Worldbuilding

Not to be confused with Legacy Americans. For other uses, see American (disambiguation).

Americans (singular: American, IPA: /əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kən/) are a heterogeneous ethnic group most heavily concentrated in Europe. They descend from the historical Usonian diaspora. Americans first started to be commonly distinguished from Usonians during the Deluge of Elephants in the time of the Second US Civil War; this distinction, often called the Usonian-American split, was solidified by the formation of the American representative organization Amicon and the publication of its manifesto Amdec in the year 2049.

Americans commonly speak English, Spanish, and French, or derived languages, often freely blending these with each other and with the local languages of areas where they live; many Americans are denaskuloj as well. Deaf Americans most often have European American Sign Language (EASL, IPA: /ˈi.zəl/) as their first language, a divergent and variable form of American Sign Language with partial intelligibility with Locotian American Sign Language (LASL, IPA: /ˈleɪ.zəl/). EASL is designated as one of the three federal working languages of the European Federation alongside Esperanto and Interslavic.

Prior to the Usonian-American split, "American" was a historical name of Usonians. The word comes from "America", the colonial name of Abya Yala, which had come to be used totum pro parte to refer to the United States of America. Modern Americans chose to use the name "American" for themselves in part as an attempt to skunk the term in reference to Abya Yala and the USA. Following the decolonization of Abya Yala, however, a name debate has ignited among Americans on the appropriateness of continuing to use a colonial name referencing Amerigo Vespucci. No replacement name has caught on, however.

The American flag is based on the Usonian flag. It depicts nine horizontal stripes of red and white, with a sky blue canton bearing a large red star. The nine stripes reference the nine regional amicons of Europe whose representatives drafted and signed Amdec; while the red star represents the "new lodestar" of socialism. In its original context, as the Usonian flag's white stars represented a "new constellation" of the constituent states of the United States of America, the American flag's replacement of these white stars with a single red star was intended to symbolize Amdec's assertion that Americans "[did] not belong to any state of the USA", and that the USA was an illegitimate and illegal occupation regime. A common practice among Americans known as "scrifting" the flag symbolizes that American identity is based in interpersonal connections rather than claims to land.

In the modern day, the red star is often said to symbolize the role that Americans played in the Locotian Revolution and in the Socialist Revolution in Europe.

Americans are generally divided into the "Old Dogs" and the "New Litter" according to their relationship to the Deluge of Elephants. Other terms or phrases often used by Americans include "retour", "oh-ro", "ami", "see single" and "em and en?".