Aeterna Roma

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Aeterna Roma – Eternal Rome.

"Welcome to Rome, the Eternal city. In a place where the streets are running thick with wine, blood, scandal, ambition, and lust, events happen so quickly that rising to power one day and falling the next is expected. Sweet words, honeyed speeches, and purses of money might milk your way to the top, but one wrong move and it's all over. This is a place where one forges alliances to survive and where enemies can seem as friends until they stab your back. A place where lust and wine are entwined so quickly that marriages are made and dissolved in months. A place where the new young Caesar fights his own Senate for power while trying to find those he can trust.
Where will you go in such a place as this?"

Aeterna Roma is an Alternate History play by post game set in Ancient Rome. Aeterna Roma began in April of 2008, the idea of creators Kate (who has since left us) and Gothic. It has gone through many changes over the years - such as new administrators, new servers, and, of course, a myriad of new players. Nonetheless, many things remain true for AeRo. The plots stay fun and original, the staff stays friendly and helpful, and the member-base keeps growing.

Along with real-time, AeRo has continued the same storyline, with in-game developments starting in 51 AD and continuing up until the present. Some characters have aged and gained themselves a place in the world of Roma, some have retired into history, and others have died the victims of war or political maneuvering. Within AeRo, there is a place for everyone.

The original site which hosted the game for several years still exists and can be found here, but active play has since moved to Aeternaromarpg.com.

The Staff:

  • Gothic: Remaining founder and head Admin
  • Chris (aka Mr. AeRo): Member of AeRo v1 and co-Admin (and only male staffer!)
  • Tanith: Super Moderator
  • Riv/Traci: Super Moderator
  • Bastet: Super Moderator
  • Jimmie: Super Moderator

Aeterna Roma also currently has an official vlog, run by the lovely Sammich. It can be found here.

Tropes used in Aeterna Roma include:

General Site Examples

  • All Jews Are Ashkenazi: The Jewish characters, despite being of mainly Idumean and Sephardi origin, are portrayed by Ashkenazi playbys. This has more to do with the fact that finding mainstream images of other Jewish ancestry outside of Ashkenazi is sadly difficult than any desire by the players.
  • Alternate History: AeRo's timeline veers from actual history after Caligula's assassination.
  • Ancient Rome: Nah duh.
  • Arranged Marriage: Doesn't always happen, but the paterfamilias was responsible for marrying off the eligible young maidens.
  • Author Avatar: Happens with some, though characters become people all their own for the most part
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: While not always the case, most of the characters in power got there by extreme badassness and shrewdness.
  • Badass Family: Many, especially the imperial family.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Quite a few, mostly in Latin. But there are also members with characters from foreign nations who might include their respective languages in posts.
  • The Caligula: The man himself has been long dead, but the emperors and potential emperors the site has gone through haven't been the sanest of guys.
  • Dawson Casting: Pretty common when choosing playbys.
  • Deadly Decadent Court: Specifically, the court of imperial Rome.
  • Double Standard: The standards for the age.
  • The Dung Ages: If you're lower class.
  • Dysfunction Junction: Many of the characters have some heavy issues to deal with. It adds to drama and development, when done well.
  • The Empire: In full swing.
  • Everyone Meets Everyone: Happens often, usually in the "casually bump into" variety of RP
  • Fantastic Racism: Toward anyone of non-Roman descent, and quite a few people who are mixed
  • Femme Fatale: Quite a few, notably Lucilla Sabucia, Princess Zuleika and Clarissa Flaminia
  • Follow the Leader: A number of Rome-based sites cropped up once Aeterna Roma hit it big, some of them even daring to steal directly from the site.
  • The Family That Slays Together: Pretty common amongst nobility.
  • Gladiator Games
  • Gorgeous Period Dress: If you're rich enough. Come on!
  • Happily Married: Might pale in comparison to the more vitriolic relationships on Aeterna Roma, but there's Efrem Canicus Phiscerus and Piso Calleio, Efrem and his new wife Cornelia, Titus Imperios and Seia, and Octavius Alexander and Sanura Alexandra spring to mind.
  • Happiness in Slavery: Despite popular belief, the vast majority of slaves, especially household slaves, were treated very well: they were educated, given fine clothes, and sometimes seen as part of the family. One could even make the argument for some that their lives in slavery were better off than the lives they led before being made a slave. Because of this, most slaves were quite comfortable with their lot in life and led rather normal lives.
  • Killed Off for Real: Many times, most notably with Emperor Claudius and Emperor Darius.
  • Love Dodecahedron: ....Let's just agree to this and move on, shall we?
  • Made a Slave: The fate of the majority of slave characters in various ways, especially those captured during war.
  • The Mafia: A number of gangs run the underground markets of Rome, such as the Syndicate and the Mandatum.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Plenty of them, and not all of them are magnificent.
  • Mr. Fanservice: In bushels.
  • Mob War: Starting to arise within the Roman criminal underground
  • Murder the Hypotenuse: A common occurrence
  • Odd Couple: Many. Efrem the reckless aristocrat with Piso the once-stern pedagogue, Justinus the equite party boy with Akila the beleaguered Egyptian, and Marcellus with... everyone.
  • Protagonist-Centered Morality: Since this is Rome, the more heroic or noble characters commonly mistreat their slaves, rape the enemy, and plot to take out the competition as they see fit. This is a case of Moral Dissonance, considering the time period in which this is set.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: The barbarians can fall into this, especially if enslaved by Rome.
  • The Queen's Latin: Not stated outright, but many of the players attempt to write dialogue that sounds unmistakably British even when the player him/herself is not British.
  • Rousing Speech: Many are given by the imperials to align the public to their side.
  • Rule of Cool: The reason why some elements of history are forgotten or changed for the benefit of the players.
  • Sex as Rite-of-Passage: Very common and almost a requirement for Roman adolescents, especially boys.
  • Shout-Out: Too many to count. Finding subtle jokes that reference to modern culture in people's posts is a lot of fun.
  • Shown Their Work: While certain aspects of history and culture must be stretched for creative freedom, those who write information detailing historical and cultural parts of Rome clearly know what they're doing and spend a great deal of time doing research.
  • Stay in the Kitchen: The view of women in this era. It IS Ancient Rome, after all.
  • Translation Convention: The characters are shown to be speaking English since this is an English-speaking board, but sprinkles of Latin and other languages can be thrown in for extra flavor.

OOC Examples

Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Aeterna_Roma?oldid=1913041"