Editing The Valley of Darkness:Main Page (section)

== Slavery in the Valley: ==

It is vile and despicable, it is reviled by most, and yet it is pretty much everywhere.  Even the people of the valley who have little exposure to slavery take it for granted and are unwilling to help any who are trying to escape it.  It has been a part of the culture of the region since before the Darkening, though before the Darkening they were not victimized by slavers, nearly all of the slaves came from beyond the valley, with a small few consisting of convicted criminals.  

There is a society and hierarchy for the slaves.  There are three basic catagories under which the vast majority of slaves fall:
Household
Worker
Gladiator
Of these catagories, the gladiators have the quickest road to freedom, they can earn it through enough successes in the ring.  However one defeat will send them down to start over again.  While death occurs constantly upon the sands of the ring, few of the deaths are permanent, at least for successful or charismatic gladiators.  Magic allows their owners to preserve their lives, allowing them to again foray into the ring.

This adventure will begin with all of the group being slaves who have one way or another found their way into the gladiatorial rings.  Either they are too unruly or just plain built for life in the ring and have been trained there ever since.

Withing the Gladiatorial slave society there too is a hierarchy.  This hierarch is coveted by those at the bottom and brutally protected by those at or near the top.  Within this society, the concern of overzealous bosses is rampant, many work to constantly keep those beneath them, beneath them.  There is a Ranking system, to which all of the slaves answer and most aspire to ascend:
Slave
Private
Seargent
Lieutenant
Captain
Each of these ranks have privileges or lack there of, based upon their station.  While the slaves sleep in cold dank rooms with straw strewn upon the floor, holding no real possessions, the captain has a suite of rooms all to himself, a wench or two upon whom he can call any time and access to better parts of the city.  Slaves have no access to any shops, they are provided a cloth smock for clothes and eat & drink all from the same trough, like livestock.  Slaves typically are crowded into a room about 15 per 100 sq feet.

Those who rise above slave find they are privates.  As privates, they will get a miniscule share of the purse for each victory, they are allowed to visit a very select few shops to improve their clothing and possibly even buy shoes.  After any victory they achieve, they will be allowed one watered down beer or ale.  Their rooms are slighly less crowded, about 10 people per 100 sq feet.

Seargents have it much nicer, but rising from private to seargent is probably the most difficlt ascension of them all.  Once a slave achieves seargent, he/she is allowed to visit the shops of the poorer part of town, they get a larger portion of their purse, which they can spend on anything but weapons or items that could be perceived/used as weapons (bat guano for instance).  Seargents are sheltered in rooms of about 3 per 100 sq feet, given straw matresses and allowed to hold their possessions in locked boxes.

'''The Broken Dagger''' is a well organized group of thieves, thugs, & cripples who, in addition to their more commonly expected forms of employment, work to assist slaves in escaping their bonds.  This group has some powerful wizards who are capable of removing the slave mark, with no residual mark remaining.  For an additional fee, the Broken Dagger will arrainge for the freed slave to leave the region of the heaviest slaving.  This process is not cheap, but it comes with guarantees and the Broken Dagger are the real deal.  In fact, the Broken Dagger also works to protect the slave market; they like the slaves being enslaved, so they have reason to pay for their freedom.  They also work to protect their market, they come down hard on anyone trying to break into the outlawed slave freeing market.