It appears in Skyrim that the empire is crumbling and there are perhaps different factions controlling different parts of the land, do you think in some places (or all) slavery will be prevalent like it was in Morrowind? I ask this because I plan to play an escaped Khajiit/Argonian slave from Morrowind (Skyrim if slavery is around).

Do you want slavery to be in the game?

Also just signed up so hey everybody!

I hope we can get a goblin slave who does things for us...... Like you give him potions and when you need him you summon him and he'll give you the potion you wanted.....

And il call him . . . Dobby

But back on topic, i hope there is something like slaves there..... i want to hire my own maids cooks / slaves to do my daily choores

Slaves would be very interesting, and good for some plots.

Anyone else waiting to see someone offer a fishy stick?

lol, seems possible. since npc's have jobs the rich ones might own slaves...

No. Slavery has been abolished throughout the empire for a long time. Only in Morrowind did it persist, but that stopped 200 years ago.

Cattle.

The empire banned it.
Khajiit and Argonians are a bit far away to be a constant source.

I see the old style slavery in Skyrim.

Convicts and vanquished enemies, hobbled and used as manual labour for chieftains and or tribes.
Also a second class system at best, Dunmer are likely to be treated as stock for this.
As if you read the real Berenziah you see that noble Nords have a history of treating others as inferior.

couldnt hurt.

Yes, there will be slavery, so much slavery. Heck, it'll make the dunmer look like hardcoe abolitionists.

*ahem* Seriously though, I'd rather have it out. As I said in another thread before, it doesn't add any read dynamic. Think about it, have you ever heard of a nice, kind, and loving slave owner? Think about it, we'll only be left with evil slave owners, and in need of help and poor slaves. It's a pretty 1 sided way of making a world look "gritty," and "grey" (which the latter is just not correct).

If anything, it'll be SERFDOM. Get your heads out of slavery already! It has passed, the dunmer are completely broken as a culture, the argonians have shown the world to not [censored] with them, and there hasn't really been a human society in Tamriel that really had slavery. Maybe 1 or 2 isolated incidences that have yet to be heard.

''The empire has lost many of it's territories in the dark elflands''.
So i think there might be some slave like shennanigan's going on toward's the east of skyrim .. :rock:

well there was that nord in skingrad, (he was a trader) and he seemed to be keeping that woman mostly against her will. I kinda doubt there will be slavery tho, that theme was played out in MW so why would they rehash it.

Dobby was a elf though...

Wrong, sir, you are wrong! Morrowind is nothing more than ash and a territory of Black Marsh now. The dunmer have been chased off by the argonians, and they are now scattered and broken. Stay up to date.

And let me repeat, serfdom. It's better than evil slave owners and poor slaves.

What do you mean it has been played out? This is one big world, do you not think if slavery exist in one part that it would exist in the other parts of the world too? I don't get why when someone asks for something, like slavery, so many people will come on and say "No they did that in the MW/Oblivion so they shouldn't do it here," It makes no damn sense, if they did it in those games they SHOULD do it here so that way it makes it seem like this is the same world where slavery still exists.

I don't see it happening, for reasons others have stated. Now I'm off to google serfdom...

[Edit] Googled, and I think that sounds right. Doesn't Nordic culture have a caste system? Could that work with the idea of serfdom?

Well it was 150 years ago and the Argonians were hit pretty hard my the infernal city. I wonder what BGS has decide to do with this. Though I have a feeling it's not going to be mentioned...
I wonder if the Nerevarine has become their spiritual leader. (I like to imagine him as Spock to the Vulcans )

If serfdom exists, I instantly hate all nobles.

We only heard of 1 city being hit, and it was mainly to purge those who really were not pure argonians (i.e. non-argonians and imperialized argonians). Don't take it as "hit pretty hard." You ask me, it looked extremely planned out by the Hist. All native argonians fled the city, while everyone else had their soul svcked out. Also, mer breed very slowly. It'll take a long time before the dunmer will be able to set foot in their homeland again.

As for the nerevarine, his/her story is over, along with its relevancy.

