D&D General Fantasy Byzantine Setting Brainstorming

[Samloyal23]

"Byzantine" is used to connote complicated schemes and political games, a baroque level of urban plots. Spies, assassins, merchant princes, and other city-based characters and plots should be emphasized...

 

[Mikeythorn]

Byzantine politics was actually not that complicated or baroque, it just looked that way to the Western Europeans at the time used to relatively basic levels of bureaucracy. But you could certainly have scheming eunuchs and nobles if that would add fun to your game.

Instead of Theodora, have you thought about using Zoe and (a different) Theodora as your rulers? Two sisters who ruled as co-equals but who really did not get along. One a bit wild, prone to bad decisions and power-hungry and the other who really, really just wanted to retire to a nunnery.

 

[Samloyal23]

Byzantine politics was actually not that complicated or baroque, it just looked that way to the Western Europeans at the time used to relatively basic levels of bureaucracy. But you could certainly have scheming eunuchs and nobles if that would add fun to your game.

Instead of Theodora, have you thought about using Zoe and (a different) Theodora as your rulers? Two sisters who ruled as co-equals but who really did not get along. One a bit wild, prone to bad decisions and power-hungry and the other who really, really just wanted to retire to a nunnery.

Go with the rumour, innuendo, and stereotypes, they create more drama. Convert the Dune Trader from Athas as a merchant class, throw in some Eunuch Warlocks from OA into the royal court and bureuacracy, adapt OA ninjas to act as spies employed by nobles in court. Constantinople was at a crossroads of Europe and Asia, exotic foreigners should be a common sight, so characters from Mahasarpa or Nyambe should not even raise an eyebrow in such a cosmopolitan city.

 

[Eltab]

One of the political factions wants to "restore the grandeur of the Empire that was" and advocates for expensive open-ended campaigns to reconquer former provinces. This group might hire the PCs as an information source and also to tackle problems in the province, to make their goal look more easily achievable.

 

[Samloyal23]

One of the political factions wants to "restore the grandeur of the Empire that was" and advocates for expensive open-ended campaigns to reconquer former provinces. This group might hire the PCs as an information source and also to tackle problems in the province, to make their goal look more easily achievable.

Londo Mollari would have fit in well in this period, you could base an NPC on him, a noble who wants his kingdom to be feared around the world.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

First thought: It's not a Byzantine setting without gangs of chariot-team hoodlums being a major force in imperial politics that can shut down the city with riots or even oust the emperor.

 

[jayoungr]

I mentioned this thread to some friends of mine, and they recommended the Legion of Videssos books by Harry Turtledove. Also Sailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kay. I haven't read any of the books, so I pass on their comments without endorsing them.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

David Drake's Belisarius series is also fun if somewhat hagiographic.

 

[Mikeythorn]

Another favourite Byzantine figure of mine is Basil I. Born a (probably illiterate) peasant who gained a little renown as a wrestler, he came to the notice of emperor Michael ‘The Drunkard’ when he witnessed Basil knock a horse unconscious with a single punch. Basil became a drinking buddy of Michael, and climbed the ladder of influence. Michael was, perhaps unsurprisingly given his nickname, not a good leader - and the nobles seemed quite happy when Basil murdered him and claimed the throne for himself.

Despite this highly dubious start to his career, Basil turned out to be a great emperor who rebuilt relations with the western church, oversaw a revival in Byzantium’s sway in the Mediterranean and - most famously - conducted a major overhaul of the empire’s legal system.

 

[Draegn]

For my current campaign I altered history. Julian the Apostate won and is Julian the Just and Fair. Constantinople is Julianopolis. Instead of Christianity, the Roman pantheon is followed.