Slavery in Eorzea

[Alkaid]

Hey there guys, even if I'm not on an RP server I still like to come up with a backstory for my characters, even if it's just for my own enjoyment of the game and no one ever really learns it. So in that regard, I have a question!

 

I'm still rather new to the game and getting to know the world, but I recall in an early Rogue quest you halt some of the slave trade in La Noscea. And that got me thinking, just how common is slavery in Eorzea? Now obviously there's some in La Noscea, since as I said there was a quest to stop it, but elsewhere? Ul'dah in particular seems like the kind of place that'd have it.

 

Do any quests besides the Rogue line deal with slavery?

[LiadansWhisper]

The Arcanist questline deals with the the slave trade in passing.

 

I honestly can't recall another class or Job quest that does, however.

 

Oh, wait, it's mentioned in passing in the Astrologian questline.

[Tumensuns]

I'm guessing for the most part slavery in Eorzean lands is a bit illegal, so we don't see too much of it. I'm guessing in other lands it'd be a bit more common place, otherwise there wouldn't be much of a slave trade.

 

Though that wouldn't necessarily stop a wealthy Ul'dahn from owning a slave secretly, or stopping a pirate band based around La Noscea either.

[Zhavi]

I'm willing to be (in)voluntary indentured servitude is a thing, too. Little bit easier to pass off as legal if someone is just "working off" a debt. Forcibly.

[Oroban]

The Thaumaturge guildmaster from 1.0 is turned into a slave gladiator for his shenanigans pre-ARR, that much is evident. They touch on it in the Postmoogle quests, as well as featuring him as the boss of Halatali Hard Mode.

[Hali]

There's also a good deal of slave-trade mention and focus in the Rogue quests. It is certainly frowned upon, though highly prevalent by the sound of things.

 

It's very much an underworld activity, but seems to be overlooked in "less scrupulous" places like Ul'dah, whereas somewhere like Limsa Lominsa actually has the Yellowjackets or Rogues' Guild actively flush and snuff it out where possible.

[Verad]

There's some passing commentary in the Golden Saucer about a parent selling his children to work in the mines for a few months until the parent can pay off his debts.

 

Based on that, I'd argue that apart from outright slavery, there's also a kind of quite-legal debt slavery employed in Ul'dah. Can't pay your bills? No problem, just work it off. Forever.

[Alkaid]

Thanks for the responses, guys. While obviously it was illegal and underworld, I just wanted to be sure it wasn't exceedingly rare. Sounds like it's not

 

Wasn't the leader of the Immortal Flames a slave before fighting his way to freedom in the ring, or was he something else? :?

[Blue]

You can also see an Ul'dahn richman in Pearl Lane looking for slaves, too. He complains the highlanders there are all too old.

 

The Vann family was captured and enslaved, and I know of many other RPers who delve into slavetrading or being slaves themselves, so it's definitely a thing.

[allgivenover]

I forget which quest talked about it, it might have been a seasonal quest? Anyway the WoL liberated some captives from slavers, it was said several of those captives were intended to be sold into sexual slavery.

[Jana]

The slavery being mentioned in relation to Gladiators is a sort of voluntary enslavement given as an option to criminals in prison; I believe the term for such a fighter was a Noxious. There are plenty of voluntary Gladiators who fight for coin and prestige, Raubahn having been one.

[Blue]

I forget which quest talked about it, it might have been a seasonal quest? Anyway the WoL liberated some captives from slavers, it was said several of those captives were intended to be sold into sexual slavery.

 

I think that's the Rogue lv15 quest, actually, and yeah.

[Sylentmana]

Slavery seems to exist in Eorzea but its considered to be illegal and slavers are considered to be the lowest of the low. That being said, there are only a few quests that actually deal with the issue, as far as I can remember. 

 

The Rogues Guild has a quest where you take down a group of slavers and the major story behind the Arcanists Guild is helping Assessor K'lyhia take down an infamous slaver who had been exiled from Limsa for his crimes. She was also a former slave and was heavily abused by this man.

