Lenia

The Lenian people are an association of tribes on the planet Teppala. They are typically light-skinned, with blonde hair and blue eyes. They live in warm climates where dark-skinned people outnumber them; blonde people in colder climates prefer to identify themselves as Poswobs or use their specific tribal name.

The concept of Lenia as a political entity was popularized during an early war against Laba in an attempt to get all of the blonde tribes in the world to unite as one and fight off Laba's invading army. However, the attempt failed, with more Lenians helping the invaders than resisting them. The Lenian tribes that were on the winning side of this war kept the name for themselves, with the losing tribes abandoning their tribal identities to instead identify with the multiethnic states they lived in.

Language

See Lenian languages.

Languages called Lenian can be:

1. hipatal,
2. fojy,
3. Subumpamese languages, or
4. paleo-Pabappa.

The Lenians historically spoke languages of the Fojy branch, but in modern times some have adopted the languages of surrounding tribes. The vast majority of the populations of Tata and Dreamland are of Lenian ancestry as well, but have broken away from the tribes to the west and identify with their nation and its political structure rather than their tribal identity.

Demographics

The original Lenians were light-skinned people with blonde hair and blue eyes. They were of medium stature and thin build. Thus they shared their coloration and overall body size with the Pabap people. Unlike the Pabaps, however, the Lenians of Fojy were warm-adapted people with slow metabolisms. Thus, they were well-suited to their tropical habitats so long as they moderated their exposure to the sun by wearing protective clothes and staying in shaded areas during the hot parts of the day.

Modern-day Lenians still fit this description very well, but they have intermarried with dark-skinned tribes and therefore have adopted these foreign characteristics at low frequencies. The facial shape is the greatest difference between the Lenians and the Baeban tribes to their south and east; while skin color can change with sun exposure, facial features are the same from day to day. Skin color is lightest in the southwest, where the sun is at its brightest, and darkest in the northeast as the climate becomes cooler. This is because few dark-skinned people were interested in settling the deserts of the far southwest, and intertribal contact has been rare for their entire history. A similar maladaptive skin color gradation is seen in Pusapom, with the darkest Poswobs living precisely where their skin color is least useful. However, light-skinned Lenians in the extreme southwest avoid sunburn simply by eating a vegetable-rich diet which leads them to retain carotene in their skin. These vegetables can grow in the desert because rivers are plentiful and soil contamination is minimal.