D M McNamara (can you spell it out a bit clearer - why exactly did the Romans invade Britain?):
>Of course, there are free labourers too, but why use a free labourer
>when you can use a slave?
Depends on how valuable slaves are. If they are plentiful and cheap, then sure, they will be exploited unto death. However, if they are relatively expensive and difficult to replace, they are a valuable investment. If they die on you, you lose your investment. Probably a poor analogy, but in the antebellum South, free labourers (poor Irish immigrants) worked alongside slaves on the docks. The slaves would work on the barges, throwing the cotton bales down to the free labourers on the wharf. Y'see, working on the wharf had a risk of injury (being brained by a badly tossed bale?), and the slave owners needed to protect their valuable investments. If their slaves were injured, they would have to pay to nurse them back to health. An injured free labourer, hired day-by-day, could be easily replaced by someone else, and it wasn't slave owner's responsibility to look after him.
I personally do not believe slavery is practiced on a grand scale in the Lunar Heartlands, for precisely the reasons expressed by Pam Carlson in Digest #585:
>There is no labor shortage in the Heartlands. Millions of Lodrilli and
>Orians provide all the labor anyone could want. They are similar to
>slaves/serfs, due to an ancient caste system tied into the religious
>hierarchy of Lodril/Yelm. But they are also valuable members of society,
>because they participate in the huge magic rituals which keep the land
>fertile, the monsters out, etc. In essence, they are serfs who buy into the
>system. There may be food shortages; there certainly were historically.
> The _last_ thing they need in the Heartlands are more people.
I suggest that, like the Babylonians, a peasant might to able to sell himself/his wife/children/mother-in-law into slavery (for a legally prescribed but probably not indefinite period) to pay off a debt. When the debt is clear, freedom is restored. This has a Dara Happan/Yelmie sort of feel to me, somehow.
>Most of the slaves which the Lunars, (and just about everyone else) take are
>young women and children. They are not intended to work in fields.
Perhaps many young orphans are brought to the Heartlands from the war-torn fringes of the empire to work as house slaves in the villa and palaces of the rich. This source of cheap labour would be seen in an altruistic light ("civilising these young heathen, etc.), however they are really treated by their masters?
David Cake (recently awarded the Death Rune & Sickle for meritorious loquacity under fire):
>NB - it should be borne in mind that a lot of my understanding of
>the Lunar philosphy has come only since RQ CON DU... ...I really hope some
>of this can be shared with the Glorantha community more widely,
>particularly Greg Staffords speech, were he outlined the basic story of
>the Red Goddess (and there was a lot more of it than you might expect
>- it begins at the beginning of time, for a start).
Gloranthaphiles rest assured! Greg's groundbreaking and breathtaking address from RQ Con DU will be available in transcript form in Questlines II, coming soon!!
Joe Troxell:
>Under the list of Humakti gifts and gaeses in the Cults Book, there is the
>gift "raise a raisable characteristic 1 point" with the accompanying geas
>"pay double tithing. if taken again, pay triple, etc." However, initiates
>are only supposed to have 1 gift and geas. But, only a Sword could take the
>gift multiple times, but a Sword is already giving 90% of income. Has
>anyone dealt with this matter? It seems that there should be some different
>geas, otherwise a sword shouldn't even have the first gift, let alone
>multiple blessings of the gift. Any insight is appreciated.
Using MGF as my guiding principle rather than what it says in GoG, I play it that Humakti initiates are given the opportunity to take on new gifts and/or geases during play, as reward for deeds done. Valorous/honourable/ "Humakti" deeds are rewarded by new gifts (and concommitant geas). "UnHumakti" deeds might be punished by geases only, until the malefactor properly atones. Same applies to Yelmalios. In my "Mad Prax" tournament at RQ Con II, We had an extra PC for one session and no written-up character. Rather than make him a faceless grunt, the new addition to the Sun Dome militia unit became a 75 year old priest who had somehow blasphemed against the god. When the guy playing him asked "What are my geases?" I replied, "You got 'em all". Stats were pretty much unnecessary! This was one of my favorite gaming sessions ever: no one remembered to bring dice, so we used beer bottle tops to great effect!
Cheers
MOB (as in the singular proper noun)
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