Kords and Slavery in the Northern Province

Kords and Slavery in the Northern Province

The War has not yet reached the Northern Province.  In the South, where the armies of Mok Turosh control all movement over the Vasting and besiege all the Cities there, there are no clanned Kords; all have been assimilated into the armies of the GodKing or killed.  In the North, the Kords are still clanned.  There are many Clans of Kords and they are given popular names by the people who encounter them, names like The Red Devils, the Bird Men, the Blue River Kords, the Kords of the Yellow Wood, the Big Tooth Papa Clan, but, at the end of the day, a Kord is just a kord. 

Kords do not possess weapon craft.  They steal and trade for weapons, or take them from the dead. They do possess a natural ability at fighting and so they are martial opponents worthy of hatred and caution.  Give some thought here.  The armies of the GodKing have had the City of Kias under siege for 4 years.  Our King and his armies and all of his allies have not been able to lift the siege in all of that time even though the fighting at the City walls has not ceased for one day in those four years.

Though some have peaceful relations with the Kords in the Northern Province, these are exceptions to the rule.  As slaves, they are good porters provided there is a person of the right character to keep the Kords compliant.  Many are brought north to be sold as slave and so those Kords, the soldiers of the God King are the only vestiges of his army that have made it to the Northern Province, and it’s a buyers’ market.

You can find some people who have teams of slaves and do construction and excavation work.  There are three such men in Brighton; Longjack, Black Fred who is incidentally a retired Danikan Pirate, and Bluffing & Company.  The dock is full of entrepreneurs who ply their slaves to unload your boats for a good price.  You can also buy them openly from almost anyone even just your average slave owner, but, without the knowhow and the resolve to run them, you will likely be killed when you close your eyes.

Slave Handling is a Non Weapon Proficiency and Slave Mastery is the dedication of an additional slot to the Slave Handling skill. This skill has nothing to do with the learning of the Kordic Tongue which is also a Non-Weapon proficiency. 

Female Kords are virtually indistinguishable from male Kords through means other than genital inspection.  Think of how cows must be separated by the sexes.  The same is true for Kords.  It is always good to have female stock to help control the Males but never have them together. 

Kords will eat human flesh.  They do not eat elvin flesh and will actually flee elves if given the chance.  The exception to this is the Armies of the GodKing.  There is some concern that bringing highly trained Kords who have been introduced to advanced societal structures up to the Northern Province, will have an adverse effect on the populations and the stasis of the races in the North.  It is a good argument.  Its hypothetical is that a group of elite former warriors might escape and organize in his name or their own, in the wilds and hence chance the Dynamic that has persisted for centuries in the Province.  It is a hard argument to wave away while drinking pints.

This brings up the rights of slave owners and slaves.  What are rights you might ask?  Don’t worry about rights, there are none for anyone unless you are a Warden, a Guard or if you serve the King with your name.  If you have something, like a slave for instance, and it runs away, well, you should find it and kill it.  If your slave is stolen, and this does happen, then you just weren’t strong enough to possess it.  Now, having a prize fighter stolen will not stop you from stealing it back or from burning your competitors house down or killing his entire family with wild dogs.  The only thing that will stop you from doing that is fear of reprisals from his friends.  It is this fear that keeps most people in line and keeps them from stirring the pot. 

If you think you can run and tell a local guard that your slave escaped and please go find her and bring her back, they will first laugh, and then they will sell you their services.  If you are drinking and you are headed home for the night and you exit the Tavern to find that a group of fighters has killed to two slaves you have pulling your Drosky, well, you’re just shit out of luck and if you are alone and they look tougher than you, you should thank them for getting rid of those two pieces of shit for you and buy them drinks before they kill you too.

Now, lets say you are leaving a market and when you whip our slave to get him up and headed back to your home, and he lashes out and kills you, crazed from starvation and infection, it is highly likely someone will step in and cut that slave down, but that is not really because the person wants to save your life or avenge you, it is because slaves must always be kept down and resistance cannot be tolerated.  The person who steps in and bleeds out the slave that will not rise with your packs is doing it for themselves as much as out of the hatred of seeing a slave resist, and you might be given a dressing down for not handling it yourself.  Before becoming a slave owner, be sure you are willing and able to handle them.

