Lushyods

Lushyods

1rst row : King Frigyen II, Anna Kationna, Jada Aller, Hug Moritz, Saichel Morva 2nd row : Prince Farza, Vilvo Orbraggar, Hortankh Bolsar, Srav Kann, Marveil Urshlo
Total population
25.28 million (2020)
Regions with significant populations
Drevstran	18 million
Brumen	3.96 million
Ostrozava	1.85 million
Zacapican	1.47 million
Languages
Lush, Ostro-Ludzic, Nahuatl
Religion
Docetic Nazarism, Alban Nazarism, Aletheic Nazarism, Judaism

The Lushyods are originally a Ugric people who, through successive migrations, came to conflict with the Ludic principalities and chiefdoms that had succeeded to the Tervigian Empire. The Lushyods ultimately successfully pushed south and settled in the Furodomark, a region of south-west Drevstran. From this first proto-state two kingdoms emerged : the Drevstag and the Lushyodorstag. Other Lushyod kingdoms would emerge from these proto-states, including the Viragstag in modern day Brumen.

There are currently an estimated 25 million ethnic Lushyods and their descendents worldwide, of whom 18 million live in modern days Drevstran. Significant groups of people with Lush ancestry live in neighborhing countries (Ostrozava, Brumen, Ludvosiya...) but also in other continents with a strong diaspora in countries such as Zacapican.

Lushyods can be divided into several subgroups according to local linguistic, cultural characteristics, and religion. Such groups include the Vörönyak jews, the Havari of Brumen, and the Lush-Nahuas of Zacapican.

Name

The origin of the Lushyod' name is uncertain. There are mainly two ompeting explanation for its etymology : the first refer back to old Lush songs and legends to explain Lushyod as referring back to the name of an old medicinal herb that covered the "Pastures of our ancestors" and granted them long and healthy lives, if not immortality, until one day all the herb died forcing the ancestors of the modern Lushyods to abandon their homeland and migrate in quest of the medicinal herb. While popular among Lush Protochronists circles, the hypothesis is still defended by some historians due to the cultural importance of the Immortality Quest among early Lushyods and thus, while the events recorded in the legends never happened, the famed medicinal herb became the inter-tribal symbol of the Lushyods.

The other explanation simply consider Lushyod to have the same origin as Ludz or Ludic : the proto-Lud word for "people". This would follow the habit of Eastern Belisarians chroniclers to refer to Ludic people, or identify separate Ludic people, by their specific pronounciation of this proto-word. This would be especially in line with how Gothics - and afterward Audonians - had difficulties differenciating the Lushyods from neighboring Ludic people. However, other historians and linguists consider this explanation to overplay these difficulties - Lush military warfare, customs, and language make it hard to believe they could be mistaken as Luds for long - and to base itself on flimsy linguistic evidences.

History

Origin

The ethnogenesis of the Lushyods is an hotly debated question. A Language isolate in eastern Belisaria, they seem to have ancient but tenuous genetic ties to the Farsians while their ties to the Ludic people are more recent and stronger. The Lushyods left Protohistory when they migrated southward, following the Road of the Lakes across Ludvosiya, driving Ludic tribes before them further south into Tervingia. They would continue to live a semi-nomadic lifestyle between Lake Kulpanitsa and the Smaller Seas, raising sheep and horses while also fishing and extracting other ressources from the seas, like salt. Looting and the organisation of raiding parties represented a sizeable share of the proto-Lushyod economy.

8th and 9th centuries AD

The three Lushyod states : Lushyodorstag in green, Drevstag in red, and Viragstag in blue.

By the middle of the 8th century, Lushyod razzias into the Drev river valley changed in nature as the Lushyods began a new cycle of mass-migration southward both by horse and by boat. After multiple successful raids across the Drev River Valley, they settled between Lake Kulpanitsa and the hills of the Furodomark, lands taken from the Kingdom of Morinia. Led by a Warchief known as Garza I, they completed their conquest of the Furodomark and Lusatia by 800 AD, founding the city of Pyrovegy which would become the capital of the Lushyodorstag.

At the death of Garza I in 811, the leadership of the tribes was divided among his two sons as per Lushyod customs. The second born, Worsak, received no land but enough men and cattles to survive. He then migrated with his troop to the north-east, conquer the shores of the Drev river and subjugating the Ludic tribes living there. His conquest was made more acceptable to the proto-Ludz when in 816 he converted to Aletheism leading to a fusion between the elites of the two people. His convertion is generally considered to mark the official birth of the Kingdom of the Drev.

In 829 when Worsak I died, tribal leadership was once again divided among his sons. Garsa I suceeded him as Drevkorrag (King of the Drev) while his second son Havar I led one Lushyod tribe and an unknown number of Ludic bondsmen southward across the Kastory Mountains to settle on the northern shore of Lake Blühen, founding the city of Virazag. He then proclaimed himself "King of Virag" (Virakorrag) at the healm of a new kingdom.

Meanwhile, the Lushyodorstag became infamous as a nest of pirates and raiders, locked in conflict with the kingdoms of Morinia and Suebia. It's during that time that the teachings of the heretic teacher Mar Kusail (also known by his Latin name of Caecilius or Cecil the Illusionist) became popular within the Furodomark. The Lushyods of that state had remained polytheists despite the popularity of Alban Nazarism among the Vestrozavans they dominated. In 823 AD, king Garza III was officially baptised and the majority of the Lushyods followed suit. Garza III also proclaimed himself "Protector of all Nazarists" and remained non-denominational in his faith, encouraging the spread of both Docetism and Albanism.

