Shu Han

A cartographer assumes Alina was born in Shu Han.

We know nothing of Shu Han, or its culture, and neither does Alina.

In her opening voiceover, Alina even says that she’s never felt welcome in her homeland of Ravka, because she looks like her mother and her mother looked like the enemy: the Shu, from Shu Han, a fantasy analogue for an amalgam of Asian countries.

That means Alina has Shu Han ancestry, referring to a fictional border country in the Grisha trilogy that takes after the nations of Central Asia.

“Van Eck said the Council gave Yul-Bayur a code word when they first tried to get him out of Shu Han so he’d know who to trust: Sesh-uyeh. It will tell him we’ve been sent by Kerch.”