The City of Countless Names- The Diverse Peoples of Constantinople

The city of Constantinople sits at the juncture of two continents, two seas and countless empires across time. Since the cities’ founding, its mercantile, political, and religious significance ensured its constant growth and the covetous desire of others. The Greeks, the Romans, and the Christians once possessed this strategic city, and now it is the shining gem in the increasingly tarnished crown of the diminishing Ottoman Empire. In 1853, the Russian Czarina used a squabble over religious sites to threaten the Ottoman Empire with war, pulling the city into greater international import. With more English, French and Italian forces passing through the city each day, and its young Sultan’s new progressive policies, Constantinople faces enemies and allies unused to its exotic ways and ancient dangers.

Constantinople has a uniquely diverse population. Even its historic emperors came from a wide range of races and religions. Each ethnicity and religion in the city has its own quarters, businesses, and cemeteries, along with its own fears and prejudices. To function in Constantinople without a dragoman (a guide), travelers must speak Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Hebrew, French, Italian, and English to navigate these communities.

Turks

The most numerous inhabitants of Constantinople, Ottoman Turks make up half of the city’s population of 800,000. They are Nithamiyeen to man, devotedly following the Six Pillars. The young Sultan Abdulmejid I rules his empire from Constantinople as the ultimate sovereign of his people. While some of their members live in incredible wealth and influence, most live in poverty. Turkish society binds their women to strict rules covering all aspects of life including dress, socializing, and education, however, the recent reforms of Tanzimat, and European influences may bring change to the harem.

The other peoples of Constantinople see the Turks as calm and composed, or even lazy and close-minded. Still others fear their authority and hate their privilege, but no one denies their devotion to their religion, and their hospitality.

The Ottoman Empire organizes the non-Turks of their empire, known as Rayah (or “the flock”), into their own communities with local government ultimately subject to the Sultan’s Authority. In this way, each retains their own traditions, and identity with as little friction and assimilation as possible, but they still do not have all the rights of the Turks. High and middle-class members exist in all communities, but most are as poor as the majority of Ottomans.

Greeks

Although the Greeks were the original settlers of Constantinople, the Turks outnumber them three to one. In fact many descend from the Greeks forced to immigrate, by past Sultans, to repopulate the city. Although they have built a place in Constantinople’s society, many Greeks hate the Turks and hope the Russians drive them out. Although the Greeks are subjects of the Sultan, the Patriarch of Constantinople Cyril VII leads their faith.

Outsiders believe the Greeks are boisterous, childlike, and unreliable often singing loudly, or dancing for no reason.

Armenians

The Armenians prospered in ancient Byzantium, and their descendants remain numerous in Constantinople.

The Armenians of Constantinople are further divided by their religions. Most of the Armenians in Constantinople left the ancient Armenian Aluminat Church to join the Roman Aluminat. The Roman Aluminat Armenians quickly adopted modern European fashions and ways with much success. Many Armenians fill the vocational niches shunned by Turks, such as banking and money changing.

Armenians tend to be practical, industrious, and adaptable, but some see them as ignorant, cloying errand boys of Turkish masters.

Jews

The Jewish people survive in Constantinople with varying degrees of persecution and tolerance since its days as Byzantine. Finding Ottoman Rule more tolerant than Aluminat Europe, the Jewish population expanded with exiles from Roman Aluminat Spain in the late 1400s.  Those of the Roman Aluminat religion tend to have the least tolerance of the Yehudites.

Although many see the Jews as the most trustworthy people in the city, stereotypes of treacherous schemers or worse followed the Jews into Constantinople.

Levantines

The smallest and least influential group in Constantinople is the Levantines. The Levantines descend from European émigrés in the city’s past, mostly French, Genoese, and Venetian merchants from before the Ottomans. Most are Roman Aluminat like their ancestors.

Europeans and natives alike often see the Levantines as mongrels and upstarts trying to fit in among their betters.

