We don't actually hear much about the climate in-game, aside from some lines about Faerghus tending to be colder than other areas, and that Brigid is quite warm. But perhaps the map of Fódlan can give some hints as well.
I'm assuming that Fódlan is somewhat like Europe, and that normal rules of climate on Earth apply to this world as well. Maybe none of this is true, but let's go with it.
(Also, apologies in advance for misusing terms related to climate. I am not an expert in this field at all; I'm just kind of curious about it and have read a book or two.)
The first thing I thought of is the fact that the Empire is on the western side of the continent. The western sides of continents at certain latitudes tend to all have very similar climates throughout the Earth. Think of Mediterranean climates like in southern Europe, or lower California, Chile etc. And as you go away from the equator from there, you get the rainy but surprisingly mild temperate oceanic climates like in Washington State, Ireland, etc.
If the rules of Earth apply, then much of coastal Adrestia is probably mild. The northern peninsula, where Nuvelle territory is, might be a bit like Ireland or the UK, with somewhat cold winters, but nowhere near as cold as you'd think, mild summers, and lots of rain that blows in from the ocean suddenly and then disappears almost as quickly as it manifested. (Lots of cloudy days for Constance to be her best Constance?)
And because of the chain of mountains running from the center of the continent southwest almost to the sea, there is probably a pretty sharp delineation between Northern Adrestia and Southern Adrestia, with those mountains being a clear border between them.
I'd imagine that southern coastal Adrestia probably grows the best wine in all of Fódlan. Mediterranean climates are perfectly suited to growing wine grapes.
However, there might be another sharp contrast in that southern peninsula that juts down. Enbarr, on the west side, probably has a typical Mediterranean climate. But since that peninsula appears to have another mountain range going down it, it may block the winds from the ocean to the west, resulting in the eastern side of that peninsula having a rather different climate, perhaps much drier.
However, there does appear to be a small gap in the mountains west of Aegir, so it may be just the southern portion of that peninsula that is affected.
With those mountains there, so near Aegir (or within it maybe) perhaps that's where much of the finest tea is grown. I'm sure Ferdinand would agree. Tea grows best on rainy mountains, in areas that are not overly cold, I believe.
Looking more at the mountains, the northern part of the continent on the west side appears pretty flat. The effects of the ocean may stretch fairly far into the continent, meaning that even inland northern Adrestia might tend to be mild for its latitude. But since Faerghus is supposed to be cold, maybe as you go farther and farther east, away from the ocean, you start to get a more continental climate, with bigger extremes between summer and winter temperatures. But it wouldn't surprise me if western Faerghus is still not quite as extreme as the eastern parts of Faerghus.
Meanwhile, Leicester is interesting. To the west are the Oghma Mountains where Garreg Mach is located (and they are supposed to be quite tall I believe), with another chain of mountains to the northwest that cut off Leicester from Faerghus. And the mountain chain separating Leicester from Almyra seems to extend and curve around to almost totally cut Leicester off from the sea to the south.
Leicester may be very dry in summer and wetter in winter. I'm thinking of the Sea of Japan side of Japan here. Because of the tall mountains going all down Honshu, the Sea of Japan side of Japan gets a lot more precipitation in winter, and it tends to be very dry in summer. (This is why they get huge amounts of snow there.) The Pacific side of Japan is the opposite, with more rain in summer, and dry winters.
It looks like most of the moisture that would come from the ocean and hit Leicester would have to come from the sea to the north. Winds blowing up from the south would probably dump their rain before crossing over the mountains southeast of Ordelia.
Regardless, I expect that Leicester has a larger gap between winter and summer temperatures than Adrestia. It's on the east side of the continent, and the northern parts of it especially seem to be almost surrounded by mountains aside from the opening to the sea to the north. The southern parts, like where Ordelia is, might be a bit milder and warmer.
Because of the mountains between Leicester and Almyra, the eastern part of northern Leicester might actually have a bit more precipitation. If the wind brings in moisture from the sea to the north at least part of the year, then it would probably hit those mountains, cool off, and dump a lot of the moisture on the Leicester side, leaving drier air to go over the mountains towards Almyra, or out to the sea to the south. So Edmund and Derdriu could have a lot less precipitation than Goneril. But I could also see Gloucester and Daphnel having the opposite pattern. If the winds come from the south in the summer, than Gloucester and Daphnel might get a lot of rain dumped on them as the moisture-laden air hits the Oghma mountains and starts to climb in elevation.
And in the area of Myrrdin, the Airmid river widens out into some sort of large lake, so even if the air coming from the south has dried off from the mountains southeast of Ordelia, it might pick up moisture again from the fresh water sources between those mountains and Gloucester.
Then there's Faerghus. It is the farthest north, which is probably why it has a reputation for being cold. But here's an idea, because of all the mountains in central Fódlan, maybe Faerghus also gets Foehn effect winds hitting it in the summer sometimes. These are very dry, very hot winds that happen when air goes over a mountain and loses moisture. This can result in brutally high-heat, dry summer weather. In the winter, if the prevailing patterns came more from the north, then that would be when Faerghus gets a lot of its precipitation, possibly in the form of snow.
Because the mountains that would cause precipitation in Leicester are so far south, south-eastern Leicester may have rainy winters. But in Faerghus's case, since the precipitation would be happening north of the Oghma Mountains, there could be a lot more snow. This would also mean, interestingly, that southern Faerghus might actually get more snow than northern Faerghus, though the north is probably colder simply from having a higher latitude.
As for Brigid, while it's never stated just how warm it is, it's close enough to Fódlan that I feel like it might be more oceanic sub-tropical than outright tropical. Think of a place like northern Taiwan, the Azores, or Florida. Brigid may still have a noticeably cooler season, a winter of sorts, though I would imagine that its winter might be like a Faerghus spring or fall.
