Favorite random nation, culture, ethnic group, or religion?

Count of Crisco

Count of Crisco

Do you have a secret love for the Norte Chico civilization? The Luwians? The Bo people maybe? How about the Ket? Or another random people that you think deserve more attention or are underappreciated by the AH.com community? This is the thread for you then.

The way this works is simple. Tell us about your favorite lesser known peoples, cultures, or religions of the world and read what others have written for their own favorites. Links are welcome, and even appreciated.
 
AltoRegnant

AltoRegnant

I don't know a lot about them, certainly not as much a I should, but given that I'm from the PNW, I'm always partial to the idea of a surviving chinook or Haida polity. Neither are really lesser known, since I think everyone knows a bit about their states first inhabitants, but compared to the east coast or great planes, the natives out west do get a lot less attention
 
Count of Crisco

Count of Crisco

AltoRegnant said:
I don't know a lot about them, certainly not as much a I should, but given that I'm from the PNW, I'm always partial to the idea of a surviving chinook or Haida polity. Neither are really lesser known, since I think everyone knows a bit about their states first inhabitants, but compared to the east coast or great planes, the natives out west do get a lot less attention
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I lived near the Tulalip reservation for a few years. I agree west coast tribes get alot less attention than they deserve.
 

Carter I'm Yog

Banned
Mazdayasna, really. How many people call them by the way they call themselves instead of "Zoroastrians"? The proper term is not even listed in AH autocorrect yet the exonym is.
TBH it's not exactly my favorite religion, but have a personal fondness towards misrepresented and underrepresented systems of belief.
 
Aluma

Aluma

I dont think I can "love" another religion but I find Discordianism pretty fun, perhaps the funniest overall, it's a bunch of weirdos.
Zoroastrianism is also completely disregarded outside of history groups and I think that's a pity,
I mean! Cyrus is recognized as a messiah(not THE messiah) in all abrahamic religions and called by God as his servant, meaning that while the zoroastrian beliefs may be seen as false by those religions the deity that Cyrus served was still the God with big G by these religions as well! Plus from a secular standpoint it was what influenced their developement in the first place, not to mention it was such a big player for thousands of years.
Also not a religion per see but if I were pagan I'd go for Hestia, Metis and Cura, pretty underrated goddesses who I'd argue to be the best deities in the greek-roman pantheon.
For people I'd first say the guarani because, well, I'm brazilian! And they still exist as a people in Paraguay.
While for nation I think the Serene Republic of Venice is very overlooked much like the other italian republics and I'm like "why?' because it's such a fascinating system of governance and before the US & France they were the way-to-go if you wanted to make a Republic.
 
Aghasverov

Aghasverov

Beatriz said:
The Adyghe
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I'll second Beatriz on the Adyghe here, but expand it to the Circassians in general... fascinating culture, speaking dialects of an absolutely unique language, and meeting a pretty horrible fate in what could be considered the 1st "modern" act of systematic genocide and ethnic cleansing... too few people know of their history.

I've got this "thing" for the Caucasus region in general... if you're looking for random, you won't find a more seemingly random collection of peoples, cultures and religions anywhere :)
 
Viking25

Viking25

BrSonic said:
I dont think I can "love" another religion but I find Discordianism pretty fun, perhaps the funniest overall, it's a bunch of weirdos.
Zoroastrianism is also completely disregarded outside of history groups and I think that's a pity,
I mean! Cyrus is recognized as a messiah(not THE messiah) in all abrahamic religions and called by God as his servant, meaning that while the zoroastrian beliefs may be seen as false by those religions the deity that Cyrus served was still the God with big G by these religions as well! Plus from a secular standpoint it was what influenced their developement in the first place, not to mention it was such a big player for thousands of years.
Also not a religion per see but if I were pagan I'd go for Hestia, Metis and Cura, pretty underrated goddesses who I'd argue to be the best deities in the greek-roman pantheon.
For people I'd first say the guarani because, well, I'm brazilian! And they still exist as a people in Paraguay.
While for nation I think the Serene Republic of Venice is very overlooked much like the other italian republics and I'm like "why?' because it's such a fascinating system of governance and before the US & France they were the way-to-go if you wanted to make a Republic.
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Maybe Hades? Their never seems to be any Timelines where his cult gains more favour or something like that and I find that to be a shame as pychopmop Greece sounds very interesting
 
Aluma

Aluma

Viking25 said:
Maybe Hades? Their never seems to be any Timelines where his cult gains more favour or something like that and I find that to be a shame as pychopmop Greece sounds very interesting
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Well Cura is sort of a female mix of Hades and Prometheus but I absolutely agree
 
Count of Crisco

Count of Crisco

Carter I'm Yog said:
Mazdayasna, really. How many people call them by the way they call themselves instead of "Zoroastrians"? The proper term is not even listed in AH autocorrect yet the exonym is.
TBH it's not exactly my favorite religion, but have a personal fondness towards misrepresented and underrepresented systems of belief.
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Yeah, whats crazy to me is that whatever you call it this was one of the biggest religions of the ancient world, the first significant monotheist religion. It possibly influenced later religions like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (obviously if you adhere to one of these religions than thats hogwash) and yet today its fallen largely out of common practice in most of the regions where it once was prominent.
 
Purrangzeb

Purrangzeb

The Lipka tartars. They're effectively the only group of Muslims to have lived in northern europe for 500+ years, originating in the late 1300s as mercenaries in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
 

Elfwine

Love is a strong word, but the Alans intrigue me. I don't want a "Alania dominant in the Eurasian steppes." timeline or anything, but they're worth mentioning as a part of that part of the world.
 
Aghasverov

Aghasverov

Count of Crisco said:
Yeah, whats crazy to me is that whatever you call it this was one of the biggest religions of the ancient world, the first significant monotheist religion. It possibly influenced later religions like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (obviously if you adhere to one of these religions than thats hogwash) and yet today its fallen largely out of common practice in most of the regions where it once was prominent.
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Actually had a classmate in college MANY years ago who was Iranian Zoroastrian/Mazdayasna, on her father's side of the family... wish I had asked her more about it!
 

PecuTheGreat

Aghasverov said:
Yes to Church of the East! Amazing that as widespread as Nestorian missionary activity was at one time, throughout most of Asia, that the Assyrians are the last hold-outs....
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The more I get to know about how wide spread the Church of the East and other Churches managed to get in Afro-Eurasia and then just died out from the 1300s just sadens me.

From Takur to Ife and Kanem, the Eurasian steppe to China, Socotra to Sumatra and it all just practically vasnished by the 1500s.
 
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Count of Crisco

Count of Crisco

Aghasverov said:
Actually had a classmate in college MANY years ago who was Iranian Zoroastrian/Mazdayasna, on her father's side of the family... wish I had asked her more about it!
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Oh cool! I have a similar regret as I went to school with a girl who immigrated from Mexico and she spoke Nahuatl. Wish I would have asked her about it more.
 
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