“ The party wakes up in an inn around a table with wine goblets near at hand. They have forgotten all that happened the last day. As they seek to find the truth they come in contact with a man that gives them a job which pays quite nicely.
When they have finished with this rather dubious assignment they are invited to dinner by the the man...
Deja Wu?”
“ A nation state has a hardline tradition of transparency in government. So much so that any and all information held by their military and intelligence services is immediately declassified and published when the said information is no longer relevent to current and ongoing activities. Even if such information might be diplomatically toxic.”
“ Surnames: The Chinese were among the very first cultures to adopt the use of hereditary surnames (around 2800 BC). But the custom didn't quite catch on in Europe - at least not until the Venetian aristocracy made it popular sometime between the 10th and 11th centuries AD. What culture made it popular in your setting and why?”