Gao-Showa people

Gao-Showa people 高國人 Gāoguó Rén 御國人 Mikokuzin 國人 Kunihito
Total population
About 600 million
Regions with significant populations
Hanzen	150 million
Kimlien	120 million
Indrala	90 million
Sekowo	64 million
Mikuni-Hulstria	38 million
Dranland	35 million
New Endralon (Kutohaderia)	19 million
Beluzia	15 million
North Dovani (Utari-mosir)	10 million
Kazulia	5 million
Kalistan	3 million
Languages
Gao-Indralan Languages
Religions
Kamism, Guidao, Jienism
Daenism (Upayana, Mazdayana, Zensho), Hosianism, Tenshism, Kanzo
Related ethnic groups

The Gao-Showa people (Indralan: 高國人 Gāoguó Rén, Kunikata: 御國人 Mikokuzin or 國人 Kunihito) are a meta-ethnicity originating in west Dovani, and are the predominant nationality of Hanzen, Kimlien, Indrala, Tukarali, Sekowo, and Utari-mosir. Worldwide, approximately 600 million people are of Gao-Showan descent; of which 85% of them are residents of the aforementioned predominant Gao-Showan nations. Originally an exonym for the Kunihito ethnic group, the term have been used as a blanket term for all the ethnic groups that are heavily influenced by the Gao-Showan culture.

Culture

	«Gentle like water; acute like blossom.»
	(Morgan Hoayek-Scheer/Makoto Hayasi, "Overview of the Gishoton Culture")

See also: Gao-Showa Clans

Language

The languages spoken by the Gao-Showan peoples fall into two language families, the Gao-Indralan Family and the Jelbo-Tukaric Family. One of the defining characteristics of the Gao-Showa people is their shared usage of the Gao characters, which was believed to be the first writing system of classical Kunikata, the official language of the Empire of Gao-Soto, or writing systems derived from the Gao characters. Because of the shared writing system, as well as the vast number of loanwords from classical Kunikata, it has been believed for long that all native languages of the Gao-Showa people share the same language family, known as the Gao-Indralan Languages. However, modern linguistic studies have shown that the relation between many of the Gao-Showan languages are smaller than originally believed. It is believed that those languages are either heavily influenced by the native languages, or they are a collection of genealogically unrelated languages that are heavily influenced by classical Kunikata.

Religion

Kamism, and related religions such as Guidao, is believed to be the direct descent of the indigenous proto-religion practiced by pre-historical Gao-Showa people. Because of the lack of rigid clerical structure or churches, or a universally-accepted sets of tenets beyond the most basic world view, the Gao-Showan religions are often considered to be eclectic rather than exclusive. Because of that, many Gao-Showa people, unlike many western ethnicities, practice more than one religion at the same time. Because of that, many exclusive religions such as the Qedarite faiths either do not gain massive popularity until fairly recently, or have undergone modifications on the tenets to allow its Gao-Showan followers to practice multiple faiths simultaneously.

Arts

A kunihito sumiwe (ink painting). Ink painting is often considered to be one of the most famous and characteristic type of traditional Gao-Showa art.

Arts of the Gao-Showa people can be dated back to pre-historic times, from both archaeological discoveries, and the few tribes that are of Gao-Showa descent but were not assimilated by the Empire of Gao-Soto or later colonists. It is believed that, similar to other cultures, the earliest decorative arts were used to record epics, tales, or legends of the proto-Gao-Showa people. While these early pictogram were developed into alphabet system and mostly departed from art in the west, the ideographic Gao characters are used from the earliest written record of Gao-Showa people until this day. Because of that, the characters themselves, as well as the tool used for writing like ink, are usually incorporated in painting and other forms of art, more so than many other cultures.

Although there are many art styles since the Gao-Soton times, some of them quite similar to other art styles in other parts of the world, ink painting (Kunikata: 墨絵, sumiwe) is often considered the most characteristic of traditional Gao-Showa art and philosophy. For ink painting, the main goal of the painting is not to replicate the actual visual image of the drawn object, but to portray its nature and spirit. Although some form of visual accuracy is still needed, for it also contribute to the spirit of the object, it is often considered that the metaphysical meanings take precedent of the physical appearance. Because of the spiritual nature of the art, as well as the usual limitation of ink-based drawing, most Gao-Showa drawings are monochrome, faint, and leave a lot of blank space, the composition of which can create vastly different interpretation for different viewers. As ink painting style became mature during the Gao-Soton times, the art of leaving blank has become as important, if not even more important, than the drawing itself.

