Valkura is built upon the bones of heroes.
There are nine islands in the archipelago; one named for each of their gods. Or so the Valkurans claim. Foreign sailors who have survived journeys into the dangerous northern waters have accounted for no more than eight. Valkurans rarely speak of the missing island, other than to whisper its name: Mistharrow, and that it belongs to the dead.
The north seas around Valkura are wild and dangerous. Ghosts drag sailors underwater because they are lonely for the touch of mortal flesh. Probing fingers of fog stretch from Mistharrow, where Vaehl the Gravelord dwells in mist and dreams, snakes and terrors. Wyrd, the largest island, and namesake for the Old Father, ruler of the Valkuran gods—dubbed the Nine—is filled with near constant skirmishes for power and honour. On Sifya, warrior women do not suffer outsiders and sell their swords around the continent as guardians and enforcers. Most Valkurans scrape small lives from crops and the sea while the rest steal gold and furs from nearby Sestill, and trade for silver and spice from faraway Khyber.
Valkurans are a straightforward people, the only thing they love as much as a fight with steel, is a fight with words. Battle is battle, whether fought by sword, word, or dice. The true power behind the island thanes and roving sea captains are the Reveners. These priests call back the Valkuran dead to fulfill the grudges of the living, and cultivate the famed and deadly vala mushrooms that send their warriors into a berserk state.
Death comes on stormy seas wherever Valkurans sail, for their dead travel with them.