Ethnicities in Drevstran

Since the time of the Triple Monarchy (18th and 19th centuries), Drevstran has been divided both on religious and national lines. Famously, Vilvo Orbraggar, founder of the first Republic of Drevstran, proclaimed the united country to be a "Bi-national secular republic" in reference to the Lushyods and Ludz people. Since then, other nationalities have been officially recognized in Drevstran althought the law differenciate between diasporas and national minorities. The latter are allowed to be represented by state-recognized associations known as Kisbergi önkormanitat or Minority collectivities. These associations can manage public theaters, libraries, scientific and cultural institutions, and offer legal counsels alongside other services. All in the purpose of protecting and keeping alive their minority' traditions and customs.

The National Minorities

Lushyods

See also: Lushyodorstag

See also: Kingdom of the Drev

See also: Sevromark

19th century Docetic Lushyods from the Furodomark

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.

Since the Triple Monarchy, Lush and Lushyod have lost their political meaning as while the Tri-crown was an union between the Lushyodorstag and other principalities, with the former as the dominant partner, it did not retain any national characteristic. Since then, Lushyod is used strictly in a socio-cultural manner to speak of Lush-speaking minorities both within and outside of Drevstran.

The Lushyod minority represent roughly 40% of the total population of Drevstran or around 18 million people. This number include Vörönyak jews as they speak Lush as their native language and have adopted many Lush customs and aspect of the Lush culture over the past 800 years since the Alban crusades. Otherwise, Lushyod are culturally very closely tied to the Docetic Faith, an Heterodox Sarpetic religion which remain dominant in the territories of the ex-Lushyodorstag. It's in these same territories, like the Furodomak, the Mredenzag, or the Azdrheg mountains, that the Lushyods represent the absolute majority of the population with over 90% of the inhabitants of these western regions identifying as Lushyod and speaking Lush as their native language. Lushyods also represent the majority of the population along the northern border and the Sevr river valley, north of Angrast.

Ludz

Main article: Ludz

Jan Priban (1790 - 1862), Aletheic priest considered to be the most famous Ludz poet and writer

The Ludz or Ludzians are a Ludic Ethnic group native to Drevstran. They are related to other Ludic people such as the Polnitsians, the Lusatians, the Biele, and the Ostrozavans, even sharing with the latter a common language. They represent 45% of Drevstran population (around 20.25 million people) and are the absolute majority on the Belisarian coast with more than 90% of the population in each prefecture with a coastline on the Belisarian Sea.

For most of their history, the distinction between Ludz and other Ludic people was never really made. The word come from the Kingdom of the Drev but was used by the Lushyod elite to refer to every Ludic tribe and communities under their domination. Afterward, the Drev River Valley became part of the Velikoslavian Empire and many Ludic people migrated southward, merging with the populations already present and raising no concern from the Empire' lords themselves of varied Ludic origins.

The modern Ludz identity is thus considered by historian to be a 18th century creation by the Triple Monarchy. Despite the Drev River Valley and the Belisarian Coast legally remaining part of Velikoslavia, they had been inherited by the Lushyodorstag king Farza IV (1635 - 1703) on a personal basis. To re-affirm his control over these new territories, he forced the Aletheic Arch-Presbyters to adopt of the Oecumenic Treasury, in use in the Lushyodorstag, and created many schools to increase literacy among the people in an effort to dissociate these lands from the rest of Velikoslavia. Naturally, lessons were given in the Oecumenic Treasury' language : Ostro-Ludzic, washing away the previous centuries of linguistic divergence between Drevstran and Ostrozava.

As the Lushyods are tied to Doceti Nazarism, the Ludz identity is profoundly rooted within the Aletheic Church. Ludic people of different confession within the Triple Monarchy retained their own culture and customs, separating themselves as Biele or Lusatians instead.