Nailenes
The Nailenes were a culture active around the Medianic Arc, primarily in northern Lestria and southern Messenia, from approximately the 6th to 14th centuries. They descended from the colonisation of Lestria by zealots from the Neokos Empire, introducing Siriash and a house-based social model to that continent, but also maintaining religious and commercial contacts with Palthia that came to be asserted more forcefully after the Third Great Invasions. The Nailenes were thus marked by the distinct celebration of Messenian-origin high culture, claims to zealot ancestry, and intense interest in trans-Median adventure that grew into the Nailene Missions. Their exact form was versatile, with ethnically distinct Nailene communities coexisting with societies more strictly Carcharian, Saganic, or Palthic simply recognising Nailene superiority and undertaking some Nailene practices, and all being equally significant in defining the name. Nailene independence and distinctiveness declined after more strongly Lestrian or Messenian Sirian cultures emerged around the turn of the 2nd millennium, such as with the Lestrian Compaction, though the environment created by the Missions survived their political displacement for some time.
The Nailenes are named for Nailis, an Antissan wind deity later adopted as a champion or manifestation of Nevaras seen in the Inspired Meditations, and widely invoked by Neokos zealotry.
History
The early Nailenes of the 6th century came from house-based states that were emerging gradually as independent powers in southern Messenia, during the Prasinian Schism in the Neokos Empire. Their presence in Lestria and the Median was mostly continuous with earlier Neokos colonial activities. Following the Hallegeants' War and the rise of the Alavisid dynasty, many Lestrian colonies rejected allegiance to the Alavisids and the Third Coseptran Compact in Messenia, and established themselves as Lestrian-based powers akin to Carcharians of centuries prior. While expanding their presence in Lestria, these houses also intervened in the endemic Ecomachy in Alavisid Messenia, securing concessions from the Alavisid court and establishing outposts in their homelands in the process, effectively placing the Sirian Median exchange network in Lestrian hands.
In the 8th century, the first secular cycle of Nailene states came to an end, with the rise of domestic political tensions, conflicts between 'Lestrian' and 'Messenian' houses over alignment with the new Secote Dominion of Veliboria, and general disruptions and shifts in trade all combining to result in a slow collapse of the old houses' authority. In this context, from the 750s, increasingly rogue zealots and other sorts of Sirian fanatics began a wave of raids and invasions, again seeking to accomplish emulation through blood and fire. This triggered a wave of collapses and conquests known as the Godgerney (named for Godgernus) across Lestria, and Nailenes would provide the founding stock of the elites of almost every major culture that later appeared in the region, from Tarsh to Arsil. These raiders ventured as far as Petty-Lestria and Eastern Ascesia, and their power only abated in the mid-9th century as the states established by themselves and their rivals became more consolidated.
As the Godgernic states faced their own tensions, the 10th century saw a second wave of upheavals and conquests known as the Ispartery (after Isparter). Culturally, the zealotry was now clearly more influenced by neo-Antissan themes from the further development of Sirian culture in Lestria. The immediate effects of the Ispartery was not as dramatic as the Godgerney, with most states managing to resist or co-opt the zealotry, but these experiences combined with the advances in Sirian learning the upheaval reflected to produce the Lestrian Compaction in the 11th century, as well as the beginning of Lestrianising efforts towards Messenia in the Nailene Missions. The culture of the Nailenes was steadily marginalised by native Lestrian counterparts strengthened by the reforms that characterised Compaction; Nailene society, if not assimilated, became subservient to centralised states with a Lestrian cultural identity. Nevertheless, distinct Nailenes retained many elite or otherwise critical positions, especially in trade and warfare, and Nailene dynasties (some even still bearing Messenian names) continued to rule in many states.
While the period of the 12th to 15th centuries saw much religious and political change in the Medianic Arc involving the Nailene Missions, the Nailenes themselves had declined in importance and independence, and the Missions mostly served as one-way attempts by Lestrians to influence Messenia. The Nailenes gradually dissolved into a set of disparate 'post-Nailene' minorities, castes, and communities spread around the arc.