Editing Slavery (section)

==Slavery in Fantasy==
[[File:Drow slaves Into the Darklands.jpg|thumb|[[Drow]] are notorious slavers.]]
Because slavery is viewed as such a moral repugnance throughout the modern world, it is an easy way for lazy [[GM]]s to get a reaction from players. Slavery being one of the common features of a setting's bad guys makes for an easy way to establish that civilization or organization is [[Alignment|evil]]. A bunch of armed guys attack a peaceful village with chains and whips to catch its residents, bind them, and take them to their dwelling, where they're treated worse than how we treat livestock and forced to: toil, be beaten, probably raped, and  made to fight to the death in arenas for the amusement and benefit of some sick bastards? That is more than enough reason to establish "these guys are bad, go [[murderhobo|kill their asses]]" regardless of alignment; even Evil characters can simply indulge their drive to kill by offing slavers, and exploit the freed villagers and their families for more favors - particularly Lawful Evil ones.

However, this is not always the case; both the perceived "good" and "bad" factions can also engage in slavery, although how they do it usually defines who's good and who's bad (regardless of how minute the difference is). Take [[Araby]] and the [[Dark Elves]] in the ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battles|Warhammer Fantasy]]'' setting, for example. Both factions engage in wanton slavery and have no qualms about it being a common thing everywhere. However, what sort of defines each of them is how they see their slaves. In Araby, slaves have several rights, the children of slaves are guaranteed by law to not be slaves, and particularly cruel mistreatment of slaves will result in punishment to the masters and the mistreated becoming free. The Dark Elves consider all non-Dark Elves to be beneath them and will torture, maim and kill their slaves for various reasons including thinking its fun.

Though it is found in both, slavery is more common in fantasy settings than in science fiction. In your typical Tolkien knockoff, the way you go about digging rocks, harvesting lumber, tilling fields and raising buildings is normally with strong backs. In most sci-fi worlds, why have a bunch of slaves working in an irradiated asteroid space mine when you could have a bunch of robots who don't need slave drivers, don't require food or air, won't plot escape/rebellion ([[Men of Iron|'''hopefully''']]), and are stronger and easier to repair if damaged?

Slavery of a [[/d/|certain kind]] is a common feature of many [[Magical Realm]]s.

===Slavery in [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]===

Since we are a bunch of [[Warhammer]] nerds, here are some examples<ref>Besides the pair that allows us to explain that there's a sliding scale of evilness associated with slave-holding societies</ref> from those two/three settings, because we can't restrain ourselves:

[[Tomb Kings|Ancient Nehekharan's]] society mostly had its labor powered by slaves that were either prisoners of war or captured from oversea raid (like their Egypt counterpart). According to the Nagash novel, most slaves would overwork themselves and die under the whips of the architects (or soon to be necrotects) while building a pyramid (Settra's pyramid only took 20 years and cost over 2000 slaves; His successor's pyramid usually took 25 years and cost over one million slaves). This does not mean Nehekharan were mostly cruel tyrants, for a few kind or wise rulers would grant a boon to talented slaves by giving them a place in their hierarchy, allowing some of them to even become a vizier (second most powerful man in a great city besides a priest king). Females would be used as servants instead of labor just because they are good looking.

Then there's [[Nagash]]. HE believed everyone but him are either slaves, fuel for spells or enemies to kill (then made into undead slaves). Even talented generals and his nine noble lieutenants were just considered his most useful slaves, and he only treated them better because he understood positive reinforcement was the best approach with them. Necromancy was his idea of free labor; to build the Black Pyramid, Nagash was merciless even by Nehekharan standards (in hindsight, his dad getting a fuck ton of slaves killed to build his own pyramid, which Nagash would [[Grimdark|wall up his own brother alive in to usurp him]], should have raised a few alarm bells), to the point of telling living slaves to make tools from the bones of their dead co-workers to meet his design. Anyone who died in Nagash's service would be made undead to continue working or punishment, best case scenario they'd get a promotion or power boost if they weren't mindless.   

