>> Pentians routinely castrate their male slaves according to the=20
>> Genertela Book, I seem to remember. That might make a difference.
>
>I had not got that book at hand when I made that reference, so I
>included both Praxians and Pentans alike, but I meant exactly that.
>A gelded slave is a man who can no longer give his support to a
>bloodline, even though he is eventually freed. In cultures that
>include thralls this is never the case.
I can't imagine any Heortling caring about the bloodline of a thrall, it doesn't exist for any practical purpose. If a thrall is freed then they are usually adopted into the bloodline and clan of their previous owner.
I don't understand what you mean by "can no longer give his support to a bloodline". Without magic he cannot father children but there's a lot more to family life than that and a bloodline is an extended family. Given that the Morocanth turn humans into herdmen and freed herdmen can be turned into humans I expect the praxians have healing magic to reverse castration.
Then there are the Lunars who have a huge variety of practices regarding slaves and we don't bother trying to distinguish between slave and thralls.
Finally Thunder Rebels (pg. 41) describes thralls as slaves and that some clans are quite happy to sell thralls to the Lunars as slaves. Which makes it pretty clear that we are just discussing different local practices rather than any fundamental distinction.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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