If you are gonna depict an Eastern culture, you gotta have dem harems in palaces and you gotta know concubines weren't just sex slaves. Ottomans had harems. Imperial harems, against the common knowledge, were not brothels. There were sections inside the palace where dynasty members of House Ottoman resided in. But there was a living quarter inside the harem section where concubines and wives lived in. Besides concubines and dynasty members, servants and eunuchs also lived here. It's a sin to castrate in Islam, but it was okay to buy those who were already castrated.
Head Eunuch was the second biggest power inside the court. Outside of the court, they were the biggest third position (first is Sultan, second is Grand Vizier). They were mostly black, and had the previlige to contact the Sultan without prior notice or without being summoned. They acted as a channel between Queen Mother (called Valide Sultan) who was the biggest power on Harem, and Sultan. They dealt with court intrigue getting out of hand, recruitment of new concubines, and execution of concubines who committed great crimes. Regarding the last one, the guilty would be executed by drowning right in front of the palace. But it wasn't really common, considering concubines were good at hiding their skulduggery.
Being a concubine to the Sultan was a thing to be proud of. Of course, concubines were slaves all right. They didn't go running to Sultan's palace. They were also foreigners in a new land with new friends, new families and new enemies. They faced new people who welcomed them with open arms, people who resented the arrival of new competition, and people who were assigned as the servant of her. They weren't happy when they were taken to the palace but they usually come to like the previlige of living inside a palace, having servants, etc. They didn't have much to lose. They could wield great power if they were ambitious enough.
Concubines were often rivals trying to bear the Sultan's heir or become his favorite concubine. A lot of intrigue ensued over this. A concubine couldn't just show up at Sultan's bedroom and the Sultan didn't have sex everyday. She had to gain the support and trust of Queen Mother (which wasn't easy, since Queen Mothers had their own agenda), keep clear of Head Eunuch and don't try anything funny near him, use servants to collect intelligence, power struggles against other concubines. This stuff is Holywood. You can even create a video game where the protagonist is a concubine of a Sultan. If you are interested, you can take a look a
this section to see the women that practically ruled Ottoman Empire behind Sultans' backs. Some were slaves, some were foreigners, some were not concubines but Mother Queens. It's kind of interesting. The court intrigue and back-stabbing that happened during that period could double what goes on in A Game of Thrones.
The most famous concubine is Hürrem Sultan (original name: Roxelana). She was the first woman to marry an Ottoman Sultan and most powerful woman ever lived in Ottoman Empire. She was a mastermind plotter and considering how this kind of stuff doesn't get recorded in the books of history, we could say she was behind a lot of things. It is rumored that she was behind the assassination of Grand Vizier İbrahim Pasha who supported Mustafa as the heir as opposed to Hürrem Sultan's son. You don't just oppose a woman like that. She repeatedly convinced the Sultan to appoint certain people to powerful positions and fire those she didn't like. She was also the mastermind of heir Mustafa's fall from grace and assassination. But it's a long story and I'm getting off-topic enough already. In the end, Sultan Süleiman the Magnificent naively loved his wife Hürrem Sultan and named a city in the Persian region after her.
In the end, even the greatest Sultan or Emperor who never bowed to anyone did comply with the demands of their dicks. Crusader Kings could really use this intrigue stuff with the Muslim nations. I think there are some events regarding competition between wives. I could talk hours about this stuff. Oh well. At least there was a TV series about the life of Hürrem Sultan.