Also in this uniquely complicated hive of cultures and beliefs are the Tartars (from the Crimea), Circassians, Kurds, Croats, North Africans ( from Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt), Bulgarians, Kurds, Romani, and others of the Ottoman Empire living in their own ways, piled up in Constantinople.

It’s great to get into the more practical side of Constantinople. There are a lot of layers to dive through, and tons of weird adventure inspiring detail to talk about before we start exploring Constantinople.  Next week’s post looks at playing Europeans in Constantinople, and a couple practicalities of their life in the city.

The City of Countless Names- Talismans of Constantinople

According to Evliya Çelebi, Ottoman historian and travel writer, of the 17th century, powerful artifacts guard Constantinople and provide for the cities inhabitants. These talismans come out of the city’s ancient past, most of them housed in Byzantine monuments. Celebi claims the talismans lost their powers when the Prophet, Muhammad, received his message from Allah.  As Victoriana uses analogs of real world religions, these talismans lost their magic when angels gave the Word to the Nithamiyeen.

Near the Basilica Cistern, four columns bore statues of four angels (Gabriel, Michael, Rafael, and Azrael), each facing a cardinal direction. The angels clapped their wings to warn of famine, war, pestilence, and death.

Although the columns remain, the statues fell from their pillars when the Nithyamieen received their Word.

Where the Avret-Bazari (the market of female slaves) used to be, stands a tall pillar called the Column of Arcadius. A statue of Arcadius stands at its zenith. According to Celebi, a statue of a beautiful lady also graces the top of the pillar. Once a year, the statue attracted thousands of birds by making a noise. The birds flew around the statue before falling to the earth in exhaustion, where the Byzantines collected the birds for food.

In 1715, an earthquake severely damaged the column (or as legend claims, when angels gave their message to the Followers of the Word). In fear of its collapse, the Ottomans dismantled the column, but its base remains to this day.

In Blachernae Palace, a brass statue of an Ifrit sits on a plinth made of black stone. Once a year, the statue spat out flames. People captured sparks of this fire, as it did not extinguish until its owner fell ill.

Now, the statue is gone from Blachernae Palace.

The red granite Obelisk of Theodosius remains in the Hippodrome of Constantinople. According to Celebi, the hieroglyphs on this transplanted Egyptian obelisk prophecy the future of the city; however Egyptologists translated the hieroglyphics as declarations of a wartime victory by Pharaoh Thutmose III.

The Column of Constantine stands in Tauk-Bazar (the poultry-market). Because an earthquake weakened the columns integrity, Sultan Mustafa II ordered bronze hoops wrapped along its120 ft height to preserve it. At the top, a statue of Apollo stood symbolizing the victorious Constantine. Supposedly, Constantine placed a talisman shaped like a starling at the top, and once a year the starling clapped its wings, attracting countless birds carrying enough olives to feed Constantinople’s inhabitants.

The column remains, but a great wind blew the statuary from its top in 1106 AD.

Near the Fatih mosque by the saddler’s bazaar, sits the Column of Marcian. Old stories say a white marble chest containing the daughter of Byzantius sat at the top, protecting her body from scavengers. Any young lover due to be wed can hug the column to gain protection from harm until their wedding day.

The column’s remains are tucked away in the garden of an old barrack’s used by the Janissaries, now a private home.

A great column protected Constantinople from plagues, but it was destroyed in the 15th century, to make room for the Beyazit Bathhouse.

The Walled Obelisk in the Hippodrome of Constantinople was once decorated by gems and bronze plaques showing the victories of Emperor Basil I. Supposedly, this column also had a powerful magnet strong enough to protect the city from Earthquakes.

The obelisk still stands, but Crusaders ripped out its glorious decorations in 1204. It’s doubtful the magnet survived.

In the neighborhood of Altimemer six sages of the ancient world built six magical columns.

