Kyonikos

The Kyonian people were once seafaring humans who long ago established a multitude of wealthy city states and merchant nations along the rugged, humid coasts of eastern Quenyar, known as Kyonia. Various historical great events would eventually lead to a diaspora of the Kyonian people. Many stayed in their homeland while their influence abroad grew. Their bloodlines would influence many of the great human nations of the known world. However, now, their homeland has gradually fallen into ruin and their legacy abroad has been wrought with conflict.

History
The people who would become the Kyonians had dwelled in the land of Kyonia for millenia since time immemorial. Whoever, or whatever, truly came before them is lost to history. Kyonian folk legend, however, tells that three tribes of peoples once dwelled in Kyonia, the Tribe of the Lion, the Tribe of the Dunes, and the Tribe of the Wolf. Eventually the Tribe of the Wolf became dominant and would establish the beginnings of ancient Kyonia.

The Kyonians would come to global prominence with the long and prosperous reign of the Tyrmeidian Imperium founded by the semi-mythical Kyonian hero Autolykos Tyrmeides. This nation, with its wonderous advances in combining magic and infrastructure, would spread the Kyonian people and culture all across the known world. The empire would lead to large migrations of Kyonians to the imperial lands in the Westcrowns and Eastcrowns. These Kyonian travelers would establish their own sizable presence within these foreign territories and eventually evolved into distinct Kyonian offshoot cultures.

After the fall of the Tyrmeidian Imperium, the people of Kyonia where plunged into a long and bloody chaos. To this day they still reel from the effects of the collapse, their land war-torn and ruined cities dotting the landscape. Those that survived have become divided into bitter feuding city-states whose mutual collapse seems all but inevitable now.

Culture
The Kyonians had a rich and vibrant culture which emphasized learning and scholarly pursuits.

A great motif in Kyonian culture was the depiction of the Great Wolf. Wolves held great spiritual importance to the Kyonians. Wolves where seen as a companion animal to the Kyonian people and both where intrinsically connected in some way. Kyonians are sometimes referred to as "wolfmen."

Purportedly, those with pure Kyonian blood possessed the ability to transform into great wolfmen, known as Werewolves. Some accounts claim Autolykos Tyrmeides as amongst the Kyonian Werewolves. However, the historicity of these records are topic of great dispute, most notably by the Tower Society, and no wolfmen have been reliably recorded. Information on this topic from sources contemporary of the time is often dubious.

When Kyonian culture had spread throughout the world during the reign of the Tyrmeidian Imperium, many subcultures formed as Kyonians settled in far away lands. These new cultures where uniquely distinct from the original people of Kyonia. Kyonians who followed Autolykos' exodus, or emigrated afterwards, assimilated and fused their Kyonian roots with the local native cultures of Westcrowns and Eastcrowns.

Westcrowns Kyonikoi
The Kyonikoi of Westcrowns are largely composed of descendants of those who followed Autolykos on his exodus. These Kyonikoi would spread their customs across Westcrowns, and a cultural exchange between both foreign and native cultures underwent.

Many of these Kyonians turned to Triunism as their leader Arakhas had while still holding onto their venerance of the wolf. As a result wolf imagery has been partially adopted by Triune iconography from the diffusion of cultures. Malvost is sometimes depicted as the Great Wolf, and more commonly amongst a host of wolven warriors and companions.

Today, there are few pureblood Kyonians left in Westcrowns, assimilation has diluted Kyonian bloodlines with the native inhabitants of Westcrowns. Their culture, too, has evolved beyond the traditions of their homeland, having adopted and exchanged many customs of the native Westcrownsmen. Today these "Kyonians" are Kyonian only in name rather than culture and blood (however this name still remains exceedingly important to them).

After the fall of Aldervas, the many Westcrown Kyonians who remained there have become scattered elsewhere as refugees.

Eastcrowns Kyonikoi
Having guarded their culture more carefully than the Westcrowns Kyonians, those who emigrated to the Eastcrowns during the height of the Tyrmeidian Imperium still more closely practice the customs of their homeland.

Unlike Westcrowns, whos Kyonikoi where mostly of the descent of Arakhas' men, the majority of those who dwelled in Eastcrowns where wealthy nobles, merchants, and governors who had emigrated to the exotic cities of Eastcrowns with the promise of greater status and wealth due to their Kyonian blood. As a result, assimilation into Eastcrowns culture was resisted, and instead they held a greater emphasis on preserving the purity of their culture amongst the natives. This included avoiding intermarriage with natives.

To this day Kyonians in Eastcrowns have formed and maintained their own subgroup of peoples among the populace of Eastcrowns. They are commonly known for being dignitaries, nobles, and administrative officials, serving for centuries as advisers to the many monarchs of the land.

Appearance
The Kyonians are human people who are skilled seafarers. Their skin tones are often olive or darker due to the hot Quenyar sun of their homeland. Kyonians have sometimes been likened to wolves, with their teeth more like fangs than other men, their nails more like claws, and their hair like wild beasts.

Notable Kyonians

 * Autolykos Tyrmeides - Legendary conquerer and first Imperator of the Tyrmeidian Imperium, masterful sorcerer and the supposed Ternion. First wielder of the Warcraft. Life shrouded in semi-mythical tales and folk stories.