Laws of Sshamath

[DM Sword]

Yea, you wouldn't rob an old faern of his walking stick would you?

Good call on the shields part, I never noticed that myself... still I think the spirit of the law is more regarding drawn weapons. After all, what is more intimidating, someone hiding behind a shield or someone holding a greataxe?

[Passiflora]

After all, what is more intimidating, someone hiding behind a shield or someone holding a greataxe?

[DM Sword]

Ha! *bows to Passiflora's great wisdom*

[mdchrist]

Haha! well that brings that perspective of how scary shields can be!

[Aelcar]

Yea, you wouldn't rob an old faern of his walking stick would you?

[paragon_nemesis]

Can I have halfling barbarian with shield of throwing and returning plz?! Just one? If not... Second request much better... Halfling barbarian with 2 vorpal throwing and returning scimitar? :O

[Servin]

Question on topic:

How does the slave law work with regards to prisoners, let's say of surface raids and such?

Will the law affect them? Can they be used as slave labor? Tortured? Interrogated?

[TheVoid]

If they are race capable of spellcasting then they cannot be used as slaves. Especially, if they can demonstrate spellcasting ability.

Sshamath emancipates slaves that also emmigrate from one lolthian city as well, if the slave meets the requirements of having potential or existing talent in the arcane.

[Servin]

What about the other aspects (imprisonment, interrogation, tortures)? It's not really slavery as it does not involve labour, but at the same time it does limit one's freedom. Therefore not sure...

You could get arrested by the city guards if you break a law I take it, so would a surface raid be treated as same, or would that be slavery then?

[Storm Munin]

Many things may have changed in the context of Sshamath.
But I have as yet failed to see the drow view on crime changed.
If there are no outspoken witnesses, there is no crime.

Granted, I could be wrong.

[TheVoid]

Normally, slaves are not taken in surface raids. It is a very rare occassion that such an act would happen.

Drow religious sects that encourage raids are done for sacrifice and blood letting for their god/goddess, not to pity them and endenture them. There are about 400 races more suitable for slaves in the Upper, Middle, and Under dark that are equipped to survive the climate and are more attune to the environment than a surfacer.

Drow for instance would mercilessly slay every child, infant, toddler, girl, boy, female and male elf before even considering slavery. Unless, there was an ultimate purpose to take a fragile surfacer to the underdark home or said creature exhibited some kind of uncanny ability that catches the fancy of their would be captors, but that is VERY VERY RARE occurence most are just killed and left to die were they fell.

Think in terms of the WWII Japanese infantry and their occupation and raids on mainland China and the Korean Penninsula. Woman were raped for gratification but never taken back to Japan, even for slavery (which was not necessarily illegal in Japan). The soldiers preferred to rape and multilate their victims because dead women tell no tales, and the mentality is that these women were not even human to pre-war Japanese standards. They were just objects to have their way with and kill off or dispose of like a cheap porn mag. Children from todders to teens were raped or DISSECTED ALIVE then dismembered and disposed of.

This is exactly the same mentality I would imagine an evil aligned and intelligent race of superior beings like drow, would act towards weaker creatures that they have defeated. They don't leave prisoners or slaves, because in order to keep them strong enough to serve you have to feed them and care for them to some degree. Resources are scarce enough for the raiding party that surfaced they do not take extra rations and supplies that would weigh them down and lower their survival rate when treking through the dangerous UD, Middle and Upperdark to get to the surface. Commonsense dictates they would not lower their mobility (their strength) and chances for survival to take a few slaves that would need provisions to make the trek back no matter how minimal.

That is how the drow think of their victims, they have no sympathy, no use for garbage beings that are inferior to themselves. They use their victims for sexual and inhumane experiements to fulfill their sadism and fettishes. Like a child pulling the legs off a grasshopper or playing Frog Baseball or microwaving a litter of kittens just for laughs and to see what happens. So a bit of experimenting and voyerisum is how drow approach inferior creatures, especially ones that have no use and are easily broken or would not even survive the trek back to their homeland.