The pillar made by Philip bears the image of a brass fly, whose humming scares all the flies out of the Constantinople. Similarly, the pillar made by Plato has the figure of a gnat, able to drive out all of the city’s gnats. Another pillar, built by Hippocrates has a stork, and once a year the figure cries out, killing all the storks within the walls of Constantinople, leaving those in the suburbs unharmed. The pillar built by Socrates holds a brass cockerel, which crowed once a day causing the all cockerels to crow, waking the city’s inhabitants in time for morning prayer. Pythagoras’s column bears a bronze wolf so terrifying; it kept wolves in the countryside around the city from attacking sheep. The two young lovers made of brass on the column by Aristotle could solve any marital strife provided one of the partners embraced it. Galen also placed two statues on his pillar, an old decrepit man, and a sour faced hag. If a husband or wife unhappy in marriage embraced this column, they were sure to separate.

These six talismans are now gone.

Long ago an ancient sage built a brass three-headed dragon to scare all venomous animals out of Constantinople. Over time, the statue sunk into the earth near the Hippodrome of Constantinople, but not before the Sultan Selim II smashed the jaw of the head facing west. Scorpions, snakes and other venomous animals appeared in the western half of the city, and now they can be found in every building. If anyone destroys the two remaining heads, insects and reptiles will take over Constantinople.

Adventure Ideas

Basically, this is a list of powerful artifacts from Constantinople’s past villains can weaponize, power hungry cultists seek, and the highest bidder buys. Go have some fun.

In case the past 3 posts did not convince you Constantinople’s past contains plenty of fodder for adventures, this post should take care of that. We’ll revisit most of these sites again in more detail when we look at some of the sites around the city.  Next week, we’ll look at Constantinople’s populations, ethnicities, and communities.

The City of Countless Names– History 3

The city of Constantinople sits at the juncture of two continents, two seas and countless empires across time. Since the cities’ founding, it’s mercantile, political, and religious significance ensured its constant growth and the covetous desire of others. The Greeks, the Romans, and the Christians once possessed this strategic city, and now it is the shining gem in the increasingly tarnished crown of the diminishing Ottoman Empire. In 1853, the Russian Czarina used a squabble over religious sites to threaten the Ottoman Empire with war, pulling the city into greater international import. With more English, French and Italian forces passing through the city each day, and its young Sultan’s new progressive policies, Constantinople faces enemies and allies unused to its exotic ways and ancient dangers.

Ottoman forces took the Byzantine city of Skoutarion (later called Scutari) in 1338. Over 100 years later, the Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror mustered his invasion forces here, to finally take Constantinople. The Sultan’s superior forces of men, horses, ships and cannons faced one of the best-fortified cities in the world on May 29^th, 1453. After a 53 day siege, Mehmed took Constantinople. 

Like Constantine, Mehmed sought to own a thriving city, not destroy it. He too made Constantinople the capital of his empire and ensured the city remained prosperous. He repaired the city’s defenses and built the magnificent Topkapu palace. He allowed those who had abandoned the city to come back and keep their surviving property, and let the Western Orthodox Aluminate Church flourish in Constantinople free of Roman Aluminate authority. He ruthlessly repopulated Constantinople with Slavs, Nithamiyeens, Aluminates, Greeks, and Yehudites, from across the Ottoman Empire, and gave freedom to the obedient. He made the Aluminate city into an Ottoman city, converting churches to mosques, renaming Constantinople to Kostantiniyye (At least in formal documents).

Ottoman Constantinople reached a golden age in art, culture, and architecture during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (1520 –1566). He brought craftsmen and artists from Europe to his court, funded public education, commissioned the impressively massive Süleymaniye Mosque, and was himself a fine poet.

In the 1600s, the Ottoman Empire grew through war. In the 1700s the empire grew stagnant. Tradition fought against the influence of the world around it. Reform after reform faded, choked to death by the stagnation within, leading the Empire into decline. Seeing this weakness, Russia, the old adversary of the empire, spotted a chance to expand their borders to the coveted shores of the Black Sea. From 1768-1826 Russia won a series of wars against the Ottomans, with the Russians gaining territory, and the Ottomans losing prestige. 

