RELIGION AND CULTURE
Apr. 19th, 2012 07:29 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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konstantoocThis is likely to be a work in progress, even more than some of the other posts - particularly the culture part!
The main difference in religion is in Christianity. If people have ideas they'd like to introduce for other faiths though please feel free to comment and we can discuss!
The history of early Christianity is much as it was in our world. In 1054, there was the Great Schism, separating the Church into the Eastern Church and the Western Church. But things are a bit different after that. It would be tempting for me to write a huge back history for all this, but I think that might be overwhelming and not necessarily very useful. So what I shall say is: the Byzantine Empire, not declining as it did in our world, ensures that the Eastern Church remains a major power. When the Byzantines lost control of what was then called Konstantinopoulis in 1453, the seat of the Eastern Pope moved to Alexandria. The current Pope in the East is Pope Cyril IX. The Church in the East is one institution, unlike the Eastern Orthodox churches today though its doctrines are similar (with the major exception of marriage).
In the West, the Western Schism went on for much longer than in our world - for nearly a hundred years. The infighting and factionalism that resulted weakened the Church substantially, and the failure of the Crusades and the subsequent rise of both the Ottoman Empire and Byzantine Empire meant that the cultural and political influence of the Western Church was diminished. But this also means that there was never a Protestant Reformation. With the rise of the British Empire - the British have always been staunchly Western Christian - the Church has regained much authority. The papacy has moved to New York to represent Britain's stamping of its authority on the New World, and the current pope is Pope Adrian VII. Its doctrines remain much like Catholic doctrine of our world, again with the exception of issues of marriage/sexuality.
In Kostantiniyee, the religious freedoms of Abrahamic religions are protected in law. Other religions are not recognised. Officially, atheism (a fairly newly-coined term) and paganism (in the sense of non-Abrahamic and particularly indigenous polytheistic religions) are illegal. Anyone found guilty by the religious courts of heresy (which is used to mean, complicatedly, either lack of belief OR non-compliance with orthodox belief) can be imprisoned or forced into indentured work. This can be avoided by conversion or a return to orthodoxy.
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.
The main difference in religion is in Christianity. If people have ideas they'd like to introduce for other faiths though please feel free to comment and we can discuss!
The history of early Christianity is much as it was in our world. In 1054, there was the Great Schism, separating the Church into the Eastern Church and the Western Church. But things are a bit different after that. It would be tempting for me to write a huge back history for all this, but I think that might be overwhelming and not necessarily very useful. So what I shall say is: the Byzantine Empire, not declining as it did in our world, ensures that the Eastern Church remains a major power. When the Byzantines lost control of what was then called Konstantinopoulis in 1453, the seat of the Eastern Pope moved to Alexandria. The current Pope in the East is Pope Cyril IX. The Church in the East is one institution, unlike the Eastern Orthodox churches today though its doctrines are similar (with the major exception of marriage).
In the West, the Western Schism went on for much longer than in our world - for nearly a hundred years. The infighting and factionalism that resulted weakened the Church substantially, and the failure of the Crusades and the subsequent rise of both the Ottoman Empire and Byzantine Empire meant that the cultural and political influence of the Western Church was diminished. But this also means that there was never a Protestant Reformation. With the rise of the British Empire - the British have always been staunchly Western Christian - the Church has regained much authority. The papacy has moved to New York to represent Britain's stamping of its authority on the New World, and the current pope is Pope Adrian VII. Its doctrines remain much like Catholic doctrine of our world, again with the exception of issues of marriage/sexuality.
In Kostantiniyee, the religious freedoms of Abrahamic religions are protected in law. Other religions are not recognised. Officially, atheism (a fairly newly-coined term) and paganism (in the sense of non-Abrahamic and particularly indigenous polytheistic religions) are illegal. Anyone found guilty by the religious courts of heresy (which is used to mean, complicatedly, either lack of belief OR non-compliance with orthodox belief) can be imprisoned or forced into indentured work. This can be avoided by conversion or a return to orthodoxy.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2012-04-22 05:07 pm (UTC)Oh! Related: may non-citizens live within city walls in the household of a citizen--say, parents who saved up enough to have their kid hold the two thousand pounds, or full-time live-in servants?
no subject
Date: 2012-04-22 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-22 08:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-22 11:17 pm (UTC)(I was kicking around ideas of what it'd be like to have no soul, as a result of excommunication. I was thinking sterility, actually, and possible indefinable social offness; I wasn't sure how evident the metaphysicals would be, and was aiming for things that could be dismissed in a pinch. But I never actually thought of where the soul would go.)
Remember the Skeksis from the Dark Crystal, and the extraction with the red light?
...is it possible to be recommunicated? Do you need to get your soul back, or is what's extracted fuel rather than personality, something you can replenish from a different source?
no subject
Date: 2012-04-22 11:36 pm (UTC)As for being recommunicated: it's possible theologically, but where would you get a soul? Do they keep your old soul around just in case? Can you make artificial souls? Maybe that's what the alchemists are doing in that mental image I have of them - trying to synthesize souls.
(It's also worth noting that Judaism doesn't have the same notion of excommunication. Not sure about Islam.)
no subject
Date: 2012-04-23 12:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-23 12:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-23 12:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-23 01:06 am (UTC)...I am rambling. I am rambling so far I need a train ticket to get back, oy.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-23 01:12 am (UTC)(...oh. Is there kabbalistic alchemy, I wonder?)
no subject
Date: 2012-04-23 11:13 am (UTC)What I was thinking about with the "no soul" idea was the idea that lack of religion/lack of orthodox religion reclassifies individuals as something other than human.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-22 09:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-29 09:24 pm (UTC)I made Khadija a Sunni Sufi. Now, Sufism has, in the last century or so, been a more maligned way of practising Islam and which is why I made a comment about it in my character's profile. However, it's not always been so. Sufism used to be particularly popular and was common around the time of this game in our world. Around about the early 20th century Sufism fell out of fashion, other practices saw Sufism as almost decadent and airy-fairy and mystical and not in alignment with the 'proper' teachings of the Qur'an or, indeed, modernity.
What I wondered was how you saw Islam in this world? Do you think a more spiritual Islamic path would be out of fashion (as might be suggested by an earlier industrial revolution and push towards modernity) or do you think Sufism might be at the hight of it's power? Or coming back into fashion? I was just wondering what kind of Islam you saw your ambassador practising and how that might fit and/or cause tension between them or other Muslim characters...
no subject
Date: 2012-04-30 12:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-30 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-30 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-30 07:57 pm (UTC)