Ulfheim and The Desolation of Western Nyster

Far to the Northwest of the Icespire Mountains, beyond the rolling plains of Rothenia, lies a realm of coastal fjords and impenetrable pine forests, populated by the hardy, Perun-fearing men of Ulfheim (Land of Wolves). Several small settlements are scattered along the coast, from which the Ulfheimers ste sail in their longships to fish, trade… and raid.
In the 900s NE many of the isolated fishing communities of Rothenia were wiped out by a combination of Kender raids from the prairies, Goblin raids from the Horsechopper tribes in the Nystrian forests, and Viking raids from across the Bay of Wolves. These dark times are recorded in the histories as The Desolation. But increasingly, the Ulfheimers have turned to trade over violence, and have ventured West to Lether, South to Vasilea, and beyond; Viking longships have even been spied as far afield the Sinhar Gulf and Xiatian.
The Ulfheimers have their own problems, too: frost giants and predatory trolls stalk the icebound steppes of Jotunlundr and inland Nystera; swarms of ghouls and demons cross from Lether at the Jokul Straits, and there is nervousness around the Letherite fleets that bristle with ballistae and increasingly patrol the Tuatha Straits. Strange rumours abound of dark magic and unnatural creatures coming out of the Erfidr Archipelago, and there is talk too of curiously warm currents that lead to a lost civilisation beneath the placid waters of an uncharted section of the Lether Sea. To the east, the farmsteaders of Dokkrvik eke out their livelihoods on infertile soils, defending their livestock from packs of ravening dire wolves.
At Huldegard, a seasonal Thing convenes to discuss matters of law and politics, and druids are dispatched to the Isles of Fate to learn patterns of The Weave from the Norns. As Ulfheim gives way to the plains to the South, the desolate town of Silence, once the thriving outpost of Gnottsborg, lies haunted and empty… or, is it?...