Sarmatia has a reputation as a wild land, populated only by fierce beasts and barbarians. Although this is not strictly accurate, there is a grain of truth to the rumours. Much of Sarmatia remains uninhabited, or sparsely habited, wilderness. Vis is rumoured to be so common in Sarmatia that magi use it frivolously. Such rumours only add to the tension with western magi, for whom vis is a rare and precious resource.

That tension is heightened by the restrictions Sarmatia places on the founding of new conventa. Since the Schism War, Sarmatia has resisted the establishment of new conventa by western magi, preferring to allow only magi from Sarmatia to found new conventa. This slowed the Hermetic growth of Sarmatia, but also maintained the Slavic and Greek culture of the Tribunal. Recently Tribunal Grandis mandated that Sarmatia must accept one new conventum from each other Tribunal; the rapid influx of so many magi portends dramatic change in this wilderness Tribunal.