(no subject)

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

This is the out of character community for kostantiniyye. Yes, our name here is sort of a pun: constant action all the time - hopefully!

The game has officially launched! But we're still willing to take applications here.

For background reading, start here, then progress to more specific posts. General info posts have been left unlocked; now the game has launched, day-to-day business posts are locked to members of the community.

GENERAL INFO

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

CONSTANTINOPLE. ISTANBUL. KONSTANTINOUPOLIS. قسطنطینیه.
KOSTANTINIYYE
Glory of Byzantium;
Heart of the Ottoman Empire;
Sacked by the British;
Now the greatest free city in either East or West, governed by Council with representatives of the Great Powers: the British, Byzantine and Ottoman Empires.
A city of religious tolerance, where Jews, Muslims, Eastern and Western Christians have equal rights.
(A man with no god is a man with no soul, and a man with no soul is no man at all; and you may do what you will with him - Edicts of the City of Kostantiniyye)
A city of political stability, hardwon and proudly protected.
(Any man, woman or eunuch who plots against the City is guilty of treachery, and their life is forfeit.)
In a world where:
There was no Protestant Reformation, but there was an
Industrial Revolution - in the seventeenth century, giving rise to the
Age of Steam;
Monogamy is unusual, triadic marriage is common and pederasty and corerasty are enshrined in law;
Byzantium lost Constantinople to the Ottomans, but its Empire never fell;
The British Empire controls much of the continent called New England, and protects the throne of the
Pope in the West, who sits in New York, while the
Pope in the East now sits at Alexandria after the Byzantines lost Konstantinopoulis;
The British in their turn took Istanbul from the Ottomans, but lost Constantinople; and a
Great Peace was made that enshrined Kostantiniyye forever more as a free city.
(Until someone takes it back.)

( Info on the Empires )

FURTHER INFO:

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

SEX, MARRIAGE, GENDER ISSUES

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

This is worth a read because marriage structures in particular are different from what's typical in our own societies!
( lots of info )

Gendered Power: This is an interesting area for the game, I think. I don't think it's plausible in this set up to entirely eradicate a patriarchal past. BUT in a world where one of the major religions (and its two major institutions) institutionalises bisexuality, I think this adds a complicating element. I think that in this world, social status is much more significant than gender status, but that there is probably a historic bias toward preferring men. Social status is determined by wealth, class, family reputation, and nationality (and of course different groups have different perceptions of what desirable nationalities are...). So this is definitely not an egalitarian society, but inequalities are not focused around gender.

Clerics of the Western Church are male and not allowed to marry - eunuchs are permitted to be clerics but castration is not necessary; in the Eastern Church they are eunuchs; in Islam imams may be male or female (not eunuchs); and hopefully Becky can give me some further thoughts on female rabbis... Outside this, I think that women can take on any role a man can. Eunuchs have a more complex social status, both privileged and constrained.

POLITICS, LAW, ADMINISTRATION

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

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

TECHNOLOGY, SCIENCE, MAGIC

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE is probably the area I could most use help with, to be honest! So your thoughts are appreciated. My idea is that the Scientific Revolution is led by the Ottoman Empire rather than Europe (which would have plenty of historical precedent, really - see history of Islamic science). I also had the idea that the Industrial Revolution is started in Britain, as it was in our world (in broad terms - I know a lot of this is open to debate but let's not get sidetracked :D) but that the driving force behind it was imperial interests, particularly in getting naval advantages, which has led to the Age of Steam. This happens rather earlier than in our world - beginning from the late 1600s rather than from 1750ish onward, though the domination of the sea by steam-powered ships didn't happen until the first couple of decades of the 18th century. It's now 1850. The British are the most technologically advanced of the three empires (though the Byzantines and Ottomans tend to think of them as a rather young upstart power and are very scathing about British culture), but the Ottomans have the best medical science. I want to leave a lot of things open to discussion, but I'd say technology levels are similar to our own in the early twentieth century. 

An interesting point of difference is the existence of MAGIC. This is a science called ALCHEMY or al-kimia (depending on where you are from) and it is as reputable as any other science - it's studied extensively at university and indeed is considered one of the most difficult disciplines to master, with many important subfields. Most practitioners are theoretical alchemists and do not claim to be able to perform magic per se, or work within the field of alchemy to advance understanding in fields of chemistry, medicine etc. But there are some who claim, through their engagement with the advanced spiritual beliefs of alchemy alongside rigorous academic study, to be able to perform magic. The clearest visible sign of these are the golem. They are extraordinarily difficult to make and their creation in Kostantiniyee is only allowed if one has a licence from the University. The advanced masters of alchemy are often elite men or eunuchs, because the mystical side of alchemy has often been the province of religious orders that founded universities, but there are female practitioners too.

All three powers are at best sceptical of and at worst hostile to anyone who claims magical ability outside of this elite. The selling of magical potions or magical services is forbidden and is punishable by heavy fine or a beating. This doesn't stop these services being offered, of course, but one normally goes outside the city walls to find them...

RELIGION AND CULTURE

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

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.