Kostantiniyye: Out of Chatacter

Hello, citizens of Kostantiniyye. Today is Wednesday, 1 May, 1850 / Çarsamba 18 Jumādā ath-Thāniya, 1266.* Your weather forecast for today is a typical May day: relatively high humidity, but no soaring temperatures. Low cloud cover and light rain in the morning clears away for a fresher, mild afternoon and a pleasant evening. High of 22C/71F, low of 15C/59F.

This day will last in game until the end of 4 May (whatever time zone you're in; we're flexible like that). You can write any post set on the 1st of May or tag into any post set on the 1st of May from now until the end of Friday 4th May.

In a while I will write a post set in the evening, which will be the party at the ambassador's mansion. Everyone is welcome to tag in. If you would like to try your hand at writing a post before you tag into the party, please feel free to do so, though it's certainly not required! The best model for understanding how threadbombs work is estdeus_innobis. There are lots of examples here. Don't worry about doing things "wrong" - the best way to learn how to RP is just to have a go. If you get stuck or confused of course either message me/torrainor write a note here on the OOC.

I will be making the default setting for this community friends only, so please ensure that you have joined the community and aren't just watching it.

Yay!! Launch day! So exciiiiiting!

___________
* A note that is relevant in general: transliterated words out of Arabic and Ottoman Turkish can be spelled lots of different ways (as you've probably already noticed with the name "Kostantiniyye", also "Konstantiniyee", "Konstantiniyye", "Qostantiniyye") but this isn't something you should worry about too much as long as people can figure out what you're talking about!

So something I've been wondering about is what the heck people wear in Kostantiniyye. I've been doing a bit of thinking about this, but would appreciate your feedback too, especially since I know how some of you are historical costume geeks :)

Given just how AU our world is in some respects, it's difficult to chart a course of fashion history. Now, I've chosen 1850 as a reasonably arbitrary start date for our game, which in the West in our world is full of clothes like this. But in a world that's already well into its industrial revolution, plus a world with less power disparity between the genders, the typical Victorian costumes make less sense. Meanwhile, Ottoman fashion of the same period was a mishmash of the huge range of cultures that society both influenced and was influenced by. (These are obvious basic wikipedia links but they are a reasonable place to start if you've not read much on fashion history.)  Meanwhile, in Kostantiniyye itself, fashions are bound to be an amalgam of the different cultures. I don't want to be too proscriptive in saying what people wear, but if we try to come up with a general vibe of clothing that would be seen as relatively acceptable that would probably be good!

For women, my starting point from a western perspective is a combination of the Victorian dress reform movement and the Turquerie trends of the C16th-18th. The crinoline doesn't seem to me as likely a trend in this world, but bloomers seem rational - modest, allowing movement, and cooler in the Turkish heat than heavy skirts. They bear some similarities to female costume in the Ottoman period too.

( bloomin' marvellous )
For both Jewish and Muslim communities, religious regulations regarding clothing ensure modesty for both men and women (though note that these laws allow for a great deal of flexibility and variety in culture and fashion terms), and given the power of the Ottoman Empire, I imagine this has influenced European trends too. But I think we'd be more likely to see looser, flowing lines in fashion rather than the tighter fits of the late Victorian/early Edwardian period. Perhaps this is a point where New England is diverging a bit (especially since the British are self-consciously trying to raise their global profile) and perhaps are a bit more scandalous with, for instance, showing of decotellage or men wearing breeches - though I imagine that anyone who planned to settle in Kostantiniyye rather than just passing through would modify their clothes somewhat. So a British man might not go wholesale Turkish and start wearing kaftan and looselegged şalvar, but he might change his breeches for trousers...

Also worth noting that this industrialised age allows for mass-produced clothes, widening the possibilities of what people buy, although the well-to-do are likely to still prefer to go to their tailor.

Here are some pics of male and female fashion that I think could be useful pointers. If you have other ideas, please leave them in comments for discussion! I would say that in this city, you could probably get away with quite a lot of different looks as long as you're not, say, going about in a mini-skirt or have a bare head. (SO many awesome hat possibilities!)

( pretty pics )

Since I figure it'll help galvanise us, I want to launch the game on 1 May. Before then I'll make sure there's a rules/FAQ post. We'll take applications for the game before we officially open, but it makes sense to try to create your character before then so you can get in right at the start! I may start with a couple of events to help as many characters as possible mix together before letting you go off on your own for a bit to start exploring connections. As you know, this game will have a little more modly nudging than Excolo, but for the first couple of weeks at least I'll mostly just let everyone find their feet with their characters.

So! If you've already designed a character that's been approved, make sure you make them a journal and use that journal to join this comm and game comm! If you haven't designed a character yet, come on in: the water's warm!

And I declare this post a party post! Come in here and get to know your fellow players!

We welcome applications from people with tons of roleplaying experience and people with none. The cardinal virtues of roleplayers are, I think: flexibility, creativity, respect. These count for more than experience. The game is not  quite ready for launch, but I thought I'd get the application post up now, as starting to form concrete ideas for characters actually helps game development.

Please fill in this form and leave it as a comment to this entry. I encourage other potential players to engage with you and ask you about your character ideas and see if they can think of ways to form relationships between your potential characters and theirs. This is conversation, not a test! :) I am very likely to approve applications that show a character with potential and you seem like someone who's enthusiastic about the roleplaying process. Do make sure you've read the background posts on the Kostantiniyye world before writing an application! Our worldbuilding is still in progress, but it should give you a decent idea of what kind of universe your character will be inhabiting. I might also have to ask you to tweak your application a bit to make it a better fit for the game, but I won't be telling you how to play your characters. As anyone who plays on estdeus_innobis (my other game) knows, initial character profiles often don't end up closely resembling the character who inhabits the game. Roleplaying is transformative. That's part of the fun. But a solid application gives us all confidence, right? :) If by the time you get to this post, there are a few character applications, have a read of those first to check your character's bringing something new to the table - there are only so many alchemists/sexy dancing girls/scheming bishops that any one game needs.

With that said, here's the simple form. Feel free to be as detailed as you like, particularly in the "further details" section.

YOUR DETAILS:

Name:
Age: [please just confirm you're over 18; this game will contain adult content]
Email address:
Have you roleplayed before? What kinds of games?: [An answer of "no" won't count against you!]

YOUR CHARACTER:

THE BASICS

Name:
Age:
Gender:
Nationality and/or ethnicity:
Religion:
Marital status:
Occupation:
Physical description:
PB: ["Played by" - typically an actor used to represent your character in icons. Optional!]

FURTHER DETAILS

Back story:
Personality:
How do you see this character fitting into the game?:
Anything else:

This is likely to be a work in progress, even more than some of the other posts - particularly the culture part!


( fires of faith )


Kostantiniyye, because it's such a melting pot of cultures, can be more sympathetic to cultural and religious differences and is usually quite a tolerant place compared to much of the world. However, its melting pot status also means the pot can sometimes bubble over, and tension between different religious and racial groups can sometimes break out into violence, or be demonstrated in daily terms by discrimination. Some parts of the city have a much more cosmopolitan, tolerant atmosphere than other parts, like any big city.

The largest populations in Kostantiniyye are Eastern Christian (300,000) and Muslim (400,000), followed by Western Christian (250,000), and then there is a smaller Jewish population (50,000). There are of course people from other cultures but they are not officially recorded in census information.

I'm leaving the mechanics of this pretty open to interpretation, but here's some background.
( legal biz )

FURTHER INFO:

Sex, marriage, gender 
Politics, law, admin
Technology, science, magic
Religion and culture
Geography and economy