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1984

2020-12-26T22:38:16Z

2001:8003:2385:EF00:78DC:4C14:3855:CB5B: /* Plot */

[[File:Big brother 1984.jpg|center|450px|thumb|[[Kane|BIG BROTHER LIVES IN DEATH! BIG BROTHER LIVES! PEACE THROUGH POWER!]]]]

[[Grimdark]] has always been a concept of humanity living in the worst environment as possible, and there is not even a single joy can be found in an utterly grimdark world. '''''1984''''' is an example of such a world. It is a novel by George Orwell (real name Eric Arthur Blair, but he didn't use it on his books because reasons) published in 1949, primarily about what would happen if the government has complete control over everyone, [[How Imperial Life Is Worse Than You Can Imagine|where you will be watched everyday and being forced to believe whatever lies the government tell that week, or else you'll be tortured and mind-raped to absolute despair]].

Orwell began work on ''1984'' eight months after reading (and being directly inspired by) ''We'', one of the earliest known dystopian novels and arguably the first thoroughly detailed totalitarian society in science fiction. Written in 1921, the Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin was in turn inspired by his translations of [[H. G. Wells]] (though ''We'' wouldn't be published in his home country until 1988, mostly due to coming down with a serious case of "banned by the Soviet Union publishing committee"). Orwell's work was conceived as a cultural translation of the book, and it (and by extension ''We'') served as the inspiration for many a grimdark totalitarian dictatorship, particularly [[Paranoia]] and [[Warhammer 40k]].

The scariest parts are the fact that the book is merely a chronicle of the evils humanity is capable of: no dangerous aliens or demons, just us, not to mention the fact that Eurasia was inspired by a real-life nation; Soviet Russia (Stalin's regime). In fact, in the books Big Brother is mentioned near the end as having a mustache [http://cdn.history.com/sites/2/2013/12/joseph-stalin-AB.jpeg just like said tyrannical dictator]. However, it should be noted the book is a condemnation of tyranny and dictatorships in general, due to how similar all the three nations involved in some eternal war are. This ends up giving the work a lot of applicability, in that you could switch around their names with entities like Nazi Germany and [http://dystopiannightmare.com/the-gas-chamber-horror-of-north-koreas-gulag/#more-989 Kim-Il-Sung's North Korea] (he claimed to be inspired by Stalin) and not be able to tell the difference.

Orwell himself was a notable anti-fascist, having fought in the Spanish Civil War on the communist side; ironically enough, he would in fact sell out friends to the British government by ratting them out if they were gay (which in that era was considered [[Heresy|a crime punishable by death at worst]]). This makes him the [[Inquisition|third]] [[Eldrad|biggest dick]] amongst non-/tg/ related authors on /tg/, just barely beaten by [[Chick Tracts|his]] [[H.P. Lovecraft|competition]].

As such an influential work, expect comparisons to and mentions of ''1984'' to be thrown around carelessly and frequently by [[That Guy|someone who probably read it once and think they're instant experts on recognizing totalitarianism]]. One may optionally bring up the irony of his aforementioned government snitching for added hilarity.

== Plot ==
[[File:Winston smith rat torture.jpg|right|300px|thumb| [[skaven|YES. YES. ME PUNISH FOOLISH-SCARED NO FUR. CRY-TEAR AT ME MAN-THING!!]]]]
In [[Hive|Airstrip One, Oceania]], a middle-aged member of [[Administratum|the Ministry of Truth]], Winston Smith, isn't happy about his life. He's sick of doing the same thing every day; helping the government spread their propaganda, being exhausted at work, his home life dominated by his telescreen (pretty much "IN SOVIET RUSSIA, TV WATCHES YOU!", and woe betide anyone who breaks or turns theirs off), never getting laid (except for a far back encounter with an elderly prostitute; P.S prostitution is illegal here but is a crime that the state does not actually care much about) and not having enough to eat. But his life changes when he meets his co-worker, twenty-something brunette Julia. Despite coming across as a model citizen, even being a member of the [[Sisters of Cleaning|anti-sex league]], Julia gives him a secret message which says "I love you." After meeting her outside their work, they talk and Julia and Winston decide to [[Heresy|give each other what they want]], which is something the party considers [[Blam|unacceptable]]. Winston has a fun time [[Slaanesh|fucking Julia]], [[Tzeentch|learning about the past]], [[Nurgle|eating the real food the upper class gets]] and [[Khorne|writing in his notebook about how much he hates The Party]]. During this time, Winston's co-worker O'Brien introduces himself as a member of the secret anti-government Brotherhood and recruits Winston and Julia.

They receive a book on the Brotherhood's ideals and are instructed to continue with their affairs until called on by them. They do, making the inn where they had their first tryst their secret love nest. After a sex session, they start reading up on the Brotherhood (which can be summed up as idealist English Socialism). During a later tryst, they are found out and arrested by the [[Inquisition|Thought Police]], who had been spying on their room through a telescreen hidden behind a painting (the innkeeper is revealed to be an undercover Thought Police commander). They are beaten and taken to the Ministry of Love to be brainwashed. There, Winston is reunited with O'Brien, [[Just as Planned|and finds out that O'Brien is actually a top-level government agent; his "recruitment" of Winston and Julia, and maybe even the Brotherhood itself, was part of a sting operation]]. O'Brien [[Dark Eldar|tortures Winston to the brink of death and insanity]] while also gaslighting him, then when Winston starts to succumb to the brainwashing O'Brien nurses him back to health. After he monitors Winston in his sleep and finds out that Winston still loves Julia and hates Big Brother, O'Brien sends him to the dreaded Room 101 to meet his worst fear.

Interesting thing about this room is that it is where the party torture their victims with their worst fear, which is figured out through near-constant scrutiny since childhood, meaning the party may have already had Winston as well as everyone in their grip: "He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past". In Winston's case, his greatest fear is rats, because he found his house full of rats after his mother and sister's disappearance and assumed the rats ate them (note that back in the day, London - which is called Airstrip One in the book, the rat problems were so bad that civilians would die from either the diseases they spread or just straight up eaten by its swarm if they encountered one and couldn't fight them off). Using this fear, O'Brien put a metal cage like device with rats inside next to Winston's head (see picture on the right), [[Skaven|threatened him that he would let the rats eat his face]] and ultimately mind broke the poor Winston.

Months after being successfully brainwashed by the party Winston meets Julia again, who is also brainwashed, and both are uncertain about their futures and no longer love each other (it's also implied that Julia was lobotomized). In the end Winston despairs so much he cannot even commit suicide, believes that [[derp|2+2=5]], and loves [[God-Emperor of Mankind|the Party's figurehead leader, Big Brother]].

And ''that's'' when he is finally shot, or not. You see, all that torture the party has done to Winston only killed his "self", meaning he no longer exists as a thinking individual. He exists only as a puppet of the Party, forever selfless, forever loving Big Brother. While the party threatens to murder Winston with a single shot from a gun, they never did.

Winston's self is the part that makes him human and unique — it essentially is Winston. And now that it is dead, he waits only for his [[Necron|soulless shell of a body]] to die as well.

==The World of 1984==
[[File:Late1984.gif|center|thumb|800px|[[Grimdark|Welcome to the world of 1984. There is no escape, no hope and no peace. Have fun!]]]]
Because of how much the Party of Ingsoc controls the perception of reality, the state of international relations as a whole should be taken with a humongous grain of salt. For all we know, Oceania actually encompass the entire planet and just intentionally bombs their people to keep the hysteria and illusion of war possible. On the other hand, Oceania could just consist of Airstrip One and actually be a third-rate joke of a country pretending to be a superpower like North Korea. Nevertheless, according to the Party, the world of 1984 is split into three spheres of influence, each under the control of the respective super-states.