The Ottoman Empire bound incredibly diverse ethnic groups and religions to its authority. In the early 1800s, the ideas of nationalism and revolution stormed across Europe, inspiring minorities in the empire to rebel. Both Serbia and Greece won their independence, leaving the Ottoman Empire further diminished and its members pondering their own rebellions.

Worried by the Sultan Mahmud II’s plans for a new modernized army, the Janissaries (elite soldiers of the Ottoman Empire) mutinied in 1826. In the past, the Janissaries held great power and they removed every Sultan threatening their status, but Mahmud II’s forces defeated the warriors. The remaining Janissaries went to prison, lost their heads, or went into exile. While this “Auspicious Incident” opened the way to modernization, the new Ottoman military wasn’t ready for the disastrous the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829, resulting in another war lost to the Russians.

Mahmud II built on the modernization of his predecessor, Sultan Selim III, with reforms influenced by European political thought. His reforms covered currency, crimes, conscription, corruption, and practically every other part of Ottoman society. His son, Abdulmejid I, carries on his father work, trying to keep the empire together, defend its territories, and to bring the empire into the modern world of 1855.

Sultan Mahmud II, and Sultan Abdulmejid I,’s reforms (knows as Tanzimât or “reorganization”) breathed new life into “the Sick Man”, but it may already be too late.

Adventure Ideas

In the confusion of the Siege of Constantinople, no one knows what happened to the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine IX. While he probably died to an Ottoman sword, old stories say an angel saved the emperor from the Sultan’s forces by turning him to marble and hiding him in a cave near the Golden Gate.  He slept in the cave ever since, waiting to take the city back.

Some Greeks still believe the legend. I’m sure some Russian agents in Constantinople would be willing to help.

When Suleiman the Magnificent died, his body was buried in Constantinople, but his heart remained in Szigetvar (in modern day Hungary). Specifically is heart was entombed in a golden chest at the Ottoman settlement of Turbek. Sadly, Habsburg soldiers destroyed Turbek in the 1680s, which means just about anyone could have the heart of Suleiman the Magnificent. Even better, why was his heart removed in the first place?

Mahmud II is the father of the current Sultan Abdulmejid I, and he destroyed the Janissaries about 30 years ago. Some of these elite warriors and bodyguards still wander around somewhere.  They probably know a lot about Constantinople, it’s secrets, it‘s defenses, and the best place to kill a Sultan.

That brings us to the 1850s. I hope you managed to follow this city’s story with me, and found some intriguing threads to follow as we look at adventures set in Constantinople. Before we move on to the nuts and bolts of the city, I have one more post on my favorite discovery from Constantinople’s past.

The City of Countless Names– History 2

The city of Constantinople sits at the juncture of two continents, two seas and countless empires across time. Since the cities’ founding, it’s mercantile, political, and religious significance ensured its constant growth and the covetous desire of others. The Greeks, the Romans, and the Christians once possessed this strategic city, and now it is the shining gem in the increasingly tarnished crown of the diminishing Ottoman Empire. In 1853, the Russian Czarina used a squabble over religious sites to threaten the Ottoman Empire with war, pulling the city into greater international import. With more English, French and Italian forces passing through the city each day, and its young Sultan’s new progressive policies, Constantinople faces enemies and allies unused to its exotic ways and ancient dangers.

After removing his rivals for the Imperial throne, Constantine the Great needed a new capital for his new Aluminate Roman Empire. The empire’s frontiers spread too wide to rule from Rome and an emperor from the west living in the east would help unify an empire splinted by a war for succession.  Constantine found his capital in Byzantium, and in 324 AD he began construction on his “Nova Roma” (New Rome).

Constantine his empire wealth into the new capital, bringing the best artists, sculptors, and architects, funding civic improvements like roads and aqueducts, buying (or otherwise procuring) the most precious artifacts and relics, and building Aluminate churches.

