Meťaiun
From Almeopedia
Meťaiun [me ˈθaj un] is properly the adjective form of Meťaiu; it's used in Almean studies for the Monkhayic peoples of Eretald and for their language— as opposed to the Monkhayu of Sarnáe. Their own name for themselves was (northern) Monȟado or (southern) Monȟaro ‘the people’; this was borrowed into Caďinor as Moȟnaro, and underlies modern Monkhayu as well as Kebreni neḣada ‘people’.
The Meťaiun are of the Taëse race, but not closely related to any other group. They inhabited Eretald as far back as we can trace human settlement. They adopted agriculture around -2000, with wheat as their chief crop, and the first states appear around -1150: Como and Meťaiu along the upper Svetla. The location suggests influence from Xengiman.
The next centuries were the height of their civilization. The large kingdoms of Davur, Ažimbea, and Newor all faced the sea; they were the first Ereláean people to exploit the littoral. Their kings were merely the chief of their barons, with little power in peacetime. They're also known for first domesticating the pig and making wine.
In -350 the Eastern people invaded the plain, and within a century Meťaiun-ruled states had been pushed to the littoral. Meťaiun fleeing the invasion also settled Kebri and spilled into Sarnáe, pushing back the ktuvok empire of Munkhâsh. When Munkhâsh conquered half the plain starting in 440, the Meťaiun were nearly all conquered, and suffered greatly under the occupation.
The littoral states of Leziunea and Awoilas recovered and, like Caďinas and Aránicer, slowly pushed the Munkhâshi back. But in the early 1600s all the ground gained was lost again, as the Munkhâshi poured through Meťaiun territory in order to attack Eretald. The Meťaiun were liberated by the Caďinorians, but the price paid was incorporation into their empire.
The modern descendants of the Meťaiun, in language and culture, are the Kebreni and the Monkhayu. Genetically, much of Eretald, Sarnáe, and even the Rau delta have a large admixture of Meťaiun blood.