===Oceania===
The main super-state and the one that 1984 is centered in. Oceania is a supernational entity that was formed after the revolutions in the 1950s and 1960s following the atomic wars during that time period. Basically, it led to the United States absorbing (AKA annexing) the weakened and collapsing British Empire along with its dominions, conquering South America and portions of South Africa. Following this, there was a civil war within the newly formed Oceania fought between the newly established English Socialists against the established Capitalists and other ideological parties. What happened during that period is unknown, as Oceania had already altered the realities of history and thus, the past. What is known is that the English Socialists (now shortened to Ingsoc) won and become the ONLY political entity. It was not known who was formed first, Oceania or Eurasia; either way, such petty differences was of minute importance in 1984.

As one of the three world superpowers, Oceania obviously commands a immense military industrial complex, a large military and a sufficiently strong enough economy to support a never ending war. Whilst Oceania may not be as geographically as large as Eurasia nor as populated as Eastasia, Oceania could rest easily knowing that it is defended by two great oceans, the Atlantic and Pacific. The presence of these oceans means that Oceania has a immense navy and is possibly Oceania's key advantage over the other three super-states. Furthermore, these oceans makes Oceania impenetrable from any potential land invasions, as to cross these vast oceans would meet sufficient resistance from Oceanian floating fortresses.

Oceania's governmental structure is left intentionally vague, although hints and snippets from Goldstien's book (which, might we add, may actually be fabricated by Big Brother himself as a [[trap]] to lure potential dissidents) suggests that Oceania runs on some form of oligarchical aristocracy. But it is not an aristocracy in the traditional sense, for a traditional Aristocracy must have a group of nobles ruling a state and propagated though usual hereditary means; Oceania is not designed to be hereditary, so it could be said that the aristocratic Inner Party is aristocratic only in terms of being 'noble' through loyalty and Party affiliations. In this case, it is also an Oligarchy as only 2-3% of Oceania's population are from the Inner Party. Likewise, Oceania also showcases both examples of capitalism and socialism in its economic framework: capitalistic in the sense of the Party's "need" to overproduce products for the sake of being wastefully consumed through warfare, and socialistic in the sense private property no longer exists and a planned economy seem to be in the works (multiple telescreen announcements proclaim a victory of the battle of production through a three year plan).

Nevertheless, Oceania's foreign policy, like its adversaries, are constantly in a state of flux - they declare war or ally with either Eurasia or Eastasia, whichever suits the national interests of the three governments, thus staying in power through perpetual war.

===Eurasia===
[[File:george-orwell-cartography.jpg|right|thumb|Another view of the map of 1984, showcasing the two primary fronts of perpetual war.]]
The second super-state that is frequently mentioned. Eurasia is constantly seen as the main antagonistic entity that Oceania is fighting against (at the very least in the first half). Like Oceania, Eurasia was formed from the atomic wars in the 1950s. It is not known which super-state was formed first, Oceania or Eurasia. Whilst Oceania formed from the absorption of the British Empire into the United States, Eurasia was formed from the Soviet Union annexing Europe, the Middle-East and Northern Africa above Sub-Sahara at the maximum. Eurasia, being a blatant expy of the USSR, followed an ideology called Neo-Bolshevism which is almost ideologically similiar to the other super-state's ideologies.

As you may already know, Eurasia is possibly the largest of the super-states in terms of geographical size. Unlike Oceania, which is protected by the two large oceans of the Pacific and Atlantic, Eurasia does not have that much access to the waterways. Indeed, Eurasia most likely have very limited presence in the heavily dominated Oceanian Atlantic Ocean, and have some modest presence in the Indian Ocean. The Arctic ice sheets are the primary reason why the Eurasian navy never matured. Nevertheless, Eurasia's sheer land mass makes Eurasia itself unconquerable as the large varied landscapes of Eurasia, not to mention areas such as the Ural Mountains, the Swiss Alps, the Sahara and the Gobi Desert is an absolute logistical nightmare for any Oceanian forces willing to invade the heartland of Eurasia. Furthermore, Eurasia seems advance towards rocket technology as rocket-bombs constantly hit Airstrip One on a daily basis. Eurasia's mechanical divisions seems to be the most powerful of the super-states and its armies are vast and extreme. Near the end of 1984, the Eurasian army was big enough to invade and almost conquer the whole of Africa before Oceanian [[tactical genius]] attacked the Eurasian army from behind through the Horn of Africa and broke apart the invasion force. Likewise, Eurasia's most vulnerable area seems to be its borders with Eastasia, whose territory from Mongolia, Manchuria and Tibet are constantly in flux, although these territorial changes aren't that significant to the two powers.

It is unknown what governmental structure Eurasia has; considering that Eurasia is just an "evolution" of the Soviet Union, one could estimate and guess that Eurasia's governmental structure resembles a socialist oligarchy, in which close Eurasian Party members stay in perpetual power from the larger masses. There would probably be no middle-class unlike in Oceania, where the Outer Party constitutes the middle. Economically, Eurasia's Neo-Bolshevism may imply that it is still largely a communist-run economy with planned economies even stronger than Oceania's.

Like the three super-states, Eurasia's foreign policy is constantly changing, with Eurasia constantly allying and betraying either Oceania or Eastasia in order to keep the illusion of perpetual war and stay in power.

===Eastasia===
The third super-state and the least known of the superpowers. Unlike Oceania and Eurasia, we actually do know when Eastasia was created. Eastasia is the youngest of the super-states as it was formed a decade after Oceania and Eurasia due to a period of [[Derp|'confused fighting']] (So somewhere in the 1960s). Of course Eastasia also posses the oldest continuous civilization of the three super-states. Due to the time period that Orwell had published 1984, the Chinese civil war was still ongoing at that time (The book was published in 1949, a few months before the communists beat the nationalists and proclaimed the PRC) and Orwell speculated that the war would continue longer than he expected. Anyways, Eastasia is overtly referenced to be formed by Mao's China annexing the Korean Peninsula, Japan, Northern India and some countries south of China such as parts of Indochina, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Mongolia isn't one of the countries absorbed by China because at that time period, China still retained the territories of the former Qing Dynasty and Mongolia was already part of China at that time. The main ideology of Eastasia is loosely translated into Death-Worship, although the full translation is called [[Lulz|Obliteration of the Self]].

Currently, Eastasia is geographically the smallest of the three superpowers, but its small size does not mean that Eastasia is the weakest. If anything, a long war of attrition favors Eastasia above all. Whilst Eurasia is unconquerable due to its landmass and Oceania is protected by two oceans, Eastasia is safeguarded by sheer population size. Indeed, Eastasia is the most populous of the three super-states and their citizens are as industrialized as their Eurasian and Oceanian counterparts. With its large population and relatively smaller geography, Eastasia finds it easier for it to defend its territories from the other two rival super-states and unlike Eurasia which is large but demographically stretched thin, Eastasia does not need to worry of any unpopulated and thus, undefended territories. Eastasia possibly posses the largest standing army out of any of the superpowers due to its population and posses an equally strong navy to contest territorial disputes in the Indian and Pacific Ocean. Furthermore, Eastasia's geography makes it extremely difficult to invade as Eastasia controls the Himalayan Mountain Range, parts of the Gobi Desert and Eurasia acting as a buffer state in the north.

In terms of governmental structure, we have even less information on Eastasia. Of course it wouldn't be surprising if Eastasia shares the same Oligarchical system as Oceania or Eurasia. Eastasia's Death-Worship ideology do suggests or hint that Eastasia follows a form of ancestral worship and immortalization akin to North Korea's eternal president Kim Il-Sung. No information is known on the economic aspects of Eastasia however; but the collectivist culture stemming from Chinese Confucianism and Maoist China do make Eastasia head to a direction in which its government resembles a council of Elders akin to a Gerontocracy, with a heavily centralized economy with some of Mao's schlick of constant revolution to revive the revolutionary spirit.

