Rus (people)

The Rus are an ethnic group living in the northern hemisphere of Valdennia, in the region of the same name bordering the Inland Sea.

At the time of the arrival of the Yankees in 1865, there were upwards of 1.5 million Rus, but this number dramatically declined during the Tugar War and the Merki War.

It appears that the ancestors of the Rus arrived in Valdennia sometime in the early 14th century. Bob Fletcher accurately observes that the Rus farmed their land as their ancestors did 500 years ago. While Andrew Keane suggested that the army of Ivor Ivorovich looked like something out of the 10th or 11th century, other clues suggest a later date. Their use of a Primary Chronicle suggests a date of no earlier than the 12th century, when the Primary Chronicle of medieval Russia was first compiled. Moreover, their legend of Ilya Murometz and knowledge of Saint Basil of Murom suggests a later date, given Basil's death in the year 1295.

Yuri Yaroslavich observed in Terrible Swift Sword that there is in fact a second Rus realm located on the other side of Valdennia, possibly another group of arrivals through the Tunnel of Light.