possibly native foods and medicinal plants in the world of Recluce (and the
Great Forest), but I'm guessing at what might be similar, and wondering if
you might offer corrections or additions. Clearly those that became the Cyadorans
brought a lot with them, but it seems like some previous crossover between worlds
occurred (I'm skeptical about parallel evolution, too many alternatives).
As a caution, some of these (and other real traditional food or medicinal
plants) may contain dangerous substances unless properly prepared, over and
above possible allergies with anything not previously used.
greenberry: tart green gooseberries? (tasty in heavy syrup for tarts; common in Europe, scarce in the US)
redberry: raspberries or sweet cherries
quilla: water chestnuts, or bamboo shoots that are marginally edible but should
have been harvested younger; or maybe tempeh; those might approximate the texture,
but not the oily taste.
knitbone: true comfrey (as a poultice - but there could be toxicity concerns
on an open wound)
brinn: maybe andrographis, which is both bitter and sometimes use to treat
flu-like symptoms
Others I missed?
There have also been occasional questions about recipes. As I recall, you'd
said you were too busy to create a cookbook. And some dishes are well
enough described that a skilled chef could probably manage a good
approximation; I gather that's been done for a few. But I'm at least
wondering if you had something more specific in mind (something that could
in principle be made), for all the dishes.
I'm also curious if there are materials you specifically intended not to
have any approximate equivalent in the real world - like Tolkien's mithril,
an ideal blend of desirable but perhaps not very compatible attributes that
no actual metal or alloy I've ever heard of has, esp. lightness, malleability,
hardness, high reflectiveness, and tarnish resistance all together.
Lorken and cupridium and ordered black iron come to mind immediately,
the latter two because they require chaos or order to produce. The best
approximations of lorken (like African blackwood) may be very expensive or hard
to work; while hard enough, I don't know if they'd be too brittle for a staff. And of
course they have no magic absorbing properties.
For me, these questions come about in part because I appreciate plausible
detail, and it's evident that you've done a credible amount of research
and/or have personal experience with some of the tangential subjects like
food, medicinal plants, woodcrafting, working with horses, etc. Not to
mention logistics.
And if something has a real world equivalent that might be useful, I'd certainly
like to be aware of it.