Cerdics

The Cerdics are a fictional ethnolinguistic group described in worldbuilding and speculative archaeology. In the imagined history, they inhabited a coastal and upland region of central-northern Europe, roughly from the late Bronze Age into the early medieval period. They formed a loose confederation known as the Cerdic League, comprised of several territorial polities that shared religious centers and trade networks.

The Cerdic language is reconstructed in the fictional account as an early West Eurasian tongue, related to neighboring language families in the imagined landscape. Script usage is attested from inscriptions on metal and pottery, beginning with a runic-inspired system and later adopting an alphabet influenced by coastal literate cultures.

Society centers on chiefly lineages and a warrior elite, with craftspeople such as metalworkers, potters, and shipwrights playing significant roles. The economy combines pastoral agriculture, intensive metalworking, and long-distance trade, including exchange of tin, salt, and Mediterranean-style goods via river and sea routes. Settlements range from hillforts to harbor towns, with ritual sites that shaped political legitimacy.

Religious life features deities tied to nature, seasons, and ancestral veneration. Practices emphasize seasonal rites, feasting, and commemorative burials. Christianization or analogous processes are depicted in later phases of the fiction, often reflecting cultural contact with neighboring societies.

Archaeological sources in the setting include fortifications, graves, weapon deposits, and pottery styles, interpreted to show a pattern of regional autonomy within a broader political framework. In modern fiction and games, the Cerdics illustrate themes of cultural exchange and state formation in a transitional era.