Shinohitei

The shinohite are the dead tribesmembers, wich instead of dying turned into yokai.
It is not uncommen for the tribes deeper submerged into the forest, to perform the Shinohitei ritual, even outside the forest all around the world it is practised. It is a ritual to extend ones life when near death, in order to have everyone say theire goodbey. However if the ritual is held upright for too long, the person survives and becomes an immortal yokai(immorttal in a sense of not dying from old age anymore). This ritual is done by having another living being nearby and connecting it with the dying person by way of the supernatural force called "Sonzai". The strong beating heart of the animal then beats for two. When a person turns into a yokai, then they never just change physicly. Some loose all theire memory, some keep them but are in great mental pain, some keep theire memories but are comepletely indifferent to everything around them and in theire past, basicly they are comepletely emotionally numb. Others loose theire intelligance but keep theire memories and emotions, basicly becoming grown up toddlers. In any case they almost always become somewhat anti social and it is hard to get into theire heads. In terms of physical changes, they combine features with whatever living being was used for the ritual. In some cases they even get a second animal head or a fith limb. If the being used for the ritual was a human, then they mostly grow morer bodyparts.The being used for this ritual stays uneffected no matter what happens.
Shinohite are also difficult to control due to the previously mentiouned changes. At night they will sometimes leave the settlement and roam the forest, scaring the other tribes in te process. Sometimes it happens that through the ritual a yokai is born in other tribes, but these kinds of accidents happen more often for the sora no shito ni. Therefore they are clad in wide garbs with hoods so that even if they are seen, it is difficult to make out what they truly are and outsiders are told that they are just some of the old and sick.
Theire immortality is a big problem for the sora no shita ni, because due to theire attachment to theire loved ones and theire unwillingness to let them go, these creatures are born more often than usual. Theire growing size over the centuries creates a constant nervousness in some of the tribesmembers, especially since the most western tribe, the "nishi no hito", whom they rely on for trade with the outside world, are deeply appalled by the concept of shinohite. They belive them to be something unholy and any shinohite that is born, has to be killed imedietly.