Originally Posted by curious 
i might be wrong but i sware i had this bug too on release, one of the very few i had as i finished the game without even installing the patch that came out after a few weeks of release which "nerfed" the nordmar experience later by making it far less deadly—which is still probably my favourite gaming "region" experience to date.
Nordmar was my final region to concur and it was a tough region and a maze (finding those smiths and smelters was really a pain in the back) - glad that I left it till the end.