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[Contains minor spoilers for Iffric’s Tale and some upcoming pieces; some people prefer to discover the background by reading the stories.]

There is widespread slavery in Artia. There are several kinds of slavery, and not all kinds are recognized in all regions—but a slave moving from one region to another stays a slave, just of a different sort. A slave is not generally thought of as being a person. The pronoun used is it rather than him or her; they are kept in cupboards, not stables or bedrooms—even if there is a bed in the room, it’s still referred to as a cupboard, a closet, somewhere things are stored. Slaves are almost always male, but are still referred to as it.

1. The Dedicated

As background you should know that not all regions have the concept of possession. But there are slaves pretty much everywhere.

In places without the idea of personal ownership, a dedicated slave is someone who can be ordered around and who is devoted, or dedicated, to someone else or some other group. In the Grasslands the highest honour for a native Pascamani youth is to become chosen as a slave: the one served is not honoured by them as much as the slave.

People also volunteer to become a dedicated slave: you get food and shelter and maybe affection in exchange for devoting your life to serving your Master or Mistress. However unlike, in say, ancient Israel, you don’t get released after seven years. This is not voluntary servitude: it is slavery: you can’t walk away from it.

Sometimes people are slaves but without going through an oath. For example, the boys in the Plains of Glass are treated as slaves by the Mothers and by the Priests (or Overseers) and of course by the dragons who farm them for food.

2. The Husband

This sort of slavery surprises people from our world. In the Farmlands and often in the towns and cities of Rannia, the usual household unit is a woman, the Mother, and two Husbands. The husbands sleep with each other; for a male to attempt to breed with a female is punishable by death, and even to be accused by any woman or girl is sufficient for the male to be given the choice between castration or death without any trial. Many men wear chastity devices so they are incapable of sex, and give their Mistress (the Mother) the key; the Mother will typically order the males to have sex with one another from time to time, usually in full view of the household. Mothers also tell their sons who to marry (always another male) and try to arrange to find a Mother for them. If no Mother is found by their twenty-second year (the exact age varies from place to place), the Mothers may choose to sell them as slaves in the market, and this happens often since there are so few girls born.

Every few years most Mothers will send one or both husbands away, either selling them or swapping them with husbands from another Mother. The husbands try to be very attentive and please the Mothers at all times, for obvious reasons. Strictly speaking, however, they are free, not slaves.

In many cases men live without a Mother, since there are so few women. In addition, men who are not husbands can live free in a household.

If you’re wondering, childbirth will be covered separately; it’s enough here to say that a normal pregnancy is usually fatal to the mother, outside special environments such as the Glassy Plains. In some of the towns, it’s surprising that the wealthier more powerful people haven’t noticed that poorest people in those places give birth through pregnancy. The “Temple Boy” was born normally (by our standards) in a small coastal town.

3. The Owned

Money and private ownership are relatively recent In the farmlands—it’s an idea that has spread since the Rannian conquest 300 Farmland-years ago. As a result, most households now have several male slaves who are not part of the family. There’s usually one or more overseers to make the slaves work and be obedient. Slaves do not attempt to run away, since being a slave out alone carries the death penalty and no-one would show mercy, not even other slaves.

In the farmlands there is no concept of stealing a slave. However, in the cities and further Before (East) it’s common. Owned slaves are usually fed ikrow root, which contains a drug that encourages obedience. In most farmland households the slaves are available to the free peoples for sexual service.

Note again, there are no female slaves.

4. The Enforced

Where there is magic available a person can be transformed into a slave. Such a slave is unable even to try to disobey a direct order. Before the Treaty, most mages had such slaves and treated them as utterly expendable, like cattle. A mage wanting to test a new spell could simply try it out on a couple of dozen slaves and see what happened. No-one ever volunteered to be an enforced slave to a mage.

5. Religious Slaves

Boys are sometimes sent off to one or other of the religious orders; the temples and monasteries won’t pay the parents for the boy, but may offer other compensations such as healing or food. Free men also sometimes join them. Acolytes are very often enslaved: the temples want to stop people from leaving once they have knowledge about the religion, and in any case there is little difference between being Dedicated to an individual owner or household and being Dedicated to a temple. Priests are usually tattooed or branded as part of their acceptance ceremony, and out of their temple will dress in distinctive ways.

Priests answer as slaves to their superiors within the religious order, but may be outside the general judicial system. If a priest in the farmlands or towns wants to take something he will take it—even a child: no-one will be able to resist. Priests are both hated and feared. But the gods are real, and sometimes a priest will wield real magical power.