[Mayu]

I also hear a lot about the pleasure barges - *shudder* - like in the AST storyline. They are mentioned in passing a lot. About kidnapping women and selling them to the pleasure barges. Yuck, yuck, yuck.

[D'aito Kuji]

In Costa del Sol, there's a somewhat unpleasant Lalafell named Gegeruju who sends you on a quest to track down late or missing dancing girls.  I came away with the impression that their contract may not have been especially fair to them.  It felt like indentured servitude, I suppose.  But I may be reading a lot into that interaction.

 

Anyway, I have RP'd that something akin to this happened (not necessarily Gegeruju) and D'aito still feels bad for turning them over.

[Jariana]

One example I don't think has been mentioned yet, is I believe that in Satasha normal all of the non-combatants there are possibly slaves, or at least captive to the pirates there. I seem to remember a back room (that isn't hit often in a normal run) with a bunch of people in cages and such. Though I could be getting things mixed up, it's been ages since I've run that place.

[Manari]

I was going to mention that place as well. Most of the female NPCs in that dungeon make all sorts of insinuations as to the reason and the terms of them being there. Some phrases they utter are more colorful than others but all of them imply they are indeed slaves been kept by the pirates. It's probably one of the more powerful examples, in fact.

[Mercurias]

I think it can safely be said that, while slavery DOES exist in Eorzea, it isn't legal in any of the City-States for a person to OWN another person. There might be indentured servitude, military conscription, and prisoners forced to perform labor, but there are no legal slave auctions or the like, and if someone is found out as a slave, they'll likely be freed and the person keeping them like that at least prosecuted if captured.

[myahele]

With Limsa's connection to foreign nations outside of Eorzea. I wonder if the pirates/slavers ship them off there?

 

In either case, it seems like there's alot of illegal sex slavery.

[Mercurias]

With Limsa's connection to foreign nations outside of Eorzea. I wonder if the pirates/slavers ship them off there?

 

In either case, it seems like there's alot of illegal sex slavery.

 

Limsa actually patrols very heavily in order to prevent pirates from doing exactly that. Arcanist Storyline shows so.

[Paradox]

From what I've seen, in Ul'dah at least, slavery is something that works in line with the prison system. You either stay in the system, or become a slave-gladiator, which is basically the same thing because you're a prisoner anyway. As for normal slavery, I haven't seen a lot of references to it in a legal fashion. It's very likely slavery is a crime and punishment deal in most places, and that's legal because it's actually part of the legal system, but it's combat slavery from what I've seen. 'Fight for our country as a slave, earn a pardon' sort of thing. Ul'dah's is confirmed on that, and I imagine Limsa might have something similar, being as they're all old pirates, or a good chunk of them are. It wouldn't be outlandish for a criminal to have to do his time scrubbin' the decks for X years. Gridania..I haven't seen anything in Gridania about it. Their legal system is not touched on that I've seen. I also have no idea about slavery in Ishgard/Coerthas, either, though some of the commoners in Ishgard are treated almost as slaves by more corrupt nobles form what I've gathered in the MSQ, but that's more of a feudalism thing. I think from what we've seen, the actual wholesale selling of people is for the most part, illegal as Mercurias stated.

 

Also, rogue quest touches on slavery as well and how it's illegal by the Code, not just the law. So you have two forces in Limsa who are actively against it.

[Virella]

Ishgard has workcamps for family members of unbelievers. Take that as you will.

 

http://xivdb.com/?leve/426/The-Wages-of-Sin

 

^ Source

[LiadansWhisper]

Ishgard has workcamps for family members of unbelievers. Take that as you will.

 

http://xivdb.com/?leve/426/The-Wages-of-Sin

 

^ Source

 

It says workhouse, not work camp.  That implies more something along the lines of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workhouse than a gulag (which is what a work camp implies).

 

Still pretty awful.

[Virella]

Ishgard has workcamps for family members of unbelievers. Take that as you will.

 

http://xivdb.com/?leve/426/The-Wages-of-Sin

 

^ Source

 

It says workhouse, not work camp.  That implies more something along the lines of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workhouse than a gulag (which is what a work camp implies).

 

Still pretty awful.

Sorry my non-native tongue may have gotten to me there