Ussterian
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| c. 15.5 million (2010) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Northern States c. 12 million | |
| Languages | |
| Northian Elder Nordic Venetian Gothic | |
| Religion | |
| Fonδaiš Wīštā̊ Valstígr Vallyar |
The Ussterians are an ethnic group primarily associated with the Northern States.
Etymology
The word Usterian is an abbreviated rendering of the Northian word θaɣānuštəriiā̊, meaning "those who belong to Θaɣanustera", Θaɣamusstera being the Northian name for the general locale of the Northern States. θaɣan means "land", and ušter- means "highest, most remote". The first attestation of the phrase θaɣānā ušterī was of Epic age, referring to a far-away land where the Sun was said never to set in summer and never to rise in winter; as the Exile occurred, the Northians who went to θaɣānā ušterī started to refer to themselves as θaɣānuštəriiā̊ or simply uštəriiā̊.
Earlier in the history of the ethnonym, it was "used to connect themselves to speakers of the Northian language scattered across western Eracura and Ossoria", "to a more numerous whole that shares a similar expulsion but live in different exiles". However, as the Ussterans were the only Northian group later to attain statehood, the term "Usterian" has come to mean the Northian-speakers in general, even to identify those who came to live in Acrea, Ossoria, Shalum, and Æþurheim and speak non-Northian languages.
History
Bronze Age
To include the histories of the Hāmrūvunts with that of the later Ussterian, it is held by some that the Ussterians were a group either of or very close to the Nordic peoples and became more distinct from them during the Middle Bronze Age (MBA), between 2100 and 1500 BCE. It is thought that the poetic core of the Fonδaiš Wīštā̊ canon was composed during this period, as its literary environs and linguistic properties suggest a location in Acrea.
A migratory theme, from north to south, is well known in the Fonδaiš canon, though mainly narrated in the movements of divinities and their milieux "pursuing better pastures"—GNr. 170 "I herd, lady, my flock to the south, over the broad Earth, where the Sun runneth and shineth: Wouldst thou, lady of bounties and multitudes, thither advance my two feet and increase my flocks?" This theme has been associated by some scholars with the prehistoric Nordic Migration to support the idea that the Hāmrūvunts were part of the migration and therefore also Nordic in origin, but other scholars argue that the Hāmrūvunts did not need to have been part of that migration to adduce this theme into their myths. Ticter says "it takes no genius to realize that a migratory, pastoral population must be seeking out better pastures".
The older idea that the word Hāmrūvunts, which certain excludes Nordics as it is used in the Epic age (650 – 250 BCE), must be interpreted to mean the Hāmrūvunts were not Nordic has been abandoned by academia, on account of a severe chronological mismatch. Genetic analyses have been inconclusive as to whether the Hāmrūvunts could be assigned to the Nordic group on a genetic basis.
The Late Bronze Age, between 1500 and 1200 BCE, represents the terminus ante quem when the Hāmrūvunts may have spoken a language with limited mutual intelligibility with an archaic form of Proto-Nordic. At the inauguration of the Iron Age, the Nordic belief system that would give rise to Valstígr and Vallyar emerged; this Odin-centric faith was unknown to Fonδaiš Wīštā̊ and it seems exceedingly unlikely this could be the case unless its religious practitioners had already been fully severed from the evolving Nordic belief system.
Didaskalic Age
Ussterian history takes a turn for the more systematic at the advent of the three Didaskaloi, or teachers, whose existence and extensive influence were noted by early travellers amongst the Syarans and Celts. Though their dates can hardly be determined, most authorities are satisfied to regard them as "relatively near in their lifetimes or even periods of activity" and "just prior to the earliest Epics". This would probably mean around 800 to 650 BCE, since the earliest Epic was composed around 650 or so.
The three Didaskaloi spoke mostly about theology and sacerdotal practice, especially about what the gods are and why a person should worship them, but they developed and elaborated a notion of justice as a temporal version of purity. The Didaskaloi had a surprising rational worldview and rarely proceeded by pure authority—a philosophical position that may have contributed to their distinctiveness during their lifetimes. Some believe the Didaskaloi themselves must have been revolutionary philosophers producing a new theology that radically contradicted the authorities of their day; Himinastainas (fl. 4th century CE) considered them the to be the "dawn and root" of civilization, the first "to love the human condition". Ussterian life is, albeit obliquely, illustrated implicitly or explicitly by the Didaskaloi's teachings, which were recorded nearly verbatim by their students and formatted into mantras in the form, "So counter-spoke the Didaskaloi..."
Language
The Ussterians are most associated with the Northian language. Indeed, the custom of speaking this language was, during the Epic age (c. 650 – 250 BCE), considered to constitute the Northian nationality. The term hāmrūwąs < *sm̥-mluH-wénts "one giving cogent words" was commonly used in the Epics by Northian characters to describe others who use the Northian language by custom. This contrasts with groups called āmrūtō < *n̥-mruH-tos "without words".