Cipanguans

Native people of Cipangu

Introduction

Cipanguans are one of three major groups inhabiting the continent of Mu. They live mostly on the subcontinent of Cipangu, giving them their name. The other two major groups are Paleo-Magellanians and Austronesians. Cipanguans are overall not a heterogenous group, but belong to two or three macrolinguistic groups. Unlike the case of Paleo-Magellanians, it is clear that Cipanguages arrived from the north, via Siberia and can be classified into these two or three groups. The first ancestors of the Cipanguans arrived on Mu around eight thousand years BP.

Linguistic Subgroups

Cipanguans consist of three ethnolinguistic macrogroups, North-Cipanguans, Highland-Cipanguans and Atmuric Peoples. These three constitutes established ethnolinguistic units. Highland-Cipanguans and North-Cipanguans are debated to be related groups, which are in return likely related to the Chukcho-Kamchadal languages, together they form the Cipangu-Siberian Languages. The atmuric language meanwhile are debated to be related to the Ainu language of Hokkaido and possibly the Nivkh language of Sakhalin.

History and Lifestyle

The earliest Cipanguans seem to be the peoples, which are grouped under the label of Highland-Cipanguans. Another theory states that they arrived at the same time atmuric peoples. Whoever arrived first, there was a clear separation in lifestyles between them. This differences dictated also where they lived. The Highland-Cipanguans, as their name indicates live primarily in the mountainous regions. They can be grouped into three, northern, southern and people of the Geesh, living in Tukturshta. In antiquity they have been Hunter-Gatherers and horticulturalists. Their domestication of the native Marush seems to be an indigenous invention and not one imported from Siberia. The atmuric peoples dominated the lowlands and river valleys. They brought with them the art of pottery and farming techniques developed in northern Asia. They refined their knowledge by domesticating native crops. Atmuric peoples appear to have been once more widespread. Several atmuric vestige populations in southern central Cipangu, surrounded by Austronesian and Paleo-Magellanian peoples indicate this. Furthermore they seem to have once inhabited parts of Ebir too. Northern-Cipanguans were the last group from Siberia to come to Cipangu. They brought with them the domesticated reindeer, new maritime vessels, primitive metalurgy and the way of the shamans. Their expansion was swift and likely maritime in nature. These events transpired at around two thousand BC. The so called North-Cipanguan Maritime culture lasted for roughly five centuries thereafter and spawned many successive cultures, as the early Ebiran Cultures and the Abalai Culture.

Diverged ethnicities