#WritersCoffeeClub 20. Feb: How has a setting suprised you?

I write SF/F: a genre-smear in which the setting is as much a major protagonist as any of the characters. And if a main character doesn't surprise you regularly, then you don't know them. (Random example: I had no idea going in that my current WIP, a space opera, would feature aristocrats obsessed with dragon racing—genetically engineered pterosaur derivatives—and that I'd end up exploring the world of dragon doping crime syndicates!)