Eastasia like the other two superpowers, are constantly at war and at peace with either Oceania and Eurasia in order to ensure that its populace stay forever loyal the state from fear of being conquered.

===Everyone Else===
Anyone of anything that is not part of either of the three superpowers are forced to live a life in perpetual misery, suffering and slavery. These poor bastards from the Equatorial Front, which stretches from Sub-Saharan Africa to the Gulf States and into South-East Asia, are constantly at the mercy of being unceremoniously killed by Eurasian, Eastasian or Oceanian forces or enslaved by their masters to work in labor camps. The territories of the Equatorial Front is constantly in flux as the three superpowers continuously gain and lose territory, all in the guise of perpetuating the war and waste resource to ensure a healthy dose of fear, hatred and xenophobia to their enemies.

Another front of endless fighting also occurs in the north called the Polar Front, in which Oceania and primarily Eurasia contest and compete on who holds claim to the Arctic Ice Sheets. Not much known on Antarctica however, as no one seems to lay claim to it. It could be due to Antarctica's status as being [[Death World|permanently terra nihilus]] that no one wants to step foot on it. That or Antarctica is such a miserable and useless place even for the standards of 1984 that none of the superpowers could find any strategic interests in annexing an area with no known resources or mcguffin to fight over until the other two are dealt with and only to have a place to disappear people to.

== Warhammer 40k's grimdark elements inspired from 1984 ==
[[File:1984.jpeg|right|300px|thumb|He is watching you, and waiting for you to do something heretical.]]
* '''The Big Brother''': Big Brother is the omnipotent figurehead created by the ruling Party for those poor bastards to worship (while Big Brother may or may not exist in 1984, the God-Emperor of the Imperium in 40k does exist), and like with real-world religious fundamentalists sex is even considered evil because it takes away veneration from the God-figure. However, despite the totalitarian fanaticism, the society that did inspire 1984 (the Soviet Union) was militantly atheistic regularly partaking in [[Imperial Truth|the execution of clergymen, destroying places of worship and publishing defamatory anti-religious propaganda]]. The veneration of certain figures being a Cult of Personality, and even then it was only for Party members; most of Russia's proles remained Eastern Orthodox but only kept it to themselves for fear of [[Blam]] by the government or government loyalists (again, North Korea under the Kim Dynasty is a better analogy).

* '''Constant Surveillance''': In 1984, there are these shitty TV networks that were created to stalk you and [[lulz|troll]] you everyday call the "telescreens" and you cannot turn them off. If you somehow manage to turn one off, you will be captured by the thought police and have your ass beaten. There are other surveillance devices such as helicopters (for tall apartment buildings), thought police, and even your own children (whom were part of the party's child spies program that keeps an eye on their parents, and they would turned on their parents without a second thought just so they would be labelled as a hero by the public if they do so, the shitty brat). The only people who are free from this nightmare are the underclass Proles, and that's because they're so dumb the Party considers them animals who do not give a fuck about politics, doing nothing but work, drink and wank to porn. Yes, you yourself are one such filthy dumbass Prole, using this Telescreen for hentai instead of [[/tg/ gets shit done|actually doing something]]. In Warhammer 40k, there are the secret police of the Inquisition which have psykers reading people's minds everyday, and Adeptus Arbites who serve [[derp|fair justice]] to common proletarians everyday. Also noted that in the Age of Apostasy, Goge Vandire had [[Servo-skull|Cherubim]] installed everywhere to act as his own telescreens for whatever the fuck he had his minds on.

* '''In The Grim Darkness Of The Far Future There Is only War''': In 1984, eternal war is the best way for Oceania (which is composed of the Americas, the British Isles (called "Airstrip One" in the novel), Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, and southern Africa below the River Congo... [[Skub|according to Oceania]]) to have their lonely [[Ork|excuse for fun]]; they wage unnecessary wars with <s>friendly</s> countries that are almost exactly the same as they are, using the lands of unaligned countries as the battlefield, the inhabitants of those areas being forced to live in constant slavery under whichever power controls them at that time. All of this is so they can justify their brutal totalitarian rule, which is in place to preserve the [[Games Workshop|status quo]]. This involves spending most of their money on building more [[Stormraven|flying metal boxes]] or floating fortress, a massive waste of force labors that locks up people to build useless cargo ships. The party never giving benefits to their own people who are cramped into [[Hive|1000 meters-high city prisons for your grandmother to live in]]. Oceania's neighbors (assuming they even exist) are [[Orks|Eurasia(Europe, Soviet Union and Middle-East)]] and [[Eldar|Eastasia(all of Northern India and East Asia except for Russia)]], who are just as much of a shithole like Oceania and they are constantly changing sides because they know the war is mutually beneficial. Once they are done [[Promotions|buttsecks]] with each others for resources, they would backstab their allies and making their old enemy a new ally. Again, they three countries (assuming they are three separate countries, and not just a world-spanning Oceania faking a war with itself, or even just a tiny rogue state spewing all this BS) let their ex-ally backstab them on purpose, just to make sure the war never ends, just to make sure the benefits are always funneling into the national treasury.

* '''The Ministry of (love, truth, peace, plenty)''': In 1984, the Oceania had their own departments of powers to control their filthy peasants. Despite their organization have names like truth and love, it is actually the opposite. '''The Ministry of Truth''' is basically [[Administratum]], where all the history records and documents were "true" and they are certainly not destroyed or rewritten to provide false propaganda. You dispute this? Ha! Where's your proof? Oh please, memories are faulty things. '''The Ministry of Love''' is where all the heretics are cared with "love" and the staff members will definitely not treat them with unorthodox methods of torture or mind rape, or both. '''The Ministry of Peace''' is the army because only true peace can be found through oppression with [[Autogun|bullets]], [[Chainsword|cold steel]] and [[Flamer|fire]]. An act of war is actually an act of peace, where we enforce the foreign barbarian with "liberty"! '''The Ministry of Plenty''' is the food distribution to provide "plenty" for all and certainly not feed the upper class while keeping everyone else in a famine; also, the chocolate rations have been increased to 10 grams - they have never been 15 grams and were certainly not ''decreased'' to 10 grams. Noted how this 4 ministries is comparable to the four chaos gods. [[Tzeentch]] is truth (deceive people with lies), [[Khorne]] is peace (eternal war), [[Slaanesh]] is love (sadistic fun) and [[Nurgle]] is plenty (health through illness and famine)

==See Also==
*[[Imperium|Imperium Of Man]]
*[[Grimdark]]
*[[Communism]]
*[[Paranoia]]

[[category: Literature]]

1984

2020-12-26T22:37:57Z

2001:8003:2385:EF00:78DC:4C14:3855:CB5B: /* Plot */

[[File:Big brother 1984.jpg|center|450px|thumb|[[Kane|BIG BROTHER LIVES IN DEATH! BIG BROTHER LIVES! PEACE THROUGH POWER!]]]]

[[Grimdark]] has always been a concept of humanity living in the worst environment as possible, and there is not even a single joy can be found in an utterly grimdark world. '''''1984''''' is an example of such a world. It is a novel by George Orwell (real name Eric Arthur Blair, but he didn't use it on his books because reasons) published in 1949, primarily about what would happen if the government has complete control over everyone, [[How Imperial Life Is Worse Than You Can Imagine|where you will be watched everyday and being forced to believe whatever lies the government tell that week, or else you'll be tortured and mind-raped to absolute despair]].

Orwell began work on ''1984'' eight months after reading (and being directly inspired by) ''We'', one of the earliest known dystopian novels and arguably the first thoroughly detailed totalitarian society in science fiction. Written in 1921, the Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin was in turn inspired by his translations of [[H. G. Wells]] (though ''We'' wouldn't be published in his home country until 1988, mostly due to coming down with a serious case of "banned by the Soviet Union publishing committee"). Orwell's work was conceived as a cultural translation of the book, and it (and by extension ''We'') served as the inspiration for many a grimdark totalitarian dictatorship, particularly [[Paranoia]] and [[Warhammer 40k]].

