Does cresce have any sub-nationalities and ethnicitys, or did the state convince people they're all the same?
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The three main groups are the Jarlans, Northern Crescians, and the Kusmen in the south. Their differences are minor in the modern era, enduring only in traditional songs and some of the stories surrounding the Victori. Our Captain Toma is from the Sava family who are part of an agrarian folk called the Klipou. They get teased for being rural and slow on the uptake, but are a very upstanding and honest people.
If Unsounded was prose I would play up these subgroups much more heavily. The Sonories are North Crescian, as was the legendary Crescia, while General Bell’s people are Jarlans. When Crescia was consolidating her power and uniting the country, the Jarlan river people were her fiercest critics, so much so that Crescia was afraid if she went through with her ultimate goal of dissolving the monarchy that the Jarlan leadership would seize control upon her death and run Cresce into the ground. Peace came a few generations later when Crescia’s descendants made a pact with the Jarlans, establishing the capital and the royal palace on a massive man-made lake along their holy river’s course.
This stuff is all ancient history now but some weirdos like Bell hang on to it, and a few old school Crescians doggedly perpetuate stereotypes. It’s not a driving motivation for Bell, but it adds a little texture to his distaste for Queen Sonorie.
