Xūrtuū

The Xūrtuū are a Finnu-speaking ethnic minority group living in the frigid land of Fierthain.
While everyone, including Fierthain's Hoˈfeina majority culture, are a naturally hardworking lot well-accustomed to the rigours of northern life, the Xūrtuū especially thrive on the challenge of tough conditions. They largely dwell and work in the Fangbrush, a vast pine forest in the south of the territory and site of a large-scale logging operation controlled by Hoˈfeina interests. In addition to toiling hard in the woods camps, Xūrtuū there are avid hunters and trappers who eke out a secondary living on what they catch.

by Midjourney

Above: The Fangbrush woods camps.

The largest Xūrtuū-heavy settlement is the nearby town of Callo Cro Sede, which the group considers its cultural center. Though only a few hundred strong, it's about as many people as they seem to be comfortable around: Being a close-knit community whose members rely on each other for support and protection in an unforgiving landscape, the intense trust they show each other would not be possible in any greater, more anonymous arrangement, like a city.
Other settlements are smaller, and often closer to the forest - an environment that plays as large a role in their spiritual life as their workaday one. Xūrtuū subscribe to the The Old Tradition, a broad set of beliefs and practices common across Rajan and Sakxa, but with a few permutations specific to the Fangbrush and certain mythical creatures said to live in its lofty pine boughs. Much of their art and craftsmanship flows from their sacred relationship to the trees: Xūrtuū carvers are regarded as keepers of a holy art, and create beautiful and intricate objects from wood, bone, and other materials. Though occasionally these spectacular pieces land in the hands of merchants, to the delight of a small handful of collectors, as a rule, making money off such works is deeply frowned upon, given their more typical use as offerings to the gods.

by Midjourney

Above: A Xūrtuū carver concentrates on his work.

In recent years, the Xūrtuū have faced mild discrimination and persecution from the Hoˈfeina, a phenomenon seemingly connected to the latter's slowly mounting wealth. Prior to this, both groups identified with each other as being very similar, despite a base difference in spoken language. As exports become more common and gold rolls in, unfortunately the status of the Xūrtuū diminishes. As a practical people with little use for creature comforts, including civil pleasantries, they have not taken much note of the discrepancy.