Skaven mainly enslave their own kind - Skavenslaves, the bottom rung of their society. There's always a surplus of Skaven ratlings, so most of those end up as slaves. Their lives are often filthy, painful and short; they're underfed, fight for what little food they have and cannibalism is often required not to starve. They get the most dangerous and thankless jobs, including test subjects for [[Clan Skryre]]'s experiments or raw material for [[Clan Moulder]]'s fleshcrafting. Their most famous role is to act as expendable fodder for Skaven Warlords to pin down or exhaust the enemy with (the same could be said about Clanrats, but they have actual combat training and also get armor - albeit poor quality armor). Skaven do take slaves from other races, though they end up as food, material for fleshcrafting or spell ingredients. Humans whom were enslaved by the Skaven for any length of time often go insane (due to their disbelieve in the said ratmen's mythical existence) and even start to act like a Skaven. Rumors claim that at some point they actually mutate into Skaven, but given Skaven Xenophobia and how they treat skavenslaves the chances of them lasting that long are pretty low. non-skaven slaves, especially the humans would often band together in their cell to prevent anyone of them from devoured by other Skavens, especially if they have infants in their group since Skavens finds [[grimdark|infants to be tasty]].

[[Warrior of Chaos|Chaos Tribes]], like Kurgans and Norscans, employ slaves that are captured in the aftermaths of victorious battles and raids. The former, funnily enough, have a system compared to that of an Ancient Rome, where slaves are constantly fighting to get more privileges and eventually free himself. Norscan slaves are called thralls (even though in real history they weren't exactly slaves) and are mostly used in labour and sacrifice.

All elves have some form of "involuntary servitude". The most notorious slavers are, unsurprisingly, [[Dark Elves (Warhammer Fantasy Battle)|Dark Elves]], who use them in pretty much every type of work and take them from every race (although Dwarf ones are the most valuable). [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|High Elves]] of Lothern use slaves (mostly humans) in menial tasks and also trade them, but in other kingdoms slavery is forbidden. [[Wood Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Wood Elves]], meanwhile, kidnap [[Bretonnia|Bretonnian]] children and turn them into servants that regard Asrai as gods and never grow up.

[[Chaos Dwarfs]] are one of the most iconic slaver civilisations in WFB, they rely on it as much as Druchii. Most are [[Orcs & Goblins]], but there are other races working for them. [[End Times|This ultimately brought their doom at the hands of Grimgor.]]

Fantasy Greenskins, interestingly, do not have a developed slavery system. Yes, Goblins can work for Orcs because they're smaller, but by outgrowing Orcs they can free themselves (like [[Grom the Paunch]], for example). Not to say that there are excusively Goblin tribes...

[[Ogre Kingdoms|Ogres]] mostly employ [[Gnoblar|Gnoblars]] as their slaves, but there are also battle [[Giant|Giants]]. However, most other captured enemies are just sacrificed or eaten immediately.

Most of the Order-aligned human nations forbade slavery. The only exception is [[Araby]] (which has an extensive slave system similar to that of Ottoman Empire, Berber Coast and other Arabic nations at the time), also slaves are sometimes traded in [[Sartosa]] and [[Marienburg]]. Bretonnian serfdom can also be somewhat compared to slavery. However, older lore mentioned an Imperial owning a Southlander slave in Drachenfels, and the Empire was mentioned as having enslaved a Pygmy once, before said Pygmy rebelled and ate a few dinner guests at his "owner"'s feast before escaping.

=== Slavery in [[Warhammer 40,000]] ===

''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' actually justifies having slaves fairly well. In a galactic empire like the [[Imperium]], automation is considered techno-[[heresy]] (or simply decayed like spaceship artillery loaders) due to a robot rebellion happening in the past and the risk of Chaos corruption for the machines. Even during the heyday of the Great Crusade, "indentured servants" are found in many canon literary works, mostly for payment for medical treatment, crime (think U.S Penal System), or augmentation. In order to access "free" labour without the fear of Abominable Intelligence, they created [[Servitors]], cyborgs made out of human criminals or vat clones. Then again, every human in the Imperium is indebted to the Emperor at birth and thus [[count as]] his currency to be spent [[Imperial Guard|on wars]] and [[Administratum|labors]]. Basically modern slavery but with more fanaticism, cloning and cybernetics. [[Imperial Worlds#Feudal_Worlds|Feudal Worlds]] and [[Hive World]] exists for this purpose and are basically designed to let the Imperium to shit out billions of humans every single day.

