Kaytoo wrote:Seemed rather clear to me;
1. Define the Belaraith mindset on slavery (how does the IC world view it)
2. Define through examples suggested interactions between slaves and their owners and free peoples.
3. Establish acceptable forms of enforcement that kept as much as possible IC.
4. Establish enforcable laws for slaves, free peoples and owners when interactions exceeded acceptable IC societal limits (ex. slave beating a free person half to death for no reason).
K2
Okay, lets put this in OOC terms in that as in IC it was obviously not clear.
1. Define the Belaraith mindset on slavery (how does the IC world view it)The reason slavery has ranged from crushing oppressive owners and others to the slave being the master is that slavery has been alowed to be a thing of "however anyone wants it to be, and it infringes on players rights to set guidelines"........Well that opinion is just nonsense.....In every game you have rules and guidelines. In every culture you have rules and guidelines. In every aspect of anything be it government, religion, society in general, nature, science, math...You have rules and guidelines. SO how is it here it is simply "whatevaaaa" on this one issue?
By establishing a global mindset, you establish a very basic and general character type just like ranger, fire mage, warrior......Yet not just for slaves yet for all. Rape is a natural part of TLI, it has been made very clear. So how is it so unreasonable to state "here is a global mindset on slavery" when there is one on rape? However, if it is never briefly defined then you
insure it will be a vast range like we have had.
Again....IC players will either be forced/captured slaves so no doubt wanting to be free YET also trying to survive. Or more then likely born/raised into it so knowing no other way (and that has NOTHING to do with sex it simply implying a more accepting mindset).
2. Define through examples [u]suggested interactions between slaves and their owners and free peoples.[/u]
This is not saying anyone "must be this way or that"....It is simply giving the player some suggested examples to get a better understanding by. It reinforces the above mindset with clear examples of how one might get by with ALL races and cultures......Here again, the player is faced with vast possibilities due to the nature of the game making it very confusing. Unlike r/l where race, culture, poverty level, situation, etc. and so on might determine who has the greatest potential to be a slave (and therefor establishing mindsets and conditions through that)....Here anyone can be a slave. From rich to poor, numerous races and countless backgrounds....yet how resonable is it to think a slave will be strutting about acting and speaking as though the queen of England?
To that end you say "okay, here are how all the races and cultures view slavery tossed into a pot, what they expect of their own....now what of all that will help slaves and their owners get along with other free peoples best"
They're suggestions, not must do's, and given to all as free peoples must recognize it is not just slaves that must have a mindset, yet also they in that this has been a part of their IC life forever (slaves being about).
3. Establish acceptable forms/means of enforcement that kept as much as possible IC.Frankly we being a game and community already have numerous controls already in place. We have OPs (nobles), we have official groups (ISA, IG, etc.), and we have a community with a roughly focussed mindset. However to date it has worked as though there is no structure regarding slaves........A slave or free does this, the other responds like that, the slave screams "you can't do that I'm owned so have a shield", player goes after slave owner, slave owner says they can't as it's the slaves fault, back and forth till it either dies out or some OP gets dragged into it....Ridiculous and in most cases it ending up the bottom class character got the upper hand.
Further....The ISA IF they can be tracked down may not have the authority to do anything be it IC or OOC the only real control OPs getting to hear the gripes and whines flooding OOC.
So, the OPs/nobles have the power anyway, acknowledge that. Same with the ISA, same with the IG. Add to that a few others having IC ruling authority, and then cap it off with players needing to IC sort it out then and there.....The above aspects however must be in place and the shield lifted (mindsets and examples). Then players will have a better grasp how to react, other authorities in place to address it immediately, and finally the OPs as IC nobles able to step in when it's going no where........and all of it IC, quick in that its available, and lets the play flow.
4. Establish enforcable laws for slaves, free peoples and owners when interactions exceeded acceptable IC societal limits (ex. slave beating a free person half to death for no reason).Finally....it is absolutly unreasonable to think there are no commonly accepted IC laws (or more mindsets of station/class) that rule over extreme situations. For most things here it boils down to the nobles/OPs saying what goes and is reasonable (just like r/l feudal times) and past that the lowly serfs sort it out......Okay? That's all good and fine, yet WHAT ARE the commonly accepted limits placed on a very potentially dangerous threat roaming about (warrior made slave, angry, bitter, skilled....go figure)?
You MUST establish what the limits are of a society. Doesn't matter if it is a hard written law to even just common knowledge...Yet somewhere you must say OOC what it is so the player base has an idea of what is expected.
Frankly I'm of the opinion that for the most part slaves are as vulnerable to the IC consequences of those free (stab me I stab you)...Yet even more so considered an oppressed group, are even more at risk (where in if Bob-free yells at me I yell back....Yet Mary-slave yells at me I slap her)........However, there needs to be what are commonly accepted laws IC written or not that all understand if you do this you risk this consequence.
Whatevaaaaa *shrug* the player wants is what made this long debated and needed discussion happen in the first place.......Time to define it.
K2