Dezevaunis

Dezevaunis

dezevauni
Total population
~350 million
Regions with significant populations
Dezevau	290 million
Lavana	30 million
Mabifia	6 million
Languages
Ziba
Religion
Predominantly irreligion, Badi and Sotirianity (Solarian Catholic Church)
Related ethnic groups
Gowsa

Dezevaunis (or, as a collective noun, Dezevauni) are an ethnic group or group of related ethnic groups, numbering about 350 million people. If counted as one, they are the second largest ethnic group in the world (after Shangeans). Dezevaunis are primarily located in Dezevau and neighbouring areas in Southeast Coius (especially Lavana) and Bahia, though there are up to twenty million in the international diaspora in Euclea and the Asterias.

Definition of Dezevauni ethnicity is complex, owing to the varying subdivisions and conceptions (or lacks thereof) that have arisen since the medieval period. Dezevauni ethnogenesis is generally considered to have occurred just prior to or during the early Aguda Empire, albeit largely from a population of already related Zibaic-speaking peoples (themselves largely descended from the Dhebinhejo Culture and immigrants thereto). From the beginning, however, the class-influenced subgroups of juni ("city people"), geguoni ("rural people") and domoni ("boat people"; or jaujeni, "river people") have been primary categories of self-identification and association. The disruption caused by colonisation partially collapsed these distinctions, even as they were maintained in law and administration, leading to a nascent Dezevauni nationalism, as well as significant regionalisms (or "tribes"). The socialist Republic of Dezevau, however, came to take a consistently hard line against nationalism, known as ethnothanasia. The efficacy and meaning of this policy have been debated, while outside of Dezevau, there have been various ethnic identifications closely related to or part of Dezevauni, such as the Dhavonis in Lavana or the gowsas in the Arucian.

The Dezevauni ethnicity is closely associated with the Ziba language and the Badi religion, which originated with them in antiquity. However, the relationship is complicated by the use of Ziba as a koiné since the medieval period, with the widespread collapse of diglossia and primary use of Ziba as a mother tongue only occurring in the early modern period. Ziba's regional dialects may also be understood as separate languages associated with separate ethnic subgroups. Badi, also, is practiced by large non-Dezevauni populations in Southeast Coius, Bahia and beyond, although it has nonetheless been identified as a form of ethnic religion by some. Moreover, under colonisation and socialism, large portions of the Dezevauni population became Solarian Catholic Sotirian and irreligious respectively, especially in present-day Dezevau, though Badist philosophies or customs still often remain relevant. Dezevaunis are also associated with other cultural practices including the art form of goaboabanga and cuisine such as xxx.

History

Ethnothanasia

Main article: Ethnothanasia

Distribution

The majority of Dezevaunis (more than three quarters) are located in Dezevau. There are about 290 million in Dezevau (comprising around 90% of the country's population) and around 60 million elsewhere.

Within Dezevau, Dezevaunis are the majority throughout the country, except for in the far southeast, which is predominantly ethnically Pelangi, and in the far northwest, which has minorities of Kexris and other smaller groups.

Outside of Dezevau, most Dezevaunis are adjacent—there are about 30 million in Lavana, mostly in the north which borders Dezevau, and about 6 million in Mabifia, mainly in the southeast which also abuts Dezevau. There are also smaller minorities established in Surubon (about a million, or 2% of the country's population), Capuria and Hacyinia.

There is a significant overseas ethnic Dezevauni diaspora, of up to twenty million; definition is difficult due to complexities around ethnic identification of gowsas, who by most accounts count for the majority of the diaspora.

Around two thirds of gowsa descendants are in the Asterias, both in destination countries such as Satucin, Aucuria, Carucere and Imagua, as well as in primarily remigratory destinations such as Cassier, Rizealand and Eldmark. The other third are largely in Estmere and Gaullica, the metropoles of the empires that facilitated gowsa migration.

A further few million Dezevaunis are emigrants or descendants thereof from after the Great War. With the establishment of the socialist Republic of Dezevau, some middle class people, Sotirians and antisocialists with the means left for Estmere and Gaullica. Later economic emigration to the developed world went largely to Estmere, Gaullica and the parts of Asteria Superior where gowsa descendants were established due to chain migration factors. The transfer of Mount Palmerston to Dezevau also produced a large influx of ethnic Dezevaunis from there to Estmere.

Notably, the Dezevaunis in Amathia are a small but significant minority, the result of the Amathian Equalist Republic inviting Dezevaunis to work there (in coordination with the Dezevauni government). There are about 300,000 of them, around 1% of the population of Amathia today.

Subgroups

Juni, geguoni and jaujeni

Main articles: Juni, Geguoni, and Domoni

Gowsa and diaspora

Gowsa emigration from the Aguda Empire was responsible for the establishment of a global diaspora of Dezevauni people, though many gowsa descendants are either ethnically indistinct from others in their destination country, or have formed a unique gowsa ethnic identity (especially where non-Dezevaunis contributed significantly to gowsa populations). Additionally, though most gowsas went to the Asterias, many of them and their descendants later migrated to the metropoles of the Euclean empires that brought them there. There is debate over the application of the term "Dezevauni" to gowsas at all, given Dezevauni ethnic identity was not well-developed at the time that they migrated. Globally, around 15 million are ethnically identified as gowsa descendants, of which an unclear (albeit substantial) proportion identify as Dezevauni.

A second wave of