this route eventually resulted in the formation of small Ĥeiran settlements on the west coast. Some of these settlements abided by the prevailing native political authority in their vicinity, while others formed separate polities. Under the leadership of the Timórans, generally understood as a particular Hxeiran noble clan originating from what is now Fariva, the densest concentrations of Ĥeiran settlement in Farravonia would be consolidated into a succession of states known as the Ilĥeirakta, with territory in what is now Cascada, Province №123, and Province №125, as well as possible dependencies or vassals in Ilfenóra and Province №128. The Ilĥeirakta was not an especially centralised or institutionally developed state. It imported and administered Ĥeiran customary law, through which it ordered relations with and resolved disputes between different clans in its territory (both Ĥeiran and non-Ĥeiran), and introduced the distinctive religious practices of the Ĥeiran church (including the monastic life) to a surrounding population that included both Christians and Kirandists - though it is unclear to what extent the state established religious uniformity. Fundamentally a maritime state, the Ilĥeirakta wielded little formal authority anyplace more than a day's march inland from its coastal strongholds, even as later generations of Farravonia-born Ĥeirans settled further inland. The legacy of the Ilĥeirakta is most clearly evident in the several tuva on the west coast today that maintain a Ĥeiran identity and (sometimes) language, and in some cases the Apostolic confession (though most now practice Catholicism); more consequentially, however, it is seen also in the profound Ĥeiran influence on the non-Ĥeiran cultures inhabiting the region today, such as the Kastrovans.
Mediæval and Early Modern
During mediæval and early modern times, most Ĥeiran tuva were classified as "hamlet people" or "bush people" by the mainstream agrarian populations ("village people") of the regions where they lived. According to the 'Medial Coscivian Economy' model that prevailed across most arable climes of Great Kirav in this era, the "village people" were primarily engaged in producing staple crops like rye, elymus, buckwheat, and potato, while the "hamlet people" provided ancillary produce (such as the vegetables grown by many Ĥeiran hamlets) and services (such as extra orchard and hop garden labour during harvests) and the "bush people" engaged in animal husbandry, hunting, and the harvest of non-timber forest products. In reality, these distinctions were not nearly so clear-cut, and Ĥeirans in the hamlets and the "bush" (forests and meadows) undertook much subsistence farming on their own, especially of potatoes.
Culture
Ensciryan Coscivians have a rich literary culture [Picture of the Ensciryan variant of the Iatic script], with Classical Ensciryan (Old Æran-Kaltan) being the longest continuously written Coscivian language after High Coscivian and Eskean. The Ensciryan regions were the intellectual powerhouse of the Coscivian world from the Interimperial Period well into the Silver Age, and Ensciryan scholars were sought after across the Coscivian Empire as teachers, jurists, political advisors, and theologians. Ensciryans are regarded (and regard themselves) as having an inborn talent for rhetoric and wordplay, and have made major contributions to Coscivian poetry and literature out of proportion to their population. This intellectual strength was underpinned by a traditional system of education based on the Apostolic monasteries, rural hedge schools serving peasant hamlets, and initiatory or hereditary orders of learned professionals such as doctors and lawgivers, bearing some relation to the istava caste found in other Coscivian ethnic groups. Scalta, a spoken word art form based on the rapid, rhythmic delivery of wordplay and quick turns of phrase, developed in Ensciryan ethnic neighbourhoods of Kiravian cities during the 21080s and has been incorporated into Kiravian popular music on a large scale.
[Clans, kinship, and community structure]
[Comparative individualism, esp. among Kainans and Kelnordans]
[Crofting, Pastoralism, and other lifestyle/landscape information] [Sylviculture, Permacultures, Forest agirculture or whatever the fuck]
Freedom and privacy are highly prized, and it is taboo to criticise or correct another in a matter that is considered "his business".
The Ensciryan peoples are noted for their high degree of gender parity. Ensciryan women have always been held as equal to men under customary law, and predominantly Ensciryan localities have very high rates of female participation in politics.
Originating in the cold, rainy, and windswept fringes of Éorsa where cereals were the staple crop, Ensciryan Coscivians maintain venerable brewing and distilling traditions and a well-developed alcohol culture. Pubs and taverns are the central locus of community life among Ensciryans.
Traditional Rulers
Two overlapping classes of traditional rulers exist among the Ĥeiran peoples: Territorial petty-kings and clan chiefs.
The Kaltans have had an overall elective ethnarch, the King of Kaltans, at various points in their history. The King of Kaltans was elected for life by (and usually from among) the clan chiefs. The last King was Admonan VI, who reigned from 1925-1942 AD. More recent attempts to elect a King in 1993 and 2009 were inconclusive, and the office remains vacant.
