Real-World Influences: This one’s a little vaguer. Generally, Turkic, Incan, and Scythian. Calassines hail from the continent of Mitrion, which they call Nöş, but migrated to modern-day Calassy long ago. They tend to have mid-to-dark brown skin and black hair. Stemming from a few initial families, about 70% of Calassines have blue or light-colored eyes. Calassines are communal, even collectivist, historically belligerent, and industrious. Historically, Calassines were nomadic, organizing both around powerful herder lords (Dorohat) and warlords (Azet) in times of strife. Like the Talens, Calassines are quite equestrian, favoring heavy shock cavalry and horse archers. In terms of faith, they are split. Most worship the God of Sasinthy, but in a form contemporary to Adanism. A notable minority, called the Asarom, worship Basoznom, a god of plenty some believe derives from the Mitrionan faith of Namorism.
Calassines favor ornamental art and tapestry, though some prominent Dorohat funded statues throughout history. Typically, Calassine art favors animal and figure motifs. Gold ornaments tend to be intricate, while masonry sculpture tends to be smoothly geometric in style. They wear bulky clothing, typically made of wool, cut in diagonal lapels across the body. More lavish clothing is silken. Almost universally, they prefer red and white as colors, and prefer to dress austerely with the exception of ornamentation and accessories. Their designs favor the bull and the horse (Damor-de Tokat), the spear of Kales (Hasyan Kaleyeh), and red and white lilies, which represent the love of Hasaleh and Olenehy in the Black Vanuko mythic cycle.
They’re represented by the Ketsalanka dialect of Calassine, which looks like this: Mútuda, veh Védikates, Selaáyáze Dámor’zaha va bezevit, kósök salozam sögukvakam-tohazu prakemötakages. (To you, my first-among-lords, I give the Bulls of Damor, a ship of war that bears in force fifty and twenty-five cannons.)