Religion will be the subject of a separate article. However, note also that a Mother might send one of her sons to a monastery for several years, perhaps to learn obedience, but that the boy might return (several years older) a day or two later, having spent those years at a monastery where time passes more quickly. In some cases the boy will not have aged physically: you can’t tell how old people are just by looking at them.

An acolyte can also become an Enforced Slave of a God, but most gods don’t need (or want) to do this: if they tell someone to do something, and want it done, there is never any possibility of disobedience. The relationship of a god to its worshippers is much more powerful than that of an owner to a slave, because the god can re-shape reality to cause the intended result to happen.

Clothing of Slaves

There are no sumptuary laws in any of these areas: slaves can wear anything or can go naked, as long as they are not able to rape women. It’s common for slaves to wear only a short tunic or tabard that goes down roughly only to the navel, with pouches in the front for carrying things. Sometimes free people also wear these, though, so it’s not a status symbol. However, where slaves are ordered to wear clothing, they are usually supplied with the simplest, cheapest clothing possible. Undyed coarse cloth, quickly woven, often little more than burlap (e.g. 3 to 10 threads per cm, i.e. fewer than 25 per inch). Slaves do not have any right to privacy or decency. Even if they are given (or rather, lent) leggings or a smock, there will often be an opening at the back so that people don’t need to undress the slave to use it for sex.

In some cities and towns, including Swesryos and Ran, it’s required that Enforced slaves go barefoot. The irony is that this lets them absorb magic through the bottoms of their feet and helps them to overcome the coldness of the chains. This is simply about skin touching the ground: lying down naked on the ground is even more effective, of course.

In the Farmlands, slaves must wear a collar and chain, and the collar must always be easily visible, not hidden by a beard or clothing. Most slaves would rather go topless (if given a choice, which is unlikely) rather than be accused of trying to hide their collar.

Travel of Slaves

It’s illegal in the Farmlands for men to travel alone, whether free or slave. The fear of rape is too great. A man can travel with a Dedicated or Owned slave. If two or men travel, they must have at least one slave with them. Slaves can be given ikrow root and cannot then tell lies, so they make reliable witnesses. Slaves cannot, of course, travel unaccompanied; in some places, such as the cities, they can be lent a token or permit to run an errand, but a slave will not be permitted to leave the city on its own.

Slaves travelling in public must be marked (usually with a brand); Enforced slaves must wear a collar and at least one chain dangling from it; the chain absorbs ambient magic and is thought to prevent spell-casting, as the people of the Farmlands fear magic: they live near the Forest of Despair, and nothing good can come out of that forest, they are sure. There is also a symbol that is branded on the forehead of a particularly disobedient or lazy slave as a warning: anyone buying that slave will need to be especially strict with him.

If a slave uses magic, their chain (or chains) will grow very cold; the mage-catchers will therefore grasp a slave’s chain and pull down hard: if the slave resists with magic they will feel the sudden coldness.

When a married couple of men travel, they have to have at least one slave to take with them. But usually they would take two slaves, so that the two men didn’t have to stay together all the time. If a man travels alone he must be a branded slave to be safe, and outside the towns he must carry a token of release to show he had permission to travel. Sometimes one or more of a group of free men will pretend to be slaves so as to travel, but if they were caught the whole group would be executed, so this is not common. Instead, where it's possible, one of the group will take a vow of Dedication and actually become a slave, even if they are generally treated as an equal. Of course, they are not an equal, because they can be given orders and will obey them.

Female Slaves

No account of slavery in Artia would be complete without mentioning that there are places where women are kept as slaves, and where men rule. Within some of the temples, and within the Hidden Fortress, there are female slaves; in the latter case it’s in an attempt to have children. Female slaves are, however, never seen in public in any part of Artia, and most people are unaware that they exist.

Buying a slave

Mothers usually choose a new owner for their slaves or husbands or children when it’s time, just as they choose husbands for their sons. In the towns, though, people wanting to be slaves, and slaves being sold, go to the market. In a smaller town the market will be in the early afternoon one day a week, so that farmers can buy them after selling any food, and can still get home before dark.

In places without money or the concept of ownership of things, the market is more a meeting-place; sometimes the people there will talk to each other to find a good match.

Punishments

If a slave-owner can obtain (and afford) ikrow root, or can use magic to compel obedience, then direct disobedience is extremely unlikely. A very few people are unaffected by ikrow root (Iffric was an example; he was also unusual in having fair hair with his dark brown skin) and sometimes learn to use this to their advantage. However, a slave can work slowly or without much effort, or be rude or disrespectful, or do things that were not forbidden it but that do not please its owner.

