A player in my campaign is planning to have a background for his character as a slave gladiator. Would this work if it was in Magnimar?
I don't see why not. James Jacobs says slavery is illegal in almost all of Varisia, though traders and such no doubt bring them with them, especially from Cheliax or further abroad.
I don't think that you can take somebody in slavery in Magnimar holdings. Which doesn't mean that Magnimar will totally outlaw slavery, ban slavers and free slaves. No open trading of course too, but indoors deals - why not? I see Magnimar as city based around trade at first, then good morality.
Maybe there are laws like "If a fugitive slave lives here one year - he's free" and possibility for slaves to appeal to city guard, about harsh treatment from masters. But I don't think that a bounty hunter send to retrieve a slave, and operating in legal borders of the city laws, will be considered as a criminal.
Thanks, JJ.
Do the Magnamarians insist that any slaves within their territory are immediately emancipated? If a merchant galley were to arrive crewed by oar-slaves, for example, or the delegation from Osirion which has slaves to attend the ambassador.
Magnimar is a "good" city, but I have a hard time seeing it as that good.
Hmm, perhaps the character could have been smuggled to Magnimar for a high-stakes underground fight of some kind. The player wants his character to be a recently escaped slave.
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Illegal. But probably still practiced. Agrarian slavery, illegal in the United States since the 1860s, was still practiced up until World War II; and forms of prison labor legally indistinct from slavery remain in practice in the United States until this day; every American military combat helmet from infantrymen to fighter jocks is made by a prison "worker" who is a slave in all but name.
Creative Director
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If you have slaves in Magnimar, you need to be quiet about it. If word spreads, you'll likely have adventurers or Sczarni or even city guards confronting you in an attempt to free the slaves. This is well-known, and as such, slavers don't visit Magnimar.
Not every city is a good source for every character background.
If, on the other hand, your player wants to change his character's background from "slave gladiator" to "gladiator who fights in order to pay back a huge debt" or the like, that could work.