The scariest parts are the fact that the book is merely a chronicle of the evils humanity is capable of: no dangerous aliens or demons, just us, not to mention the fact that Eurasia was inspired by a real-life nation; Soviet Russia (Stalin's regime). In fact, in the books Big Brother is mentioned near the end as having a mustache [http://cdn.history.com/sites/2/2013/12/joseph-stalin-AB.jpeg just like said tyrannical dictator]. However, it should be noted the book is a condemnation of tyranny and dictatorships in general, due to how similar all the three nations involved in some eternal war are. This ends up giving the work a lot of applicability, in that you could switch around their names with entities like Nazi Germany and [http://dystopiannightmare.com/the-gas-chamber-horror-of-north-koreas-gulag/#more-989 Kim-Il-Sung's North Korea] (he claimed to be inspired by Stalin) and not be able to tell the difference.

Orwell himself was a notable anti-fascist, having fought in the Spanish Civil War on the communist side; ironically enough, he would in fact sell out friends to the British government by ratting them out if they were gay (which in that era was considered [[Heresy|a crime punishable by death at worst]]). This makes him the [[Inquisition|third]] [[Eldrad|biggest dick]] amongst non-/tg/ related authors on /tg/, just barely beaten by [[Chick Tracts|his]] [[H.P. Lovecraft|competition]].

As such an influential work, expect comparisons to and mentions of ''1984'' to be thrown around carelessly and frequently by [[That Guy|someone who probably read it once and think they're instant experts on recognizing totalitarianism]]. One may optionally bring up the irony of his aforementioned government snitching for added hilarity.

== Plot ==
[[File:Winston smith rat torture.jpg|right|300px|thumb| [[skaven|YES. YES. ME PUNISH FOOLISH-SCARED NO FUR. CRY-TEAR AT ME MAN-THING!!]]]]
In [[Hive|Airstrip One, Oceania]], a middle-aged member of [[Administratum|the Ministry of Truth]], Winston Smith, isn't happy about his life. He's sick of doing the same thing every day; helping the government spread their propaganda, being exhausted at work, his home life dominated by his telescreen (pretty much "IN SOVIET RUSSIA, TV WATCHES YOU!", and woe betide anyone who breaks or turns theirs off), never getting laid (except for a far back encounter with an elderly prostitute; P.S prostitution is illegal here but is a crime that the state does not actually care much about) and not having enough to eat. But his life changes when he meets his co-worker, twenty-something brunette Julia. Despite coming across as a model citizen, even being a member of the [[Sisters of Cleaning|anti-sex league]], Julia gives him a secret message which says "I love you." After meeting her outside their work, they talk and Julia and Winston decide to [[Heresy|give each other what they want]], which is something the party considers [[Blam|unacceptable]]. Winston has a fun time [[Slaanesh|fucking Julia]], [[Tzeentch|learning about the past]], [[Nurgle|eating the real food the upper class gets]] and [[Khorne|writing in his notebook about how much he hates The Party]]. During this time, Winston's co-worker O'Brien introduces himself as a member of the secret anti-government Brotherhood and recruits Winston and Julia.

They receive a book on the Brotherhood's ideals and are instructed to continue with their affairs until called on by them. They do, making the inn where they had their first tryst their secret love nest. After a sex session, they start reading up on the Brotherhood (which can be summed up as idealist English Socialism). During a later tryst, they are found out and arrested by the [[Inquisition|Thought Police]], who had been spying on their room through a telescreen hidden behind a painting (the innkeeper is revealed to be an undercover Thought Police commander). They are beaten and taken to the Ministry of Love to be brainwashed. There, Winston is reunited with O'Brien, [[Just as Planned|and finds out that O'Brien is actually a top-level government agent; his "recruitment" of Winston and Julia, and maybe even the Brotherhood itself, was part of a sting operation]]. O'Brien [[Dark Eldar|tortures Winston to the brink of death and insanity]] while also gaslighting him, then when Winston starts to succumb to the brainwashing O'Brien nurses him back to health. After he monitors Winston in his sleep and finds out that Winston still loves Julia and hates Big Brother, O'Brien sends him to the dreaded Room 101 to meet his worst fear.

Interesting thing about this room is that it is where the party torture their victims with their worst fear, which is figured out through near-constant scrutiny since childhood, meaning the party may have already had Winston as well as everyone in their grip: "He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past". In Winston's case, his greatest fear is rats, because he found his house full of rats after his mother and sister's disappearance and assumed the rats ate them (note that back in the day, London - which is called Airstrip One in the book, the rat problems were so bad that civilians would die from either the diseases they spread or just straight up eaten by its swarm if they encountered one and couldn't fight them off). Using this fear, O'Brien put a metal cage like device with rats inside next to Winston's head (see picture on the right), [[Skaven|threatened him that he would let the rats eat his face]] and ultimately mind broke the poor Winston.

Months after being successfully brainwashed by the party Winston meets Julia again, who is also brainwashed, and both are uncertain about their futures and no longer love each other (it's also implied that Julia was lobotmoized). In the end Winston despairs so much he cannot even commit suicide, believes that [[derp|2+2=5]], and loves [[God-Emperor of Mankind|the Party's figurehead leader, Big Brother]].

And ''that's'' when he is finally shot, or not. You see, all that torture the party has done to Winston only killed his "self", meaning he no longer exists as a thinking individual. He exists only as a puppet of the Party, forever selfless, forever loving Big Brother. While the party threatens to murder Winston with a single shot from a gun, they never did.

Winston's self is the part that makes him human and unique — it essentially is Winston. And now that it is dead, he waits only for his [[Necron|soulless shell of a body]] to die as well.

==The World of 1984==
[[File:Late1984.gif|center|thumb|800px|[[Grimdark|Welcome to the world of 1984. There is no escape, no hope and no peace. Have fun!]]]]
Because of how much the Party of Ingsoc controls the perception of reality, the state of international relations as a whole should be taken with a humongous grain of salt. For all we know, Oceania actually encompass the entire planet and just intentionally bombs their people to keep the hysteria and illusion of war possible. On the other hand, Oceania could just consist of Airstrip One and actually be a third-rate joke of a country pretending to be a superpower like North Korea. Nevertheless, according to the Party, the world of 1984 is split into three spheres of influence, each under the control of the respective super-states.

===Oceania===
The main super-state and the one that 1984 is centered in. Oceania is a supernational entity that was formed after the revolutions in the 1950s and 1960s following the atomic wars during that time period. Basically, it led to the United States absorbing (AKA annexing) the weakened and collapsing British Empire along with its dominions, conquering South America and portions of South Africa. Following this, there was a civil war within the newly formed Oceania fought between the newly established English Socialists against the established Capitalists and other ideological parties. What happened during that period is unknown, as Oceania had already altered the realities of history and thus, the past. What is known is that the English Socialists (now shortened to Ingsoc) won and become the ONLY political entity. It was not known who was formed first, Oceania or Eurasia; either way, such petty differences was of minute importance in 1984.

As one of the three world superpowers, Oceania obviously commands a immense military industrial complex, a large military and a sufficiently strong enough economy to support a never ending war. Whilst Oceania may not be as geographically as large as Eurasia nor as populated as Eastasia, Oceania could rest easily knowing that it is defended by two great oceans, the Atlantic and Pacific. The presence of these oceans means that Oceania has a immense navy and is possibly Oceania's key advantage over the other three super-states. Furthermore, these oceans makes Oceania impenetrable from any potential land invasions, as to cross these vast oceans would meet sufficient resistance from Oceanian floating fortresses.

