Fantasy The Palace of the Padishah

[MrThe]

In the court of the king of kings there are many people, men and women of far off places gather to petition the one who sits upon the Padishah throne. Most are willing participants in the imperial system of obeisance and patronage, but an empire does not stand on ceremony alone. The sons and daughters of powerful aristocrats, satraps, and lesser kings or governors are taken to the palace and from then on they are placed within a gilded cage. Should their fathers or mothers ever become disloyal, or if they themselves even once betray their sacred oaths of allegiance to the crown their lives are forfeit. This is a rare thing however, and most live out their days comfortably amidst the luxurious gardens and jeweled halls that constitutes the royal court. This practice of taking hostages and educating them to be loyal servants of the Padishah was longstanding, and called Devshirme. You are one such stolen child.

Hey guys! I always see a lot of aristocracy roleplays where everyone is a noble going to the same school, but so many of them are based on western european concepts of nobility and/or include many high fantasy elements. So I decided to do something a bit different to that by mostly focus on giving it a Persian/Ottoman flavor. I also felt like everyone ignores the historical practice of hostage taking and how it creates such an interesting opportunity for roleplaying. (It's also a handy excuse for if anyone drops the rp) So if this garners enough interest I'll be posting a character sheet in extra pages where you can create your background. This is a very multicultural empire so feel free to go wild with what kind of people you represent in the Empire, the only rules are that you need to be related to someone in a leadership position, you need to be human, and you can't have innate magical powers. (Keep things very low on the magic spectrum)

 

[GumGumChomp]

this looks unique, im interested!

 

[Jannah]

I've been wanting an Ottoman or Ottoman inspired RP for literally over a year now so I'm so in.

 

[Jannah]

Also, if you need help with worldbuilding I know a ridiculous amount about the Ottoman Empire since it's my current historical obsession.

 

[MrThe]

Also, if you need help with worldbuilding I know a ridiculous amount about the Ottoman Empire since it's my current historical obsession.

Thanks lol, I was actually leaning much more towards Persian style. But honestly the Ottomans copied so much of Persian Courtly life it's hard to distinguish at times. (This goes back to the days of the Seljuks who adopted Persian culture heavily after conquering Iran) But mostly I want to foster a lot of originality for your characters culture and how your homelands relationship to the Padisha Emperors affects your perspective of being part of Devshirme

 

[Jannah]

Thanks lol, I was actually leaning much more towards Persian style. But honestly the Ottomans copied so much of Persian Courtly life it's hard to distinguish at times. (This goes back to the days of the Seljuks who adopted Persian culture heavily after conquering Iran) But mostly I want to foster a lot of originality for your characters culture and how your homelands relationship to the Padisha Emperors affects your perspective of being part of Devshirme

Ah okay. Can't help you there as I admittedly know less about the various Persian empires.

 

[MrThe]

Ah okay. Can't help you there as I admittedly know less about the various Persian empires.

It's fine, I probably will end up falling back on my knowledge of the Ottomans anyways since I know them much better than Persia myself. I mostly want to illustrate how it's not going to be exactly 1 to 1 and the setting is more "inspired by" than "based on"

 

[MrThe]

Ok, here is the Character Sheet page. Sorry if it's a bit bare bones, feel free to add things if you want. I gave everyone the choice to decide how long they've been in the palace and what age they were taken in. Jannah GumGumChomp