Lashardians

**Lashardians** (Lashardian: *Lasdö*) are an East Titovic ethnic group, who speak the Lashardian language and reside primarily in Lashardia.

## Description

### Physical description

Like many other Titovic ethnic groups, Lashardians are largely fair-skinned with light hair and eyes. An overwhelming majority of ethnic Lashardians have blonde hair and blue eyes, with 86% of Lashardians identifying as blonde-haired and blue-eyed. A further 8% identify as brown-haired and blue-eyed, while 4% identify as blonde-haired and brown-eyed, and 2% as brown-haired and brown-eyed. Red hair is not uncommon in Lashardia, with 7% of those experiencing light hair identifying as redheads. The average height for a male Lashardian is 6', while the average height for a female is 5'8".

## Demographics

There are about 10 million Lashardians throughout the world, with approximately 90% of those residing within Lashardia. The remaining 10% reside in other former-Titovic countries, such as Pesa, Adoriam, and Consensum, and have largely lived there for generations.

## Culture

### Languages

The language of Lashardians is Lashardian. Lashardian is a member of the East Titovic branch of Asmatic languages, along with Pesan and Adoriamian, to whom it is closely related to. Lashardian is spoken as a mother tongue by approximately 97% of Lashardia.

### Names

The Lashardian people have a unique way of naming their children in contrast to other nations. By law, every person is required to have a first name, middle name, and last name.

A first name is given to a child at birth by their parents. All female first names must end in "a" or "e", while no male names can end in any vowel at all. A person's middle name is chosen by themselves upon their eighteenth birthday and still must abide to gender rules. Typically, a child chooses the first name of someone in their lives important to them, as their middle name. It is not uncommon for boys to remove the "a" or "e" from a female name or girls to add an "a" or "e" to a male name, to make it their middle name. Middle names are rarely used in everyday language and are only for official use. A person's last name has two parts, the patronymic and the family name. The patronymic is the person's father's name followed by an "ö" (the Lashardian word for 'and'), to separate the two parts. If there's no father present, a matronymic is commonly used. However, as female names end in an "a" or "e", the final letter is dropped in the matronymic so the "ö" does not follow another vowel. The family name follows the patronymic and is passed down by generation. These rules do not have to be followed by non-Lashardian nationals living in Lashardia. Women often do not take their husbands' surnames at marriage, but it is not unheard of if they want to separate themselves from their family in particular.

For example, the current president of Lashardia's full name is Olla Sabine Ottöfrenz. Her first name chosen by her parents is Olla, her middle name chosen at eighteen is Sabine, her father's first name is Ott, and her family name is Frenz.

### Religion

Traditionally, Lashardians adhere to the Lashardian Orthodox Church, a subgroup of the Asmatic Orthodox Church of Christianity. However, in recent years a more and more overwhelming majority of Lashardians have been declaring themselves as irreligious, agnostic, or atheist. Most irreligious Lashardians reside in Lashardia, with a large amount of foreign-residing Lashardians retaining their traditional religion.