Our Character Development Process
As The Fall of the Cross development team, our main goal is to develop a production that appeals to all audiences. We carefully carry out the character development on the game. Every character, from small to large, has a back story, history and unique behavior. Every choice you make will improve your relationships with the characters. That's why you have to be careful while playing the Fall of the Cross.
Character Developments
As the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, you have many duties to both your people and your state. The most important of these is to have an heir who will continue the Palaiologos dynasty and maintain the Eastern Roman throne. In 1451, the emperor of Eastern Rome was the main character, Constantine XI. Although Contantine did not have any children, he had been married twice and he was single in 1451. Upon his death, one of his two brothers, who was the despots of the Morea, would succeed to the Eastern Roman throne. This is one of the key points of our game. While playing The Fall of the Cross, you will be able to see many possibilities and witness a very different scenario experience with different options. As the player, it is up to you to determine the personality of Emperor Constantine. If Constantine dies without an heir, one of his brothers will ascend the throne and the new main character will become the eldest brother as emperor. If Constantine dies with an heir, the child of Constantine, the new emperor of Eastern Rome will be the new main character. Constantine may never die, all of these, all these possibilities will offer you a uniqueness and perfection that you have never experienced before while playing the Fall of the Cross.
The Characters
Another key point of our game is our character depth. As we just mentioned, the Emperor must have an heir and the player will be presented with different options for a reasonable marriage. The character of Mary Lefko is one of them. By 1451, Eastern Rome had lost much of its former power. The Byzantine aristocracy was slowly fading away, and the Emperor's influence was greatly diminished in the surrounding states. The Ottoman state had besieged God's city many times before and had failed. Besides, because of wars and many other reasons, the relations between Byzantium and Turks were quite bad. Eastern Rome was a Greek state and was Orthodox. Although the Duchy of Athens, a former Crusader state, was now the vassal of the emperor in Constantinople, a marriage with Athens was a remote possibility, as the Greeks-Latins and Orthodox-Catholic relations were largely bad due to the Fourth Crusade. After the Fourth Crusade, the Komnenos dynasty, one of the former heirs of the Empire, founded the Empire of Trebizond and sometimes introduced themselves as the true heirs of Rome. Therefore, even though they were separated with the Palaiologos dynasty, the two Greek Orthodox states were close and the Komnenian women were famous for their beauty and intelligence. Another state that separated from Eastern Rome was the Principality of Theodoro. With this state, which was isolated from Europe due to its location and changed its Greek origin to a great extent with Gothicism, a marriage could also be in question, if the nobles of Constantinople allowed it. The choice is always yours!
Mary Lefko
As we mentioned before, alternative scenarios are allowed in our game and fictional characters are in our project. One of them is Mary Lefko, one of the marriage candidates of Emperor Constantine. With her meticulously created biography, Mary Lefko has managed to become one of the most outstanding characters of our play. Coming with her mother from Jerusalem to Constantinople in 1451, Mary was an Orthodox Christian like her Greek mother, despite the great pressure of her Jewish father. Searching for a new life in Constantinople, Mary was left penniless after her separation from her father, and possibilities awaited her on her way to God's city that she never thought possible.
Thanks for reading the November Devlog. Enjoy!