Medicine

Most people know their house medicine against everyday sicknesses and small injuries. For anything beyond, apothecaries provide sophisticated healing aids, and larger cities at the least have proper hospitals with surgeons and therapists. Dwarves with their delicate hands make great surgeons, and speakers come to all medical professions and exact their obsessive ways to become experts in their fields.
The red forest provides poisons which, in proper dosage, are medicinally useful, and there is barely a sickness for which a cure cannot be found in there; but it's difficult to travel, and many cures still await their discovery.

"I was astonished when they brought me a redforester - a sick redforester? I couldn't find what was wrong with her until a desperate attempt, following a seemingly outlandish theory, revealed the cure to be tsemakar venom and the matching antidote. Apparently, redforesters need to be poisoned daily to be well."
— Jraneh, apothecary

Elves are proverbially "more different than others", and display a range of differing reactions to normal medicine. But in the end, every species has its preferences; garren show better healing when the medicine is applied hot, raganaj when it's based on animals, both as well as dwarves show in their colouring when they're not well.
Most sicknesses affect all species, if not always with the same symptoms; bluefinger disease, for example, does the same to everyone, while only shankeh can get straipiness, and only humans suffer from the cold (which is a source of amusement to other species - stand them in cold water, they get sick. Hilarious.).

"My shankeh patients would have needed rest to heal properly, but their need to run always drove them out of bed and their condition worsened. So I finally, if arguably, turned to the practice of either putting a nail into the knee, or breaking the leg altogether."
— Vranejar, Gamahanian doctor

Artists' notes
There's always this chance when building a world that you either make it a hellhole where everything's dangerous and rotten, or way too nice because every problem has been solved, so I design diseases and poisons carefully (and civil wars, insanity, and tyrannies). The red forest may well treat everything there is from cancer to the common cold, but finding anything is bloody difficult. Literally.
It's fun to come up how elves react differently to things, and define the miniscule differences between species' physiology, seen from a medic's perspective. There are of course lists of these, but I won't bore you with them.

Spirit lanterns

Nature spirits guarantee good health for their homestead, which is most interesting for plants and the people who care for those. A lantern is supposed to attract tiny spirits by burning incense; the then occupied lantern can, very carefully, be taken away and the spirit offered a new home in a plant of choice. Especially plants grown indoors or in greenhouses, or in otherwise inaccessible places, can lack a spirit which would normally turn up eventually.
Larger spirits are not as impressed by lanterns, unless there are many, but apparently they still notice them.

"Those blasted children stole my lanterns again. My crop of famkafeathers will be mediocre at best - but the wild rurgra trees ot the end of the street are just brimming with spirits. They will bear excellent fruit this year, I'm sure."
— Revchira, greenhouse owner

Lanterns are regionally different but often playfully designed to appeal to spirits, and are filled with carefully chosen incense, containing bits of the plant the lantern-owner wishes to become home to a spirit. Some also have windchimes, or are bird-shaped to glide down through hopefully spirit-inhabited spaces.


Artists' notes
These were a random bit in a drawing once, but the idea was pretty. Mostly spirits will just arrive one day, but in the middle of the desert or winter-dark lands, a little help is appreciated. Great Forest children conduct runs, snatching up an many lanterns as they can, and watch how many spirits come to see them. 

Technology and development

Kitas' technological development sees sophisticated husbandry methods, strong, durable materials for large structures, ship trade routes between continents, and medicine that can remedy common ailments. People don't starve on the streets or die of everyday diseases. But travel is lengthy, exotic goods rare, and payments are done in natural goods rather than gold.
Common technologies include pocket sunclocks, spyglasses, and lighters. On a larger scale, glass windows, concrete, aqueducts fed by norias, domed buildings, and cannons make regular appearances. Farmers know about crop rotation, creation of black earth, and use clever irrigation methods. Medicine includes knowledge of epidemics, and use of anaesthetics.

"Straws were drawn who had to camp closest to the cannon site. Just the month before, a powder stock had blown its crew to bits so small there weren't even spirits left."
— Gabunda Hes, soldier

Spells play only a tiny role in technology; speakers are too quickly exhausted for everyday affairs and artifacts are notoriously ill-mannered. Instead, engineers invent tirelessly, with important schools in Lebridge and Bargassa, making mechanics powered by wind and water commonplace. However, the mages' taste for detail, and the wizards' open minds still put speakers at the forefront of scientific progress.

"Oh, curse this mechanical clock. The slightest movement, it misses the time. I'll never buy one of those idiotic Sawan contraptions again, and stick with the good stuff from Bargassa."
— Tilibriin, Ryaqan merchant

Artists' notes
I've learned a lot about what mechanics were possible in ancient times, and the Greek or Chinese were far more advanced than most people would think, so I had no problem putting complex, timed mechanics into play, and founded the two large engineering schools from which nearly anything can be expected. Technological advancement also allows for more interesting buildings, larger settlements, and peoples cultivating unfavourable lands. 

Collector's tools

Spirit collectors can work entirely without tools if needed, but prefer using them. They're usually made by pendulors, and totems and tubes need to be of certain quality - broken totems release their spirits.

