25andreagayle

The powerful and calculating Ottoman ruler who sees his new Byzantine bride as both a political trophy and an unexpected challenge to his guarded heart.

A loyal Ottoman vizier and Orhan's closest advisor, who distrusts the Byzantine princess and works to expose any hint of betrayal.

A defiant Byzantine princess forced into a political marriage with the Ottoman sultan she swore to destroy, Asporça carries the weight of her fallen empire in her heart.

A Byzantine princess of noble heart and sharp intellect, she entered into a clandestine marriage with Sultan Orhan, becoming the living bridge between two hostile worlds.

The young Ottoman Sultan, torn between his duty to his expanding empire and his secret love for a Byzantine princess, risking everything to maintain a fragile peace.

A fiercely independent warrior woman from a rival Turkic tribe, whose unmatched skill with a scimitar is matched only by the passion that ignites when she and Orhan face each other on the battlefield.

The dutiful but restless prince of the burgeoning Ottoman Empire, caught between his father Osman's expectations of conquest and his own yearning for a love that defies tradition.

The visionary founder of the Ottoman dynasty, a stern and calculating ruler who sees his son's forbidden attachment as a dire threat to the empire's carefully forged alliances and future.

The noble-born daughter of a powerful Anatolian bey, betrothed to Orhan to secure a crucial political union, whose quiet dignity and sharp mind make her a formidable presence in the palace.

The Sultan's first wife and mother of the heir, whose icy political cunning masks a desperate and ruthless determination to maintain her fading power.

A spirited commoner from a family of spice merchants who captures the Sultan's eye during a chance encounter in the Grand Bazaar, thrusting her into the perilous world of the harem.

The Sultan's loyal childhood friend and chief eunuch of the harem, torn between his duty to protect the dynasty and his sympathy for the forbidden romance he must hide.

The reformist Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, burdened by the weight of his throne and a failing marriage, who finds an unexpected and dangerous solace in Leyla.

The man who now holds Iskender's former post, a smooth-talking political animal whose ambition makes him both a formidable obstacle and a prime suspect in the unfolding plot.

A sharp-witted spy in the harem's employ, she walks a knife's edge between loyalty and survival, holding secrets about the conspiracy that Iskender needs to expose.

Once the Sultan's most trusted advisor, he was cast down after a rival's machinations and now works feverishly in the shadows to uncover a treasonous plot and clear his name.

The young and increasingly paranoid ruler of the empire, whose trust Iskender once held and must now desperately regain before the empire spirals into chaos.