Intergalactic Summit

I might try a more detailed response to this text later, but regarding the last sentence:


Eternal Damnation.


Sure, but you'd really be better off joining or serving God's one and only Chosen people — the Amarr Empire — and going to Paradise instead. Amen. Amarr Victor.

Perhaps I can answer some of those questions with a bit of my own personal experience.

The question of how many of the newly freed slaves left the Empire is one that is much debated, but the essential answer is: not a great deal. More than that, not many actually became free. As it happened, those slaves who left were given no money, had no employment where they went, and had nothing more than the clothes on their backs. The world they found outside the Amarr Empire may not have been particularly cruel to them compared to their masters, but then those societies can be particularly cruel to anyone.

While most slaves do have a good general education, being literate and learned in many basic sciences, that doesn't mean much in a place like the Minmatar Republic where you have to pay for your own advanced education and training. In the Amarr Empire, if you have a slave that seems to be able to run an ore processor and no one else can, it's a good idea to train your slave to run the ore processor. When those slaves left the Empire, if their potential employers did not need an ore processor (or whatever their job or jobs had been), those corporations did not have any incentive to train them to do it. They could simply hire someone who knows how to process ore.

Life for a freedman without a job or training would be hard enough, but there are ways through that for the few who are particularly driven. Ston Momaki's organization has ostensibly been adjusting slaves to operate in non-Amarrian society for a long time with some success. But they are also leaving behind a life of certainties for a life of great uncertainty, in places where their former faith and way of life aren't necessarily appreciated. Many who left returned, many who returned did not have the money to life free in the Empire, and many who returned thus returned to bondage.

Unfortunately, I think that's also something of a failure on our part, especially our Holders. After nine generations, your servants should be able to be self-sufficient citizens. Then again, they should also probably not want to leave.

With that said, the majority did not leave. Plenty did become freedmen in the Amarr Empire and have managed to eke out a living as citizens. Our society is, as expected, having just as much trouble coping with the newfound labor issues as others. Unlike those others, the institution of slavery sweeps up the stragglers, so we don't tend to end up with ghettos of the unemployed. Unemployed people eventually run afoul of debtors and are sold into servitude until their debts are paid. Crime and unemployment, therefore, are not significantly affected.

And then, of course, there were those who simply chose not to leave. You can't make a slave leave his servitude if he signs a waiver. That's been the choice of many of our slaves, whose jobs in the church qualified them for instant release if they pleased. I suppose the comparative luxury of keeping a church clean and performing minor bookkeeping is better than serving at a restaurant outside the Empire. Despite what many might think, not all slaves are out on a mining colony blasting rock. Plenty have jobs that lower class laborers of other Empires would kill for and most live in much better conditions. They may not own the housing, but lodging and food are provided. Indeed, a Holder who abuses his slaves is doubly a fool, for he harms his own production in the process. It is only a poor Holder that produces uneducated, rebellious, and underfed slaves. It isn't good for the slaves, and is also a poor resource for the Holder.

So I haven't seen any hard numbers, but from what I've heard, the wave of migrants to other empires was a pittance of the actual number. Most were simply reabsorbed into our society, though we today have more freedmen (and replaced our slaves with cheaper drone technology in the most low of labor). It's to be expected, in a way. After nine generations, to leave the Empire isn't to go home, it's to leave home.

I was particularly drawn to Sinti Vailatti's story because it reminded me so much of my own. Kidnapped by the Elder Fleet when they attacked Jarizza, watching my parents murdered in front of me by so-called "Freedom Fighters" - my Brutor father as a "race traitor" and my mother simply for being born Amarrian, the brother I never knew still inside her womb.

They were the lucky ones. I, too, was lucky because my own mixed heritage kept my off the list of potential "breeding stock" that got casually doled out to various warlords afterward. The suicide rate in our internment camp, especially amongst so many violated women, was staggering... and I don't blame a single one of them, either. Better than having one's own body turned into a factory to churn out more "warriors" for the "Glorious Republic."

I've been told that there are no official records of the place that they kept me all that time, and that doesn't surprise me. After all, the Elder Fleet itself never operated in an "official" government capacity, either. Millions of lives ended, many millions more utterly ruined. Turned into concubines, conscripts, indoctrinated, brainwashed, beaten into submission or worse.

Yes, worse. I know all too well what vitoc tastes like. It's how our Republic overseers kept us in line during our training. Unfortunately for them, I also know all too well how to make a passable antidote for the old strains that they were using. They should have known better than to grab a science major. But it held me together, more or less, at least until I managed my escape back to the Mandate. Back to the Empire. Back to Home.

I thank God every day for giving me the strength. I pray every day for all those who never escaped.

They said they wanted me to become a "Freedom Fighter" like themselves. Well, I did - in a manner of speaking. When I hit their ships, when I raid their little nests, I offer freedom to those others like myself who want only to return back to their true homes. Poetic justice, if you will. But with one difference, a small difference, a huge difference, one that the Republic will never understand: I give them a choice. Come back with me or stay where they are. It's up to them to decide. It's a choice that I was never given.

Because in the end, these so-called "Freedom Fighters" don't give a fedo's ass about freedom. I do.

* In Response to James:

All of which are excellent questions that have no clear answers as I am aware of at the moment. At the time I began this piece was in the immediate wake of Empress Sarum's announcement and was meant largely (and still is) as a speculative piece. Its these kind of questions I wished to evoke and spur further dialogue.


* In Response to Ms. Kernher:

An embarrassing and unacceptable mistake on my part regarding the mix-up of the Ni-Kunni and Undorian in regards to the House of Tash-Murkon. I am unsure how I made the mistake, but I appreciate it being pointed out and would further appreciate any other corrections you may have found. I am afraid that my work is a bit dated, having started at the beginning of the Sarum Emancipation.

As for the rest of your response: I may have been overly critical of the Republic, and I never meant to imply that the Ninth Generation hadn't more than earned their right to freedom. The goal was to attempt to remain unattached to a certain position to provide speculation for all parites involved and convey what would possibly run through the minds of those who stand against Sarum's order. My personal opinion on the matter, though I can never claim complete unbias, was meant to play a minimal role in my writing.

In response to healthcare; you are of course correct.

Now I don't wish the mistake to be made that I am equating human slaves to livestock, but a good master would logically be like a good rancher. Slaves are an investment in which they expect to make a profit off of. One would expect that you would wish to see your stock healthy and vibrant in order to make the best out of your investment. This obviously not the case for everyone, and the abuse of Vitoc further underlines that.

My apologies Ms. Kernher.

*slowly appears*

The cost of freedom is eternal vigilance.

*fades from view*