The wooden totems are for trapping dead spirits. They are blue at first, turning brown when inhabited, and are painted with spirit-bonding patterns. The figure is sitting with folded arms, and must be of the appropriate species; a rope can be pulled through for hanging them up. In the cleansing rituals to unite the dead with the Great Spirit, the totem is destroyed.

"It was custom for collectors on their way to the cleansing to wear blue as a warning. Crowds parted around them, but more than once, the rebels shot them to release all spirits in the masses, causing great turmoils."
— Benerare Pikale, historian

Spirits are reflected like light and cannot escape rings, going in circles forever. Echo tubes are therefore made from mirroring materials. They can be glass tubes that are screwed shut or crystals closed with clasps, while metal tubes are not commonly used - since there is no light inside, there's also no reflection, and supposedly this makes them less useful.

"And when they had reached the clifftops, they started throwing down items we took for bottles, that shattered on the ground, but we soon realized in horror that they were echo tubes releasing their spirits among us."
— Ratirra Merruh, listener

The collectors' rings also use the ring principle. Young collectors start with them on arms and legs, moving them outwards gradually. A collector's body is a vessel, every inch makes room for more and greater spirits, and the rings are like stoppers. Seasoned collectors wear their rings on toes and fingers.


Artists' notes
Needless to say, there are also legendary collectors' rings or echo tubes that supposedly work better than the average. I always liked all the precautions you are supposed to take when interacting with the supernatural - turning mirrors to the wall, guarding thresholds with brick dust or salt, and so on. With equipment, there's also the storytelling element of precautions gone wrong, to add danger and difficulty to the task. 

Artifacts

Artifacts are commonly objects which have a spell or spell-like effect on them, but living creatures can also be enchanted, and being cursed or blessed is - scientifically - being enchanted or bewhispered (the terms are interchangeable). Not all artifacts are made on purpose, but by the times or circumstances. Indeed, exposing a thing to the same situations can turn it into an artifact; using a sword in honourable duels repeatedly might make it demand chivalric behaviour of its bearer and support her greatly while she does so, but refuse to obey if not. Some powerful artifacts will not be wielded by everyone.

"I created many artifacts when I was still a whisperer. I never thought they would take a liking to me - that damned dagger nearly killed the guard for me."
— Shirozuk, wizard

The most famous artifacts are of course the Four Weapons, the bow Gajtualih, the axe Khachgallah, the sword Rwannakah, and the spear Lefenned, which allegedly have limitless control over their elements and principles. They cannot be held by others than the Four unless they allow it.

Other widely known artifacts include the Whiteblade, the Bloodcollar, Blightfang, the Heavenspear, and Krinsar's Dowry.

"You cannot really predict an artifact's outcome, much like a child's character cannot be determined; you'd be a fool to try. But nurture it, guide it, and it will lend its power to a worthy bearer, and with luck, help them make a better tomorrow."
— Fanigla, pendulum-maker

Artists' notes
Everyone loves artifacts, as do I. Ged in Tales from Earthsea by Studio Ghibli said "I doubt you're powerful enough to wield it [the sword] yet", and that set how I wanted to have my artifacts - just like Mjolnir can only be wielded by Thor. I also like the fact that artifacts can create themselves without any magic involved. I suppose the greater artifacts will be like having a companion, with their demands. And of course computer games had their influence in artifact sets, like Krinsar's Dowry, which consists of five pieces.

Flight

Flying is a popular travel method and sport in Lozir, the land of earth and air, but just as well in the Gderan blue forest and parts of the Ryaq's island realms. The few flying animals that can be trained into mounts are rare and often expensive or difficult to keep, but technology - thanks to the efforts of the Bargassian engineers - is quite advanced on materials and techniques and makes flying possible for many folks.

 "I heard the rrani lords raid dustships. Don't know if it's true, but I wouldn't put it past them, and it certainly would explain why dustships are such a rare sight here in the Ryaq - or at least better than some weird notion about our weather."

— Kenaha Chimeen, Ryaqer

The most widespread version of flight is done with sailflyers, which are used throughout Lozir; the blue forest has very similar equipment. A triangular rigging is fitted with a sail, and pilots need to jump off heightened positions for takeoff. The flats around the Lozirian rock island were difficult to travel by air before the denizens erected the sailtowers, which are climbed to gain the necessary altitude.
Flying with animals is an entirely different matter. The large, docile dur birds of Gdera carry passenger baskets, while the fierce rrani are flying predators of the Ryaq, prestigious but difficult to manage and seen almost exclusively with the rrani lords' tribes.

"... and then I almost lost a finger in the hinge when the spring suddenly slammed shut. Other than that, this new foldable sailer is ingenious, I will definitely have one made."
— Onbimgi aht Runar, Bargassian

Finally, there are the dustships with their ever so secretive crews, and sometimes a garden ship can still be found in Gdera. Garden ships grow an enormously large garden of gaseous plants and hang a handful of tiny huts below, where little more than a large family lives, and the ships are very fragile. Few are left, and their dwellers are considerd a peculiar lot.


Artists' notes
Oh, flying, mankind's oldest dream. Seriously, it's one of the coolest things in fantasy to make up flying creatures and airships and things that will never work with our physics, but are so wonderful to imagine having. Of course in the blue forest people can also just jump off the next tree and float down slowly, because the air is so light there, but that's not flying, that falling with style (end of quote ;)).