A marshan (pronounced MARR-shahn) is a grouping of peoples in the Land of the Sun and Moon. Though the term has a literal meaning of something akin to "clan", it is in reality much broader than that, as each marshan contains many tribes and cultures. This distinction divides the inhabitants of the continent into two - the solar marshan and the lunar marshan. While these terms are perhaps best associated with the centaurs of the Land of the Sun and Moon, with for example the Eusarrag centaurs widely known as the solar centaurs, marshans encompass groups of multiple ancestries, and even settled peoples as well as those who live nomadic lives.
The origins of the marshans are hazy but have existed in some form since the earliest surviving oral histories and writings.
Marshans are an immutable form of identity. Even if an individual is completely and totally adopted by another culture, they remain part of the marshan of their birth, determined by that of their mother. Yet it can affect relatively little of one's life, especially to those living in the settled communities of the coast. They are likely to find assistance in foreign lands more readily from members of their own marshan, aided by the restricted language such status confers. There is no innate assumption of loyalty within a marshan, however. Two tribes who consider themselves to be of the same marshan may be on friendly terms, or they may equally likely be rivals or enemies.