>>96896064
>How's trade?
Wrt human settlements, theres three types of locations: inner lands, inhabited and surrounded by outer lands (near wilderness or non-human kingdoms), and points of light (surrounded by harsh natural or supernatural conditions).

Most humans live in kingdoms of the former two types, and merchants tend to travel with the flow of money (villages and specialty towns to larger cities). Points of light need merchants to stay afloat. For example, the city of Olgorod is surrounded by mountains and needs mammoths to carry your goods part of the way. However, that isolation makes it the perfect place for merchants dealing in rare or magical artifacts.

All that said though, blue goblins exist to throw a wrench into things

>how do rumors/stories spread
When it comes to rumors, part of the matter is whether the parties involved use magic. Whether or not they use magic, the most powerful and wealthy human rules seem to know every rumor or the surface of the lands between the seas (main continent). Elves have magic but usually avoid sending messages telepathically (to avoid surveillance); they instead use magic powers to jump far distances (for those who know one piece, its like moonwalk). Giants "have their ways" of finding out rumors and goblins spread them like a cheap hooker. The ants have tons of goings-on - so much so that news generally becomes out of date by the time you got it.

>Medicine
Humans have normal medieval medicine (the old medicine dealer can help you but seems shady), though if a situation warrants "special" attention (such as a disease of clear magical origin), the inquisition might be called in and one of their secret magic users will fix the situation while playing it off.

Elves
Elven plans usually dont individually last longer than a few hundred years, since elves become trees at the age of 1000. That said, despite things that have been long in the works, elves keep themselves the "civilized and friendly" face of the faeries