The Novgorod tribunal is, to the rest of the order, a source of vis and a market for books. Ex miscellanea explores the local traditions while mercere led or sponsored explorers seek new sources of vis.
And technically those things are true. The Vikings, however, converted to Christianity centuries ago, as did the Russians, though they follow a combination of Slavic and Eastern Orthadox tradition. There is a lot of wild unclaimed land, between fields and cities of a relatively modern civilization.
These conversions are relatively new, a couple of centuries since they officially occurred, and in between the Danes and the Russians are the Latvians, the finns, and many other pagan civilizations who are not so well known outside of Novgorod. There are also faeries, who will play the roles of Norse Gods, and faeries who will play the role of rampaging Vikings who worship them. There are also the Muspelli priests who serve the Joten, and the Mongols…
The Mongols invaded Russia in 1222 and retreated in 1223 after winning. The reason they did so is not clear, but the move seemed so much like what a faerie might do to engender vitality that they became an almost instant presence in the faerie of the region. Local nobility blame the invasion on their lack of faith and piety, or at least give lip service to the idea, but have remained at each others throats since and remain just as impious as before.
The crusaders meanwhile, largely out of Germany, do know who their targets are and are working on taming the pagan, magic rich areas of this land. This is the threat, or a significant part of it, to which the order responded in 1228, though most of the order still does not understand its nature.