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Kennex Abolishes Thralldom

Posted by Apostate on 11/04/17
With the stroke of a pen, Marquis Ford Kennex abolishes thralldom in Stormward and the surrounding demesne of House Kennex.

The rest of the Compact and the Faith of the Pantheon are overjoyed to hear this, it's exactly the kind of bold move that will forever make Marquis Ford a hero with the Compact for finally cauterizing the oozing wound that was thralldom in his lands. It's wildly applauded.

Whether that lasts after they see the consequences is another matter.

A bold and simple proclamation declaring thralldom illegal in Kennex land raises many, many questions. Almost all Thraxian vessels of the isles have thrall oarsmen. Does that mean every ship from every other Isles house is now barred from travel? If oarsmen jump ship, are they free or will they be returned? Barring answers, most Isles ships are keeping their distance, and treating Stormward as if it is under quarantine.

Then there's the matters of the thralls themselves on Kennex lands. Yes, Kennex was one of the most progressive houses. There was still thousands of thralls, and only a tiny minority of the thrall debts were owned directly by House Kennex itself, the ones that had commited direct crimes against the ruling family, most of the debts are owned by individuals. And then, in an instant, all those debts are decreed null and void. The ramifications of that are... complicated.

It's important to understand that an overwhelming majority of thralls are Abandoned that were taking while reaving, and are essentially prisoners of war. Many thralls are taken by the families of soldiers killed in battle, their debts given by their comrades, and the price of the debt for each thrall set to several times what the soldier would have earned in their lifespan. Morever, it's not necessarily the thralls were directly held by the families of the soldiers, but the debts were, and then industries that needed large scale manpower would be making payments to the holders of the debts on behalf of the workers, while gradually working it off. This means, in effect, a great deal of families immediately lost their income. For everyone that owned a debt, a great many are left cheated or economically devastated, and many are very far from the stereotype of a cruel manor owning taskmaster. Many businesses are unable to operate at all.

Then there is the reaction among thralls themselves, finding they are immediately free. The reason why thralldom is such a hated institution, and equated with slavery, is how few thralls are ever able to buy their freedom and pay their debt. This does, however, mean that in the relatively few cases it happens fit two general categories- when some kind hearted individual wishes to help a thrall be free and build a new life as a freeman, which implies a great deal of support for them in their new life, or a thrall with a great deal of preparation and exceptional work is able to pass the moving goalposts and finally purchase their own freedom, in which case they are usually extremely well prepared for the life that follows. These don't really apply to a blanket emancipation.

Thralls who own nothing, not even technically the clothes on their backs, often have nowhere to go. It's well and good that many in the Compact are speaking of how they'll offer help if they get there to Arx, but how do they get there? They can't afford food, they certainly can't afford ship's passage. A not insigificant number just... keep working the same jobs they had been doing, because they aren't keen to walk off the job and starve to death. To their credit, some business owners start to pay them something approaching what a serf might earn in addition to meals, room and board, but not many. In a very few cases, there's even wage negotiations as fair minded and progressive owners formally hire on former thralls as workers, with freeman's wages. However depending on the good hearted nature of former thrall owners that suddenly found their assets nullified is not very reliable. Not many meet that ideal.

Much worse are many of the cases where thralls, particularly extremely abused ones, suddenly find themselves out from under the yolk. There was at least several hundred murders the day of the announcement, as thralls heard they were free, attempted to walk off, and former thrall owners get into violent confrontations that tried to reject the law. Or long standing grudges and deep seated resentment from years or even decades of hostility come to a boil. Former thrall and former thrall owners alike are being hanged by the dozen from those murders, and that doesn't even include the immediate upswing in banditry. Many of the former thralls, especially thrall-soldiers pressed into service, immediately desert- and then penniless, deeply resentful, but well armed individuals do what logically follows. At least two longships mutiny entirely, and there's violent clashes on several more.

It doesn't quite cross into open rebellion, but it's a near thing. House Kennex soldiers are working to restore order, and the local parishes of the church are granting sanctuary and feeding and housing new freeman, but their resources run out almost immediately. They are equipped to deal with handfuls of the needy, not thousands. The overwhelming majority of thralls were former Abandoned, so quite a few wish to return 'home', many not knowing that quite a few of the clans they came from were wiped out in the genocidal campaign by Prince Abbas Thrax, and they are all that's left. An upswing in piracy, as well as banditry, is all but certain once many of the former warchiefs among the thralls start to realize what happened to the families they hadn't seen in years.

A 'best guess' rough estimate of economic damage to Stormward would stand at around 15,000,000 silver to return its GDP to pre-emancipation levels. This is assuming that the first thrall-free domain of the Isles survive, since very many of the traditionalists would greatly prefer it didn't. Even some of the progressives are extremely ill at ease with the chaos that immediately followed the announcement, and some of the traditionalists are only half-joking about attacking Stormward to 'restore order'. Countess Arcelia Navegant is being referred to by traditionalists as 'Marquessa Arcelia', in a none-too-subtle statement of their approval of her hardline stance, and a desired outcome in replacing Kennex. None have made an open move yet, but most of the other houses are waiting to see what the duchies and House Thrax itself does, and will react accordingly.

Some, despite the chaos, deeply hope that the experiment by House Kennex works. They -expect- the Compact to come through for them, to help restore order, and put their silver with their mouth is to see the institituon of thralldom left on the ash heap of history. They expect for massive investment to happen. Others devoutly hope it fails, and if House Kennex is left to suffer on its own, will use it as an example for why thralldom must stay. Most of the progressives use the example to point towards Lady Carita's words. That if thralldom is to be replaced, and done right, the Compact must back up its words with blood and treasure.