Basics
Characters are written and created by the organization. Their attribution also falls on the organization, trying to take into account the preferences of the players, given upon sign-in. Age, appearance or ethnicity have no bearings on the process. You can sign-up for any gender, but it is preferable to sign-up in the gender you commonly identify with.
Language
English will stand for Turkish and French as a diplomatic language. Role attribution will be strongly dependent on the language of the player. 8 roles out of 26 can be cast as English-speaking only parts. English is the main language as it is the Court language. About 80% of the game is in English. Some characters and NPCs can act as in-game translators.
Gender and sexuality
Characters in Harem Son Saat will be gendered (male, female, eunuchs considered as gender-neutral) as gender segregation and power balance is central to the narrative. As such, we’ll want to keep the groups with a strong common identity, therefore for the players within the male and female group to share a common ground gender-wise. For that reason, the whole game is not gender-neutral, although participants may sign up to any gender. It remains recommended that participants sign-up to the gender they most identify with (or for a gender-neutral role if they do not identify with binary genders).
Sexuality in Harem Son Saat is an important issue. Relations between men and women are controlled, interactions are usually prohibited, and sexuality might be exploited or used as abuse. On the contrary, homosexual relations may be more tolerated than they would be for this time period, being non-reproductive and not at stake. The eunuchs are considered inferior for being “genderless”
All these elements are a design choice pertaining to the themes of the game and what we perceive to be the smoothness of organization, to get a better sense of the connection to gender representation, social expectation and representation of sexuality.