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Slavery

2022-05-22T06:18:55Z

2600:1702:2590:2FF0:CC5A:E73B:FDA9:A9EA: Undo revision 826968 by A Walrus (talk) The sentence doesn't say that.

{{sick|Only [[/pol/|sick fucks]] would ever justify enslaving a fellow human being.}}
[[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''}}
{{Topquote|No! We are true men, not slaves! I would sooner choose death than to betray my god and serve the likes of you!|A certain [[Chaos|Forsaken tribesman]], made a <s>foolish</s> bold decision to reject Nagash's slavery, and was devoured alive moments later by Nagash's ghouls. AKA getting exactly what he wants.}}

'''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.

Presently it's generally acknowledged that humans cannot be considered ''real assets'', although there remain locations where this is not an absolute, and only the most extreme activists consider this to be a universal right that should be extended to other organisms. And there are very few countries that have addressed the more tricky issues of conscription, prison labor, and non-dischargeable debt.

Economically slavery is... tricky. At the first glance it looks like free labour, meaning easy way of getting rich without paying your workers. But slavery have lots of hidden expenses, most notably on security and overseeing work, making it not nearly as free as it looks. Furthermore, most slaves are unfit for any sophisticated work, being way worse motivated in the result of their labour than hired workers. That's not to say you can't have slave engineers, teachers or other high-intelligence jobs, but historically it only worked by giving said highly skilled slaves so much freedom and privilege they end up more like contracted workers with no way of getting out of the contracts, and not much (if any) cheaper than free people doing the same job, so the only upside is that they don't run away from you and tell your secrets to your enemies. For this reason in most cultures for the overwhelming length of history slaves were a luxury, not really a means of creating wealth, unless you happen to have highly profitable industry with very low skill requirement, like strip mining in antiquity (deep mining required way more skill), cotton farming in new age or textile sweatshops in modern times. Even then it have another hidden detriment: slaves don't consume as much as free people, so they put a giant handbrake on the economy, hampering the circulation of the capital and generally making everyone, including even slave owners, poorer compared to the same economy running on hired labour instead of slavery. In short, slavery excells at making nobles or their equivalents in society richer than plebs, but not at making them richer than "nobles" of other societies that don't run on slavery. One of the reasons modern slavery only survived in 3-d world countries is that they're 3-d world partly because they still use slavery.

== 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 BCE, 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.

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, although contrary to popular beliefs pyramids weren't built by slaves but by free people (paid in fresh crops grown on the most fertile and irrigated lands in Egypt owned directly by king and worked by king's personal slaves as well as good amounts of meat). 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 1000 CE in a lot of places, especially the north. The Domesday Book (a census carried out by William the Conqueror in 1086) stipulated that about 10% of the population of England was slaves. 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 Vikings treatment of slaves was all over the spectrum, though they had a common practice of [[Grimdark|sacrificing slaves who outlived their masters]]. 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 (Libertus) in Rome became more Romans, and Rome being Rome, they even had the manumission (freeing) a religious/bureaucratic ritual onto itself. 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 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 to the new world, collecting sugar, rum, coffee and other goods produced by slave labor to sell them in the mother countries.

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'' (though the descendants of said slaves could and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmet_Ali_%C3%87elikten did] have success stories). 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]] or [[/pol/|the "right" kind of white]]). ''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 ([[Alignment#Lawful_Evil|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 (making him potentially the first and only non japanese Samuraï). 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. HOWEVER... the Japanese were one of the last countries to give up serfdom; the feudal land system disappeared along with the Samurai who oversaw it during the Meiji Restoration.

==Slavery in Fantasy==
[[File:Drow slaves Into the Darklands.jpg|thumb|[[Drow]] are notorious slavers.]]
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, maim and kill their slaves for various reasons including thinking its 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?

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

===Slavery in [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]===

Since we are a bunch of [[Warhammer]] nerds, here are some examples<ref>Besides the pair that allows us to explain that there's a sliding scale of evilness associated with slave-holding societies</ref> from those two/three settings, because we can't restrain ourselves:

[[Tomb Kings|Ancient Nehekharan's]] society mostly had its labor powered by slaves that were either prisoners of war or captured from oversea raid (like their Egypt counterpart). Most slaves would overwork themselves and die under the whips of the architects (or soon to be necrotects) while building a pyramid (Settra's pyramid only took 20 years and cost over 2000 slaves; His successor's pyramid usually took 25 years and cost over one million slaves). This does not mean Nehekharan were mostly cruel tyrants, for a few kind or wise rulers would grant a boon to talented slaves by giving them a place in their hierarchy, allowing some of them to even become a vizier (second most powerful man in a great city besides a priest king). Females would be used as servants instead of labor just because they are good looking.

