Dres Slave Trade

Of the five noble Dark Elven Great Houses of Morrowind, House Dres remains the one that keeps most to itself and openly defies Imperial authority. Seated in the featureless plainlands and dangerous swamps on the southern borders of the province, House Dres still follows its laws of old, with worship of their living gods interjected with ancestor worship in the High Elven style.

The economy of House Dres relies primarily on their cultivation of saltrice, which in turn relies on a veritable army of slaves. While saltrice cultivation and the profits thereof have been stable and strong for at least 600 years, trade of these slaves offers House Dres an important, though secondary, source of profit.

House Dres is so reliant on its slavery that its capital, Tear, is built solely to allow the control and efficient transport of slaves. Beyond its truly enormous harbor, that could rival that of any Imperial city, the most memorable areas of Tear are its infamous slave pits: immense bowl shaped holes reinforced with concrete and surrounded by thick, high walls. In these, slaves are kept in miserable conditions like soulless merchandise, before they are used or discarded.

The unfortunate slaves living in these pits cling to desperate sense of normality. Makeshift families can be observed creating homes of scrap wood and clay, only to have the homes toppled by the cruel hands of their Dark Elven overseers and the family members split into different pits. It is true that slaves can be sold or moved at any time, but the masters of the pits take special delight in ripping fledgling families and friendships apart.

Slaves who refuse the authority of their Dark Elven masters or dare to strike back at them are sent into isolated punishment pits, never to be seen again. The punishment of misbehaving slaves is not often turned into a public spectacle at least, but this secrecy has been turned into its own instrument of fear: the Dres nobles who oversee the pits are often clothed in furs and leather. Who can say that these garments were not a former pit mate? The slaughterfish around Tear are suspiciously well-fed and Dreugh abound.

On the rare occasion when the masters feel it necessary to make a statement or indulge in petty cruelty, pelts and leather skins are hung from the tops of the slave pits, ostensibly flayed off leaders of particularly successful revolts.

Slaves numbers are kept stable by raids into Black Marsh and trade with outlaws and bandit kings in Elsweyr. The territory of House Dres is ideally situated to take advantage of both, with the large port of Tear acting as an attraction for all sorts of pirates and illicit traders, and the House's position on the southern edge of Morrowind makes the acquisition of Argonian slaves as easy as a trifle trip across the province border as the Legions helplessly look on.

Hunting young Argonians for sport is considered an honorable tradition by House Dres nobility, akin to animal hunts in civilized lands. It is said that these hunting parties prey upon the isolated tribes deep in Black Marsh, where missing youths are often considered to have been swallowed by the swamp. The hapless captives often have no idea what slaves are and that there is anything beyond the swamps and forests of Black Marsh. These ghastly revelations are disclosed to them on the long trip back to the slave pits of Tear.

When they are not abused by their masters or traded like cattle to the four other Great Houses, Argonian slaves are seen working in the endless saltrice fields of the plains until their very scales have been eaten away by the acidic vapors of the Deshaan and their bleached bones are devoured by beetles the Dark Elves keep as pets. Khajiit slaves are usually sent to work domestic duties inside the houses of their Dark Elven masters, far from sight but even closer to their eagerly biting whips.

Slaves are also the ones who deliver the saltrice to the ports and work in the large granaries and warehouses of House Dres' towns. This backbreaking work is often seen as a merciful fate, and sea-going slaves are treated with envy by their fellows.

It is said that slaves have ever stoked the economy of House Dres. While it is true that they are prolific in Dark Elven society and deeply ingrained in the culture and lore of the Great Houses, it is much more than that. The very essence of House Dres is built on a near endless pool of blood and tears, and with the removal of slavery, the very House would collapse, its saltrice fields barren and its ports empty.

For this reason they remain attached to this repulsively barbaric activity. The treaty by which Morrowind entered the Empire of Tamriel allows for slavery in the province; consequently, the law abolishing slavery in the rest of the Empire has no power in Morrowind. Let us hope that, in the future, slavery will be abolished everywhere without exception.