Another terrible RP is the claim that the Valkyrjans were /the/ best sailors evah, even better than the Madinians (?). I feel it is not in our right to decide how good or bad are the other cultures (at least not as a serious historical claim, it can be the character's opinions, but not the players), and playing who is the best one, even more in historical RP'd accounts, is pretty childish and not very cooperative.
Out of all the stuff the "Saxons" blatantly ignored so they could rewrite the history of northern Dwilight the way they wanted it to be, the claim that they were the best sailors ever is what bothered you? Besides, maybe they /were/ better than the Madinans. Madinans have no special dispensation that would make them the best sailors the world has ever seen.
IMNSHO, claims such as "best X ever" are pretty qualitative, and subject to individual judgment. So long as it's an IC claim, then they can claim whatever they want. It's natural for different people to have different opinions. Now, if the players start OOC arguing "this fictional civilization I just invented were better at something than the fictional civilization you just created", then, yeah, that's lame.
Aside from that, have fun with the project. It's a lot of work, but it should be pretty interesting.
