[Kenash Development] How About Slaves And Freeborn?

[Gossamer]

Well, consider this. In Mizahar as a whole, if someone wants to murder your PC IC for good IC reasons, you don't have the right to tell them no they can't. You can run. You can fight them. You can power post solos and level up to get in their range if they can beat your ass with one look. But in regards to PvP, there's not a lot you can do but face them. If you choose not to further thread with someone that wants you dead IC then you have to face the IC and OOC consequences of sort of being a coward and that might get you not having thread partners or mods interested in STing for you. OOC revenge killing IC is not allowed and believe me us moderators can tell. The thread evidence truthfully speaks volumes. So if you piss someone off in chat and they decide you are so annoying they want to kill your PC IC, we put a stop to that shit. And believe it or not, we've never had to step in on a situation like that, but it has happened on other sites and we are prepared to act. So... I would have a huge issue with a PLAYER who created a slave pc in Kenash and then wanted to control every aspect of their PC. In fact, Banickle and I talked about new slave PCs in Kenash having to be run through the auction to be picked up by whatever house can afford to buy them or has interest... that way it eliminates the buddy system and makes things more interesting. You start powerless, you rp that powerlessness out. Now we'll have to have an understanding if PCs are of a certain known age playerwise graphic scenes of violence or perhaps sexual situations will not be happening if they are underage. And I really don't want to see any child abuse in Kenash even if an adult is playing a child PC. It's just not cool. But so far we haven't ran into that in Mizahar either. But its always good to talk about. So slaves... ran through the auction block to begin with. If no one picks them up a Mod can arbitrarily assign them to a plantation house. Which reminds me. We need to get the plantation houses up.

[Kryos Coal]

I remember the mention of throwing slave PCs to the whim of the auction house early on, which I think is great. In Coal's CS I have his little details spelling out a dingy little back room of a smithy on the Radacke Plantation, but the idea that he might just get thrown to the Sitai family and trained in seduction when all his skills are based around blacksmithing just makes me giggle.

So for the slaves, the less control us PC's have the better, at least in my opinion. My question concerning that, however, is will slave PC's be at the direct whim of dynasty PCs as far as IC plantation swaps and jobs go?

For instance will a Dynasty PC be able to conduct slave trades with other dynasty PCs WITH slave PCs? (Hey, you have a pretty sweet Kelvic otter, I've got this hunky human good at brick laying, wanna trade for a month, a year, a lifetime?) or is that kind of thing always going to require some kind of mod permission?

Also as far as the freeborn are concerned, I would be in agreement that it would be a bummer for the freeborn to start at a disadvantage compared to their dynasty brethren, at least job and pay wise. I was curious, would the freeborn be this kind of wild entity, where everyone acts for themselves, or would there be representatives that acted in accordance with dynasty leaders and or the magistrate to secure sections of land and businesses, ensuring that they had their own sections of Kenash's competitive scenario? It seems inevitable that RP wise freeborns will fall to disadvantages against their dynasty rivals/friends/acquaintances, which I think will make them the nice middle ground between the dynasty and slaves, so I suppose its up to them to prove their worth to the dynasties surrounding them, as Rathe pointed out, finding what makes them 'inavaluable'.

[Verena Lorak]

Hmm, I have more of a question rather than an idea. About the slaves. If I'm not mistaken, every Dynasty had like TONS of slaves, right? And will a Dynasty PC be able to control them all? I mean, it's certainly a big number to controlled by one person, but will most things done to slaves needs some sort of approval from the Dynasty Leader? Or maybe the only slaves a Dynasty can truly control is his/her own? I mean, they might think the slaves are lower than them, but they might not always have the power to do something drastic.

Just something that popped in my head

[Banickle]

Verena, I think this is going to depend on the situation. If a Dynasty PC wants to use a slave to, say, ride them into town or dress them or fetch a message. Sure. No problem. However, if a Dynasty PC wants to gather up their 100 best and raid a plantation. No! That sort of thing would require the involvement of the Head of Household, which will be a moderator controlled NPC. As for doing something drastic to a slave - such as hunting them down and killing them for whatever reason - once again, this would depend on the situation. Did they break your favorite tea cup or did they attempt to rape you in the woods? Are they a slave from your plantation or another? Are they a Rujaro? The scenarios are endless, but if rp'd correctly, can and probably will play out however you wish...within reason. I hope this helps, Banickle

[Wrenmae]

So...I think the Freeborn should have a little bit of power coming into Kenash.

Kenash wants their business...Kenash thrives on new money.


Is it possible to do something like patrons? The ability to build on a plantation's property or accept Planatation money if you want to build a business? A freeborn could ask for patronage, outline their idea to the Plantation owner and then kick in small tithe to them at the end of the year. In return the Plantation owner would afford them some social grace, a little advertising, and whatever protection they're willing to extend.

Then some other freeborn could build totally on their own and might draw the eye of those who feel like they're too big for their britches and we have instant conflict.


The other idea, if the above doesn't work is for a would be merchant to receive a writ of trade form the Magistrate. It would be a power only available to the Magistrate and the requirements could change with the rule. Once they registered, bought, or earned a writ of trade, they could build in the city and profit from their own business. Of course that writ would be backed by the family that was in power at the time...that way the Freeborn aren't completely free from the influence of plantations...just mostly free.