Like I said in the other topic about slaves.... I hope they are in, so I can go on a personal quest and kill all of the slave owners and sellers and set them all free! But having slaves would be cool. Except I would treat mine right. Dang Straight!

:shrug: I don't know. We'll just have to wait and see. Still, no to slavery, it's way too black and white in nearly every iteration of it. With serfdom, at least it's somewhat consensual, so there's an added dynamic, instead of evil slave owner and poor slave. Makes for better writing too.

it has been played out. it doesn't matter if the culture is different. slavery in SK will mean the same character topics that already appeared in MW: slaver is bad/ slavery is good. you help slaves escape/ you catch slaves. we did all that in MW. why do it again. besides, the hot topic in SK is civil war, not the ethics of slavery. it might exist but it isn't going to be a big deal.

I agree. Basically, slavery is more prominent in the south and east of Tamriel, where both beast races who are ensalved as well as those who wish to enslave them are plentiful. In the north, in Skyrim, I would like to see a caste system, perhaps with some minor suggestions of serfdom on occasions (but not too much, because I thoroughly hate the concept). Lorewise, I believe it'd be the most appropriate form of segregation/social distinction between different groups in Skyrim.



I disagree. Although I don't think slavery will be as prominent as with Morrowind (for obvious reasons), I believe that some minor cases of slavery should exist to spice up the game world.

As for the argument that it's played out, poppycock. There's a civil war going on; mix that up with slavery and you've got some amazing potential for moral conundrums. Imagine - a rebel Nord town captures a small Nord pro-Imperial patrol; some may clamour for them to be enslaved, hating them for their loyalty to their empire and regarding them as dogs. Others may recognise the kinship through their differences, and petition instead for them merely to be imprisoned and tried. Ultimately, the decision rests upon you, with multiple possible outcomes. Obviously, it'll be tough to decide and you may feel terrible, but the game will be better for it. Anyway, this shows how slavery isn't just a concept of slaver bad slave victim as you suggest; to reduce such a notorious and important institution into black and white is silly to say the least.

TL;DR I'd say there's still a lot of juice left in that motif to power up some tough choices, especially when you mix it up with the civil war (which itself should be morally challenging).

Even under a serfdom rule there still existed slavery within those cultures. Slavery is suppose to be black and white, that's the whole purpose, why can't both exist within the same game? Slavery is part of our history, it founded the rights of African Americans, it is what built Egypt, it is what caused revolution and revolting. As I said before it existed in Morrowind, it would only make sense that Skyrim, a place which is right next to Morrowind, also have slavers too. This could also play out as a karma choice for a player who could decide to help the slavers, or free the slaves.

Just because slavery was in doesn't mean serfdom couldn't be either and vice versa.

I would also like to add that slavery was very much a black market system, and it still is today. It is against the law to have slaves anywhere in the world, but trust me there are plenty of slaves on the black market. Just because the emperor banned it, doesn't mean everyone is following the law.

I doubt slavery will still be around in Skyrim...but perhaps think chain gangs (a la Jean Valjean).

Psh, have you seen what happens to areas surrounding real volcanoes that erupted about 200 years ago?

They look like Vvardenfell did in Elder Scrolls III.

The only thing I'd say that's different about Morrowind 200 years later would be the civilization. Cities would have been destroyed. Flora and fauna all come back within 200 years, but the Dunmer would need to build their cities again. Also note that mainland Morrowind was probably not hit very hard by the volcano itself. Probably just snowed ash and killed crops. The cities would all still be there unless they were sacked by Argonians. My main guess is that the Dunmer eventually moved back, as the chaos caused by Umbriel was too much for the Argonians to support colonies in Morrowind. Umbriel destroyed more than just one city - everything it passed over was overcome with an army of undead.

Anyways, all that aside, I can't see people in Skyrim owning slaves unless they were from Morrowind or are the most traditional Nord nobles that reject the Empire. Besides those, I don't think anyone in Skyrim is in a position to own slaves. Serfdom seems like a very good alternative though. I support that.