So the main characters are basically a group of kids, one from each village.
There are also a few others though.

For example, Dokusei. She's a follower of Nuclear and lives in the Forbidden Hills. She sometimes spies on the villages too.

Not everyone in the Forbidden Hills follows Nuclear, though. Some are loners. Others live together in small groups.

All, however, are lost souls.

Lost souls are people who have wandered into the Forbidden Hills and were unable to escape. More on that later.

So yeh.