Originally posted by TVMAN:

Interestingly enough, there is an inaccessible desert biome in the game currently.

https://gamewith.net/valheim/article/show/25093

Also, the viking trade network extended as far as Constantinople and the black sea, and there's even records indicating that viking merchants reached as far as Baghdad via a route through modern day Russian to the Caspian Sea. So, it's not like deserts were completely unknown to them.

This! I personally see the plains as a hot-summer Mediterranean region, or at least with the appearance of it. And the Vikings, or at least the ones who traded, definitely would have been familiar with the climate. I live in a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (the tiny little sliver of it in California), and the plains definitely remind me of our summers; dry, dead grass, very few flowers, bare patches of sun-scorched dirt, and a lot of shrubs.

Of course I'm not opposed to a survival-accessible desert biome, quite the opposite rather! Just as long as we get some gorgeous armour and amazing music to match the region.