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MaxKaladin
Seeker
77 Posts |
 Posted - 23 Jan 2007 : 21:21:08
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1. I came across a FR timeline at Wikipedia and found a curious entry for 1356 noting that "Sembia bans the elven races from Sembian soil." Is there any canon cite for this or is it just some odd thing someone slipped in there? If it's 'legit', is it still in effect?
2. Is there any source stating if slavery is legal in Sembia? I'm sure there are Sembian merchants who would deal in the slave trade even if it's illegal so long as there is enough money in it (and it seems like there would be given the number of slave-holding states around the Sea of Fallen Stars. What I'm curious about is if slavery is openly legal or not. It seems to me that a legal slave trade would be a significant source of friction with Sembia's neighbors both in Cormyr and the freedom-loving Dales.
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Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Great Reader
USA
7106 Posts |
Posted - 23 Jan 2007 : 23:49:02
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If slavery was legal and in the open in Sembia, no doubt that fact would have been mentioned in the Sembia series (six books in which to convey such information). As such, I've never heard that slavery is legal there.
As for the racism against elves bit--yes, there is a strong bias against elves in Sembia, for the most part, but I can't confirm the legal bits about that or the date.
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"Instead of asking why we sleep, it might make sense to ask why we wake. Perchance we live to dream. From that perspective, the sea of troubles we navigate in the workaday world might be the price we pay for admission to another night in the world of dreams."
--Richard Greene (letter to Time) |
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KnightErrantJR
Great Reader
USA
5402 Posts |
Posted - 24 Jan 2007 : 00:23:56
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| Also, I beleive the blanket statement that slavery is illegal in most of the Heartlands except for the Moonsea has been made before, which would seem to indicate that Sembia does not allow slavery. |
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Faraer
Great Reader
3308 Posts |
Posted - 24 Jan 2007 : 00:27:17
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The Wikipedia reference is cut and pasted from a timeline on o-love.net. You're right to be sceptical, and both ought to give references, but the source is DM's Sourcebook of the Realms (Old Grey Box) p. 38. It's not Sembia that does it but Raithspur, Captain of the Guard of Ordulin, who doesn't have the authority to do so, and the ban (such as it is) is presumably rescinded not long after.
That two years' current clack in the DM's Sourcebook is a must read for anyone wanting to get the hang of the month-to-month texture of Faerūn. |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31799 Posts |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31799 Posts |
Posted - 24 Jan 2007 : 00:41:54
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quote:
Originally posted by MaxKaladin
I'm sure there are Sembian merchants who would deal in the slave trade even if it's illegal so long as there is enough money in it (and it seems like there would be given the number of slave-holding states around the Sea of Fallen Stars.
Indeed.
While not exclusively "dealing in the slave trade", a retired merchant judge, a bergun, of Daerlun for example can sentence convicted thieves to imprisonment in solitary deep cells where they are never heard from again. That is the official stance. Unofficially, the criminals are often sold into slavery. Drugged, these criminals are set into closed carts whereupon they are then taken to Urmlaspyr and placed aboard ships. From there, they are then taken across the Inner Sea, where they are likely to be sold in slave-trading locals both in the south and to the east.
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MaxKaladin
Seeker
77 Posts |
Posted - 24 Jan 2007 : 16:26:34
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Ok, so slavery is basically illegal in Sembia but some exists "underground".
That'll work with what I was thinking about doing. I'm considering a plotline where people are getting captured by various "evil" types in the southern dales and/or Cormyr and then being sold as slaves through Sembia. Yes, it's an old cliche of a plot, but it works and sometimes the old standards are best.
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WalkerNinja
Senior Scribe
USA
577 Posts |
Posted - 24 Jan 2007 : 16:29:44
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I think that the rule of thumb is that: If it makes money, it happens in Sembia.
Of course appearances must be kept up so they might call it something different, or have modified it so that it doesn't resemble slavery so much. Of course there's also that notorious "blind eye" that one must watch for. |
*** A Forgotten Realms Addict since 1990 ***
Treasures of the Past, a Second Edition Play-by-Post game for and by Candlekeep Sages--http://www.rpol.net/game.cgi?gi=52011 |
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Kajehase
Great Reader
Sweden
2104 Posts |
Posted - 24 Jan 2007 : 16:46:26
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| When they touch on this subject in Power of Faerūn, they basically say that slavery is not legal in Sembia - however, the merchant nobility defines the law on their own estates in accordance to how they feel like, and no-one really bothers about what someone gets up to outside Sembia. |
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Two Sembia Questions
