Saukanians
Saukani | |
|---|---|
| Total population | |
| 27,000,000 (2020) | |
| Languages | |
| Saukanian | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly Saukanian polytheism Christian and Muslim minorities |
Saukanians are an ethnic group native to the historical region of Saukania and the polity of the same name. They share a common language, culture, ancestry, and history as descendants of the ancient Saukan tribes. The ancient Saukans were an Oskuri people, who over the 1st millennium AD successfully conquered and largely assimilated all other Oskuri tribes. The subsequent disintegration of the united Saukanian polity into four federations: the Arimazi, the Kanthali, the Lukarani, and the Tukari. Each can count among its ancestors not only the Saukan but the particular Oskuri tribes conquered by them, as well as the non-Oskuri Neolithic and Chalcolithic inhabitants of the land.
The Saukanian language, the sole surviving Oskuri tongue, is shared by all Saukanians today, though regional dialects and distinctions make Saukanians not completely mutually intelligible to one another. Many Saukanians and non-Saukanians alike argue that Saukanian is not a language but a family of languages in its own right, arguing that the diversity of local Saukanian "dialects" — varying not just between the federations but within them — constitute independent languages. Culturally they are likewise very regionalised, proud of their local traditions and heritage, and have only in relatively recent times embraced a shared Saukanian identity as the basis for a political entity, the Saukanian Confederation. A Saukanian is more likely to identify themselves with their village, town, or city, then their canton, and then their federation, before actively considering themselves a Saukanian.
Saukanians are known for their strong cultural conservatism and allegiance to tradition. A body of social mores, virtues, and ideals are constituted in a concept known as the larni mefinaeun, meaning "way of the ancestors". Family is core to their way of life and sense of self, and a clan-based code of honour permeates their society at every level. A culture typified as independent, the Saukanians have entered the modern world largely distrustful of what it might be offering them, and have little interest in any real cultural interaction or exchange beyond trade.