The second half of the century was marked by the southern expansion of both the Lushyodorstag and the Viragstag, facing mainly the Suedians and Gothic states of Morinia, Suedia, Sudentor, Waldreich, and Bewahren. The Viragstag notably would reach its maximal expansion while the Lushyodorstag took vast sways of lands from Suedia and created the vassal state of Elbogen giving their pirates and raiders access to the Periclean Sea.

Decline and Fall of the Viragstag

See also: Blühen Wars and Viragstag

Diaspora and Subgroups

Ostrozava

Docetic School of Iaeria

Drevstran and Ostrozava share strong religious, cultural, and historical ties with one another. It is thus not surprising that the Lushyods represent a noteworthy minority on the western shore of the Kulpanitsan lake. Luhyods would not really settle in Ostrozava until the Lushyodorstag#Eastern_Renaissance. Before that the Lushyods pirates, smugglers, and merchants would at best establish small seasonal or permanent fortified settlements to serve as springboard for their activities, be it raiding or trading. As Ostrozava gained in power, these settlements were abandoned or destroyed.

With the Renaissance, Lushyods became a more permanent presence in Ostrozavans trade ports, ensuring trans-riparian commerce. Some sailors and merchants ended up marrying with locals and settling permanently. Docetic teachers followed in the wake of this first wave of migrants, establishing schools and preserving the Lushyods' religion while also promoting it to the Ostrozavans and Livalians.

And thus the Ostrolush community was born. They also became known by their preferred endonym: Lobogok, literally "people of the banner", one of the more proeminent Docetic symbols. Nowadays, they are especially present in the cities of Levigorsk, Iaeria, and in their respective countryside. Lushyods are also present on either side of the border between Drevstran and Ostrozava on the island of Dreyzlde. They represent an estimated total of 2 million people, most of which are still adherents of the Docetic Academy.

Brumen

An Havari fisherman on Lake Blühen

The Lushyods in Brumen have their own long history that separate them from their cousins in Drevstran or Ostrozava. They're known by multiple names, Azavar Emberei (People of Havar) being their most common endonym and Havari the most well known exonym. They are so named after Havar I, the first king of the Viragstag of which they tie their ancestry back to. They represent the second largest ethno-group in the country (12% of the total population) behind the Gothic majority (81%).

Today, the Havari live mostly in the north of Brumen, all around the shores of lake Blühen. Zeitfeld and Althaven are the two cities with the largest Havari minorities but its the entire shoreline that is dotted with Lushyod settlements, traditionally living as fishermen or from works relating to the lake. During the middle ages and early modern era, there were also Havari roaming the realms of Hoffnung and Frieden as semi-nomads pastoralists. But as Brumen developed as a state, most of these Lushyods were forced to settle permanently and dissapeared as an ethno-cultural group as they went through a process of Germanisation. A minority maintained their lifestyle however, becoming known as the Utazok or "Travellers", roaming mostly the north and the west of the country. This minority dissapeared sometime during the 19th century as their lifestyle became less and less tolerated by the settled populations.

The Havari are members of the Aletheic Church and are proportionally more religious than their Gothic neighbors. This is one of their major difference with the Lushyods diaspora that settled during the 19th and 20th centuries in Dinsmark and other meridiional cities, the latter being mostly Docetics from Drevstran who left for economic or political reasons. The difference between these two populations can also be seen in their traditional dishes (an abundance of freshwater fishes and seafood for the Havari compared to other Lushyods) and in their dialect (while mutually intelligible, Akkermet is noted as being very "old-fashioned" to the ears of their northern cousins) and many other variations in their respective lifestyles and traditions.

In 2020, there was an estimated 3 million Havari in Brumen.

Vörönyak Jews

Vörönyak portrait, 1890

The 13th century' Alban Crusades were a time of great upheavals around Lake Kulpanitsa and it profoundly affected the jewish populations. In the Holy Audonian Empire they became the target of religious repressions, forced convertions, and forced into exile. Many fled to the north and east and many found refuge in the Lushyodorstag. As the kingdom was already under threat of the Empire, the Lushyodkorrag proclaimed himself protector of "All Twelve Tribes" and settled the newcomers in the valleys and lowlands of the Furodomark under the principle of " military-agricultural colonies". As the Lushyodorstag expanded, more jewish colonies were granted in the Mredenzag or the Alban Pentapolis, forming agrarian communities with proud military traditions as they served within the Lushyod' military.

Slowly, the Lushyod became the birth language of these rural, warring jews. They became known as Vörönyak and shared the reputation of the other Lushyods as fierce warriors and talented cavalrymen. Up until the 20th century, Vörönyak jews still gave the Drevstranese military a disproportionate number of officers and soldiers compared to their share of the population.

Beside their service in the military, farming and gardening were the most important traditional activities of the Vörönyak, followed by tanning and learther artisanship. Vörönyak in the 21th century are still often seen as more rural and less educated than their Kulpanitsan co-religionists. They separate themselves further by following a variety of religious and cultural traditions specific to their community. They distinguish between the Rab, a liturgical preacher and teacher, and the Vezet which representied the highest religious authority for the town, elected by the other Rabak.

Marriages between Docetic Lushyods and Vörönyak jews are accepted as valid by both the Teachers of both communities. Contrary to Halachic laws, Vörönyaks follow a patrilineal method of succession and consider that a child is fully jew if at least one of their parent was jewish and that they've circumcised and were educated by a Rab. Otherwise, the child is counted among the Lushyods. This custom is justified among religious Drevstraneses by the old belief that the jews descend from the Tribe of Judas while the Lushyod themselves are from the Tribe of Joseph (either genetically or "Spiritually adopted" depending on the versions). Child born of such an union would thus remain a true Hebrew.