I’ve been thinking about this and it seems natural that Nords should deal frost/cold damage and that it should be added to the Nord racial passives. The Nords come from Skyrim and already have cold resist as a passive. It seems to follow they would be “masters of cold” which would include cold damage as well, along the same lines as the Dunmer with fire. The Dunmer have flame resist and also max fire damage at +7%. The Nords cold resist could be augmented with a +7% increase to cold damage.

Option 1: Magicka-based
The game could use another magicka-based race. Right now we have six stamina races (Bosmer, Imperial, Khajiit, Nord, Orsimer, Redguard) and only three magicka races (Altmer, Breton, Dunmer). The Argonian are probably best classified as a hybrid race. Yes they have max 3% magicka but when you factor in their passive from drinking potions they have insane resource management across the board. Add to that they are also BiS tanks sporting a sword and board and IMO this makes them a hybrid.

Making Nords magicka-based would then give us a more even balance of stamina and magicka based races and it's not like the game would be losing anything by taking away the Nord's current passives. They already have no role in dps or healing, and even as a tank they lag behind both Argonians and Imperials. Also, it's not like it would be a complete reach to make Nords magicka-based. After all, just take a look at Shalidor who was Nord and considered one of the most powerful mages ever. He also was Arch-Mage of the mages guild and was the founder of a sanctuary for mages on the island of Eyevea. Clearly it is possible for Nords to be strong mages.

Option 2: Stamina-based
Ok so I’m trying to think outside the box on this one and I’m not sure if it’s viable, but I thought I’d give it a try. I’m not sure if elemental damage is completely separate from magicka or if they are tied together (e.g., does more magicka increase elemental damage?). Obviously you always see magicka-based characters wielding staffs so they do seem to go together. Someone more knowledgeable can chime in and correct me where I’m wrong, but let’s give this a shot.

What if Nords were to get passives similar to Dunmer but with a focus on stamina? So max stam 9%, max magicka 6%, cold resist and cold damage. This means they would use DW or 2H weapons, which is more in line with their history as fierce warriors. They could add cold glyphs to their weapons to take advantage of their natural affinity for cold environments and the newly added cold damage passive. Whereas Altmer and Dunmer are mixing spell and elemental damage together, Nords could be mixing weapon and elemental damage. And finally, perhaps a few of the Winter’s Embrace skills could have stamina morphs that deal cold damage or provide a cold shield (similar to the stamina morphs for DKs which deal poison damage or stamina NBs which deal disease damage).

Thoughts? I’m sure there are things I messed up (especially in that stamina scenario), I’m not a master theory crafter (I don't know the intricacies and nuances of how every skill impacts other skills) so feel free to correct me or point out where something wouldn’t work. I just really think adding cold/frost damage to Nords makes a ton of sense - I just don't know the best way to do it. And if you’re not in favor of adding cold/frost damage at all, perhaps let us know your thoughts on other ways of improving the current sad state of the Nord race.