vyshan wrote:
Also speaking personally I greatly prefer cheliax without slavery but instead with all these contracts that bind a person. That feels far more like a culture that has been influnced by Hell then just slavery. Both are oppressive, and sure the contracts that Thrune and the other power players in Cheliax write up are filled with so much legalese and fine print that they heavily favor the power players. But in a land where Ravenoul was only able to escape thanks to a legal loophole in their annexation contract at the end of the civil war, this also fits the lore better.
More over there are more options. Now one can play a lawyer character and with some good lawyering rescue people from their contracts. Have players be bound by the contracts to do stuff for them without it feeling like an end.
Katapesh banning slavery is explictly mentioned as a shock, now the pactmasters are strange alien creatures, but a big reason is due to nomadic revolts and conflicts. Conflicts that are still ongoing and are not resolved and probably will be part of the upcoming battle cry.
Abasolom's decision to end slavery is detailed above, and that decimated others.
Vidiran had a revolution and got rid of it.
Oddly Nidal, the nation that got this thread started didn't really practice slavery all that much in 1e from their own book. Most of that was tied to the Darklands stuff and with that retcon I doubt slavery persits. All other forms of oppression, pain, and suffering? sure but slavery wasn't really part of it beyond the whole nation in effect being slaves to Zon-Kuthon.
One of the groups that did get rid of it and I am not sure why are the Orcs of belzkan.
Slavery was super important in Nidal. The novels showcase the Shadow callers purchasing slaves for torture purposes.
Zon-Kuthon’s 1E obedience was this
Obedience Persuade a creature to allow you to inflict a small
amount of pain on it. This can be as subtle as thin needles
under the skin or as overt as a lashing with a whip—
whatever the subject agrees to. If you can legally procure
an individual, such as through legalized slavery, you may
use a purchased subject instead. If no suitable individuals
can be located, coil a spiked chain into a nest and kneel on
it, letting your weight sink your knees into the spikes. Whip
your own back while chanting praises to Zon-Kuthon. Gain a
+2 sacred bonus on saving throws against spells that deal hit
point damage.
Slavery was less important to the economy of Nidal then it was to its religious practices. Given the whole evil BDSM lead by a Cenobite thing.
Religious rites involving human sacrifice kind of nessitate a disposable population to draw from to get sacrifices from.
Unlike in real life where typically human sacrificial rituals were performed sparingly. Cults devoted to more malign deities practice the ritual far more often then real cultures that had it as an element.
Mostly because it makes them better villains.
In cultures that practiced it they were drawn from captured enemy soldiers who would have been enslaved in most other cultures or slaves.
Of course sometimes their own children were taken as sacrifices like in Carthage.
On a side note I always would have found it interesting that a god of some kind required human or elven or dwarves sacrifices only to then lavish their souls in the afterlife.
Mesoamerican conceptions of sacrificial rituals had the souls of the sacrificed be taken to some of the better afterlives.
It’s worth noting that more civilized cultures waged their fingers at human sacrifice while essentially performing it.
Like how the Romans used it to smear their enemies only to also commit human sacrifice.
There’s an uncomfortable element is that so many “evil cults” in fantasy are based on smear campaigns of minority faiths.
Of course lot all of them. I heard about a GM making Zon-Kuthon worship resemble a messed up version of Catholicism.
