Kaunians

Kaunians are a fictional racial/ethnic group in the Darkness Series. They are described as having fair skin, with blonde hair and blue (or sometimes gray) eyes. Kaunians parallel Europe's Jews in our world. The Kaunian nations are Valmiera and Jelgava. Their influence on modern Derlavai is similar to that of the Romans on modern Europe: the language of the ancient Kaunian Empire, classical Kaunian, is used as a language of scholarship throughout Derlavai. Their architecture has been adopted by nearly all the kingdoms in the east of Derlavai.

The Kaunian Empire was a large state that existed some thousand years before the events of the series. It dominated northeastern Derlavai, and maintained a colony in present-day Lagoas. It ultimately collapsed for reasons similar to those of the Roman Empire's collapse in the real world, but left behind a legacy of culture, politics, and knowledge that forms the foundation of modern Derlavaian society. Present-day Kaunians are concentrated in the kingdoms of Valmiera and Jelgava. Valmieran and Jelgavan are analogous to the Romance languages of today in that both are closely related to each other and each descends from classical Kaunian. There are Kaunians scattered throughout Algarve, most of whom are culturally indistinguishable from the Algarvian majority (they have Algarvic names rather than Kaunian ones, and enjoy the same tastes in music and food). There are also Kaunians in Forthweg, who coexist uneasily with the Forthwegian majority. They speak unabridged classical Kaunian and try as best they can to maintain the traditions of the Kaunian Empire. Kaunians are hated by most Forthwegians and are seen by Algarvians as their primary enemies. Many people in Lagoas and Kuusamo have Kaunian blood.

The Kaunians in Forthweg become victims of Algarve's war. They are forced into ghettos (the Kaunian ghetto in a given city is referred to as the "Kaunian quarter") and then rounded up and taken to camps in Unkerlant, where they are killed and their life energy harvested. This energy is used to power a destructive spell which causes earthquakes and purple flames. Algarve uses it to gain advantage against their Unkerlanter foes. A Kaunian woman named Vanai, who lives in Forthweg, devises a spell which enables Kaunians to take on the appearance of Forthwegians. By the end of the series the number of Kaunians in Forthweg has been severely reduced.

Kaunian languages and names, for both places and people, are taken from the Baltic languages of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia.