Are the Hoelbrak Norns the only ones out there?

They're basically vikings, right? Fair-skinned and all that. And it is pretty obvious that Hoelbrak has a Scandinavian/Nordic theme to it.

Then you have characters like Braham's father who, looking at Braham in comparison to his mother, probably wasn't of this nordic archetype.

That makes me wonder just how wide-spread the Norns are. Are there other settlements out there across Tyria that pay homage to other cultures on IRL earth? Like I could definitely see a group of Norns living more of a nomadic lifestyle like the Mongols and whatnot.

@Oglaf.1074 said:They're basically vikings, right? Fair-skinned and all that.

Most but there are a few exceptions....

In the Edge of Destiny book, they mentioned there were Norn that worked as sailors and developed dark complexions due to constant exposure to the sun. I wouldn't doubt it though if there are other Norn living further north beyond Jormag. It would be cool to see a new civilization of Norn if we ever venture further north.

Norn come from beyond where the snow reigns.There are bith lightskinned and darkskinned norn.Braham’s father, Borje Sunstrider was described as darkskinned (but how dark is up to debate)

@Oglaf.1074 said:Are there other settlements out there across Tyria that pay homage to other cultures on IRL earth? Like I could definitely see a group of Norns living more of a nomadic lifestyle like the Mongols and whatnot.

None that we know of. It's possible that there are other splinters of the norn race from the time Jormag broke them, similar to how the asura have Rata Novus and Rata Pten, but if so we've heard nothing about them. They'd be further north, probably in the Woodland Cascades (there's an old theory that the Mossman is a norn who'd lived out there) or Blood Legion Homelands.

That said, though, the cultural split would've only been 165 years back. I doubt they would've branched into Mongols or some other entirely different culture in that time. Again, looking at Rata Novus or Rata Pten, besides for slightly different tech and architecture, we're not seeing anything that'd be out of place in Rata Sum.