Now let’s talk about human and elvin slaves.  Farmers will sell their children, they have done it forever and there is no difference in the Northern Province.  It is more profitable than killing them and there is always someone looking for a house servant or a field hand that is not a Kord.  The Guards will offer most perpetrators up as slaves before starting a blood sport.  Let’s entertain some more hypotheticals.  You have a good idea that the neighbors kid has been stealing silver off the floor of your bar and after you cought him last time you whipped him un conscious and tossed him in the street.  Well, it’s been two weeks and last night you caught him again.  You call the Coldwater Guard and explain the situation and they tell you that for 3 silver they will take him and execute him, and that’s a good price considering it will happen in front of thousands of people and will be good advertising and send the right message to urchins.  You agree and the execution is cried and will take place the coming Sunday.  Jorl, the child’s father pleas with you to spare his son and when things get emotional in you bar, you end up having to kill him.  Sunday comes.  The child is offered for sale for 10 silver and there are no takers until right before the end when an old lady offers ten, they verify she has it and the boy is about to be sold when you offer 11 to see him torn apart by dogs (8 in actuality as you already paid your 3).  The crowd roars as no one likes to see someone escape “justice” in this way and the child actually entertains the shit out of the crowd with his death, a real fighting spirit you think on the way back home.  That is when you meet Hadar and his three friends, fresh off the boat from Kias.  With them is Adlia, the kids mother and widow.  She works the docks as a fishwife and has somehow convinced these adventurers that you have killed her husband and had her child executed out of jealousy and they mean to kill you.  Well, fuck.  The person you pay for protection really does do that kind of protection, they just hang out at the bar and stop fights.  Your kord slave you have a special bond with is chained up in the cellar sleeping awaiting the next days work.  You have all your nice clothes on and your sword from back in the day but these assholes are all half your age and looking for a fight.  You are able to apologize to the woman, pay a Blood debt of 10 gold and a human slave to replace the work value of her two men and put the adventurers up for a week in your home and give them free food and drink.  All to keep yourself from dying in the road because you chose to regulate an urchin lifting dropped coins in your bar. The Human slave was purchased the next day in the markets for 3 silver; another young boy that looked a bit like the woman’s son only older.  He was clearly sic but the woman did not notice or care as she would probably just sell the slave the next day for money.  While there, you bought a large Kord slave that looked to have a broken arm, for 5 silver.  You gave him to the adventurers and told them it was an offering for their anger and you would be grateful for them to take their anger at you out on the Kord which they did and had a great time doing.  Gambling over the death blow between themselves.  All in all you probably came up even though that little shit of a thief cost you money, you exposed an enemy and gained three allies and a good reputation as a man of responsibility and a man not to be stolen from, and as an added plus, on your way back from escorting you brute with the body of the Kord the Adventurers killed you caught a father on the way to town with his oldest daughter to sell because of starvation.  The girl was 14 and beautiful.  The family needed money for a debt and to buy seed.  The girl was scared but grateful you were a man of means and when you doubled what the father asked the two of them just cried and thanked the Light.  Yes, it was a good turn of events after all.

Elves are a rarer slave.  They are mostly bought by the wealthy, including mages.  It is not uncommon to enter a tower for potion craft and be helped by an Elvin slave in chains.  They are great transcribers of books.  They are docile.  They are all skilled at numerous trades.  Elvin warriors are not usually found as slaves as they are not capturable or they fight to the death.  Here moons forge has an elvin slave as assistant smith.  The Barn has slaves some of them elvin, that will carry your armor purchases home for you, they are all branded on their backs and foreheads so that if they escape, they can be returned for a reward of 1 silver piece.  They are hard workers and one of them has been sold his freedom and now runs the slaves that work the barn better than the owner Ilcord.   