Oceania's governmental structure is left intentionally vague, although hints and snippets from Goldstien's book (which, might we add, may actually be fabricated by Big Brother himself as a [[trap]] to lure potential dissidents) suggests that Oceania runs on some form of oligarchical aristocracy. But it is not an aristocracy in the traditional sense, for a traditional Aristocracy must have a group of nobles ruling a state and propagated though usual hereditary means; Oceania is not designed to be hereditary, so it could be said that the aristocratic Inner Party is aristocratic only in terms of being 'noble' through loyalty and Party affiliations. In this case, it is also an Oligarchy as only 2-3% of Oceania's population are from the Inner Party. Likewise, Oceania also showcases both examples of capitalism and socialism in its economic framework: capitalistic in the sense of the Party's "need" to overproduce products for the sake of being wastefully consumed through warfare, and socialistic in the sense private property no longer exists and a planned economy seem to be in the works (multiple telescreen announcements proclaim a victory of the battle of production through a three year plan).

Nevertheless, Oceania's foreign policy, like its adversaries, are constantly in a state of flux - they declare war or ally with either Eurasia or Eastasia, whichever suits the national interests of the three governments, thus staying in power through perpetual war.

===Eurasia===
[[File:george-orwell-cartography.jpg|right|thumb|Another view of the map of 1984, showcasing the two primary fronts of perpetual war.]]
The second super-state that is frequently mentioned. Eurasia is constantly seen as the main antagonistic entity that Oceania is fighting against (at the very least in the first half). Like Oceania, Eurasia was formed from the atomic wars in the 1950s. It is not known which super-state was formed first, Oceania or Eurasia. Whilst Oceania formed from the absorption of the British Empire into the United States, Eurasia was formed from the Soviet Union annexing Europe, the Middle-East and Northern Africa above Sub-Sahara at the maximum. Eurasia, being a blatant expy of the USSR, followed an ideology called Neo-Bolshevism which is almost ideologically similiar to the other super-state's ideologies.

As you may already know, Eurasia is possibly the largest of the super-states in terms of geographical size. Unlike Oceania, which is protected by the two large oceans of the Pacific and Atlantic, Eurasia does not have that much access to the waterways. Indeed, Eurasia most likely have very limited presence in the heavily dominated Oceanian Atlantic Ocean, and have some modest presence in the Indian Ocean. The Arctic ice sheets are the primary reason why the Eurasian navy never matured. Nevertheless, Eurasia's sheer land mass makes Eurasia itself unconquerable as the large varied landscapes of Eurasia, not to mention areas such as the Ural Mountains, the Swiss Alps, the Sahara and the Gobi Desert is an absolute logistical nightmare for any Oceanian forces willing to invade the heartland of Eurasia. Furthermore, Eurasia seems advance towards rocket technology as rocket-bombs constantly hit Airstrip One on a daily basis. Eurasia's mechanical divisions seems to be the most powerful of the super-states and its armies are vast and extreme. Near the end of 1984, the Eurasian army was big enough to invade and almost conquer the whole of Africa before Oceanian [[tactical genius]] attacked the Eurasian army from behind through the Horn of Africa and broke apart the invasion force. Likewise, Eurasia's most vulnerable area seems to be its borders with Eastasia, whose territory from Mongolia, Manchuria and Tibet are constantly in flux, although these territorial changes aren't that significant to the two powers.

It is unknown what governmental structure Eurasia has; considering that Eurasia is just an "evolution" of the Soviet Union, one could estimate and guess that Eurasia's governmental structure resembles a socialist oligarchy, in which close Eurasian Party members stay in perpetual power from the larger masses. There would probably be no middle-class unlike in Oceania, where the Outer Party constitutes the middle. Economically, Eurasia's Neo-Bolshevism may imply that it is still largely a communist-run economy with planned economies even stronger than Oceania's.

Like the three super-states, Eurasia's foreign policy is constantly changing, with Eurasia constantly allying and betraying either Oceania or Eastasia in order to keep the illusion of perpetual war and stay in power.

===Eastasia===
The third super-state and the least known of the superpowers. Unlike Oceania and Eurasia, we actually do know when Eastasia was created. Eastasia is the youngest of the super-states as it was formed a decade after Oceania and Eurasia due to a period of [[Derp|'confused fighting']] (So somewhere in the 1960s). Of course Eastasia also posses the oldest continuous civilization of the three super-states. Due to the time period that Orwell had published 1984, the Chinese civil war was still ongoing at that time (The book was published in 1949, a few months before the communists beat the nationalists and proclaimed the PRC) and Orwell speculated that the war would continue longer than he expected. Anyways, Eastasia is overtly referenced to be formed by Mao's China annexing the Korean Peninsula, Japan, Northern India and some countries south of China such as parts of Indochina, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Mongolia isn't one of the countries absorbed by China because at that time period, China still retained the territories of the former Qing Dynasty and Mongolia was already part of China at that time. The main ideology of Eastasia is loosely translated into Death-Worship, although the full translation is called [[Lulz|Obliteration of the Self]].

Currently, Eastasia is geographically the smallest of the three superpowers, but its small size does not mean that Eastasia is the weakest. If anything, a long war of attrition favors Eastasia above all. Whilst Eurasia is unconquerable due to its landmass and Oceania is protected by two oceans, Eastasia is safeguarded by sheer population size. Indeed, Eastasia is the most populous of the three super-states and their citizens are as industrialized as their Eurasian and Oceanian counterparts. With its large population and relatively smaller geography, Eastasia finds it easier for it to defend its territories from the other two rival super-states and unlike Eurasia which is large but demographically stretched thin, Eastasia does not need to worry of any unpopulated and thus, undefended territories. Eastasia possibly posses the largest standing army out of any of the superpowers due to its population and posses an equally strong navy to contest territorial disputes in the Indian and Pacific Ocean. Furthermore, Eastasia's geography makes it extremely difficult to invade as Eastasia controls the Himalayan Mountain Range, parts of the Gobi Desert and Eurasia acting as a buffer state in the north.

In terms of governmental structure, we have even less information on Eastasia. Of course it wouldn't be surprising if Eastasia shares the same Oligarchical system as Oceania or Eurasia. Eastasia's Death-Worship ideology do suggests or hint that Eastasia follows a form of ancestral worship and immortalization akin to North Korea's eternal president Kim Il-Sung. No information is known on the economic aspects of Eastasia however; but the collectivist culture stemming from Chinese Confucianism and Maoist China do make Eastasia head to a direction in which its government resembles a council of Elders akin to a Gerontocracy, with a heavily centralized economy with some of Mao's schlick of constant revolution to revive the revolutionary spirit.

Eastasia like the other two superpowers, are constantly at war and at peace with either Oceania and Eurasia in order to ensure that its populace stay forever loyal the state from fear of being conquered.

===Everyone Else===
Anyone of anything that is not part of either of the three superpowers are forced to live a life in perpetual misery, suffering and slavery. These poor bastards from the Equatorial Front, which stretches from Sub-Saharan Africa to the Gulf States and into South-East Asia, are constantly at the mercy of being unceremoniously killed by Eurasian, Eastasian or Oceanian forces or enslaved by their masters to work in labor camps. The territories of the Equatorial Front is constantly in flux as the three superpowers continuously gain and lose territory, all in the guise of perpetuating the war and waste resource to ensure a healthy dose of fear, hatred and xenophobia to their enemies.

Another front of endless fighting also occurs in the north called the Polar Front, in which Oceania and primarily Eurasia contest and compete on who holds claim to the Arctic Ice Sheets. Not much known on Antarctica however, as no one seems to lay claim to it. It could be due to Antarctica's status as being [[Death World|permanently terra nihilus]] that no one wants to step foot on it. That or Antarctica is such a miserable and useless place even for the standards of 1984 that none of the superpowers could find any strategic interests in annexing an area with no known resources or mcguffin to fight over until the other two are dealt with and only to have a place to disappear people to.