The drow work efficiently, in organized parties and orchestrate their raids with lightning percision catching their victims off-guard and they do this under the cover of darkness which is VERY limited since dawn is their bane. They have to be in and out within 6-8 hours max or they might not make it back before the sunrise and then they're dead. They do not have time nor would they consider taking slaves en masse, or even individually... They do have time to have "fun" with their victims depending on how well the raid went as far as timing, leaving a twisted mess for others to witness the aftermath of a drow attack.

But as far as kidnapping or slavery on a surface race, that doesn't happen unless there are exceptional qualities exhibited by the prisoner, if they even take the time to take prisoners and not kill indiscriminately. Drow raid the UD for their slave trade, especially swirfneblin settlements because rock gnomes have a DEFINATE use for Drow and thrive in the subterrainean environment, especially mines that are designed as death camps for these creatures.

So the rule of thumb is that surface raids are more ritualistic than they are used for commerce. They are used to kill and offer sacrifice and carnage to their gods not to take slaves and reduce their chance of survival by lugging dead weight back with them. An elf or a human would die in a matter of days in the UD even escorted by drow who would probably torture the creature to death or starve them on a force march before they even arrived, just as entertainment for the long trek home.

If the victim showed some quality of excpetion they would be protected to a minimal degree but even that doesn't gaurantee their survival of weeks, if not months of travel descending into an unknown, hostile environment with absolutely no nutrition or medical attention unless given out of necessity by the drow, but that would have to be ONE HELL OF A PRISONER, for them to care that much about one dirty slave from an inferior race.

So as far as surface to UD slaves go, they don't happen often at all and if they do it's probably player made and players have to discuss their terms of surrender with their captor if they want to indulge into this kind of RP.

[Servin]

So, despite the occurrence of that being minimal, technically it does not break the slave law or any other law.

All I needed - thanks

P.S. I'm thinking of suggesting a couple of events here and there, should my character get approved (a holiday that would make me drink for a week ), inspired by our earlier chats in different threads.

P.S.2. And yes, should imprisonment take place, it would be so with your (DM) and the players consent. But that is highly unlikely as I was more thinking of NPC's if the events would come to your liking.

Cheers.

[TheVoid]

Slavery is also treated differently here than in other drow cities. Races considered capable of wizardry such as humans, elves, svirfneblin and deep imaskari are never kept as slaves by citizens, however visitors to the city are allowed to bring their slaves. Creatures who demonstrate an aptitude for wizardry are considered free in the eyes of Sshamath law and are allowed to live in a ghetto that is prevented from getting too big by the conclave.

So in essence, you can loose prize slaves if they have an aptitude for the arcane. Citizens don't keep intelligent races as slaves because they are a loosing investment should the possibility they develop or learn the arcane and are emancipated by the authorities.

I would say as a rule of thumb, goblins, kobolds, ogres, some kinds of orc/orog, etc... that are considered monster races can be kept as slaves even if they had some arcane ability which would most likely be sorcery in nature and NOT true wizardry.

[Servin]

You're losing me now. You mean slaves or prisoners? My previous post was about prisoners, mind you I will not spill the motives of getting those here though

I left the slave bit out after the previous answer.

[TheVoid]

Prisoners under whose authortity? Unless you are sshamathian law enforcement you cannot formally take your own prisoners into the city if they have not committed a crime within the city or its surrounding domain. If you want to take prisoners to your own place in the ud like one of the many tunnels and caberns feel free, but the guards will question why a citizen or a non citizen is bringing in a non-registered person/prisoner into the city if:

1. You are not law enforcement or associated with the city's law enforcement organizations.
2. They did not commit any crimes under sshamathian law.

If you want to sneak them in that is fine but that is more kidnapping than formally arresting someone and declaring them a prisoner.