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Non-cliche slavery in fantasy campaign settings?
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<blockquote data-quote="Grue" data-source="post: 6279852" data-attributes="member: 11989"><p>This one is a thorny topic to approach but I think the core of it is how slavery actually functions in a society. While there were some notable difference in the institution of slavery between the African slave trade (and pre-antebellum U.S.A.) and the ancient world I think there are a number of lurking assumptions that are a bit overblown by latter period revisionism and romantic notions. While slave 'rights' fluctuated between different cultures and historical periods the core concept that slaves are property (like land or livestock) can be hard to wrap the noggin around at times. </p><p></p><p>Laws in the Roman Empire (or from Hammurabi on) weren’t particularly concerned with what you did with your property, but moreso with how much was owed if you killed another man’s property. The Serville Wars weren’t fought by prized skilled labor (Greek) slaves (who could one day hope to buy manumission) but by laborers. A notion of some sort of 'life was better as a barbarian slave in the Roman Empire than as African one in South Carolina' is a bit of bunk... for the vast majority it was awful in either case.</p><p></p><p>As far as a ‘non-cliché’ slavery… like an ‘evil proud warrior race that wouldn’t stoop to mistreating a slave’… I can’t think of any realistic way of how they would get any work out of their slaves…ask them nicely maybe? The Spartans were pretty freaking evil to their helots and their entire warrior culture in many respects was built to keep a police state level of control over their slaves. The Mongols, while valuing skilled labor slaves, were not known to play nice with uppity property. And for the Norse, their thralls were one of their most common trade items.</p><p></p><p>On the paladin issue… it strikes too close to the Southern plantation owner argument over protecting his inferior child-like slaves and the endless ‘is it evil to kill goblin babies?’ trope. I guess from a historical perspective, while Charlemange tried to discourage slavery it remained an institution and the 12 peers (the Paladins) lived with it. It’s a fantasy rpg, if you want to play out a story of a Paladin crusading against one particular social ill, do that. If the evil lich who is corrupting the countryside is the more pressing problem, do that instead.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Grue, post: 6279852, member: 11989"] This one is a thorny topic to approach but I think the core of it is how slavery actually functions in a society. While there were some notable difference in the institution of slavery between the African slave trade (and pre-antebellum U.S.A.) and the ancient world I think there are a number of lurking assumptions that are a bit overblown by latter period revisionism and romantic notions. While slave 'rights' fluctuated between different cultures and historical periods the core concept that slaves are property (like land or livestock) can be hard to wrap the noggin around at times. Laws in the Roman Empire (or from Hammurabi on) weren’t particularly concerned with what you did with your property, but moreso with how much was owed if you killed another man’s property. The Serville Wars weren’t fought by prized skilled labor (Greek) slaves (who could one day hope to buy manumission) but by laborers. A notion of some sort of 'life was better as a barbarian slave in the Roman Empire than as African one in South Carolina' is a bit of bunk... for the vast majority it was awful in either case. As far as a ‘non-cliché’ slavery… like an ‘evil proud warrior race that wouldn’t stoop to mistreating a slave’… I can’t think of any realistic way of how they would get any work out of their slaves…ask them nicely maybe? The Spartans were pretty freaking evil to their helots and their entire warrior culture in many respects was built to keep a police state level of control over their slaves. The Mongols, while valuing skilled labor slaves, were not known to play nice with uppity property. And for the Norse, their thralls were one of their most common trade items. On the paladin issue… it strikes too close to the Southern plantation owner argument over protecting his inferior child-like slaves and the endless ‘is it evil to kill goblin babies?’ trope. I guess from a historical perspective, while Charlemange tried to discourage slavery it remained an institution and the 12 peers (the Paladins) lived with it. It’s a fantasy rpg, if you want to play out a story of a Paladin crusading against one particular social ill, do that. If the evil lich who is corrupting the countryside is the more pressing problem, do that instead. [/QUOTE]
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Non-cliche slavery in fantasy campaign settings?
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