Religion
Ensciryan Coscivians are almost exclusively Christians, predominantly affiliated with the Insular Apostolic Church, which practices the Celtic Rite of Christianity. Ensciryans were the first Coscivians outside of South Kirav to convert to Christianity, and led the effort to evangelise the Kir and other Coscivian peoples. Insular Christianity is an important marker of Ensciryan identity, and the Insular Church plays a central role in the spiritual, social, and cultural life of Ensciryan communities. The literary and intellectual heritage of the Ensciryan peoples is strongly anchored in the scholarly endeavours of Insular Apostolic monasteries. A small minority of Ensciryans practice Insular Christianity under the auspices of the Ancient Celtic Church, which separated from the Insular Apostolic Church in [YEAR] over objections to liturgical and administrative reforms.
However, the largest non-Apostolic minority among the Ensciryan peoples are Catholics. 60% of Kastrovans and 30-40% of West Coast Kaltans, West Coast Ærans, and West Coast Armakans are Catholic. Smaller percentages of East Coast Ensciryans are Catholic or Coscivian Orthodox, largely confined to lowlanders, coastal urbanised populations, and the offspring of mixed marriages. Smaller Sectarian minorities include the 20-30% Discipular contingent among the Kainans in South-Central Kirav and the Trinitarian Universalists found in some Highland communities.
Of the major linguistic cohorts of Coscivian peoples, the Ĥeirans are the most uniformly Christian, and the one among whom pre-Christian traditions have the least continuing cultural influence. This is likely due to weak institutionalisation of Kirandic religion among the Ĥeirans and the central importance of the Insular Church to their collective identity. The only non-Christian minority among them are two very small communities of Kaltan ethnicity who adhere to Iduanism and Ruricanism. Northern Kelnordans practice Insular Apostolic Christianity in syncretism with Læstorianism.
Politics
Owing to their large population and socioeconomic diversity, Ensciryans can be found in all positions on the Kiravian political map, and all of the major political factions can claim a share of the Ensciryan vote.
During the Bolded Age, Ĥeirans were largely sympathetic to the Renaissance Party, as they were underrepresented among the ranks of the landholding elite that dominated the Old Right and keen for moderate land reforms, but also unenamoured of the grand transformative ambitions of the Communists and Social-Nationalists. Ĥeirans overwhelmingly backed the Federalists in the Kiravian Civil War and formed the backbone of the anti-Kirsok "Publican" insurgency in the Highlands afterward, inviting collective punishment and ethnic repression by the Kiravian Union. The Ĥeiran middle- and upper-classes that had formed in the cities of the Eastern Seaboard mostly emigrated from the Kiravian Union to the Kiravian Remnant, New Ardmore, and Faneria. A smaller number of West Coast Ĥeirans unable to emigrate through the usual, regulated channels took to defecting in fishing craft, hoping to reach Atrassica or be intercepted by the Federal Navy. Those Ĥeirans who reached the Remnant tended to be supportive of the rule of Séan Kæśek, perhaps in part due to his partial Ĥeiran ancestry and Apostolic sympathies. Ĥeiran politicians cleaved to the "movement centre" faction of the ruling Renaissance Party that defended the policies of Kæśek and his successors from internal challenges mounted by the Old Right and quasi-Restarkist wings of the party.
Ĥeirans in the countryside continue to be an important voter bloc for the Federalist-Republicans in Stanoral elections, an important rural constituency for what is now generally seen as a metropolitan-oriented faction. In metropolitan areas, the Ĥeirans' voting behaviour is more varied, as the Caritist Social Union and Reservatives-Conformists have made gains with this demographic and left-wing parties such as Camchéachta have attracted support from urban working-class Ĥeirans in places like Bérasar. However, the SRA still wins a plurality or majority of first-preference votes from urban and suburban Ĥeirans outside Andera.
Andrus Candrin, an ethnic Kaltan with Triśkan and Armakan ancestry, is the most recent Prime Executive of Ĥeiran background.
Physical Characteristics
Ensciryan Coscivian populations have the lowest average melanin levels of all (generally pale) Éorsan Coscivians. Ærans customarily describe their complexions as either folbiĥ ("white"), plistraĥ ("freckled"), or uruapástaĥ ("ruddy"). Blue and green eyes predominate among the Black-Disciple Ensciryans, while the Gangster-Disciple Ensciryans have rates of grey irides more similar to the Éorsan average.
