Suleiman, often stylised as Suleiman the Magnificent, is the real-life Sultan who ruled over the Ottoman Empire from 1520 to 1566.
Fictional History[]
Early History[]
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By early 1546, the Sultan became concerned that the Moslem empire would soon begin either declining or cease advancing altogether, due to the recent schism in the practice of the Moslem faith. Wanting to provide a show of strength to his rival nations without using military force, Suleiman decided to hold a chess tournament, one which would feature the best players of all of the nations of the known world, to prove which realm had the best player. However, Suleiman was also determined to make it appear that the Ottoman Empire was home to the best chess player, and, with his inner circle, began plans to rig the tournament so that his cousin Zaman would win, with the option of the champion of Constantinople's common people, Ibrahim, also taking victory should things not work out for Zaman.
During the middle of the year, Suleiman sent out envoys to deliver the letters to the Invitational Chess Championship to 14 other nations to request they send a player for arrival during October of that year, while also including a demand of a gift of gold or some other treasure at the threat of an invasion when the tournament was over. He also sent an envoy to Rome to contract the famous artist Michelangelo to craft two chess sets made of gold and silver for the tournament.
In the weeks before the chess championship was to begin, the people of Constantinople were gripped by fear as a killer began stalking the streets, murdering nearly a dozen people and mutilating their corpses by tearing the skin around their lips off. Six days before the tournament, Suleiman's guards captured the culprit, a simple-minded young man with a hare-lip, but rather than announce to the people that he had been captured, the Sultan decided to simply have the fiend locked away in his dungeon.
The Tournament[]
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After The Tournament[]
Once the riots following the chess tournament had come to an end, Suleiman's capital city was badly damaged and its people fractured. As things continued on, Suleiman ordered the Catholic Embassy be razed and all of its ambassadors expelled from the Empire, not wanting to deal with what had ultimately become the source of one of his biggest strife's. Over the next several years, Suleiman fell into a state of depression, and came to prefer time in solitude as he grew mildly paranoid as to who he could or could not trust, even his own family.
Some time after she took the throne of England in 1558, Elizabeth sent a delegation of ambassadors to Constantinople to meet with Suleiman, presumably to establish some relations. These ambassadors quickly learned that the Sultan had become melancholy and distrustful of everyone, and thus reported back to Elizabeth that he and the Ottoman Empire were no longer a threat.
Despite his pensive outlook, Suleiman continued to rule over the Ottoman Empire for the next few years until he passed away in 1566, whereupon he was succeeded by Selim. However, after a few centuries, Suleiman's fears regarding his Empire's decline ultimately came to pass, as the Ottoman Empire finally fell in the early 20th century. Suleiman's reign, however, would be remembered as the peak of the Empire's existence.
Personality[]
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Skills[]
- Multilingualism: Suleiman is able to read and speak many languages besides his own native tongue, being fluent in Turkish, Greek and Latin, as well as being capable in German, a language that few of his inner circle even speak. Suleiman can also write in other languages to some degree, as proven when he personally wrote letters to the rulers of other nations to invite them to his tournament. This includes English, though Suleiman's spelling was not perfect, as he misspelled England as "Engaland".
- Master Tactician: During his rule, Suleiman has led and orchestrated a number of successful campaigns on both land and sea to invade other territories and expand his own, most often coming away victorious, particularly during invasions into the lands of Austria. He was also able to deduce that the growing schisms in his people's faith would eventually cause a decline or overall collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Suleiman planned to keep other nations from realising this by putting on the Invitational Chess Championship in order to demonstrate that his people had the best strategic minds of the known world, but schemed to make his Empire the winner by having the tournament rigged in such as a way that his cousin and the peasant champion of Constantinople would end up in the final round. This carefully laid-out plan almost worked until Zaman's helpers were exposed, resulting in a riot that ended up fracturing the Empire that Suleiman had hoped to save.
Trivia[]
- Suleiman's full title in his letters to other nations is: Suleiman the Magnificent, Caliph of the Sons and Daughters of Allah, Sultan of the Lands of the Ottomans, Lord of the Realms of the Romans, the Persians and the Arabs, Hero of All That Is, Pride of the Glorified Kaaba and Illumined Medina, the Noble Jerusalem and the Throne of Egypt, Lord and Ruler of all that He Surveys.