It seems to be a pretty harsh place from what I've gathered from NPC dialogue so far. Aside from the brutally cold climate a lot of the natives are so obsessed with their war against dragons that they fail to focus upon the various other threats creeping into the region. Outsiders are typically frowned upon by most of the natives, though there's a few exceptions here and there.
There also appears to be a lot of tension involving the dead - anyone who perishes to a dragon is considered a hero whilst those who fall to anything else barely get a second glance. One elderly woman sends the player character on a quest into a ravine to locate a missing family member and explicitly states that his comrades simply left his corpse there after he fell. She's very grateful to have him finally laid to rest and to have a memento as a keepsake.
There also appears to be a lot of tension involving the dead - anyone who perishes to a dragon is considered a hero whilst those who fall to anything else barely get a second glance. One elderly woman sends the player character on a quest into a ravine to locate a missing family member and explicitly states that his comrades simply left his corpse there after he fell. She's very grateful to have him finally laid to rest and to have a memento as a keepsake.