The Hi-na

The Hi-na have retained the ancient beliefs and customs of the original Hi people who migrated to Lin Wa from the deserts of Chidan. Their way of life is constantly under assault by the the Hi-ren, who treat them as barbarians. At first, the Hi-na tried to make peace with their neighbors, and had succeeded in at least protecting what lands they had left, until recently, when a new Minister of War was appointed - Ho Chien Han, originally a Hi-na warrior. Now, the Hi-na find that their mountains are being mined and their forests being cleared to make room for the ever-expanding Hi-ren cities. Their culture is denounced as superstition and nonsense by the Hi-ren and they are finding it difficult to convince their youth to remain in Hi-na lands when the Hi-ren are visibly more prosperous. Many customs and traditions are dying out, and the elders are at an impasse. Only recently have the Hi-na begun to fight back, razing one city, Yangshang, to the ground entirely, the shamans calling upon the wild to surge and crush the trappings of civilization. Where before the Hi-ren and Hi-na reluctantly shared resources, now the Hi-na hoard them, forcing the Hi-ren to take them by force. The results of this tension have been oftentimes bloody.
The Hi-na practice ancestor-worship, having a strong reverence for nature and the wild. Many of them are druids and shamans, calling themselves spirit-walkers. They have no written language, but they do possess a strong oral tradition that is kept alive by their storytellers.