I would expect the clergy of Oriana in such lands as Rhakhaan and Saralis, for instance, to have a message that, at least in public, caters more to the traditional beliefs of the people.
That is a very good point. ShadowWorld is still very different than say Tanya Huff's 'Quarters' series in which homosexuality was accepted as normal at all levels of society. I will say that the Emperor's violent reaction to his son's orientation seems to be portrayed as abnormal even within the more conservative culture of Rhakhaan.
That actually makes me think of an interesting question. How would homosexuality be viewed in Sarnak?
For example, it could be openly tolerated or encouraged among women, but viewed as unacceptable in men due to their role as the "reproducers." Alternatively it could be tolerated in men, but not in women. For the men who seek to overthrow the current order in Sarnak, attitudes towards homosexuality could add a strong element of moral outrage to the hostility they have for the political order.
Another one might be: Would a man's body be perceived as his closest female relative's property; to which she ha a right to make free with, or to barter away for a trade alliance?
For instance, trying to come up with a global trade map that works (who produces what, who exports what where) and their causal relations (why is something imported while it could theoretically be produced locally ? How do kingdoms deal with having to rely on imports for some critical resources, such as grain, oil, or iron ore ?) is next to impossible given the lack of relevant information.
As a bit of an aside to the main discussion; I get what you are saying here. I had a similar issue with the two-dimensional nature of space maps in Traveller. To be fair it's a game, and the jump mechanic was intended as a simulation for space travel. It does have a mechanic that can make jump routes more complex than just distance. What I didn't like about it was the impact it had on culture design. For example Star A is 1 parsec away from Star B on an X,Y coordinate map, but 20 parsecs from Star B on an X,Y,Z coordinate map. That has a drastic impact on trade routes, and when you look at it that way it opens up a lot of good questions about Star B if it takes 20 jumps to get there.
Why do people live there? Why do merchants go there? A star way out in the boonies won't have the same facilities as one in the hub of the region, and it's less defensible. If the people who live there have a valuable resource that makes it worthwhile for traders to come, then it's worthwhile for raiders too. What kind of people choose such a life? How does the hardship affect them? How do they view outsiders as a result of the raiding? How does the remoteness impact the law level outside of the spaceports extrality zone?
You make important points, but it's also worth noting that Jeanna d'Arc was burned at the stake for crimes including dressing as a man. The fact that she did so at least in part to avoid rape magnifies the point about sexism rather than removing it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc#Cross-dressing_charge
I would say sexism is not the whole story, but it certainly is an important part of the story.
Again, I am not trying to dispute that sexism existed. What I think is different is that in today's world women can excel as doctors, lawyers, scientists, engineers, or politicians, because they have the time to pursue those vocations and master them. If someone today says "a woman can't succeed at X profession because women are too ____" we can more readily perceive that as false and sexist, but I am not sure you could make the same distinction as readily 150+ years ago, because the reproductive burden imposed on women by biology was much more onerous. Even today, pregnancy / childbirth is one of the top killers of women who are of reproductive age. Sorry I know I am being a bit repetitive here, but I can't stress enough that childbirth is hard.
I haven't read much about sexism in the medieval period, but I wouldn't necessarily assume that it had the same exact ideological talking points as sexism today. For example, the prevalence of women in the workplace today means women are competing with men for jobs. That in turn results in men pushing back on the very idea of women in the workplace. We see that idea play out in racial prejudice all the time.
Back in the medieval period I get the impression superstition played an out-sized role in sexism. To give an example: Even through the 1800s, doctors couldn't directly examine a woman's anatomy for fear that doing so would transform them into wanton harlots. This substantially limited the medical care a woman could receive, and it's just absurd. Today we hear a lot about "a woman's place being in the home", but I never hear people say that "a trip to the gynecologist will turn women into nymphomaniacs, so let's go outlaw screening for cervical cancer."
What I do think is an idea that is consistent going back into biblical times, is the idea that being female is shameful. That's something that has been consistent in western culture for millennia.
There is also the idea of women as property of their male relatives, and limitations on the holding of power or wealth except through a man. Those aspects of sexism were imposed as opposed to being a biological distinction between the sexes, and undoubtedly that was all about control of power.
On the subject of Jeanne d'Arc I would make two observations.
The biblical clothing law that was used as a pretext for her execution applied to men as well. It stems from a passage in the bible that forbade both men and women from cross-dressing.
As far as rape in prison goes, that's still a big problem today in both men's and women's prisons. My guess would be that it was a problem for men in prisons back then too. I am sure women had it a lot worse in that respect, both inside of prison and outside.
As far as the role of all of that in ShadowWorld, I think the setting is by it's nature very different because it's history lacks the fiercely patriarchal religious underpinnings prevalent in the history of our own western world. Religious law is impossible to change, because to modify it means accepting that God is flawed and his Word contains errors. With Orhan it's a polytheistic system with a pantheon of male and female deities, each holding dominion in their own area. One could potentially modify the hierarchy of the ShadowWorld pantheon to alter something that MisterK touched on, which is the patriarchal nature of the pantheon.
As I understand it the hierarchy of the Greek Pantheon is an organization imposed largely by modern scholars, and the reality is that individual Greek Gods were tied to sovereign city states e.g. Athena being tied to Athens. Athena herself is variously portrayed as daughter of Zeus, one of the Titans, as an equal to Zeus, and in some cases as a more powerful goddess than Zeus. Her origins may well predate Greece and go back to Ethiopia.
Although the ShadowWorld text does name Kuor as the King God, it also points out that the relationships between the gods is loose, and the gods are most often apart from each other with only occasional mental contact. In my mind this opens the possibility that the "official" relationship between the Lords of Orhan is a construct imposed by churches as opposed to an actual pecking order on Orhan. You could treat Kuor as First Speaker on a council as opposed to a King. A city might worship Valris, and not even recognize the existence of Kuor. This in turn would affect social norms, and structures within a culture.
For the record I would hesitate to alter major points of canon, but it could easily be used to fill in gaps where the books leave off, and assist in fleshing out cultures that are named but not detailed.
One thing that I do think really differs with ShadowWorld is the idea that being female is a source of shame, or that a woman can't own property or wield power openly. It's there in some cultures, but it's not the dominant global outlook.
Another point, women seem to have equal access to medical care in ShadowWorld for the most part, and can themselves be medical caregivers i.e. the Sisters of Eissa. Men can be great Fortune Tellers.