Slaves can also be integrated into adventuring in the right company.  A reasonable sized adventuring party is a thing to behold.  Let me describe one.  It is led by Held Sunfarther a Ptolegian Knight Captain and his love Wiliawil (lia) Laywender, a High Elf princess of House Laywender.  Their ship Prudence is docked in Brighton and they have just unloaded trade goods from Kias and sold them for great profit and have their Commander procuring new goods for resale in the south and guarding the boat with 6 of their men.  Held’s party has three wagons a spare horse for each rider, provisions for 3 months and a slave train of 20 foot bearers including three slave masters.  His personal retinue of twenty men, all veterans of wars in the south and some of his companions from his travels including his lovers brother the swordsman Iril who is quite famous in the south, Ur, a dwarf and the reason they are here in the northern province.  Ur knows of an unspoiled tomb of a Western King in the break and they have come to loot it and finish the dead there.  There is also Halior, a warden of the King who has partnered with Held and has brought two companions himself.  The Tomb contains a relic that the Sages Guild wants to aid the war in the south and so have lent their aid to the Wrdens and Held’s campaign as well in the form of the scribe Ilielwinis.  There are two house servants of the Laywenders, two guards the Sages Guild sent with Ilielwinis and the Knight Captains two Half-Elvin sons Boro and Hale.  They have picked up a guide from the Freeblades guild and will meet up with two Noodlebakers in Bricking.  They have also acquired a train of whores and a tinker as well as a group of young boys who will follow the campaign and offer their services.  They will be met by farmers who will offer fodder and fresh food to them as well as timber and local knowledge.  They have paid the Long riders for an escort to the Yellow wood through their guardianship, an unnecessary act but a wise one considering local politics and reputation.  They will take on new slaves in the camp at Yellow wood and sell some.  They will spend three days there as some of their campaign scout and investigate local resources.  The campaign of Held Sunfarther is not a glorious sole example of the climate and economy in the Northlands but a somewhat average to below average example of one of the many groups and daily occurrences in the city of Brighton.  When they return successfully from the tomb, they will have a slave train of over 80 kords, as they were able to route one clan but had to fight the other and enslaved all they could did not kill.  They will sell all of them including the foot bearers they procured in Brighton the day before they departed.  They will keep 8 of the strongest for work aboard the ship on the next leg of their voyage.  On the Journey, Iril took one of the young boys who followed the camp as a squire.  Three of the Captains men married and are bringing their wives with them as they leave.  One of the scribes Guards was killed by a wight and so were four horses.  One of the Noddlebakers disappeared and is thought dead.  And all but a few of the guards received serious wounds in fighting at the Tomb and inside it, including the Knight Captains lover. 

Salves can be hired out from their owners as well but if you kill the slave or it dies or is wounded you may have to pay extra.  A good example of this is the slave harem of Akatosh Goldheart.  He has the finest men and women concubines in the north and has even sold men their wives and women their man servants who have later became their lovers and freemen. 

There is a bowyer that will give you the life of a slave when you buy one of his bows.  He lets you shoot him right at the shop.  It si a bit of a spectacle but an effective sales tactic as he always has more work than he can fill.

There are the Beer Children of Bricking.  Slave children used in the breweries and wineries of that awesome town.  In fact, children catch such a good price in bricking many people will take the trip if they have four or five kids, the payoff is so good. 

Another face of slavery is the power of the Covens.  Witches prey upon civilization in the northern province and though all know that Witcholby is a hamlet of some 200 witches, none go there to kill them and the few who dare it never have returned.  Witches are responsible for more abductions of men in the Northern Province than combat has killed.  Now that might be a boast but it is not off by much.  They crave the brave and pure hearted, the strong the capable, and witches are beautiful.  A story is known of Grim Hellbender and his sisters Mercy and Patience.  They tracked the witch that stole Mercies son and killed some 30 of them in a clutch of forest homes in the deepwood.  In the main yard that the homes surrounded were hundreds of human skulls.  They found 50 men in the basements of the 6 houses and were able to bring 40 of them back to Needles Bunk and the Gray Mare Inn there.  Mercy’s son was nowhere to be found though the men say he was eaten only the night before they arrived. Once you have been taken by a witch, you will always be susceptible to their magic, even if you are able to break their enchantments.  Months later, following another lead on her son, unwilling to give him up for dead, Mercy tried tracking down the men they had saved.  Every one of them had been re-abducted or had killed themselves.

Though much less common or observable, the “Charmed” can also be considered slaves.  Now, we all know someone who has accepted a gease for a high value loan or unguaranteed purchase, and while that is technically enslaving a will, it is a voluntary enslavement to ensure the right frame of mind for repayment.  What I speak of here is the Hedge mage or the alchemist who enchants the will of others against their will for personal gain.  Watch your friends for erratic behavior or new unjustifiable friendships. There are many in the north capable and willing to ensnare a mind for gold or magic.