Shetin
The Shetin - meaning "people of the sun" in Proto-Dwarven and several related languages - were the people who inhabited the ancient city of Kaliset, founded approximately three thousand years before the rise of the Empire of Kataris. Some sources claim that they were dwarves, whereas others describe them as descendents of the Temutin - a word often used in the earlier parts of the Chronicles of Vash Edom as synonymous with humans; some scholars have argued that in all likelihood the Shetin contained both dwarves and humans, as evidenced by various tombs found in the temple complex at Kaliset and other ancient grave-sites in the Vixion Plains.
The Shetin are not generally considered to exist as a distinct ethno-cultural group in the modern age, though some aspects of their culture are said to endure in the traditions of the Savu.
They are also sometimes known as the "Teothtin", or "People of Teoth", after their legendary founder of Kaliset, Teoth son of Zaphnath. It is also possible that they are the "Sahu" - an Ossian word meaning "relating to the sun" - referred to in the Words of Sikaryam Against the Heirophant of Kaliset.
Culture
Major language groups and dialects
The original spoken language of the Shetin is lost, but is believed to have been closely related to Proto-Dwarven and Preclassical Tevashi, to the extent that it may have been mutually intelligible with the language spoken by the Tevashi. They did not initially use the dwarven runes to write their inscriptions, but rather had a pictographic form of writing that is understood as being derived from the written form of the High Tongue of the Giants, and some have speculated that their priests may have spoken the High Tongue in ritual contexts as well. They appear to have adopted the dwarven runes in the 1st century after the First Founding, and the use of the traditional pictographic script seems to have gradually declined over the following centuries. By approximately 400 FF, the Shetin were writing almost exclusively in runic, the pictographic script being retained only for religious and ceremonial inscriptions; some scholars have argued that by this point in time their day-to-day language had likely merged entirely with Classical Tevashi.
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