On the other end of the spectrum, though, some Gao-Showa arts, especially performance, are the opposite of the faint and calming image of ink painting. Using the same principle that created the ink painting, some Gao-Showa arts, such as the performance of kabuki, utilise various visual and sensational motifs and images to create a rapid, surreal, and even psychedelic feeling for the viewers, and use them to convey the nature and spirit of the subject that is being performed.

Traditional Gao-Showa faith such as Kamism also believe that everything that possess a kami are also subjected to change, and thus it can be said that everything is constantly changing, including the object and the artist, and the change of nature, and the interaction between the spirits, is often also reflected on the art itself. As such, it has been said that even with the same artist drawing the same thing, two drawings can be vastly different, since both the object and the artist has changed.

Because of the belief that most, if not all, objects, phenomena, even cosmic laws, possess their own spirit that are not very different from what a human will possess, anthropomorphism is also a very common trait of Gao-Showa arts. Apart from many spirits that are themselves personification of natural phenomena, it is very common for Gao-Showa artists to incorporate human traits into non-human entities. For some styles, non-human traits are also incorporated into human to symbolise the fundamental symbiosis between human and the natural world it dwells in.

History

It is believed that the Gao-Showan people originated in south-east Utari-mosir of the Great North Dovani Plain, before migrating towards the rest of the west Dovani since the 5th century. Originally a nomadic people, proto-Gao-Showan people most likely first settled in the land of Gao-Soto (west Greater Hulstria) around CE 600, where the Empire of Gao-Soto, the first Gao-Showan nation ever, was established around Hilgar and coastal Hulstria. Since then, the Gao-Showan people have colonised west and north Dovani, assimilating natives that are either of proto-Gao-Showan descent, or indigenous ethnic groups in the continent, reaching as far as Indrala and south Dovani no later than 14th century.

The first contact with western cultures were made between Christopher Dove of Luthori and Kunihito, the predominant ethnicity of Gao-Soto and Gao-Showa people at the time. However, as the Empire of Gao-Soto was already in decline for centuries at the time of the discovery, the Gao-Showa people soon became the victims of western colonisation, as Gao-Soto, Indrala, Dranland and Sekowo became the colonies of Luthori, Egelion and Aloria respectively.

The land now known as Mikuni-Hulstria is the first Gao-Showan land in Dovani to regain its independence, however it was done underHulstrian, rather than Gao-Showan, leadership, which ultimately proceed to build its own colonial empire in Dovani. Although there was a brief revival of Kunihito leadership as the short-lived dual monarchy, Kunihito population in Hulstria remained generally under-represented in the field of modern politics until the second dual monarchy and subsequent centuries, as a result of which the Kunihito gained a dominant political role. Since the 20th century, other Gao-Showan land such as Indrala, Sekowo and Dranland regained their independence and re-established their status as Gao-Showan nations.

Because of the long history of oppression by colonial and western-centric independent governments, many of the Gao-Showa people started to turn towards nationalism and its more radical variants, collectively known as pan-Gao-Showan nationalism. These nationalist ideologies, many of them aiming to re-establish Gao-Showa as a single ethnicity and thus to form a single nation state in Dovani, gained momentum in many Gao-Showan states in 29th and 30th century in Indrala, Second Sekowan Empire and Dranland. Following the aftermath of the Southern Hemisphere War, where Zardugal lost all of its Dovani possessions, many more independent Gao-Showan states have been established by Indrala under the doctrine of pan-Gao-Showan nationalism.

Related Ethnic Groups

Because of the long history of expansion and assimilation of native ethnicities by the Empire of Gao-Soto since its foundation, the Gao-Showa super-ethnicity encompass a wide range of ethnic groups that share many aspects of culture, religion, and language with each other. According to genealogy, genetics, linguistics and cultural anthropology, the Gao-Showa people can be roughly divided into the following groups.

• Central Gao-Showa
  • Kunihito
    • Hulstrian Kunihito
    • Sekowans
  • Kyo
  • Kuzakis

• North Gao-Showa
  • Utari
  • Welang

• South Gao-Showa
  • Đinh
  • Indralans
  • Phra

• West Gao-Showa (disputed)
  • Mu-Tze
  • Bianjie
  • Tukarese