== Warhammer 40k's grimdark elements inspired from 1984 ==
[[File:1984.jpeg|right|300px|thumb|He is watching you, and waiting for you to do something heretical.]]
* '''The Big Brother''': Big Brother is the omnipotent figurehead created by the ruling Party for those poor bastards to worship (while Big Brother may or may not exist in 1984, the God-Emperor of the Imperium in 40k does exist), and like with real-world religious fundamentalists sex is even considered evil because it takes away veneration from the God-figure. However, despite the totalitarian fanaticism, the society that did inspire 1984 (the Soviet Union) was militantly atheistic regularly partaking in [[Imperial Truth|the execution of clergymen, destroying places of worship and publishing defamatory anti-religious propaganda]]. The veneration of certain figures being a Cult of Personality, and even then it was only for Party members; most of Russia's proles remained Eastern Orthodox but only kept it to themselves for fear of [[Blam]] by the government or government loyalists (again, North Korea under the Kim Dynasty is a better analogy).

* '''Constant Surveillance''': In 1984, there are these shitty TV networks that were created to stalk you and [[lulz|troll]] you everyday call the "telescreens" and you cannot turn them off. If you somehow manage to turn one off, you will be captured by the thought police and have your ass beaten. There are other surveillance devices such as helicopters (for tall apartment buildings), thought police, and even your own children (whom were part of the party's child spies program that keeps an eye on their parents, and they would turned on their parents without a second thought just so they would be labelled as a hero by the public if they do so, the shitty brat). The only people who are free from this nightmare are the underclass Proles, and that's because they're so dumb the Party considers them animals who do not give a fuck about politics, doing nothing but work, drink and wank to porn. Yes, you yourself are one such filthy dumbass Prole, using this Telescreen for hentai instead of [[/tg/ gets shit done|actually doing something]]. In Warhammer 40k, there are the secret police of the Inquisition which have psykers reading people's minds everyday, and Adeptus Arbites who serve [[derp|fair justice]] to common proletarians everyday. Also noted that in the Age of Apostasy, Goge Vandire had [[Servo-skull|Cherubim]] installed everywhere to act as his own telescreens for whatever the fuck he had his minds on.

* '''In The Grim Darkness Of The Far Future There Is only War''': In 1984, eternal war is the best way for Oceania (which is composed of the Americas, the British Isles (called "Airstrip One" in the novel), Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, and southern Africa below the River Congo... [[Skub|according to Oceania]]) to have their lonely [[Ork|excuse for fun]]; they wage unnecessary wars with <s>friendly</s> countries that are almost exactly the same as they are, using the lands of unaligned countries as the battlefield, the inhabitants of those areas being forced to live in constant slavery under whichever power controls them at that time. All of this is so they can justify their brutal totalitarian rule, which is in place to preserve the [[Games Workshop|status quo]]. This involves spending most of their money on building more [[Stormraven|flying metal boxes]] or floating fortress, a massive waste of force labors that locks up people to build useless cargo ships. The party never giving benefits to their own people who are cramped into [[Hive|1000 meters-high city prisons for your grandmother to live in]]. Oceania's neighbors (assuming they even exist) are [[Orks|Eurasia(Europe, Soviet Union and Middle-East)]] and [[Eldar|Eastasia(all of Northern India and East Asia except for Russia)]], who are just as much of a shithole like Oceania and they are constantly changing sides because they know the war is mutually beneficial. Once they are done [[Promotions|buttsecks]] with each others for resources, they would backstab their allies and making their old enemy a new ally. Again, they three countries (assuming they are three separate countries, and not just a world-spanning Oceania faking a war with itself, or even just a tiny rogue state spewing all this BS) let their ex-ally backstab them on purpose, just to make sure the war never ends, just to make sure the benefits are always funneling into the national treasury.

* '''The Ministry of (love, truth, peace, plenty)''': In 1984, the Oceania had their own departments of powers to control their filthy peasants. Despite their organization have names like truth and love, it is actually the opposite. '''The Ministry of Truth''' is basically [[Administratum]], where all the history records and documents were "true" and they are certainly not destroyed or rewritten to provide false propaganda. You dispute this? Ha! Where's your proof? Oh please, memories are faulty things. '''The Ministry of Love''' is where all the heretics are cared with "love" and the staff members will definitely not treat them with unorthodox methods of torture or mind rape, or both. '''The Ministry of Peace''' is the army because only true peace can be found through oppression with [[Autogun|bullets]], [[Chainsword|cold steel]] and [[Flamer|fire]]. An act of war is actually an act of peace, where we enforce the foreign barbarian with "liberty"! '''The Ministry of Plenty''' is the food distribution to provide "plenty" for all and certainly not feed the upper class while keeping everyone else in a famine; also, the chocolate rations have been increased to 10 grams - they have never been 15 grams and were certainly not ''decreased'' to 10 grams. Noted how this 4 ministries is comparable to the four chaos gods. [[Tzeentch]] is truth (deceive people with lies), [[Khorne]] is peace (eternal war), [[Slaanesh]] is love (sadistic fun) and [[Nurgle]] is plenty (health through illness and famine)

==See Also==
*[[Imperium|Imperium Of Man]]
*[[Grimdark]]
*[[Communism]]
*[[Paranoia]]

[[category: Literature]]

Slavery

2020-12-26T22:28:50Z

2001:8003:2385:EF00:78DC:4C14:3855:CB5B: /* History stuff */

{{sick}}
[[image:Slaves sugar cane.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Slaves harvesting sugar cane, not a lot fun for them. It is really good in tea, though.]]
{{Topquote|I came here in peace, seeking gold and slaves.|Jack Handey, ''What I'd Say to the Martians''}}

'''Slavery''' is the institution of owning other humans ([[Hard Science Fiction|as well as other sapient]] [[Soft Science Fiction|beings by extrapolation]]) as property. As slaves are bound to their owners, they were prevented from leaving or refusing to work under threat of immediate violence for disobedience. When two groups would fight, it was not uncommon for the victor to capture some of the defeated along with the goods or territory and put them to work. Later on, as long-distance trade improved, they also began selling said captives to other cultures. The children of slaves usually were slaves themselves, though this was not universal.

In other cases, people would be put into slavery as a punishment, e.g. for failure to pay their debts, or voluntarily such as an alternative to paying for something. Some systems of slavery even offered opportunities for, like the Devshirmeh system in Ottoman Empire, where boys taken from among Christian vassals who were bright enough could actually end up as Grand Vizier of the Empire (with a few caveats; they had to be smart and all of them had to be converted to Islam willingly or not... either way they weren't allowed to stay Christian).

In addition to the practice of owning human beings as chattel, there are other contemporary and historical arrangements so similar to slavery that they are referred to as slavery informally or at that point in history. A few of these include serfdom ([[Peasant|serfs]] were not owned, but they were bound to the land owned by [[noble]]s and are required to work the noble's land 2-3 days per week for free and keep what else they could grow-keep-trade), indentured servitude in colonial America (in exchange for passage to the new world being paid, criminal fines or to discharge a debt, someone would be indentured to a contract holder and have to work off their debt over a number of years such as British criminals and Irish people too poor to pay for the trip), impressment and shanghaiing (where people were kidnapped from ports or ships and forced to serve as sailors with said debt not being hereditary), the various forced labor programs used by the [[Nazi|Nazis]] and other despotic regimes and the victims of human trafficking which is still ongoing today.

== History stuff ==
{{skubby}}
The oldest surviving codex of laws yet discovered in the world, the "Code of Ur-Nammu" dating back to at least 2050 BC, has multiple references to slaves, so slavery has been with humanity for a ''very'' long time. Slavery was practiced in virtually every culture at some point throughout their history; as soon as a people progressed from a hunter-gathering and nomadic culture to an agrarian one it became more convenient to look for ways to increase productivity and lower expenses. Before the advent of modern machinery, that way was some flavor of slave workforce since you generally had to spend less resources on a slave than you would on your fellow clan member.