Coscivian ethnic groups of Akúvaran stock are known for their high frequency of left-handedness, and this phenomenon is most extreme among the Black-Disciple Ensciryans, a supermajority of whom are left-handed (80% of Triśkans, 74% of Kaltans, 61% of Ærans). Synæsthesia is also exceptionally common among Ensciryans, with the Cíortem and Heĥtem having perhaps the highest incidence of synæsthesia in the world (1 in 100 individuals).
Geographic Distribution
Ensciryan Coscivians can be found throughout the Kiravian Federacy, except in a few of the most isolated colonies. Outside of their traditional homelands, Ensciryans can be found in large numbers in the metropolitan areas of the Eastern Seaboard, Middle Kirav, and Upper Kirav, and have also settled heavily in [NS], [NI], Hiterna, and Verakośa. Kaltans have settled heavily in certain lowland areas of Trinatria, and various Ĥeiran groups (Ærans first among them) migrated to the growing cities of the Baylands *en masse* during the industrial era.
Ensciryans and Kiravian Celts have long been at the forefront of Kiravian overseas expansion, and many Kiravian overseas possessions have owe large segments of their populations to Ensciryan pioneers. The overseas colony of Enscirya is 90% Ensciryan and is now regarded as the new global centre of Ensciryan culture. All Ensciryan groups are represented among its population, and all Ensciryan languages share co-official status in the colony. Other colonies with large Ensciryan components of their population include Irobria (68% Æran), Prithera (50% Phryðiem, 40% Kaltem), Intærmec Islands (40% Kaltem), Lānkova (32% Kyrnem, 8% Ĥymrem), Nerþalia (30% Ĥymrem, 30% Kaltem), the Scotchpine Republic, and Cèuvara. The population of Saint Kennera have substantial Ĥeiran ancestry and maintain strong Ĥeiran influences in their culture.
The bulk of Cíortans, Eligtans, and Heĥtans live in rural block villages in the Eastern Highlands and Transateranda.
A plurality (if not majority) of Coscivians living on the island of Saint Kennera are of Ĥeiran descent.
Ensciryan peoples
Schema
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Black Disciples sets
Insane BDs
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Gangster Disciples sets
Insane GDs
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Others
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Ærans
| Ærans | |
|---|---|
| Type | Ethno-nationality |
| Nationality | People Nation |
| Language | Great Ensciryan |
| Religion | Insular Apostolic (>90%) |
| Leader | High King |
| Endogamous? | Intracohort, Intrafaith |
| Lifestyle | Agropastoral |
| IDO Status | Midstream |
| Colour | |
| Supergroup | Ĥeiran Coscivians |
| Distribution | |
| Home State | Enscirya |
| Diaspora | Throughout Kiravia |
The Ærans are the most numerous of the Ĥeiran peoples and the most geographically widespread after the prodigiously migratory Kainans. Like other Ĥeirans, they were traditionally a pastoral people, though the (now) most numerous clans transitioned to agropastoralism - mainly potato and root vegetable cultivation combined with tinav, sheep, and cattle herding, after merging with existing sedentary agrarian communities through intermarriage. The Æran people are organised into clans which are grouped into four moieties. Ærans may also marry other Ĥeirans or people of other ethnicities who belong to the Insular Apostolic Church, which is the predominant religion of the Æran people and a pillar of their identity.
Kainans
The Kainans are the most geographically widespread of the Ĥeiran peoples. Originally pastoral farmers in the highland meadows of the Pelerin Mountains, the Kainans ventured westward into the Central Uplands in search of new pastures and farmsteads, often eking out a living on the most marginal lands available. Later, a wave of Kainan migration from the Central Uplands to the steppes of the Swadesh Valley would create a third major population centre for this ethnic group.
In the Pelerins and those parts of the Central Uplands appertaining to Issyria, there are compact Kainan settlements undifferentiated in architecture and layout from those built by other hill-dwelling Ĥeirans. However, even in their original range and especially in diaspora further West, the Kainans were more decentralised in habit than their relatives, more often inhabiting linear hamlets strung thin across mountain hollows - if not isolated farmsteads and homesteads without clear relation to or dependency on a particular hamlet. Some Kainan clans may have remained classically nomadic into the early mediæval period, migrating seasonally between two areas of pastureland.
Kainan culture is known for its particularly strong pioneering spirit and rugged individualism, and paces a high value on self-reliance. They also view themselves as honest but enterprising, and are less risk-averse and more rewarding of individual initiative than many other Coscivian groups, even within their own Ĥeiran cohort. A long history of both internal conflicts between feuding Kainan clans/septs and intercommunal conflicts between Kainans and neighbouring peoples has earned the Kainans a stereotyped reputation for aggression, belligerence, and spontaneous mob violence. The Kainan understanding of personal and familial honour is closely tied to the readiness and ability to defend that honour and respond to sleights against it by physical force.
