The Dimira People (dim-EER-ah)
The Dimira ethnicity is irrevocably intertwined with the Dimira homeland, the Federation of Vay. As the Federation's ethnic majority, they occupy a place of prominence. They have much in common with the Zaimaris elves; together, the two ethnic groups constitute the dominant culture of the Federation.
Dimira Culture
The culture of the Dimira people as a whole is frequently indistinguishable from the national culture of the Federation of Vay, as the Dimira are for all intents and purposes the architects of the nation's culture—for as long as the Federation has existed, it has been a nation in which the Dimira are a vast majority—and the ethnic group is largely confined to the Federation of Vay. Small communities of Dimira folk do exist outside of the Federation, but the vast majority of these are Vayan expatriates. As such, to describe Dimira culture is to describe the culture of the Federation. This is most obviously true in regards to the cultural values of the Dimira people. Achievement, honor, and status are pillars of Dimira culture, as they are to the culture of the Federation of Vay. The Federal practice of marking its citizens to indicate their place within one of four socioeconomic classes lines up neatly with the traditional Dimira caste system. The class system is just one of many examples of the way that Vayan national culture is frequently just a more broadly-applied and stringently-codified version of Dimira culture. Similar to this is the Vayan reverence for arcane magic. Historical records indicate that ancient Dimira people never encountered the Ceth Tseket, and arcane magic reached their populace centuries after the empire's fall; by the time the Dimira people settled in their present-day territory, the only signs of the fate of the Ceth Tseket were a handful of ancient ruined cities long worn down by the southern sandstorms and northern monsoons. As a result, the Dimira people never inherited the almost-instinctive respect for—or even outright fear of—the unknowable consequences of arcane magic that other groups, like the Sarlani, directly descended from surviving Tseketon lineages tend to possess. These traits are broadly present among Dimira people as a whole, regardless of their regional affiliation.Dimira Subgroups
The regional subgroups differ from each other in numerous ways, but a few key differences are listed below:- The Aundirian Dimira people are those with roots in Cethandir. The heritage of the Aundirian people is most unique among the Dimira peoples, as their ancestors split off from the original Dimira population earliest and settled with the Aundirian tribe of humans. The Aundirian and Dimira people eventually commingled enough that the Aundirian tribe was folded into the Dimira population; Aundirian Dimira folk retain many quirks from their Aundirian heritage. For example, while Dimira people in general tend to be mild in their religious beliefs, the Aundirian Dimira people are particularly inclined to be nonreligious.
- The Capitol Dimira people were called the Vayan Dimira prior to the formation of the Federation because of their place in Vay Proper, but after, they took on their current name to disambiguate themselves from the Dimira people of the Federation of Vay at large. While education is valued as a means of attaining status throughout all Dimira populations, the Capitol Dimira folk place special emphasis on education, valuing it even above wealth, heritage, and military honor.
- The Old Dimira people, named as such because they are supposedly closest genetically and culturally to historical Dimira populations, are localized to the city of Auria. The Old Dimira have the strictest social etiquette rules. Their social hierarchy consists of an additional three social classes beyond the four official ones, and while there is no governmental system in place to codify individuals' presence in these classes, their principled systems of etiquette ensure every Old Dimira person is very aware of others' social status, regardless of marking.
- The Northern Dimira people, concentrated in the city of Caelus, place a uniquely high value on druidic magic. While other Dimira folk, like many Aotrans, see druidcraft as an art less potent and refined than arcana, Northern Dimira folk afford the two equal respect.
Naming Traditions
The Dimira people have a distinctive naming system, neither matronymic or patronymic. Instead, a child's surname takes their surname from their higher-status parent. The actual names used by the Dimira folk are eclectic and diverse, drawing influence from multiple other nearby cultures like the Rozhov humans and the Zaimaris elves. Names taken from high-status public figures are quite popular, especially the names of past Magelords and consuls. Dimira consider names to be either masculine, feminine, or neuter, with a name's gender usually depending on its final syllable. A few common names are listed below.Popular Dimira Names
Feminine: Aurelia, Astoria (popular since the reign of Magelord Astoria Nethrani), Cosmina, Demitica, Exandra, Marinia, Nadasha, Nadia, Stasia, Valencia, Umbria.
Neuter: Avacian, Cassim, Ilyasha, Nikita, Nikola, Pantera, Solaris, Volodya, Zasha.
Masculine: Aleksander, Amadeus, Cassius, Cyrillus, Delphinus, Dimitrius, Kaspar, Leonidis, Lucius, Marcellus, Stannis, Vladimir.
Surnames: Casca, Cato, Ennodi, Leonevna, Konstantinov, Nikolaev, Octavis, Sorio, Vitalis, Vitorica, Ykar.
Other Facts
Unique among the Dimira people is a specific form of hereditary albinism that most severely affects men. Some of the best-known carriers of this form of albinism are the Djernina family, nearly all of whom are wholly- or partially-depigmented as a result of the condition. The Dimira people are additionally remarkable for their relatively high incidence of spontaneous Otherborn births. By some figures, that rate was just over a quarter of a percent as of 710.
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