I'm curious if you have any headcanons about the natural flora and fauna of Nohr? The only thing explicitly discussed in canon is that Nohr's soil seems to be fairly infertile.
I imagine that Nohr’s soil has either a too high of a ph, or contains too much salt to be able to produce the most common grains, not to mention the lack of constant sunlight. With this information, we can assume that Nohr is located in an extremely low air pressure area, a ways into the mountains and all of that.
So we have short, cold days and somewhat warm nights. Those aren’t ideal for most kinds of edible plants, but it means a wide variety of fungi can be found with the utmost ease, like I mentioned earlier in this post.
There are FARMS of mushrooms all around Nohr, most of them underground, and others close to marshlands, since these are also abundant there.
Speaking of marshes and wetlands, those are actually really great to purify the water coursing through the improper soil way up high in the mountains, so Nohr actually has quite a lot of perfectly drinkable and clear water undeground! That’s another thing they use to trade with the nearby provinces and countries.
One of the few ~common~ things that the nohrians can farm almost anywhere are POTATOES, since those grow super easily.
So, for the 3 ~edible~ products Nohr exports, we have: Potatoes, mushrooms and water. Since almost everywhere there are good, clean rivers (unlike here), water is basically only there to show the world that there is actually ~purity~ in Nohr’s seemingly cursed soil.
As for the fauna, there aren’t many large predators as the woods are too dense for them to move, but there are quite a lot of medium-sized predators (like lynxes and wolves) aboveground. The deeper you go undeground, the more likely it is to find a tunnel connecting to the heart of the mountain, where wild wyverns nest. (Yes, that means that farming for mushrooms undeground can be a very deadly endeavor only the most brave people do)
There are wild cats and a shit ton of birds. I wager Nohr holds around 60% of all birdkind in the entire continent, since birds really love the high mountain air and the marshes are optimal places for birds to procreate at due to the large amount of insects and fish.
Nohrians don’t really eat many fish because the ones that live in the marshes are a bit oversized and poisonous to humans’ taste, so they’d rather take their risks hunting for bucks and rabbits to fit their meat needs. Since almost no-one lives at the far-edge of Nohr, close to the sea (since it’s like, only cliffs there), there are actually a lot of nohrians who never once tasted fish in their lives! (which is why the cultural shock is so big when they begin trading with Hoshido and receive a lot of that raw stuff)
Up closer to the mountains, where it never stops snowing, there are larger predators, like bears and boars, but they’re a very rare sight elsewhere, so most people don’t even know they exist.
Due to the large amount of caves, Nohr actually holds the largest precious gem market in the entire continent, and that’s actually where they get most of their profit from.
Which is why farming and water-gathering aren’t seen as profitable jobs for the lone person or family as opposed joining the Crown’s mining effort. Nohr suffers a lot in the food category because one can’t survive with potatoes and mushrooms only (ofc not counting hunting for meat), and so, they rely entirely on trading to be able to feed everyone properly.
Ofc, there are edible roots and seeds, but they barely get any nutrients in them, so the nohrians are actually really doomed if they can’t trade.
If only someone could come up with a way to grow foreign grains under artificial light… *coughs* Leo *coughs* will do it *coughs* in WYLL *coughs*