Then there's [[Nagash]]. HE believed everyone but him are either slaves, fuel for spells or enemies to kill (then made into undead slaves). Even talented generals and his nine noble lieutenants were just considered his most useful slaves, and he only treated them better because he understood positive reinforcement was the best approach with them. Necromancy was his idea of free labor; to build the Black Pyramid, Nagash was merciless even by Nehekharan standards (in hindsight, his dad getting a fuck ton of slaves killed to build his own pyramid, which Nagash would [[Grimdark|wall up his own brother alive in to usurp him]], should have raised a few alarm bells), to the point of telling living slaves to make tools from the bones of their dead co-workers to meet his design. Anyone who died in Nagash's service would be made undead to continue working or punishment, best case scenario they'd get a promotion or power boost if they weren't mindless.

Skaven mainly enslave their own kind - Skavenslaves, the bottom rung of their society. There's always a surplus of Skaven ratlings, so most of those end up as slaves. Their lives are often filthy, painful and short; they're underfed, fight for what little food they have and cannibalism is often required not to starve. They get the most dangerous and thankless jobs, including test subjects for [[Clan Skryre]]'s experiments or raw material for [[Clan Moulder]]'s fleshcrafting. Their most famous role is to act as expendable fodder for Skaven Warlords to pin down or exhaust the enemy with (the same could be said about Clanrats, but they have actual combat training and also get armor - albeit poor quality armor). Skaven do take slaves from other races, though they end up as food, material for fleshcrafting or spell ingredients. Humans whom were enslaved by the Skaven for any length of time often go insane (due to their disbelieve in the said ratmen's mythical existence) and even start to act like a Skaven. Rumors claim that at some point they actually mutate into Skaven, but given Skaven Xenophobia and how they treat skavenslaves the chances of them lasting that long are pretty low. non-skaven slaves, especially the humans would often band together in their cell to prevent anyone of them from devoured by other Skavens, especially if they have infants in their group since Skavens finds [[grimdark|infants to be tasty]].

[[Warrior of Chaos|Chaos Tribes]], like Kurgans and Norscans, employ slaves that are captured in the aftermaths of victorious battles and raids. The former, funnily enough, have a system compared to that of an Ancient Rome, where slaves are constantly fighting to get more privileges and eventually free himself. Norscan slaves are called thralls (even though in real history they weren't exactly slaves) and are mostly used in labour and sacrifice.

All elves have some form of "involuntary servitude". The most notorious slavers are, unsurprisingly, [[Dark Elves (Warhammer Fantasy Battle)|Dark Elves]], who use them in pretty much every type of work and take them from every race (although Dwarf ones are the most valuable). [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|High Elves]] of Lothern use slaves (mostly humans) in menial tasks and also trade them, but in other kingdoms slavery is forbidden. [[Wood Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Wood Elves]], meanwhile, kidnap [[Bretonnia|Bretonnian]] children and turn them into servants that regard Asrai as gods and never grow up.

[[Chaos Dwarfs]] are one of the most iconic slaver civilisations in WFB, they rely on it as much as Druchii. Most are [[Orcs & Goblins]], but there are other races working for them. [[End Times|This ultimately brought their doom at the hands of Grimgor.]]

Fantasy Greenskins, interestingly, do not have a developed slavery system. Yes, Goblins can work for Orcs because they're smaller, but by outgrowing Orcs they can free themselves (like [[Grom the Paunch]], for example). Not to say that there are excusively Goblin tribes...

[[Ogre Kingdoms|Ogres]] mostly employ [[Gnoblar|Gnoblars]] as their slaves, but there are also battle [[Giant|Giants]]. However, most other captured enemies are just sacrificed immediately.

Most of the Order-aligned human nations forbade slavery. The only exception is [[Araby]] (which has an extensive slave system similar to that of Ottoman Empire, Berber Coast and other Arabic nations at the time), also slaves are sometimes traded in [[Sartosa]] and [[Marienburg]]. Bretonnian serfdom can also be somewhat compared to slavery.

