Welcome to Gaia! ::

This is a Private Journal. You will need permission from InfinitiesOfSoules before you are able to post here. We ask you not to beg InfinitiesOfSoules to allow you to purchase, take, or trade their child. They are NOT for sale in the least bit. If you want one, you will have to visit The Ghosts of the Past shop located in Breedable/Changing pets.

Concept © Kyrianna
Art © Kyrianna and VechnayaNicolai

About Kamil

Awakened: 06-28-06
Gender: Male
Guardian: InfinitiesOfSoules
Species: Human (Story Weaver)

...:: Kamil's Journal ::...
...:: Rules ::...

>001<
No posting in here without my complete permission, please. Ianna Umbridge, Kyrianna, and draconianraven all have my permission

>002<
PM Alana Mirei to recieve permission to post here.

>003<
Gifts may be left in here if you have recieved permission to post, otherwise, please PM me the gift.

>004<
If you recieve permission to post in here, please remain in character.

...:: Kamil's Journal ::...
...:: About Alana ::...

Name: Alana Mirei
Alias: Allie, Infi
Gender: Female
Age: Appears 20-ish. No one knows for sure
Species: Elven, but hides her appearance with a glamour.
Appearance
Hair: Black
Eyes: Violet-blue
Skin: Pale, almost white
Distinctive markings: A tribal-style rose tattoo along her spine
Height/Weight: About 5'7, and about 130 pounds. Very curvy, but not obese, and slender without looking anorexic.
Clothing taste: Alana prefers black or white clothing. She prefers demin pants, low-slung, but will make do with a miniskirt. She likes boots that come up to her knees, and low-cut shirts that either have no sleeves, or very floppy sleeves.
Occupation: Musician
Personality: Alana is very calm and laid back, more one to watch everyone else take action than take part in it herself. She masquerades as being human, teaching music in her home. When people ask where her income comes from, she says it is an inheritance- not at all due to the fact she is over 200 years old. No, not at all. She will happily contradict herself in the same sentence, and has a very fluid sense of right and wrong and morality. She is lazy, and would rather sleep the day away than anything else. She also has reserves of energy that comes from nowhere, seemingly.
Abilities: Mild control over flames, and an affinity with plants.

...:: Kamil's Journal ::...
...:: Harem Basics ::...

The word harem comes from an Arabic word meaning "forbidden". Traditionally a harem is the quarters of the women in a household, keeping them away from stranger males- those who are not related to them. The harem consisted of everyone from the sultan's wives, daughters, and servants to his wives' servants, his concubines, and any other female who worked and lived in the palace.

Virtually, the harem populations were well into the thousands. BUT out of the thousands of harem women, none were Muslim. It is forbidden to enslave Muslims, and so the harem had to be made up of other minorities and religions.

The Seraglio (the name for the royal harem) was a large labyrinth of 400 rooms, corridors, and quarters, all strewn into a confusing maze and locked by the other courts of the palace. It was divided into three parts: the actual harem, where the hundreds of concubines, acemis, odalisques, and other women roamed; the black eunuchs' barracks, where the guards of the harem lived daily; and the sultan's private rooms, where he visited his women and entertained them often. The harem was a variety of different rooms. Sleeping quarters, large bathhouses (hamam), pools, spacious gardens, fountains, endless corridors, and apartments for the important women, and countless spaces for the acemis to be learned, all furnished in extraordinary and intricate art forms (tiling, paintings, calligraphy, and countless masterpieces). The rooms in the harem were furnished twice a year. Once in the winter, when the sofas and beds were covered in dark velvets and blankets were spread, and in the summer, when the velvets were replaced with linens and rich colored curtains were hung to lighten the enclosed lives of the women.

The black eunuchs' barracks were located in the harem, stretching from the Carriage Gate in the Second Court to the Cumle Kapisi (Main Gate), located at the end of the main corridor of the harem. The eunuchs' rooms were ostentatiously decorated and glittered with golds, rivaling the classic beauty of the harem. A prince, when old enough, also had an apartment in the harem and had a eunuch to watch over them. Because of their castration, they posed no threat to the princes either. The Aga, the Chief Eunuch, also was housed here.

