What we are trying to do
History is usually taught from above: kings, battles, treaties. We focus on the people on the ground and make readers feel how large events changed ordinary days.
What we are trying to do
We are building a long-form publication where each essay answers one historical question: what did it feel like to live through this moment, and why did it unfold this way?
Instead of stacking features, each story has one dominant visual mechanic tied to its thesis. In Constantinople, the map is the argument. In Baghdad, knowledge loss becomes the visual frame. The interaction is part of the evidence, not decoration.
Our goal is simple: leave readers with one clear understanding they did not have before they started scrolling.
How we build each story
Step 01
Research
Collect primary and scholarly sources, then isolate the key tension that drives the story.
Step 02
Narrative
Write a first-person diary voice with short, claim-first paragraphs and specific dates, places, and actors.
Step 03
Mechanic
Design one interaction model that reveals state change as the reader moves through the argument.
Step 04
Sources
Make uncertainty explicit and surface citations near the related visual evidence.
Editorial principles
- Literary first. The prose should still work if you remove the animation.
- Historically rigorous. Claims are constrained by sources, and uncertainty is named clearly.
- One mechanic per story. We avoid overloaded interfaces so the reader always knows what matters.
- Slow publishing cadence. We ship fewer stories so each one can be deeply reported and carefully designed.
- No tracking. No cookies, no data brokerage, no ad-tech overlay on reading.
What is next
Live
Constantinople, 1453
A 53-day diary during the siege, anchored by a scroll-driven map of walls, breaches, and troop movement.
In Production
Baghdad, 1258
The sack of the city through the loss of books, scholars, and institutions in the House of Wisdom era.
Planned
Florence, 1490
Money, faith, and power in a city where merchants, artists, and preachers reshape daily life.
Start with a live story.
If this approach is what you were hoping for, begin with Constantinople and then follow along as the next essays publish.