Editing Sarrukh (section)

====Slavery====
The sarrukh began keeping slaves even before they had any dealings with other species. Enslaving their own kind was viewed as right and proper, as long as the slaves received proper care and fair treatment. Sarrukh slaves lived in their masters’ homes, received good food, and were not overworked. Occasionally they were sold or traded from one sarrukh to another, but for the most part, slaves remained with the same family for life. When a slave became too old to work, he might be freed, or assigned to rear the master’s young, or be sacrificed to the [[World Serpent]], according to his own wishes and his past performance.

Upon discovering the other progenitor races, the sarrukh quickly realized that such creatures would make passable servitors and enslaved them. Since the sarrukh felt little social responsibility for creatures of other races, nonsarrukh slaves were not treated nearly as well as sarrukh slaves. A Scaleless One might be starved for days at a time and then beaten for her inability to work. In the early days of the sarrukh expansion, Scaleless Ones were not even viewed as worthy sacrifices for the World Serpent. This abysmally low status meant that they could be killed with impunity and eaten by their masters.

By the founding of Isstosseffifil and Mhairshaulk, the sarrukh had enslaved so many creatures that they had stopped keeping sarrukh slaves at all. Each sarrukh lived in comfort, surrounded by the finery that had once been reserved for their leaders. Eventually, the sarrukh stopped fighting their own wars and trained their slaves to fight for them, promising that the best warriors would be freed to enjoy the same lifestyle as the sarrukh. Occasionally they actually kept this promise and freed a particularly powerful warrior as an example to the others. The lure of freedom and wealth created an enormous and loyal fighting force that helped the sarrukh maintain control over their empires.

Eventually, Scaleless Ones were deemed suitable sacrifices for the World Serpent, thereby freeing the sarrukh from the need to choose sacrifices from among citizens of supposedly equal rank. Though the World Serpent did not object to the decision, it did violate his original agreement with the sarrukh. To maintain the letter of the agreement while accommodating the changing needs and demands of his worshipers, the World Serpent split off an aspect of himself that was called M’daess, whose task was to purify the souls of unclean sacrifi ces and make them equivalent to sarrukh.