Whippings and canings are used; a slave considered particularly troublesome will have a brand on its forehead—Ahmic was given this sign, after Iffric repeatedly got him into trouble; by the time it came out that it had Iffric telling lies and not Ahmic misbehaving it was too late.

Other punishments for slaves can be cruel: the slaves have no recourse for justice or fairness.

Emancipation

In places where there is voting, it’s normal for Dedicated slaves and Husbands to vote on social issues. The idea of ending slavery is not, of course, voted upon. None the less, being a slave in Artia doesn’t necessarily mean being ill-treated or unhappy any more than being a housewife in our world always leads to unhappiness. But that does not mean there is no abuse.

Slaves cannot buy their freedom. It is possible for an owner to release a slave. The Oath of Dedication includes language to say the slave will never ask to be set free, nor ask that any other slave be freed, nor seek freedom in any way.

When slaves are released they are naked and entirely without possessions or money. Its far from unheard-of for a man released from slavery to go straight to a public market and put himself up for sale again; the money in this case would be kept by the auction house or the town.

Note that public nudity is not a crime.

Children of slaves

There are no public female slaves, and any man enslaving a woman would be put to death. Male slaves are sometimes used to father children with free Mothers, but the resulting children are not automatically slaves, not even in the Forbidden Fortress.

Exceptions

Life in Ran itself is very different from that of the Farmlands or the Grassy Plains: there’s little or no magic there, and normal pregnancies are possible. There is slavery both of men and of women, and the resulting children are slaves. Marriage is between a man and up to three women. However, all men are required to enlist in the army. By and large Ran is not at war right now; they still try and storm the Forbidden Fortress occasionally, unaware that in doing so they strengthen it considerably. They are also formally at war with Skiola, but there too, they meet with no success in battle. They conquered most of the Farmlands and much of the Grassy Plains, destroyed a number of ancient cities and built new ones. But even during the time when the Treaty-Gate was entirely sealed there was enough magic in the Grassy Plains that the Ranians could not conquer it entirely; their grip on the region has been weakening and old gods have returned.

When the last seal is broken on the Treaty-Gate… well, that’s the subject of another story.

Description
body div#devskin13723308 .bigger { font-size:150%; line-height:1.7; } body div#devskin13723308 div.text { color:black; }

[Contains minor spoilers for Iffric’s Tale and some upcoming pieces; some people prefer to discover the background by reading the stories.]

There is widespread slavery in Artia. There are several kinds of slavery, and not all kinds are recognized in all regions—but a slave moving from one region to another stays a slave, just of a different sort. A slave is not generally thought of as being a person. The pronoun used is it rather than him or her; they are kept in cupboards, not stables or bedrooms—even if there is a bed in the room, it’s still referred to as a cupboard, a closet, somewhere things are stored. Slaves are almost always male, but are still referred to as it.

1. The Dedicated

As background you should know that not all regions have the concept of possession. But there are slaves pretty much everywhere.

In places without the idea of personal ownership, a dedicated slave is someone who can be ordered around and who is devoted, or dedicated, to someone else or some other group. In the Grasslands the highest honour for a native Pascamani youth is to become chosen as a slave: the one served is not honoured by them as much as the slave.

People also volunteer to become a dedicated slave: you get food and shelter and maybe affection in exchange for devoting your life to serving your Master or Mistress. However unlike, in say, ancient Israel, you don’t get released after seven years. This is not voluntary servitude: it is slavery: you can’t walk away from it.

Sometimes people are slaves but without going through an oath. For example, the boys in the Plains of Glass are treated as slaves by the Mothers and by the Priests (or Overseers) and of course by the dragons who farm them for food.

2. The Husband

This sort of slavery surprises people from our world. In the Farmlands and often in the towns and cities of Rannia, the usual household unit is a woman, the Mother, and two Husbands. The husbands sleep with each other; for a male to attempt to breed with a female is punishable by death, and even to be accused by any woman or girl is sufficient for the male to be given the choice between castration or death without any trial. Many men wear chastity devices so they are incapable of sex, and give their Mistress (the Mother) the key; the Mother will typically order the males to have sex with one another from time to time, usually in full view of the household. Mothers also tell their sons who to marry (always another male) and try to arrange to find a Mother for them. If no Mother is found by their twenty-second year (the exact age varies from place to place), the Mothers may choose to sell them as slaves in the market, and this happens often since there are so few girls born.