[Khida]

I like the idea of Freeborn businesses (whether some or all) being backed by some kind of permit. As well as tying the Freeborn into politics, It adds another level of indirect expression to family relations: families that don't get along can cause trouble for the other's attached Freeborn (bad gossip, try to attract customers away, place commissions but snub the merchant at the end and waste their time/effort, etc.), without getting into direct conflict with the other family as long as they're reasonable about it. It's all 'just business', right? (But I imagine escalating too far into outright sabotage would be gauche; this isn't Sunberth.) While families that have (or want) more positive relations can make a point of patronizing or otherwise supporting the other's Freeborn in small ways... without, again, directly getting involved. That can preserve face on other fronts. Freeborn then always have to wonder how the current political atmosphere will wind up affecting their business... just because of whomever approved their permit originally, not because of the merit of their business. And making it the current Magistrate who approves writs of trade adds a constraint in that Freeborn can't just seek the patronage of whichever family they like. If they want a business, they have to go to the one currently ascendant, regardless. I don't imagine it'd be easy to transfer the permit to another family, if at all... but they might be able to if they curry enough favor with someone else. It'd also be in their interest to curry enough favor with other families to be protected, or just be exempt from any 'nasty' actions they take. What Coal said about "making themselves invaluable". Yet depending on family relations, there will be some that they practically can't get on the good side of. All together, that gives Freeborns reason to try and play the game as well... but intelligently, because they don't have a dynasty to fall back on.

[Spoons]

This is coming from the ideas of a PC slave:

1. Slaves are inherently powerless in manners of control (obviously they are told what to do and such) but they are still humans ( I am using this term loosely mind you) and therefore they would only take being pushed around so long… Being rebranded as a Freeborn or whatever the equivalent would be, is something a slave would strive for… Will it happen without a fight? No probably not… No plantation would allow a loss of profit gained from a slave’s production. I could imagine a Quest or two involving Slave Rebellions emerging, maybe a Freeborn coalition trying to push for the abolishing of slavery?

2. As for the Freeborn businesses, I could see a Freeborn amassing a pretty heft weight of power if they found themselves in the right business environment (not going to mention any though ). And it seems that others have made mention of freeborns using plantation money/land, but there has to be tracts of land not owned by any plantations and that would be prime for a freeborn. Speaking of money, wouldn’t it be possible to put up a bank of sorts? I am thinking more of a lending house I guess. A place were all the players (freeborns and dynasty brats) could procure loans of X-amount of money with a pledge to pay back X-amount each season + interest… I would imagine that would be the only real way a freeborn could procure money without it being solely overseen by a plantation. I don’t imagine a dynasty brat needing to get a loan, but I could see the possibility emerging of say if one brat gets disowned by their plantation head and decide to do something about it? I am not sure how it would work out, doing a lending house type thing, but it would need to be some sort of setup within Kenash law I would imagine. It would be the only way for the money to be given and the freeborn wouldn’t have the weight of a single plantation sitting over their head.

3. Which leads me to my next question: How is basic Kenash laws figured out? Is it a Council of the Plantation Heads? If so, wouldn’t it be in their best interests to do things to bring in more economy? I would imagine that the Council would ultimately pit enemies against each other in the law making decisions, but it would produce some form of political intrigue to Kenash? I mean we already have the social aspect: Slaves/Plantation, Freeborn/Slave/Plantation, Rujaro/Plantations… Etc… Why not include another aspect of life into Kenash?

Sorry if this is a bit out of line for this discussion, but those are just questions and ideas I had that came up.

[Sypha Kai]

Before requesting a spot for my character in the correct forum, I need to ask a few questions
*Would it be acceptable to play as a Freeborn Eypharian?
*I would like my character to be a Mercenary/Bounty Hunter/Rujaro Tracker. Would it be acceptable to get work from different Houses? I wouldn't mind even doing double agent story lines.
*To be able to do this kind of dirty work freely about the city, would my character need to get branded on the palm? If so, would I need to write about it in present time or in a Flashback?
*Why an Eypharian in Kenash? I was hoping for a revenge story, maybe a figurehead of one of the Houses had taken a member of his family into slavery or had them put to death, and my character is here to settle the score? It doesn't have to be a main NPC, but perhaps a relative?

If I can get these questions cleared up, I'll submit a request to play here. Thank you for any help!

[Banickle]

Sypha, yes, an Eypharian mercenary (aka bounty hunter) who tracks Rujaro for Dynasty members sounds perfect! An element of revenge mixed in for good measure? Even better! Go! As for the brand, you can either Flashback the event - if you've been around for a while - or - if you're new to the city - role the event in the Fall, after we open. Spoons, I didn't forget about you. I'll get to answering your questions when I'm good and ready. Darn slave! Shouldn't you be working? Okay, okay. All joking aside, I'll post up a reply later today. Long live Kenash! Banickle

[Banickle]

Okay, Spoons, here goes... 1. I don't think slavery is going away anytime soon. That said, sure, there will be uprisings, but you better believe the plantations will put that to rest rather quickly! 2. Freeborns will get the backing of a Dynasty. They're going to need it. As for a bank, not yet. Loans will come directly from the families. 3. There will be a set of core laws, plus one or two (maybe ten) new seasonal laws set by the Magistrate. There is no council. There is no committee. Sure, there have been times in the past where the HOHs have had to come together to make very important decisions, but it's not a common occurrence. Not at all. I hope these somewhat brief replies help, even just a little, Nick