Nazruls

Nazruls is a fictional ethnolinguistic group used in world-building and speculative fiction. In most depictions, the Nazruls inhabit a river valley network in the imagined Shara basin, with coastal trading towns and upland farming villages linked by ships and ferries. The term Nazrul is used for both the people and their language family, sometimes called Nazran.

Society among the Nazruls tends to be organized around kin-based clans. Leadership is typically a council of elders, with a ceremonial or festival figure serving as a liaison during times of dispute or celebration. The economy centers on river trade, artisan crafts such as weaving and metalwork, and small-scale agriculture. Social life emphasizes hospitality, mediation of conflicts, and a strong oral storytelling tradition that preserves history and myth.

Language and culture are closely tied. The Nazran language is described in various depictions as agglutinative, with features such as vowel harmony in some communities. It supports rich poetic forms and proverbs, and most Nazrul communities are bilingual in a neighboring trade language used for external dealings. Religious and ritual life often blends river worship with ancestral veneration and festival ceremonies.

In fiction, the Nazruls appear in novels, role-playing games, and films as a distinct yet diverse culture. Their epics and songs are commonly used to explore themes of migration, exchange, and the tension between tradition and change. Scholars within these fictional worlds study Nazrul customs to illuminate trade networks and social cohesion, though Nazruls are not a real-world ethnic group.