thrall
Career
Qualifications
On Earth 16, the thralls are the
- minions of
- citizens under the protection of
- serfs of
((In game terms, this is a 600 point character just starting out, who has put most of their points into Powers and Attributes rather than using Gadgets or Skills to qualify as a notable character.))
Other Benefits
The reward for good service as a thrall is that one will probably continue to live. Unless one turns out to be just the right sort of metahuman for a particular theory Mr. Sinister wishes to test.
Within the enclosed city of Òlhakeike, thralls have freedom from most illnesses. They have adequate food, water, and shelter. They have no concerns about provision for future generations because Sinister performs surgical implantation of a microscopic gadget into each of his acquisitions that will prevent meiosis II. (Sinister prefers test tube babies to in vivo. Less chaotic, he feels. Less chance of undesirable randomization.)
They have no official concerns about caring for the disabled, disadvantaged, elderly, or simply the not-metahuman portions of thrall society . . . because Sinister permits only survival of the fit.
No one claims that it is a profitable life, being a citizen of Sinister's protectorate, and no one volunteers for it. Some stay willingly because it is a more comfortable life than what many find on the surface of Earth 16.
Perception
Purpose
While on duty shift, thralls wear single-piece jumpsuits designed by one of Sinister's early lieutenants. The jumpsuits themselves are made of a mottled fabric somewhat similar in not-quite-glossy appearance and tweedy texture to raw silk. Mud, grease, and other substances which would stain most fabrics (including biological substances) do not bind to the cloth; they can be brushed away easily with a soft-bristled tool or possibly even a dry sponge.
The color of the jumpsuit determines the role of that particular thrall:
- Gray jumpsuits are worn by thralls with duties that may take them outside Sinister's caverns.
Combatants -- whose duties vary between guard duty and resource raids under a higher-ranked minion's direction -- wear gray jumpsuits with a few cargo pockets built into the upper area of the jumpsuit's limbs, allowing them to carry weapons, printed instructions, or rations.
Technicians -- anyone who has the training or capacity to operate and modify complicated devices -- wear gray jumpsuits carefully designed to have no pockets, an omission intended to make sure they turn over every tool/crystal/chip/screw at the end of their duty shift. - Brown jumpsuits are worn by thralls who do maintenance and support tasks for Òlhakeike and its suburbs of Appennino Sotterraneo and Changbaishan, which most of the thralls know only as "Nino" and "Shan"
Social Status
Among the thralls themselves are two main schools of thought. One group feels that status and priority accrue to those who wear gray jumpsuits, who are sometimes sent out of Sinister's territory to fulfill tasks, because those are the people with more information about the way that the rest of the world is (or is not) working. The other group feels that status and priority accrue to those who wear brown jumpsuits, who tend to have less direct oversight and more independent self-determination on their minute-to-minute tasks, because those are the people who experience more freedom in their time as Sinister's "citizens".
Most of these schools of thought are held by those who believe they are wearing the disadvantaged color of jumpsuit. Often they are upset about it.
The truth, of course, is that Mr. Sinister has the greatest power in any situation; that his clone-self militia is considered Sinister unless the real thing is definitely present; that a Dragoon is Sinister's proof-of-concept for one of his metahuman genetic theories, and therefore have a sort of perpetual renewability not granted to lesser beings; that a Hound has a crimson jumpsuit but can wear only part of it if they like, and gets personal luxuries; and that the thralls of either jumpsuit color are only alive because Sinister did not immediately label them "unfit" at first glance.
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