One of the more peculiar elements of life on Tjarral is that every so often, a catastrophe overtakes the world, usually in the form of a great war to which all people are drawn. Those who resist are fortunate—while those who find themselves at the heart of battle are doomed either to die or to suffer a fate worse than death. History is thus as much about picking up the pieces as it is a continuation of life as is regular…and of reshuffling those pieces, to arrange new conquests.
Another is the creation of a "wet-dry" cultural divide between gender roles. In "wet" cultures, those more oriented to maritime practices, the woman is queen at home and the man is king at sea. In either situation, one defers to the other with more seniority. In "dry" cultures, on the other hand, the tendency is for men to be the overall leaders of their families, with women relegated to the sidelines and given little in the way of political power. "Wet" cultures include Sayintha and the Cerementi; "dry" cultures include Duway, the Phaeroian city-states, and Arumandjee (although in the latter one's skin-group is still traced through the female line).