OOC - Beneath the Maelstrom - World Building and Beyond

So after a lively week of planning, Maelstrom is born. We have our first few members and some interesting characters created. I am enjoying reading the posts and now they are finding their feet the game is taking off in an interesting direction. It looks like the government of Maelstrom is in for a tough time. Mostly thanks to Nim I might add ;)

Right now all the Money Grubbers of Highholm are enjoying a particularly opulent party over at Spinks Manor while the rest of the characters are plotting to bring the whole system crashing in around their heads. We have survived a trip by airship to the underbelly of Elesium (Our mysterious flying city) and Winteroak has been trying to give us nightmares by carving people up and poking tubes in them. I'll never look at a salamander in quite the same way again.

As the game develops I want to throw some world and story building questions open each week to both players and non-players to pitch in. Also, feel free to ask your own questions of the game and genre. I have three to get us started:

1. The city of Dusk is built in a vast waste land, the only other inhabited areas are a great mine to the north east and a flying city up above. So here is my problem, where do we get wood? I imagine we need lots of it and I cant see it coming from Elesium.

2. We now have several characters who are either in or could be in same sex relationships. The City of Dusk is an elitist state and has no central religion. Should same sex relationships be something discouraged or even punished by the state or should this just be an accepted part of Dusk society?

3. What utilities should be available in a world such as this? Gas, electricity, water, radio, telephone lines? How should these things work in a dark steampunk society such as this?

See you all in game.... Hob