The highest position in the harem was the Valide Sultana, the mother of the sultan. The Valide Sultana ruled over the harem, and was second in power in the empire only to the sultan. One sultan was even quoted as saying "the world lies at the foot of the mother." The Valide Sultana was a very busy woman. Although she was confided and kept hidden from the empire, she advised her son in all affairs and had a firm grasp on his control. She was rarely seen by the ordinary harem girls, as she had her own apartments with the kadins and children, but she had just a smuch power of the harem as she did over her son. She played a very ambitious role, and in a way, was the true ruler of the house and the empire. Her servants were among the best girls and she had as much power over the women as her son had over the empire. After the Valide Sultana came the Hasseki Sultana, one of the sultan's wives who bore him sons. Bearing heirs gave her a place of notice, but if her son died, she was normally dismissed of the title.

Afterwards came the Hasseki Kadins, the wives of the sultan. The Sultan only had four wives, as dictated by the Koran, but it is interesting that a concubine could become a Hasseki Sultana and become more powerful than a wife. Those four women that a sultan did marry were concubines (even though odalisques were often his favorites, they were not his wives). The first and foremost kadin was the bash kadin. When a kadin died, the kadin below her rose to her spot, but not without the approval of the sultan.

Following the Hasseki Kadins came the ikbals, also called odalisques. These women were the sultan's favorites, basically his mistresses. If one of these women bore him a son, she became a kadin. A gedik was the stage afterwards. She was one that was noticed, but not bedded. Sometimes these women became his personal servants. After these women came the mistresses of the households. These women were there to educate the newcomers to the harem. Titles included the Mistress of the Household, Mistress of the Robes, Keeper of the Baths, Keeper of the Jewels, Reader of the Koran, Chief Coffee-Maker, and the Mistress of the Lingerie. These women educated their novices in their areas of expertise. After the mistresses came the acemis. Some of these girls became mistresses, some odalisques, and some even the Valide Sultana.

The women of the harem passed their days simply, and in a routine. As acemis, they rose early to begin work with their mistresses, and normally worked all day, being fed at midday, before entertaining themselves with their cliques and friends at night, after a sumptuous dinner. After graduating their school, the girls were free. They rose in the morning and spent their days in pleasure. Whether soaking and swimming in the baths while conversing with their friends, walking in the gardens and having picnics, or entertaining themselves with music and other idless luxuries, the women lived an easy life. They had few responsibilities, most of them falling to acemis or personal servants. The women were treated to special occasions often. Exclusively, there were garden parties on the harem gardens and parks for the kadins, the sultanas, and the children. They were entertained and they feasted, but the ordindary harem girls were forbidden from these small celebrations, under threats of death. Normal harem girls rarely saw celebrations, but there were some occasions, such as when the sultan would review his harem girls. Every girl would be presented individually, and then the harem would feast and be entertained on the private balconies of the sultan's rooms.

Eunuchs also made up a class in the harem. As young teenage boys and children, they were taken and castrated. Without their testes, these 'neutrals' were perfect for the harem. They were not sexually active and could not harm the women. The only males who could look upon the harem girls were the sultan, his sons, and his male relatives. But the eunuchs were not men. There were the Black Eunuchs, who guarded the harem, the harem baths, and the harem gardens, and then there were the White Eunuchs, who normally advised the Sultan.

Sexuality in the Harem
Normally people think of a harem as a place of nude women lying around in Turkish baths with one another, whose purpose in life was to please their aging sultan. Right? Wrong. These women did have normal lives, even though they were kept away from the world. However, sexuality in the harem is questionable. It is said that acemis, who were housed in groups of ten in large rooms of divans gracing the walls, were kept under watch by a woman at night and candles were left lit to expose lesbian practices, which cooled the girls' wanton and unchaste behavior.

The women who slept with the padishah received their own rooms and servants, including their own maids and eunuchs. If a girl was born, they moved to a bigger apartment and became a Hasseki Kadin. If it was a boy, they were more favorable but one disadvantage was that those who bore sons could not remarry after the death of the padishah, and those who bore girls could remarry.

When the sultan chose his girl for the night, he came to her the night before so that she could prepare. Most saw the night as a way to rise high in the harem. They did show obedience and dignity, though they did not crawl into the bed as many sources gossip of.

The haznedar, the treasurer, kept a diary of the bedding nights and the name of the woman to establish legitimacy and birth dates.

The harem girls formed cliques, and often they would become malevolent and jealous of one another. Girls attacked other girls and mutilated their faces, destroying their beauty. Some even went as far as chasing girls off of cliffs at the palace, poisoning their sherbets, strangling, and some girls often just vanished. The harem was a dangerous world. But women were also hurt by the king for their disobedience. Once, a woman traded her spot in the bed with the sultan with another girl. That woman? Was executed.