=== Slavery in [[Warhammer 40,000]] ===

''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' actually justifies having slaves fairly well. In a galactic empire like the [[Imperium]], 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. In order to access free labors without the fear from Abominable Intelligence, they created [[Servitors]], cyborgs made out of human criminals or vat clones. Then again, every humans in the Imperium is indebted to the Emperor at birth and thus [[count as]] his currency to be spent [[Imperial Guard|on wars]] and [[Administratum|labors]]. Basically modern slavery but with more fanaticism, cloning and cybernetics. [[Imperial Worlds#Feudal_Worlds|Feudal Worlds]] and [[Hive World]] exists for this purpose and helped the Imperium to shit out billions of humans every single day.

Notably, [[Angron]] was a gladiator, a slave warrior who risk his life to entertain his master, making him the only Primarch to be a slave.

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.

And the [[Orks]]... well, the Orks simply believe might makes right is an axiom <span style='color:green;font-size:150%'>'''(A WOT?!)'''</span>. It's the natural order that the big and tough can and ought push around the small and puny. There's no universal right, only the power you possess and general Orkiness. Ork fluff is dodgy as far as slaves from other species are concerned, but Grots and especially Snotlings fill the role of slaves for manual labour and occasional plaything (not ''that'' kind of plaything). It should be noted that grots and snotlings are part of the broader Orkoid support ecology which was deliberately engineered to support Da Boyz. [[The War of The Beast]] has shown Orks are capable of enslaving other species if they were given a propa brutal cunning (or cunning brutal) evolution to do so.

And let's not forget the [[Enslavers]], as if their name isn't already an obvious giveaway. They are creatures of warp who feeds on living beings soul, then turning them into their incubation bed/canon fodder minion afterwards.

=== Chaos in general ===
Since Chaos works the same way in both fantasy and 40k, it is fine to put both setting together when discussing anything about Chaos.

All Chaos worshipers could be count as some kind of slaves to the Chaos Gods. However, since Chaos Gods is the living conscious of everybody's emotion to the extreme, this means Chaos worshipers are in fact enslaved by their own emotions. [[Khorne|Khornate]] followers needs to endlessly offer blood and skull harvest from their enemy and never coward (only to either died by their enemies' hand, or by Khorne's wrath because of they accidentally taking some of the glory as their own). [[Tzeentch]] followers needs to endlessly plotting with hopes that their ambitions could succeed (only for their plans to backfire in front of them, that or they turned into...[[Chaos Spawn|whatever that is]]). Nurgle needs to continuously bath in shit, living in misery and having depression, or else Nurgle will give them [[Extra Heresy|extra encouragement]] to become a proper follower (which is a cons since Nurgle's "gift" involve with dirty shit and disease, and he give out his blessing willingly). Slaanesh followers needs to tirelessly perfecting their deprave art and entertainment (only to have their acts caught by their local [[Adeptus Arbites|PDF]], that or Slaanesh punish them with a "hellish supplementary lesson curse" just because they made one step wrong, or because he/she is jealous). Only the Undivided worshippers do not get bent by their god master since they do not use the power of Chaos as often and had their own independent will. However, this does not stop Chaos Gods from punish them, and since the unlike a devotee of one single god, Undivided followers are likely to never gain much favour with an individual power because of their veneration of Chaos as a whole.

There's also a saying that we are all slaves to fate. If that's the case, then Tzeentch is probably the master of all intelligent beings that are capable of having emotions. However, Tzeentch cannot claim the fate of a person if they are A. claimed by one of his three brother gods, or B. was claimed by other non-chaos gods that could resist him ([[The God-Emperor of Mankind|Big E]], [[Cegorach]], [[Gork]] an' [[Mork]], etc...). Then again, claimed by any god could also count as slavery, but some might not felt the same way. In this situation, the interpretations of slavery is up to how the gods treats their subjects, but for the most parts, the subjects are but pawns to further the gods' plan, that or to entertain them. The subject might felt differently. [[Inquisition|Some are willing, felt it as a sacred duty to do the god's work]]. Others felt like being a slave, and might [[Horus Heresy|rebel]] against their god, only to be [[Officio Assassinorum|put down]] or [[exterminatus|exterminated right where they stood]].

