Levantine identity

Levantine identity refers to two separate phenomena related to how certain people in Levantia were viewed historically and how they would come to view themselves. It primarily refers to a historiographical convention describing the culture and ethnicity of people living in ancient Great Levantia. Following the development of this concept, it was revived as a nationalist idea within the Holy Levantine Empire.

Historic identity

In the very beginning of the Latin state in Levantia, "Levantine" referred only to those Adonerii Latins settled on Levantia. This primarily meant the residents of the Latin cities and the ruling patrician classes especially. In time, however, Levantine came to mean any Latin settled in Levantia who fell under the authority of Great Levantia regardless of class or origin. Finally, during the high and late imperial periods, Levantine came to mean, in the words of P.G.W. Gelema, "any individual, regardless of ethnicity, which substantially engaged with the economic and political systems of Great Levantia," most especially and specifically referring to Gaelic people. The Gaelicization of Levantine identity allowed it to largely linger even though other identities began to form within it, such as those of the Urcean people. This historic convention had such a long lasting power that "Menquoi" emerged during the medieval period as an exonym largely referring to undifferentiated "Levantine people."

Nationalist identity

In the 19th century, the concept of "Levantineness" or of a "Levantine people" emerged out of studies of the ancient Levantines. Some thinkers would go on to apply this notion to the 19th century, calling for the rekindling of a uniform "Levantine people" and "Levantine nation". This idea was starkly in contrast to those proponents of Derian identity and Bergendii statehood. Its proponents typically included all south Levantines within the national idea, excluding the people of Fiannria, and generally argued that the feudal dimensions of the Holy Levantine Empire had created arbitrary and artificial boundaries between the Levantine nation. Despite these arguments, the Levantine nationalist concept was coopted to a limited degree by various Emperors of the Levantines and Imperial Diets during the 19th century as an attempt to reconcile the ethnic strife in Dericania. These programs were piecemeal and largely ineffective, and the idea of a "Levantine people" remained largely circulating among upper class intellectuals until the Great Wars. Many observers note that The Dispossessed and many Levantine wealthy today hold to a revived version of the concept.