In the ancient world, basically all civilizations made use of slavery to some degree or another. Prisoners of war were taken as slaves and made to ply their trade for their conquerors, or were sold abroad for goods. Since civilizations would wax and wane from time to time, the enslavers of one generation might end up enslaved in the next. The Ancient Egyptians made use of slaves in various ways though even there there was something of a hierarchy among slaves. The Greeks made heavier-than-usual use of slaves, and the Romans even more so. The Persians did not use slavery themselves and tried to limit it, but slavery did exist in their Empire among their conquered vassals. Slaves worked in every field from miners (who were quickly worked to death) to farmers, to factory workers and skilled craftsmen. Other examples range from the [[Grimdark]] examples of sex slaves or fodder for human sacrifice (the latter being something the Aztecs were notorious for), to non dark examples such as entertainers, teachers and doctors (particularly Greeks who could buy their freedom in a year, or even less if skilled) and even up to high ranking government officials in the Empire. Ancient Romans used to grumble about all these slaves coming in stealing people's jobs (this sentence is not a joke).

Slavery existed in [[Medieval Stasis|Medieval Europe]], but declined after the year 1,000 AD in a lot of places, especially the north. The Vikings practiced slavery, acquiring them primarily on expeditions or raids in Eastern Europe and the British Isles. They could also obtain Viking slaves at home, as crimes like murder and thievery were punished with slavery or through doing business with the Arab Slave Trade. The basis for the modern English word slave gets its roots here, as the Slavic races were so often put upon that [[Grimdark|the ordeal was named after them]], also providing the first example of race-based slavery. When Arabs, and later the Europeans, discovered the continent of Africa, there was much contact between local tribes and foreigners on this subject. Many nations would take slaves from the peoples of Africa abetted at times by local slavery systems among African people themselves (see below). [[Grimdark|In Brazil and most of the Caribbean between 1600 and 1800, the slave population never was able to achieve natural replacement rates due to a high death rate from overwork and abuse by their masters]]. The American system of slavery (aka "the peculiar institution") would arguably require an entire article of its own, but since we'd rather not try to poke that hornet's nest, suffice to say it was little different from the Caribbean experience and was only abolished by President Abraham Lincoln after the American Civil War (and was one of the reasons Lincoln was assassinated).

During this aforementioned time, the idea of racial slavery was raised. In the Classical World (for example, Ancient Rome), slaves were basically from everywhere in the Empire and many places beyond and the children of freed slaves in Rome became more Romans. While if Slavic people are considered a race, they were the first case of racial slavery due to being popular choices of slaves. Ideas raised in attempts to justify the idea arose between the Arab Slave Trade and the Atlantic Slave Trade. Slavery is not a nice thing even at the best of times, but racial slavery adds to it the conception that an enslaved race is inferior, doomed to servitude forever, and that people from it are unfit for anything else. Those caught up in it had little hope of ever elevating themselves from a state of being a form of livestock with the hands for manual labor. Slave ships sailed from the Middle East and Europe to Africa loaded with manufactured goods, textiles and weapons which they traded for prisoners of war, criminals and existing slaves. They were packed in like sardines to be shipped back to the countries of their slavers.

Africa has had slavery between its various tribes and kingdoms for millennia, even to the present day. Between this and many foreign civilizations making extensive use of African slaves, the history of slavery in Africa is complicated and violent. In Africa, even prior to the Arab slave trade or the Atlantic/European slave trade, slavery happened in all forms from ancient times. This was enacted between many of the various tribes and nations of Africa; however, in many African societies where slavery was prevalent, the enslaved people were not treated as chattel slaves and had certain rights in a system similar to indentured servitude elsewhere in the world. When the Arab slave trade - and centuries later, the Atlantic slave trade - began, many of the local slave systems began supplying captives for slave markets outside Africa. They also supplied local criminals and captives from rival tribes or nations to the Arab, European or American slave trades. This means African slave traders unwittingly helped fan the flames of the issue of racial slavery, unaware of the dehumanization these buyers would subject them to - and that's before the Scramble for Africa caused many of them to become slaves themselves.

In the Ottoman Empire, whose system can ''arguably'' be seen as similar to the Eastern Roman Empire, the system was more or less the same, but with a small possibility of moving up if you were a Christian (or claiming to be one) because Christians (and Jews) are considered "people of the Book", meaning the worthiest of non-Muslim people according to Islam. It had three sources of slaves: The first was Africa, with the usual [[Grimdark]] fate for blacks brought by the thousands, many castrated and dying during transport, females ending up as house slaves and non-castrated males working agriculture in Egypt and Anatolia as ''fellahin''. The second was the slave-port of Caffa, the most underreported and forgotten white slavery port which took ''millions'' of white slaves from Ukraine, males killed and women sold as sex slaves([[SJW|you don't get to hear much about it because they are not black]]). ''Devshirmeh'' is the name for the system of taking one boy out of 40 houses from the population of Christian vassals in the Ottoman Empire; this mostly meant Balkan Christians, with the inclusion of Bosniak Muslims while Armenians, Romani and Jews were explicitly excluded. The taken boys were converted to Islam one way or another, then made into elite monastic troops called Janissaries (new soldiers). If they proved intelligent, they were sent to the Imperial Academy in Enderun to become bureaucrats. Being slaves, they had no ''habeas corpus'' and could be executed at any time - in theory. In practice, while the threat hanging over their heads was very real, they could also push back against this by working their way into military ranks, marrying Ottoman princesses, engineering palace coups to kill off sultans who didn't pay them enough, or even investing back in their native countries such as Bosnia (the reason Bosniaks mourned the fall of the Janissary institution while EVERYONE ELSE celebrated it). The dangers of the ''devshirmeh'' system didn't stop some families from actively sending their kids there in desperation, often to the point of bribing the Janissary Aghas.

Female slaves in the Ottoman Empire didn't get as many opportunities, with the "best" option allowed to them being to end up as palace concubines. But this contained more backstabbing than a Tzeentchian party, and few died peacefully. Ironically, many concubines who ended up marrying Viziers or military officers ended up in better positions than concubines who were gunning for the top spot. With the advent of nationalism, the French Revolution, Russia conquering Ukraine and destroying the Muslim-Tatar slavery business (If only to preserve their white serf population) and the growing need for military reforms bitterly opposed by the Janissaries, the system's flaws burst like rotting cysts, and Ottoman-style slavery went the way of the Dodo in 1847 thanks to [[Noblebright|Abdulmajid's reforms]]. The harem was numerous enough by then, and the freed whites went on with their lives while the black population [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-Turks settled in Western Turkey as free farmers]. Slavery didn't ''completely'' end until [[Sebastian Thor|Atatürk]] did the [[Noblebright|final house-cleaning]] around the 1930's.

Eurasia, particularly Ukraine, was the hotbed of slavery for the Ottoman Empire, with the port city of Caffa being the continent's major slave ports. The Russians liberated it from the Crimean Khanate, whose major income was thousands of taken women and children from villages, supplying the Ottoman Empire's need for European/white women. Evliya Çelebi even wrote about the despair and cries of women separated from their children and then sold separately.

But the problem was particularly acute in Russia. Tzar Alexander II officially ended serfdom in Russia via two edicts in 1861 and 1866, liberating roughly 33 million people (23 million private serfs and at least 9 million state serfs) from obligations. But this was achieved by simply taxing all of them and paying the tax to their former lords. While this tax was intended to expire, ultimately the hardship this caused combined the Great War and other factors would lead to the abdication of the Tzar and the Russian Revolution.