Every few years most Mothers will send one or both husbands away, either selling them or swapping them with husbands from another Mother. The husbands try to be very attentive and please the Mothers at all times, for obvious reasons. Strictly speaking, however, they are free, not slaves.

In many cases men live without a Mother, since there are so few women. In addition, men who are not husbands can live free in a household.

If you’re wondering, childbirth will be covered separately; it’s enough here to say that a normal pregnancy is usually fatal to the mother, outside special environments such as the Glassy Plains. In some of the towns, it’s surprising that the wealthier more powerful people haven’t noticed that poorest people in those places give birth through pregnancy. The “Temple Boy” was born normally (by our standards) in a small coastal town.

3. The Owned

Money and private ownership are relatively recent In the farmlands—it’s an idea that has spread since the Rannian conquest 300 Farmland-years ago. As a result, most households now have several male slaves who are not part of the family. There’s usually one or more overseers to make the slaves work and be obedient. Slaves do not attempt to run away, since being a slave out alone carries the death penalty and no-one would show mercy, not even other slaves.

In the farmlands there is no concept of stealing a slave. However, in the cities and further Before (East) it’s common. Owned slaves are usually fed ikrow root, which contains a drug that encourages obedience. In most farmland households the slaves are available to the free peoples for sexual service.

Note again, there are no female slaves.

4. The Enforced

Where there is magic available a person can be transformed into a slave. Such a slave is unable even to try to disobey a direct order. Before the Treaty, most mages had such slaves and treated them as utterly expendable, like cattle. A mage wanting to test a new spell could simply try it out on a couple of dozen slaves and see what happened. No-one ever volunteered to be an enforced slave to a mage.

5. Religious Slaves

Boys are sometimes sent off to one or other of the religious orders; the temples and monasteries won’t pay the parents for the boy, but may offer other compensations such as healing or food. Free men also sometimes join them. Acolytes are very often enslaved: the temples want to stop people from leaving once they have knowledge about the religion, and in any case there is little difference between being Dedicated to an individual owner or household and being Dedicated to a temple. Priests are usually tattooed or branded as part of their acceptance ceremony, and out of their temple will dress in distinctive ways.

Priests answer as slaves to their superiors within the religious order, but may be outside the general judicial system. If a priest in the farmlands or towns wants to take something he will take it—even a child: no-one will be able to resist. Priests are both hated and feared. But the gods are real, and sometimes a priest will wield real magical power.

Religion will be the subject of a separate article. However, note also that a Mother might send one of her sons to a monastery for several years, perhaps to learn obedience, but that the boy might return (several years older) a day or two later, having spent those years at a monastery where time passes more quickly. In some cases the boy will not have aged physically: you can’t tell how old people are just by looking at them.

An acolyte can also become an Enforced Slave of a God, but most gods don’t need (or want) to do this: if they tell someone to do something, and want it done, there is never any possibility of disobedience. The relationship of a god to its worshippers is much more powerful than that of an owner to a slave, because the god can re-shape reality to cause the intended result to happen.

Clothing of Slaves

There are no sumptuary laws in any of these areas: slaves can wear anything or can go naked, as long as they are not able to rape women. It’s common for slaves to wear only a short tunic or tabard that goes down roughly only to the navel, with pouches in the front for carrying things. Sometimes free people also wear these, though, so it’s not a status symbol. However, where slaves are ordered to wear clothing, they are usually supplied with the simplest, cheapest clothing possible. Undyed coarse cloth, quickly woven, often little more than burlap (e.g. 3 to 10 threads per cm, i.e. fewer than 25 per inch). Slaves do not have any right to privacy or decency. Even if they are given (or rather, lent) leggings or a smock, there will often be an opening at the back so that people don’t need to undress the slave to use it for sex.

In some cities and towns, including Swesryos and Ran, it’s required that Enforced slaves go barefoot. The irony is that this lets them absorb magic through the bottoms of their feet and helps them to overcome the coldness of the chains. This is simply about skin touching the ground: lying down naked on the ground is even more effective, of course.

In the Farmlands, slaves must wear a collar and chain, and the collar must always be easily visible, not hidden by a beard or clothing. Most slaves would rather go topless (if given a choice, which is unlikely) rather than be accused of trying to hide their collar.

Travel of Slaves

It’s illegal in the Farmlands for men to travel alone, whether free or slave. The fear of rape is too great. A man can travel with a Dedicated or Owned slave. If two or men travel, they must have at least one slave with them. Slaves can be given ikrow root and cannot then tell lies, so they make reliable witnesses. Slaves cannot, of course, travel unaccompanied; in some places, such as the cities, they can be lent a token or permit to run an errand, but a slave will not be permitted to leave the city on its own.

