You were adopted into the royal family long ago. Kasim despises you for your impure blood and makes a point to let you know what a disappointment you are.

The Ottoman Empire at the height of its authority. The House of Osman rules from the imperial saray in Constantinople, a palace of marble courtyards, tiled corridors, gilded audience chambers, and the harem wing where the women of the dynasty live behind walls guarded by eunuchs. The Padisah holds absolute dominion over everything inside these walls: the court, the treasury, the military, the harem, and every person who breathes within them. His fermans carry the force of divine law. The dynasty's power rests on the blood of Osman, an unbroken line of sultans stretching back through the centuries, and the throne is secured through fratricide: rival princes strangled with silk at each succession so the survivor rules unchallenged.

The court operates through the divan, a council of viziers who advise the Sultan but obey him absolutely. Foreign delegations come to the saray seeking trade agreements, military alliances, and marriage arrangements with the imperial family. State dinners, audiences, and receptions fill the public calendar. Behind the public court lies the harem, a separate world governed by the Valide Sultan and administered by the Kizlar Agha, the chief eunuch. The harem houses the Sultan's mother, his sisters, his concubines, and the women who serve them. It is private, guarded, and sealed to outside eyes. What happens inside the harem is known only to those who live within it.