The heritage language of the Kainan people is Great Ensciryan, shared with the Ærans and Kaltans. The dialects spoken by Kainan populations, especially west of the Issyr River, have peculiar divergent features resulting from their relative isolation from the main Great Ensciryan sprachraum and from contact with other languages spoken by neighbouring peoples. Lower literacy rates among Kainans relative to the Ærans and Kaltans that persisted into the early 20th century AD may also have contributed to this divergence by hampering the centrifugal effect of the Great Ensciryan literary register. A large proportion of contemporary Kainans, nearing 50% by some estimates, do not speak their heritage tongue, even as a second language. On the Kiravian mainland, language retention among the Kainans is highest in rural areas of the Pelerins and the eastern Central Uplands where the distribution of Kainan settlement is more contiguous and the concentration of Great Ensciryan-speakers at the countyship level is higher. It is lowest in the Swadesh Valley, where homogeneously Kainan settlement tracts are few and most Kainans have shifted to Southwestern Kiravic. Bilingualism is the norm for Kainans who do speak their heritage language, with only around 12% of adult speakers being monoglots, almost all of them rural and elderly. Among urbanised Kainans, intergenerational language transmission is reasonably high in cities such as Primóra and Sarolasdra where large Kainan ethnic enclaves formed during the industrial era, giving rise to communal institutions and tight-knit neighbourhoods conducive to continued use of the Ensciryan dialects.
Like most other Ĥeiran peoples, most Kainans profess the Insular Apostolic creed. The Kainans hold to a strong Christian identity, especially those who settled in Tirān among the incompletely converted Antarans. This identity persists even if many local Kainan communities have lower standards of practical religiosity and integration into Apostolic parish life than the Ærans or Kaltans. Indeed, the faith of the montane Kainan shepard or woodsman was one instilled in the home moreso than in the chapel and adapted to the hardy and often solitary realities of their lifestyle. The peripatetic 'backwoods priest' is an important fixture of religious experience among Eastern Highlanders of all ethnicities, and accompanied the Kainan pioneers on their eastward journey. A substantial minority of Kainans belong to Sectarian denominations, particularly the Trinitarian Universalist and Discipular movements.
Kempans and Kernans
| Kempans • Kernans | |
|---|---|
| Type | Ethno-nationalities |
| Nationality | People Nation |
| Language | Lesser Ensciryan |
| Religion | Insular Apostolic (>90%) Methodist, Sectarian (<10%) |
| Leader | Prince (Kempans) Parliament (Kernans) |
| Endogamous? | Intracohort, Intrafaith |
| Lifestyle | Agropastoral |
| IDO Status | Midstream |
| Colour | |
| Supergroup | Ĥeiran Coscivians |
| Distribution | |
| Home State | Enscirya |
| Diaspora | Throughout Kiravia |
The Kempans and Kernans are two Ensciryan peoples with similar histories and traditional lifestyles, as well as a shared language and overlapping identities. They are distinguished mainly by the fact that Kempan clan chiefs owe allegiance to an ethnarch, the Prince of Kempans, while Kernan clans do not. The two groups do intermarry with one another. Kempan and Kernan clans once ruled verious petty kingdoms in the Northeast of Kiravia, Etivéra, and parts of the Western Highlands, but were subjugated and marginalised by the expansion of ethnically Eshavian and Kirish polities. They would live on as marginal farmers and pastoralists throughout the Eshavian and Kir lands, principally involved in herding sheep and cultivating onions, leeks, and related crops. They would also become heavily involved in mining activities in their upland home ranges, and having accrued great expertise in this field, would later migrate throughout the Kiravian domain as new mining operations sprang up in the Central Uplands, the Western Highlands, and the overseas colonies.
Notable Ĥeirans
- Saint Bran - Patron saint of potato farmers
- Andrus Candrin - Former Prime Executive of the Kiravian Federacy (Kaltan with Triśkan ancestry)
- Bruce Candrin - Businessman and pundit; second cousin of Andrus Candrin (Kaltan with Triśkan ancestry)
- Meadhrán Érskin - Past Prime Executive of the Kiravian Federacy (Kainan of muddled ancestry)
- Saint Ialm of Kérvoak - Patron saint of motorists and bus drivers
- Máirín Óscanlon - Coscivian nationalist politician (Æran with recent Gaelic ancestry)
- Pádraig XXV - Archipelagic Patriarch of the Insular Apostolic Church (Æran)
- D.P. Tredagon - Founder of the Tredagon Arms Foundry (Kernan)