As I've been developing Saromatia, various questions have floated up. Most revolve around the benevolent matriarchal culture I'm trying to develop for the realm. Some of these ponderings are strictly game design questions; others are sociology as it applies to game design. If there's something about Saromatia that seems utterly illogical and wrong to you, see if any of these essays address it. Chances are, I thought about the question and there's a reason I ended up writing things the way I did.

• Gender Roles in Setting Design - How do you try to imagine a culture the likes of which has never been seen on Earth, yet involves familiar human psychology? When we ourselves don't understand all the differences between men and women, can you make a game setting out of them?
• Good and Evil as a Function of Time - How good is good? How much is "being a man of his time" an excuse for behavior now found reprehenible? Was George Washington a Lawful and Good supporter of the rights of the individual, or a Lawful and Evil slave owner? Could he be both?
• Nature versus Nurture - How much of who we are is inborn, and how much is taught? (This is a neverending debate, but of much interest to the game setting).
• The Individual versus Group Tendencies - Obviously, an individual woman can be "masculine" (aggressive, volatile, strong) or a man can be "effeminate" (quite, withdrawn, weak). How far apart are our bell curves of gender, really? And if they are far apart, how many "unique individuals" are too many?

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