Segelen

Ruins of what is believed to have been a Segelen palace in present day Makedon.

The Segelen were an ancient people that inhabited Syara before the arrival of the Khotoi in the 3rd Millennia BCE. In practical terms Segelen has come to represent the original inhabitants of Syara, although the usage of the name as such is considered to be inadequate or inaccurate in some academic circles.

The Khotoi, or specifically their descendants the Aleitians, seem to have recognized that they were not the first humans to reside in Syara, and collectively used the term "Segelen" to describe the aboriginal people. The etymology of the name is unknown, and does not appear to be an exonym (a name given to them by the Khotoi or their descendants). This suggests an endonym (a name the Segelen used to describe themselves), but its origin is unclear. The Segelen are widely considered to have not been a member of the Erani-Eracurans ethnolinguistic group, leading some scholars to conclude the Segelen represent the first human habitation of Syara. Efforts to link the Segelen to artifacts and remains from Neolithic Syara have proven inconclusive, however the concept has earned general approval among Syaran historians. This would place the Segelen first arrival in around 9,000-8,000 BCE.

The culture, language, and indeed, general characteristics, of the Segelen are largely unknown to modern historians. Contemporary sources from the Khotoi are scarce and often vague; the Segelen were identified as a separate people by most sources, though later inscriptions suggest the Segelen were incorporated into the Khotoi and their descendants. Other records make note of killings and acts of war against the Segelen, suggesting relations between the two groups were not always peaceful. The Segelen are believed to be the origin of several words in the Khotoi language that do not exist within the Erani-Eracuran family, although as a whole the Segelen are believed to have spoken what the Khotoi considered a "foreign language" unlike their own. It us unclear what materials the Segelen had access to due to the difficulty of matching them with ancient ruins and objects, but it is believed they had learned how to smelt bronze around the same time the Khotoi did.

The ultimate fate of the Segelen is uncertain. Following the Bronze Age Collapse in Syara the Segelen are attested to only in passing. Given that only three tribes of the Khotoi survived the era (out of more than a dozen), it is highly likely the Segelen were largely destroyed, with the remaining survivors being absorbed by either the Aleitians, the Gaetlii, and the Dovossians. A popular but controversial theory holds that the Bastarnae are descendants of the Segelen, and represented the last bastion of their civilization before they abruptly faded from history in the 4rd Century BCE.