Slavery

As despicable as the custom of slavery might be, Human nations on Tellene practice slavery. From the wicked Brolenese to the class-conscious Kalamarans, adventurers will encounter slavery throughout their careers. Other races, especially goblinoids, propagate the system by capturing and selling slaves, as well.

A character might purchase slaves to emancipate them, to make use of their skills, to further an adventure, to fit in with the campaign flavor or to enhance a disguise as slavers. In this eventuality, you need to know how much a slave is worth. The cost of a slave is based on abilities, age and race.

Slaves are made, not born. Typically, a person becomes a slave in one of four ways. First, the character might be sentenced to slavery as punishement for a crime. In this case, the slave belongs to the king or his duly appointed representative, but she might be given away as a gift or a concession. Secondly, a person captured in war might be made a slave of his captor. These two circumstances describe the majority of the slaves on Tellene. Third, a character could voluntarily enter slavery (or an adult might sell her own children) in order to pay a debt. Tragic stories centered around this theme are common, especially in the Kalamaran Empire. Lastly, a person might be made a slave illegally, by being captured and sold in another country.

Since slavery is so prevalent, most societies have laws for their treatment, or (more likely) penalties for injuring or killing slaves. In most cases, slaves are considered property, not people. Killing your own slaves is usually legal (albeit foolish killing another person's slaves is not legal.

Slaves are normally available along with other trade goods in the central market, altough their potentially high price guarantees that they have special treatment (armed guards, well crafted manacle, alarms, etc.)

Slavery and Alignment

There's also a question about legal slavery vs. illegal slavery. What Pel Brolenon does is considered illegal in most places: charging into a place, grabbing people at random and throwing them into a galley. All bad. A Paladin that fights that behavior is on solid moral ground.

A Paladin that kills a slave owner to free a slave in Kalamar is in trouble. What if the slave is a prisoner of war, legally obtained and comfortable with (if not happy about) the situation? What if the owner had already signed and registered a will promising manumission on his death (my "Evil Zen" GM style sayt that would definitely happen if a PC whacked a slave owner just because he owned a slave). Yes, the slave is free, and yes, the Paladin will be executed for murder. Pass the player 4d6 and refer him to the name section of the KoK sourcebook.

What Pel Brolenon practices is (in my opinion) Neutral Evil. It has some elements of Law, some of Chaos. Slavery in most other cases is LN. [Lloyd Brown]