Notably, [[Angron]] was a gladiator, a slave warrior who risk his life to entertain his master, making him the only Primarch to be a slave. 

The [[Dark Eldar]] are sick bastards who need to consume souls of psychically susceptible species (human youngsters are prime specimens, while Tau souls taste bland and weak) and get their rocks off at making others miserable.

And the [[Orks]]... well, the Orks simply believe might makes right is an axiom <span style='color:green;font-size:150%'>'''(A WOT?!)'''</span>. It's the natural order that the big and tough can and ought push around the small and puny. There's no universal right, only the power you possess and general Orkiness. Ork fluff is dodgy as far as slaves from other species are concerned, but Grots and especially Snotlings fill the role of slaves for manual labour and occasional plaything (not [[/d/|''that'']] kind of plaything). It should be noted that grots and snotlings are part of the broader Orkoid support ecology which was deliberately engineered to support Da Boyz. [[The War of The Beast]] has shown Orks are capable of enslaving other species if they were given a propa brutal cunning (or cunning brutal) evolution to do so.

And let's not forget the [[Enslavers]], as if their name isn't already an obvious giveaway. They are creatures of warp who feeds on living beings soul, then turning them into their incubation bed/cannon-fodder minion afterwards.

=== Chaos in general ===
Since Chaos works the same way in both fantasy and 40k, it is fine to put both setting together when discussing anything about Chaos.

All Chaos worshipers could be count as some kind of slaves to the Chaos Gods. However, since Chaos Gods is the living conscious of everybody's emotion to the extreme, this means Chaos worshipers are in fact enslaved by their own emotions. [[Khorne|Khornate]] followers need to endlessly offer blood and skulls harvest from their enemy and never show cowardice (only to either die by their enemies' hand, or by Khorne's wrath because of taking some of his glory as their own). [[Tzeentch]] followers need to endlessly plot with hopes that their ambitions could succeed (only for their plans to backfire, that or they get turned into...[[Chaos Spawn|whatever that is]]). Nurgle devotees need to continuously bathe in shit and live in misery, or else Nurgle will give them [[Extra Heresy|extra encouragement]] to become a proper follower. Slaanesh's followers need to tirelessly perfect their depraved art and entertainment (only to have their acts caught by their local [[Adeptus Arbites|PDF]], that or Slaanesh might punish them with a hellish "supplementary lesson curse" just because they made one step wrong, or because it is jealous). Only the Undivided Worshippers do not get constantly bent over by their god-masters since they do not channel the power of Chaos in the same way or as often. However, this does not stop the Chaos Gods from punishing them, and since unlike a devotee of one single god, Undivided followers are not likely to gain much favor with an individual god because of their veneration of Chaos as a whole.

There's also a saying that we are all slaves to fate. If that's the case, then Tzeentch is probably the master of all intelligent beings that are capable of having emotions. However, Tzeentch cannot claim the fate of a person if they are; A. claimed by one of his three brother gods; or B. are claimed by other non-chaos gods that could resist him ([[The God-Emperor of Mankind|Big E]], [[Cegorach]], [[Gork]] an' [[Mork]], etc...). Then again, claimed by any god could also count as slavery, but some might not feel the same way. In this situation, the interpretations of slavery is up to how the gods treats their subjects, but for the most parts, the subjects are nothing but pawns to further their gods' plan, that or to entertain them. [[Inquisition|Some are willing, feeling it as a sacred duty to do the god's work]]. Others will resent feeling like a slave, and might [[Horus Heresy|rebel]] against their god, only to be [[Officio Assassinorum|put down]] or [[exterminatus|exterminated right where they stood]]. 

To the like of [[Wulfrik the Wanderer]], he was cursed to seek out the bounty the god's had marked, or else they will constantly annoying him with headache, and he will be sent to torment for eternity if he dies. He initially hated the curse since it restricted his freedom, prevent him from having a prosper life. However, after facing many encounters with his arch-nemesis, traitors, cheating girlfriend and manipulators throughout his journey to remove his curse, he realized the curse was in fact a bless, and this whole journey was the gods' way to show Wulfrik how much they care for him, in exchange to be enslaved by them, the gods ultimately helped him exact vengeance and gain glory. So yeah, Chaos Gods do have a soft side for their subjects, in a weird dickish way, and being enslaved by them is has its own warped form of glory.