Ardanic people

The Ardanic people (Ard: Nya-eret "our people") are the inhabitants of the Ardanic basin and the threefold state of Tyon-Arat, as well as surrounding regions. They are among the major ethnic groups of Oksandanderi. They speak the Ardanic language and have developed their own alphabet, out of the Kahkhemke script.

Physical traits


The Ardanic people are a mid-sized stature and light brown to brown skin tone. Their hair is usually brown, but also tends to be reddish from time to time. Some even have an almost orange-like hair colour. Black hair is rare. This makes them distinct from other peoples of Oksandanderi, where black hair is more common, especially in the north. Blue eyes are rather common among the Ardanians. This is a trait, which is almost never found in Oksandanderi among other peoples, giving rise to the term Wih-Muy Erete or its Kathurn equivalent Egun-Ori Énle "blue eyed people". Most Ardanic men cut their hair short or shave it partially or completely off. Certain shaved patterns sometimes come and fall out of fashion. Women too wear their hair short. Some women also shave their hair off like the men do, albeit this is more dependent on status and rank. Especially women which serve as state officials shave their hair in the same manner as the men do.

Distribution
The majority of the Ardanic people live in the Ardanic basin, or more precisely along the shores of lake Uskay. The three cities Alpa, Tyelesh and Ksuray are the centres of Ardanic culture and the three equal capitals of the Tyon-Arat. But there are a lot of Ardanic people living outside of this area too. For the classification, both of the people and the Ardanic language, the notion of core vs periphery is important. The core of the Ardanic civilisation are the three cities along the western shore of the Uskay. Stretching out from the urban area of these cities lies a large area of irrigated land. The regular floodings of the lake were utilised and channelled into aritifical lakes and flooded fields. This makes agriculture possible all year round. The urban zone and the irrigated farmland can roughly be equated with the core area. Moving away from this there are the regions along the Fsikay and the Očew rivers. These are still integral parts of the Tyon-Arat, but do not enjoy the privileges of the three cities. They are provinces and they don't have autonomy. These are roughly the borders of the Tyon-Arat itself. But there are Ardanic peoples living outside of it in the mountains west of the Fsikay and north of the Očew. Linguistically they belong to the Ardanic languages, but they are peripherical. The boundary however is fluid. North-Ardanic is still intelligible with the Očew dialect, and Očew is intelligible with Core-Ardanic, but Core-Ardanic is hardly mutually intelligible with the northernmost variaties. The same goes for the dialects in the Trans-Fsikay area and those along the southern desert and in the Murfa basin. Further in the west lies a region called Uhustaw in the land of Qnōp'. This area was settled by Ardanic people in the 9th century AGS. In the 13th century it was dubbed Ayač-Arat. The people there are descendents of Core-Ardanic speakers, who have developed a very peculiar dialect on their own called Western Ardanic. Due to living in a very multicultural environment, the culture of the Ardanians of the Ayač-Arat is distinct from those of the Tyon-Arat.