Mortian Slavery

The system of slavery under the Chiefdom of Mortia is a controversial subject that raises the ire of Orc and Human alike. Humans typically point to Mortia's large slave population as one of the main reasons why the Kingdom of Ascaria went to war with Mortia, and some even say that it is a justification for the Mortian Genocide, although such an argument nowadays is only espoused by the most ardent of Human supremacists.

## Common Myths

A great deal of misinformation is spread about Mortia's slavery, both by those who are simply ignorant and others who have a deliberate agenda to discredit the Orcs. This section will examine and refute the most grievous of the myths.

### Mortians were the most prolific slavers

While it is true that the Mortians amassed by far the largest numbers of slaves in Nesarian history, to say that they were the most prolific slavers implies that the Mortians had the highest *rate* of slavery, which is untrue. The rate of slavery for Mortia was in fact somewhat lower than other contemporary slave-owning societies, having a smaller proportion of their population as slaves at around an estimated 10-15% compared to around 20% for most native tribes, and significantly less than the estimated 30% for the Indissian Empire at the peak of its slavery.

### Mortians treated their slaves uniquely poorly

This myth stems from one event, the Tragedy of Allesa, where 200-300 Orcs bound up and systematically slaughtered around 1000 slaves after looting the hamlet of Allesa and driving away the inhabitants. While certainly a terrible crime, even by contemporary Mortian standards, the common narrative of the event misses out its context; these slaves were not the women and children of Allesa, as is sometimes portrayed, but adult male prisoners of war taken from a recent battle, and the Orcs at Allesa had received news of an enemy attack. While this report turned out to be false, and there was no attack, the Orcs at Allesa had good reason to believe one was coming, and decided to kill the slaves to prevent them from potentially rebelling and joining forces with the enemy.

There are many surviving records of Mortian laws on the treatment of slaves, which place restrictions on the actions of masters and oblige masters to fulfil certain requirements for their slaves. The punishment for breaking these rules was usually, but not always, freeing all the master's slaves and making the master himself a slave.

Though not a comprehensive list, some of the most prominent rules for slave-owners were as follows:

* The master must unconditionally provide every slave with adequate food, drink, shelter and bedding
* The master must seek medical treatment for any slave that is wounded or ill
* The master may not lay with any of their slaves, or compel a slave to lay with another slave, if it is against the slave's will
* The master may not prevent a slave from making a complaint to the courts
* The master must seek the approval of the courts before killing a slave, else it is murder

There were no such laws in place in other slave-owning societies in Nesaria, although most had informal rules imposed by societal pressure to keep slave-owners in check.

### Mortians enslaved others based on their race and religion

This myth largely stems from one record where several native settlements along the River Zathol were granted perpetual exemption from slavery in return for embracing the Great God Morrokh. It must be pointed out that these settlements had *already* become Morrokhian before being granted exemption from slavery, and there are several other cases where individual towns and cities were granted exemption from slavery for a variety of reasons, primarily for significant shows of loyalty. What exemption from slavery meant was that anyone who could reliably prove they were from an exempt town could not legally be a slave - although the wording of *perpetual* does mean that these Morrokhian towns would be totally exempt from slavery even if they took up arms against Mortia, suggesting that the Mortian state wanted to specially reward their new religious brethren.

Slavery in Mortia was never practiced on the basis of race or religion; there were many Orcish and Morrokhian slaves, although slaves who embraced the Great God Morrokh were sometimes given their freedom as a reward. Slaves were predominantly made up of prisoners of war and criminals - slaves were never taken simply for being part of a particular group.

### Mortia's allies only joined to avoid slavery

While this fact could be true in some indirect sense, it falls flat simply because many of the minor city-states that allied with Mortia themselves practiced slavery, and the anti-slavery Elvetan states that voluntarily allied with Mortia did not have slavery forced upon them.