Thralldom
Entries
Question: Requesting the proc from Victus that no more child thralls may ever be created, found in the below link, be added to lore. Perhaps lore child thralls.
https://play.arxgame.org/comms/boards/5455/view/1016895
It isn't showing up elsewhere and it was very evidence in a recent info chat that a majority of people couldn't remember it. TBF it was posted half a year ago.
Answer: The following proclamation was made by highlord Victus Thrax, which was immediately adopted at Maelstrom, and adopted or ignored to varying degrees in individual Islander domains.
"As of 3/9/1009 AR, the practice of pressing children into thralldom contracts is hereby outlawed within the Mourning Isles. Individuals below the age of 18 will no longer be eligible to have thralldom assigned as a measure of repaying debts for crimes against the Compact or Thrax. This does not exclude any other form of judgment levied onto those who break criminal laws within Thrax's domain however.
In light of this, new protocol is to be adopted in regards to regular combat conducted against Abandoned tribes. If a lord/lady sees fit to press a child's guardian into thralldom, the child will be exempt from the judgment and will be released back into the care of the surviving tribe-members.
However if there are no remaining members of a tribe able to take the child into their care, it will be the obligation of the lord/lady to ensure the child is released to an individual or group that can be entrusted to raise the child as a Prodigal. This process is to be done in full compliance with the Compact's standards for Abandoned bending the knee.
In the above case, House Thrax will personally cover the expenses of raising the child as to not impose any financial burden upon its vassals with regards to said children. The lord/lady will only be asked to send the appropriate information of where the child is fostering and who will be responsible for their growth and development to any lawyer employed by House Thrax.
This does not apply to thralls already within the system, only to the creation of new thralls.
Tears in our wake, never at our wake.
-High Lord Victus Thrax
Prince of the Maelstrom"
Question: What does the state of thralldom look like in the Mourning Isles in 1010 AR? The topic has been popular given current events, and it seems that there are some who think it's slowing down, or that it's being slowly eradicated from smaller houses, and others think that it's alive, well, and flourishing, with most of the Mourning Isles being traditionalist houses anyways who have no interest in stopping the practice, and no actual movement forward in terms of any NPC houses abolishing thralldom. What's the actual reality?
Answer: The truth is that any proclamation or decision by higher houses will be likely ignored until and unless it's backed by force and incentives. The traditional autonomy of lower houses is so strong that most lords would claim that they obey reforms and then promptly ignore them entirely until they are compelled to do so. This has made even the most basic reforms of limited effectiveness outside immediate domains- so while Stormward, Maelstrom, or Astarrea for example are all very progressive currently in embracing Victus' reforms or banning thralldom all together, a not insignificant number of NPC houses will continue to pass down thrall debts and other clear abuses quietly until compelled to do so.
Question: So I recieved a question ICly about reforming thralldom that raised a couple of other questions for me. 1) Who can impose thralldom? 2) are thralls ever taken in war from the compact, or just from the shavs?
Answer: Any noble of Thrax (land owner) or member of the court system of Thrax, as it's essentially a declaration of debt. Commoners often do so and then just have it recognized later by judicial consent to formalize something that was informal. Thralls are from the rest of the Compact are, in effect, war hostages. It is done exceedingly rarely and only in times of war, as it's the same as ransoming prisoners of war. The overwhelming majority of thralls are Abandoned, who essentially have a war debt for being outside the Compact, and those found guilty of petty crimes in Thrax domains.
Answer: In 1006 AR, new laws were introduced that changed the structure of Thralldom throughout the Mourning Isles. These new laws are still not fully welcomed by everyone in Thrax, and their longterm impact remains to be seen.
1. Only a Ruling Peer or Voice ("Lords") of a house of the Thrax may create new thralls.
2. Thralldom may only be imposed as punishment for a criminal act ("criminal thrall") or for waging war against the Thrax or their vassals ("war thrall").