In contrast to the above, slavery is virtually never mentioned in [[Oriental Adventures|east Asian-inspired]] settings. This has some basis in history in certain areas: The [[Mongols]]' nomadic lifestyle was not conductive to widespread slavery, though they did take some captives as slaves ([[Genghis motherfucking Khan|Genghis Khan]] himself was briefly a slave in his youth), and during the Mongol Empire's runs on conquering China people were often little better than slaves anyway. The Chinese themselves went through several periods of loosening and then making stricter laws surrounding slavery, usually rallying around who was in charge following their frequent wars to unify, only to break apart once more. The question of working conditions in China and comparisons to slavery along with "prison camps" came up during and after Mao Zedong's rise to power, but rather than poke that hornet's nest suffice to say these stories have more than a grain of truth to them (there's a reason for the stereotype of the Chinese sweatshop worker). The inhabitants of the Ryukyu islands "would die over" slavery rather than participate. Slavery in Asia was probably most prolific on the Korean peninsula, who had a caste system, but population growth, a few slave revolts and modernization eventually rendered it less than palatable.

The earliest European reports of [[Japan]] mention that, though it existed there, slavery was rare and primarily inflicted on debtors and prisoners of war. The main recorded examples are the maids/concubines of the rich, and those brought by Europeans themselves. One European held slave's physical stature impressed Oda Nobunaga so much that he purchased him, freed him and elevated him to samurai status. This man would be known as Yasuke, [[Anime|the only black samurai]]. During the Sengoku a not-insignificant of Japanese prisoners of war were sold to the Europeans for foreign trade until 1587/1595, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi banned it.

==Slavery in Fantasy==
Because slavery is viewed as such a moral repugnance throughout the modern world, it is an easy way for lazy [[GM]]s to get a reaction from players. Slavery being one of the common features of a setting's bad guys makes for an easy way to establish that civilization or organization is [[Alignment|evil]]. A bunch of armed guys attack a peaceful village with chains and whips to catch its residents, bind them, and take them to their dwelling, where they're treated worse than how we treat livestock and forced to: toil, be beaten, probably raped, and made to fight to the death in arenas for the amusement and benefit of some sick bastards? That is more than enough reason to establish "these guys are bad, go [[murderhobo|kill their asses]]" regardless of alignment; even Evil characters can simply indulge their drive to kill by offing slavers, and exploit the freed villagers and their families for more favors - particularly Lawful Evil ones.

However, this is not always the case; both the perceived "good" and "bad" factions can also engage in slavery, although how they do it usually defines who's good and who's bad (regardless of how minute the difference is). Take [[Araby]] and the [[Dark Elves]] in the ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battles|Warhammer Fantasy]]'' setting, for example. Both factions engage in wanton slavery and have no qualms about it being a common thing everywhere. However, what sort of defines each of them is how they see their slaves. In Araby, slaves have several rights, the children of slaves are guaranteed by law to not be slaves, and particularly cruel mistreatment of slaves will result in punishment to the masters and the mistreated becoming free. The Dark Elves consider all non-Dark Elves to be beneath them and will torture and maim their slaves, just because they think it is fun.

Though it is found in both, slavery is more common in fantasy settings than in science fiction. In your typical Tolkien knockoff, the way you go about digging rocks, harvesting lumber, tilling fields and raising buildings is normally with strong backs. In most sci-fi worlds, why have a bunch of slaves working in an irradiated asteroid space mine when you could have a bunch of robots who don't need slave drivers, don't require food or air, won't plot escape/rebellion ([[Men of Iron|'''hopefully''']]), and are stronger and easier to repair if damaged? ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' actually justifies having slaves fairly well in that, in the [[Imperium]], such automation is considered techno-[[heresy]] (or simply decayed like spaceship artillery loaders) due to a robot rebellion happening in the past and the risk of Chaos corruption for the machines, while the [[Dark Eldar]] are sick bastards who need to consume souls of psychically susceptible species (human youngsters are prime specimens, while Tau souls taste bland and weak) and get their rocks off at making others miserable.

Slavery of a [[/d/|certain kind]] is a common feature of many [[Magical Realm]]s.

==A Digression About the Economics of Slavery==
For serious worldbuilders who have it, you need to consider what economics already considers a long-standing question: Is slavery profitable in the long term, and if so where?

The consensus answer among economic historians to the first one is that yes, slavery can be profitable, but only in those situations where technology does not offer a faster/cheaper/safer solution. Indeed, most ancient Empires (Egyptian, Greek, Roman) had some form of institutionalized slavery that allowed them to endure. This being said, the very concept of slavery has some serious downsides (that have nothing to do with morality) dooming it in the long run. The short answer to the "where" question is "cash crops and other agriculture, unskilled labor, and a bit of mining", in roughly that order of profitability.

The practical downsides that doom slavery include, but are not limited to:

*First of all, in any area where sabotage is a serious concern slavery is usually a non-starter. For a recent example, look at the [[Nazi]]s using forced labor to build their weapons later in the war, and the quality of said weapons. That rules out most semi-modern mining, as well as just about any industry with any degree of mechanization and a surprising amount of agriculture.
** Despite mining being the stereotypical use of slaves in fiction, mining past a certain depth is sufficiently deadly and expensive that semi-skilled labor is '''absolutely required''', and a slave has a nice way to commit suicide AND hurt his master's profits at the same time. While ''other'' exploitative practices may be used, the training required means actual slavery-based mining is very much a no-go save for tasks such as the very basic work of breaking surface mineral seams, as well as open-pit mining, where "getting stuck" is not an issue and carrying loads to processing stations a la South American silver mining done by Spanish or simple stone quarries where all one needs doing is to hit a stone with a pick and carry the resulting ore chunks to the storage.
*Second, unless reproduction is heavily encouraged (and ties down the female slaves to light labor), slave populations have a tendency to drop over time, especially compared to relatively free populations (even ignoring manumission, buying freedom in better societies and escapes), and five seconds of thought on slaves' living conditions should lead to a few obvious conclusions as to why. So if you want to keep up, you need to constantly raid (or trade with raiders) for more slaves. Last time this was done beyond the 16th century, the United States wrecked the entire Barbary coast with artillery and freed slaves. So any "sustainable" raiding *will* attract military threats that will make sure any slave taken will eventually be more expensive than a free worker who is A) already available and willing, B) lives within the empire and C) has many motivations, such as family, welfare and [[Tzeentch|hopes for a good future]]).
*Third, slave-holding societies are usually economically out-competed by non-slave-holding societies once military considerations are either removed or temporarily equalized. There are plenty of reasons for this, but the big ones are the twin spectres of Incentives (which align more closely in non-slave societies) and Efficiency (effort you expend on keeping slaves from escaping or rebelling could usually be more productively used elsewhere, and that's just to ''start'', saying nothing of potentially intelligent slaves wasted in labor they are not optimal for rather than being educated and made into scientists).
*Fourth, if slaves are owned in large numbers they start to displace the local non-slaves. This is not a simple case of [[Meme|"DEY TOOK AHR JERBS"]], as the Romans can attest: when large numbers of slaves started to displace local farmers who were forced to sell their land for some reason or the other, said ex-farmers were driven to the cities, where there were not a lot of jobs either. This bred poverty, and from poverty rose a class dissatisfied with their lot in life as they starve while the rich grow fat. And from this rose political and civilian unrest, which is never good for any state. In the case of the Romans, this gave birth to a populist dictator, Julius Caesar and his adoptive son Octavian, which created a major precedent for all modern dictatorships and bread-and-circuses states.
*Lastly, having a large slave population essentially constituted a permanent fifth column presence. Every empire that employed slavery was compelled to maintain a large armed presence in its home territory to suppress revolts. This tended to limit the size that a state could grow to territorially, with only a few superpowers managing to consolidate enough territory with reliable regional governors to sustain a permanent campaigning military while retaining enough force at home to prevent rebellion. Serfdom policed by religion was more effective at maintaining civil order, with serfs tending to rebel only in the case of famine and excessive taxation.

[[Category:History]]