Riparians
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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 | |
Riparians, also known as Riparian Urceans, are an ethnic group indigenous to southern Levantia in a region called the Valley. "Riparian" is largely a schoarly exonym used in academia to distinguish the people of the Urcean ethnicity from people of the Urcean nationality and national identity, which includes other ethnic groups as well. The Urcean ethnic identity is of early medieval origin. Their ethnonym is derived from peoples living close to the Urce River in antiquity, referred to in Lebhan as Urciona.
Riparian Urceans largely descend from two main historical population groups – the earlier Latinic people of Adonerum and the native Gaelic people who inhabited Levantia prior to the Latinic conquest. While the Great Levantia period largely saw a degree of segregation between the politically empowered Latinic population as compared to the geographically and politically marginalized Gaelic people, there was nonetheless a degree of admixture and integration. By the time of the fall of Great Levantia, integration of the two cultures began in earnest in the Urce River valley, and by the time of Saint Julius of the Caeline, the residents of Urceopolis and the Urce River valley were in the throes of hybridization, beginning a truly unique, Urcean culture.
Riparian Urceans are the predominant ethnic group of Urcea and make up a large majority of its people and virtually all of its major political leaders, including the members of the Julian dynasty.
Etymology
Development
"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" (i.e. Riparian) 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.