Guided by an angel, Constantine took a spear and marked the boundary of the city’s new fortifications, two miles out from the city walls. Soon Nova Roma’s size quadrupled Byzantium’s. Its founder and his city became so intertwined, Nova Roma became Constantinople (Constantine's City). In 337 AD Constantine died and was buried beneath the Church of the Holy Apostle, leaving his successors to enjoy his cities growth, prosperity, and natural defenses.

Theodosius I became emperor in 379. During his reign, he transported an Egyptian obelisk to Constantinople, suppressed pagan practices, unified the beliefs of the Aluminate faith, and built the Church of Jonathon the Baptist to house the saint’s skull. Thirteen years after his death in 395 AD, Theodosius II took the throne. Theodosius II oversaw the building of the great two-tiered walls (known as the Theodosian walls) around the entire city. Much of the Theodosian walls still stand, most evidently on the western side of the city. These walls protected Constantinople for 800 years.

Emperor Justinian I tried to expand the border of his empire. His partial success brought back a glimmer of the Roman Empire’s glory. More impressively, he rebuilt the Hagia Sofia after its fiery destruction, creating the most iconic and beautiful church in Constantinople.  During his blessed reign, the bubonic plague killed over a third of Constantinople’s population from 541-542 AD. The plagues death toll would have been lower, but strange poisonous fumes in the air and unnatural cold weather caused a massive famine in the years before, weakening everyone. Justinian himself caught the plague but lived another 23 years.

During the Middle Ages, Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe, producing incredible works of art and architecture.  Unfortunately, this prosperity drew the attention of powerful covetous men. Its natural defenses and manmade fortifications kept the armies belonging to the Followers of the Word out of Europe, but it couldn’t keep out Enrico Dandolo of Venice, and his mutinous Crusaders. In 1204, they left their papal mission behind (or possibly followed it to the letter) to siege Constantinople by land and sea, broke through the wall, and occupied the city. For three days the Crusaders looted, vandalized, raped, and killed in Constantinople. They destroyed the entire Library of Constantinople, tortured the city’s inhabitants to find more loot, and even ripped all the gold decorations from sacred Aluminate sites. They made a shattered, violated wreck of Constantinople, and divided the empire’s territory among their leaders. The great city struggled on, suffering a mass exodus of its population, another plague of the Black Death in 1347, factional infighting, and the horrific leadership of its masters.

Relics of Constantine

In some church legends, Constantine sent his mother Helena to build churches in the Holy Land. With the help of a monk named Macarius (or a reluctant Jewish leader named Judas, whom she tortured into helping) Helena found the hiding place of the cross of Jesus Christ (known as the True Cross) and the crosses of the two thieves who died alongside him. Helena puzzled over which was the True Cross until one of the crosses brought a dead man (or woman) back to life.

On the same trip, Helena, aided by Judas, found the nails used in Christ’s crucifixion. After a prayer for guidance, flames from heaven pointed out their location buried in the dirt near Calvary. When she dug up the nails, they glowed with a divine light.  Helena turned the nails into rings for the bridle of Constantine’s horse to bless him in battle. The wood from the True Cross could be just about anywhere…

Other relics from Constantine’s reign include the Crown of Thorns, Moses’ Staff, and the Shroud of the Virgin Mary.  Naturally, you’ll want to adapt these stories to one of the real world religion analogs of Victoriana. Such as:

- Wood from the stake used to impale Saint Justas

- Links from the chains used to imprison Saint Simon Paul

- Metal from the Gladius that stabbed Saint Xanthus

- Teeth from the lion to which the Romans fed Saint Tamit

We have one more week of Constantinople’s history. After that, we’ll start talking about the nuts and bolts of the city as it was in the 1850s. I’ve really enjoyed, looking at church history from a gaming perspective for this. One of the really great things about this city is all the religions that have touched its past. You really can stick anything you want in there, and history will back you up.