According to some scholars, Nord people are from a place called "Nordland", or "Jumne", as others claim. Nordland is said to be far north of Calradia, over the sea, and it is also the home of the many sea raiders plaguing the northern coasts of the land.
The Nords were invited by the Calradic Empire to crew their galleys, and were given land on the coast as payment for this service. After the Empire fell however, a Nord leader named Gundig Hairy-Breeks landed in Calradia to claim a supposed Nord birthright of the whole continent. Certain scholars makes note that this was a fabrication by the skalds and qualifies it by noting the Nords need no excuse to go to war. Gundig Hairy-Breeks would be killed attempting to attack the Rock of Rivacheg, but Nords still come to Calradia under the idea of claiming Calradia by force.
This predisposition to war also factored into the rise of its current leader, King Ragnar, and the disinheritance of the claimant Lethwin Far-Seeker. The king before Ragnar and Lethwin's father, King Hakrim, had Lethwin sent abroad to learn academic arts believing that the Nords needed to be more than warriors. Ragnar disagreed and when Lethwin was shipwrecked on his way home to claim his throne, Ragnar took the throne for himself.