X Equestris
Maester
I came across this article on Fantasy Faction earlier this week, and it raised some interesting points.
Slavery in Fantasy | Fantasy-Faction
The thing that most stood out to me was the point about how it's a little naive to have your antagonists be the only slaveholders in your setting when slavery has, until recently, been very common in almost all cultures.
That got me thinking about slavery in my world. I've managed to keep it from being something only antagonists do. I've got a group of tribal peoples called the Amraki who take slaves in inter-tribal war, as well as occassional raids on lowland nations. I'm planning on writing a story with a protagonist from one of the desert Amraki tribes, though I doubt the slavery will come I to focus given where I'm going with the story.
In the past, slavery was practiced by some of the lowland peoples, such as the Helsa, Corhiel, Ciriac, and Dynion(all of which are inspired by various European tribal groups) and the Mklarites (a people inspired by Axum who conquered and assimilated similarly African inspired nations). Slavery is illegal in the modern nations founded by people of those ethnicities( The Seven Marches, the Kingdom of Corhiel, the Empire of Ciria and the Kingdoms of Vannen and Anjenne, the Kingsom of Vyspa, and the Mklarite Empire) due to the spread of the Faith of the Mother, which emphasizes free will.
The only country I would say fits the "antagonistic slaveholders" mold in my world is the Tyrian Dominion, which is based on Rome, the Phoenicians/Carthage, and a little bit of Aztec in the mythology. The Tyrians once ruled most of the continent before a massive civil war greatly weakened them and they were reduced to a vestigial empire after executing one of the Faith's Prophets and trying to wipe out the religion's followers.
The Dominion has always relied on large numbers of slaves. They believe their gods need human blood to survive, and that children's blood does the best job of that. At the height of their power they demanded children from conquered people's as sacrificial tribute, which made them hated by virtually everyone. Slaves were also used to build temples, city walls, and roads by the Dominion's government, while privately owned slaves did fairly typical farm and housework. The Dominion's rulers have always been mages, and they have no issue with blood magic, so a fair number of slaves are and were used as human batteries by them. Along with the demands for sacrificial tribute, this insured that no conquered peoples supported the Dominion when it came crashing down.
Now, the Tyrians mostly breed their slaves from existing stock, though they go through so many in sacrifices and usage as human batteries that Tyrian merchants are happy to buy slaves from their former Colonies, which are now independent city-states, or from pirates who raid the coasts for captives. Some groups, with the backing of the Tyrian government, launch occasional raids on Mklarite border towns, which has nearly started a war between the two empires. Some extremely poor people in Tyrian sell themselves into slavery in the hopes of a better life.
I've only written one story heavily focused on slavery, which involved a Mklarite freedman living in Tyria with his family. They helped slaves escape via a rough equivalent of the Underground Railroad, and the story ends with the freedman giving his life so that his family and six escaped slaves can flee the country by sea. I've also entertained the idea of writing a novel featuring a slave revolt in the Dominion, but I have more fleshed out ideas to work with first.
So what about you guys? How do you handle slavery in your worlds and stories? Is it common, rare, or somewhere in between? How do your various cultures view it? Have you written stories from the POV of slaves, former slaves, or even slaveholders?
Slavery in Fantasy | Fantasy-Faction
The thing that most stood out to me was the point about how it's a little naive to have your antagonists be the only slaveholders in your setting when slavery has, until recently, been very common in almost all cultures.
That got me thinking about slavery in my world. I've managed to keep it from being something only antagonists do. I've got a group of tribal peoples called the Amraki who take slaves in inter-tribal war, as well as occassional raids on lowland nations. I'm planning on writing a story with a protagonist from one of the desert Amraki tribes, though I doubt the slavery will come I to focus given where I'm going with the story.
In the past, slavery was practiced by some of the lowland peoples, such as the Helsa, Corhiel, Ciriac, and Dynion(all of which are inspired by various European tribal groups) and the Mklarites (a people inspired by Axum who conquered and assimilated similarly African inspired nations). Slavery is illegal in the modern nations founded by people of those ethnicities( The Seven Marches, the Kingdom of Corhiel, the Empire of Ciria and the Kingdoms of Vannen and Anjenne, the Kingsom of Vyspa, and the Mklarite Empire) due to the spread of the Faith of the Mother, which emphasizes free will.
The only country I would say fits the "antagonistic slaveholders" mold in my world is the Tyrian Dominion, which is based on Rome, the Phoenicians/Carthage, and a little bit of Aztec in the mythology. The Tyrians once ruled most of the continent before a massive civil war greatly weakened them and they were reduced to a vestigial empire after executing one of the Faith's Prophets and trying to wipe out the religion's followers.
The Dominion has always relied on large numbers of slaves. They believe their gods need human blood to survive, and that children's blood does the best job of that. At the height of their power they demanded children from conquered people's as sacrificial tribute, which made them hated by virtually everyone. Slaves were also used to build temples, city walls, and roads by the Dominion's government, while privately owned slaves did fairly typical farm and housework. The Dominion's rulers have always been mages, and they have no issue with blood magic, so a fair number of slaves are and were used as human batteries by them. Along with the demands for sacrificial tribute, this insured that no conquered peoples supported the Dominion when it came crashing down.
Now, the Tyrians mostly breed their slaves from existing stock, though they go through so many in sacrifices and usage as human batteries that Tyrian merchants are happy to buy slaves from their former Colonies, which are now independent city-states, or from pirates who raid the coasts for captives. Some groups, with the backing of the Tyrian government, launch occasional raids on Mklarite border towns, which has nearly started a war between the two empires. Some extremely poor people in Tyrian sell themselves into slavery in the hopes of a better life.
I've only written one story heavily focused on slavery, which involved a Mklarite freedman living in Tyria with his family. They helped slaves escape via a rough equivalent of the Underground Railroad, and the story ends with the freedman giving his life so that his family and six escaped slaves can flee the country by sea. I've also entertained the idea of writing a novel featuring a slave revolt in the Dominion, but I have more fleshed out ideas to work with first.
So what about you guys? How do you handle slavery in your worlds and stories? Is it common, rare, or somewhere in between? How do your various cultures view it? Have you written stories from the POV of slaves, former slaves, or even slaveholders?