Slaves travelling in public must be marked (usually with a brand); Enforced slaves must wear a collar and at least one chain dangling from it; the chain absorbs ambient magic and is thought to prevent spell-casting, as the people of the Farmlands fear magic: they live near the Forest of Despair, and nothing good can come out of that forest, they are sure. There is also a symbol that is branded on the forehead of a particularly disobedient or lazy slave as a warning: anyone buying that slave will need to be especially strict with him.

If a slave uses magic, their chain (or chains) will grow very cold; the mage-catchers will therefore grasp a slave’s chain and pull down hard: if the slave resists with magic they will feel the sudden coldness.

When a married couple of men travel, they have to have at least one slave to take with them. But usually they would take two slaves, so that the two men didn’t have to stay together all the time. If a man travels alone he must be a branded slave to be safe, and outside the towns he must carry a token of release to show he had permission to travel. Sometimes one or more of a group of free men will pretend to be slaves so as to travel, but if they were caught the whole group would be executed, so this is not common. Instead, where it's possible, one of the group will take a vow of Dedication and actually become a slave, even if they are generally treated as an equal. Of course, they are not an equal, because they can be given orders and will obey them.

Female Slaves

No account of slavery in Artia would be complete without mentioning that there are places where women are kept as slaves, and where men rule. Within some of the temples, and within the Hidden Fortress, there are female slaves; in the latter case it’s in an attempt to have children. Female slaves are, however, never seen in public in any part of Artia, and most people are unaware that they exist.

Buying a slave

Mothers usually choose a new owner for their slaves or husbands or children when it’s time, just as they choose husbands for their sons. In the towns, though, people wanting to be slaves, and slaves being sold, go to the market. In a smaller town the market will be in the early afternoon one day a week, so that farmers can buy them after selling any food, and can still get home before dark.

In places without money or the concept of ownership of things, the market is more a meeting-place; sometimes the people there will talk to each other to find a good match.

Punishments

If a slave-owner can obtain (and afford) ikrow root, or can use magic to compel obedience, then direct disobedience is extremely unlikely. A very few people are unaffected by ikrow root (Iffric was an example; he was also unusual in having fair hair with his dark brown skin) and sometimes learn to use this to their advantage. However, a slave can work slowly or without much effort, or be rude or disrespectful, or do things that were not forbidden it but that do not please its owner.

Whippings and canings are used; a slave considered particularly troublesome will have a brand on its forehead—Ahmic was given this sign, after Iffric repeatedly got him into trouble; by the time it came out that it had Iffric telling lies and not Ahmic misbehaving it was too late.

Other punishments for slaves can be cruel: the slaves have no recourse for justice or fairness.

Emancipation

In places where there is voting, it’s normal for Dedicated slaves and Husbands to vote on social issues. The idea of ending slavery is not, of course, voted upon. None the less, being a slave in Artia doesn’t necessarily mean being ill-treated or unhappy any more than being a housewife in our world always leads to unhappiness. But that does not mean there is no abuse.

Slaves cannot buy their freedom. It is possible for an owner to release a slave. The Oath of Dedication includes language to say the slave will never ask to be set free, nor ask that any other slave be freed, nor seek freedom in any way.

When slaves are released they are naked and entirely without possessions or money. Its far from unheard-of for a man released from slavery to go straight to a public market and put himself up for sale again; the money in this case would be kept by the auction house or the town.

Note that public nudity is not a crime.

Children of slaves

There are no public female slaves, and any man enslaving a woman would be put to death. Male slaves are sometimes used to father children with free Mothers, but the resulting children are not automatically slaves, not even in the Forbidden Fortress.

Exceptions

Life in Ran itself is very different from that of the Farmlands or the Grassy Plains: there’s little or no magic there, and normal pregnancies are possible. There is slavery both of men and of women, and the resulting children are slaves. Marriage is between a man and up to three women. However, all men are required to enlist in the army. By and large Ran is not at war right now; they still try and storm the Forbidden Fortress occasionally, unaware that in doing so they strengthen it considerably. They are also formally at war with Skiola, but there too, they meet with no success in battle. They conquered most of the Farmlands and much of the Grassy Plains, destroyed a number of ancient cities and built new ones. But even during the time when the Treaty-Gate was entirely sealed there was enough magic in the Grassy Plains that the Ranians could not conquer it entirely; their grip on the region has been weakening and old gods have returned.

When the last seal is broken on the Treaty-Gate… well, that’s the subject of another story.