3. Any thrall entering service shall have their fine set by the judgement of a Magistrate appointed by the Lord imposing thralldom. This debt must, unless otherwise authorized by paragraph 4 or 7, be achievable within the natural lifetime of a human.
4. The imposition of criminal thralldom with a debt that cannot be repaid within their lifetime ("thralldom until death") requires the decision of a panel of judges and the approval of the liege of the Lord imposing thralldom.
5. A criminal thrall's debt may not be increased or extended in any way unless the thrall commits further crimes that would result in punishment by thralldom on their own. This increase requires the same process of trial and judgement by a Magistrate that their initial thralldom required.
6. A criminal thrall's debt may be reduced or forgiven as a reward for excellent behavior.
7. In addition to repayment of debt, shavs forced to bend the knee from war may be held indefinitely in bondage if they are judged a threat to the Compact. All shavs taken prisoner in the Compact are always forced to bend the knee or be executed.
8. Thralls must be put to use in a specific field of duty, with an eye to building useful skills for their eventual return to free society.
9. Thralls used as warriors or crew on ships must spend their last year of service ashore apprenticed to a free person who practices a trade or craft.
10. A thrall whose service ends either by order or by repayment of debt is a free person of common status, and must be treated as such.
11. A thrall's whose service ends in their death shall have their debt recorded as having been paid in full. The debt of a thrall is not transferable.
12. A criminal thrall's allegiance as a free person reverts to what it was before their period of thralldom, unless the thrall chooses to swear allegiance to another house.
13. A war thrall must actively swear allegiance to a House of the Compact, the Crown, or the Faith to finalize the end of their thralldom.
Question: Much like with Serfdom I am hoping for some official clarification on Thralldom. There seems to be a lot of conflicting OOC information on what thralldom is and what it isn't. You have people throwing stones at it for being slavery but at the same time The Compact has outlawed slavery so if that were the case than wouldn't the rest of The Compact have to step up and do something about it? Legally?
My next question is, what makes Thralldom not slavery if it is not slavery? But why do people view it as slavery if it isn't slavery?
Lastly, it seems that many people think that the vast majority of thralls are thralls because they have a criminal past and it was part of a punishment to be set to work. While there are people where that is not the case some people are thinking that most of them are criminals and that the islands are much too small to have any other efficient prison system. The counter view to this is that most thralls are innocent people who have been forced into slavery because they couldn't afford food and stole a loaf of bread or similar petty theft or gambling debt as an attempt to survive. Who exactly are thralls, how did they become thralls, and is there anything elese that the game should know about Thralldom?
Answer: Longterm imprisonment is generally not thematic, with corporeal punishment and deprivation of possessions far more common. So the equivalent of debtor's prisons don't exist, and forced labor is generally confined to Thrax, as their island geography makes them the most capable of keeping captive populations, particularly since the reforms of Alarice the Great that allowde serfs freedom of movement, which effectively ended serfdom in the historical, RL sense of the term, and now they are more equivalent to freeman tenants.
Thrax, however, continued to apply debts that must be worked off with forced, captive labor, and it differs from slavery in that someone owns that person's debt, not the actual person. When thralls are transferred, it is the assumption of ownership of their debt, which could be forgiven at any time. One of Victus' key reforms was not allowing the owner of the debt to arbitrarily increase the debt without confirmation by a magistrate (or title holder of the domain, in effect).
Overwhelming majority of thralls are prisoners of war against Abandoned, though that can be misleading in so much it might be Thrax reavers raiding relatively peaceful Abandoned for profit, and it is difficult to separate that practice from the taking of thralls from Abandoned pirates. All Abandoned prisoners, whether thralls or otherwise, are forced to bend the knee and become prodigals or face summary execution.
This does result in some progressives in the Isles that defend the practice of Thralldom as arguably more humane than the rest of the Compact, as some hardliners of the Compact refuse to take prisoners of Abandoned at all, and summarily executes all captured Abandoned, not even permitting them to bend the knee under pain of death.