(So in modern Fódlan, all the Faerghans visiting Brigid in winter are walking around in shorts and sandals and getting weird looks from the Brigid locals who are wearing puffy jackets and hats.)
Brigid also isn't even farther south than some parts of Fódlan, if the fanciful labeling on the official map is accurate in its placement. It appears to be roughly equivalent in latitude to southern Adrestia, not way south of it, so really, the Azores might be a good comparison for how the climate would be. The ocean would definitely make it very mild though, I think, with the summers actually being more pleasant than many areas of Fódlan.
As for rain in Brigid, I think it would depend on how mountainous the island (islands? I can't remember if it's just one or a small cluster) is. If Brigid is low, then it might suffer from frequent droughts, even if it gets rain on a regular basis. But if it has mountains, then those could cause a lot of rain on its west side, and it might also have decent amounts of groundwater.
Brigid is far south enough that maybe, maybe, it could be former coral reefs like some of the islands in Okinawa, or the Florida Keys. If that's the case, then, yeah, they probably suffer from droughts and a lack of groundwater. But if it's mountainous like Hawaii, they might be a bit better off.
Assuming that all the latitudes are not far off from Europe, then northern Faerghus probably has pretty extremely long days in summer, and short days in winter. They may not be far enough north for actual 24-hour day/night, but Faerghus Seasonal Affective Disorder is probably rough.
Since Dedue's family comes from a village of blacksmiths, they probably lived near Sacred Gwenhwyfar and the other mountains leading into Fódlan proper.
It's likely that some members of the community were familiar with the basics of Fódlan language, given the mineral wealth of Duscur being its primary interest to the nearby kingdom. Dedue may well have had an easier start than Petra, though he speaks the truth when he says he is stronger with spoken Fódlan than written. Partial immersion upbringing. Maybe he always had an idea of representing the culture of his people to the wider continent.
I actually headcanon that his mother comes from an agricultural town northwards— and that in a different future, he might have left the place of his birth to worship the god of earth in another way than his father, alongside his maternal grandparents.
Other worldbuilding thoughts on Duscur I might eventually move to their own post:
I also headcanon that Duscur was formerly closer to Albinea, and the Sacred Gwenhwyfar mountain range was formed when the geologic plate slid into Fódlan's continental plate. (This would be related to my ideas on trade with Albinea, local ecology of northern Fódlan, and extant relict populations of elk descended from Albinean domestic reindeer. The berries are like salmonberries or gooseberries.) (Alternatively, Albinea broke away from Fódlan and is moving north on a tectonic scale.)
There's probably also long tradition of smoked, pickled, and salted fish, considering the peninsular marine access and nearby salt mines in the mountains bordering Pryderi territory (latter info from Hopes). It's said that Duscur has rich forests, implying that wood (likely larch and bristlecone pine) is not a popular building material for typical domiciles or water vehicles. The flowers of Duscur in Garreg Mach's greenhouse are drought resistant, but easily overwatered by the freshwater available for that purpose, possibly indicating a brackish origin with halitic soils and saline water table. Seals are abundant along the coasts of rocky cliffs, similar to in the real-world northern United Kingdom. Perhaps selkie folklore can also be found in Duscur. Sealskin is probably the boatbuilding material of choice.
We know that Duscur culture also has a bear totem; this could be like real-world Korea's, or Siberian and Inuit, origin myth cosmologies. Bear meat is sacred to the Ainu of Hokkaido and Kamchatka, consumed ritually as part of ceremonies honoring the relationship local people have with the land as participants of a cycle both spiritual and ecological. It is likely that Duscur bears are closest to the Eurasian brown bear. (I have a special place in my heart thinking of it as the Ussuri subspecies!) Due to the presence of bears, wolves have less prey and territory for hunting and a lower population in the region.
With mountains, coasts, and bears, we can assume Duscur to have an annual salmon run and plenty of rocky postglacial waterfalls. Add that to the tourism bureau's pamphlet right up there with the wildflowers— I prefer to picture something like bluebell woods, personally.
The Duscur people have probably domesticated some sort of gourds, like calabash or pumpkin or acorn squash. Root vegetables may be more common than leafy greens, depending again on soil salinity.
Something many may not have considered before is the presence of beavers in Duscur. Beavers are an excellent way to decenter European ecology and culture from wider historically inspired fantasy works, since they went nearly extinct in that region just before the Colonial Age. The second largest kind of rodent, and the largest endemic to our planet's northern hemisphere, beavers are what are referred to as 'keystone species' and 'ecosystem engineers'. A really effective way of representing the negative effects of imperialistic colonization is through the degradation of local ecology as beaver populations decline from fur hunting. Using the beaver as a symbol, we can represent a shorthand for the reintroduction, reconstruction, reparation, and respect for indigeneity promised by King Dimitri Blaiddyd I of United Fódlan to the native Duscur people.
A fantasy setting offers fascinating opportunities to think about what defines something in our world and to look at how it might be different with different physics. What if beavers had gills? What if otters could transition from sea to river? What if seal blubber had flavor? What if flowers were salt-tolerant!? I really enjoy exploring potential answers to the questions Fuukasetsugusu doesn't even realize it asks, and I hope my posts can get some readers experimenting with what the more mundane aspects of fantasy world might look like.
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Back in the saddle with more of this crossover now that HTTYD is topical this summer. I didn't think I'd be able to come up with a good AU name for Pasha but then I thought of Pashnip...
Big Pasha (Bluesky) • Little Pasha (Bluesky) • Reddit
Rhea and Sitri, inspired by this photo and commissioned from the lovely @fuzzdropsbears! I really can't thank Fubbz enough for bringing my idea to life ♡