To the like of [[Wulfrik the Wanderer]], he was cursed to seek out the bounty the god's had marked, or else they will constantly annoying him with headache, and he will be sent to torment for eternity if he dies. He initially hated the curse since it restricted his freedom, prevent him from having a prosper life. However, after facing many encounters with his arch-nemesis, traitors, cheating girlfriend and manipulators throughout his journey to remove his curse, he realized the curse was in fact a bless, and this whole journey was the gods' way to show Wulfrik how much they care for him, in exchange to be enslaved by them, the gods ultimately helped him exact vengeance and gain glory. So yeah, Chaos Gods do have a soft side for their subjects, in a weird dickish way, and being enslaved by them is has its own warped form of glory.

==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, with Russian POWs and Communist and Social Democrat political prisoners being the most profilic for small-scale sabotage (like leaving out a bolt here and there or not quite soldering something right). Turns out a learned clockmaker isn't the best at toiling the fields. 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.
** The same goes for large-scale infrastructure projects like those undertaken during the Great Terror under Stalin in the Soviet Union. Nearly all of these projects that heavily relied on forced labour fell apart very quickly once they were put to use, often with disastrous consequences. The sinister thing about this is that, because the Soviet system was supposedly infallible, every accident of this kind was attributed to "Sabotage", leading to another round of arrests and purges, endlessly propelling forward a cycle of mass arrests, deportations, accidents and so forth. Krushchev ended the Gulag system mainly because the shoddy work the Gulag produced wasn't sustainable in the long run (and also to distance himself from Stalin) when the USSR was to look eye to eye with the United States.
*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, distinct from the point above, slavery has a bad habit of leading to a hyperstratified society. Such heavy social stratification leads to a heavy decline in economic flexibility, which is a ''bad'' thing when you're in competition with a more flexible (and thus better able to change) society, particularly if innovation is a factor.
*Fifth, 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.

Slavery in worldbuilding is not confined strictly to historical settings; it is also a valid consideration in near future science fiction. The time and cost of moving individuals to other bodies in the solar system by conventional means, combined with the work to be done and the scarcity of hands will mean that people on such ventures will NOT have the luxury to quit. Space colonization under these circumstances will inevitably require a return to the ancient naval tradition that a captain at sea must be an absolute despot for the good of all aboard; "keeping ''everyone'' alive" and "avoiding ''everyone'' dying" are not synonymous, and many hazards of space make the distinction very important. Activity in space today is achieved as a pseudo-military expedition with carefully selected teams trained to cooperate, but larger scale operations WILL necessitate an organization divide between labor and operations and that will result in social friction (this is already seen at the South Pole station; disputes between operations and scientific staff are a continuous problem especially during winter when the station is completely isolated for months). In some settings, colonization is achieved by using convicted prisoners as labor to sidestep the moral questions of compulsory work and sacrificing some to save all (though this raises the issue of sabotage being a '''very''' serious concern).

[[Category:History]]

M4 Sherman

2022-05-21T08:00:20Z

2600:1702:2590:2FF0:CC5A:E73B:FDA9:A9EA: /* In Real Life */

{{America}}

{{topquote|War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want.|General William Tecumseh Sherman}}

[[File:M4 Sherman.png|thumb|I can be whatever you want me to be baby.]]
The M4 Sherman is the poster child of freedom, the Freeaboo's ideal body type, and the backbone of the Western allies' armored forces. It was mass produced at a higher rate than even the Russian [[T-34]], and came out as the 2nd most produced tank of the war. It came in a dizzying number of variants, with a wide variety of weapons, engines, and even suspensions and hull types. It is one of only a few tanks to be deployed on all theaters of the war, including the Eastern Front, China, and the Pacific. It's one of the first tanks to enter service with stabilization for the main gun. It's reliable, easy to fix, ergonomic, and extremely versatile, both in Flames of War and in real life.

For all this, the Sherman tends to get a bad rep. Most of this focuses on it's armor and firepower, which is weaker than [[Panther|German]] [[Tiger|tanks]] of the later war period. We won't get into this debate here more than to say that you will have to find ways to compensate for your weaker armor and cannon when going up against German and Soviet heavy tanks as a Late War Flames of War player. However, with effective combined arms, mobile tactics, and a little bit of luck the M4 will serve you just as reliably as it served the allies in World War 2.

==In Mid War==
===American===
===British===
==In Late War==
==='''American'''===
The M4 Medium Tank is just as it was in Mid War, but this time with far better crews! The Americans get the option of "trained" M4 crews that are hit on a 3+ and have a 3+ last stand, or "Veteran" M4 crews that trade all that in for a 4+ to hit and a 3+ tactics. What really makes the M4 stand out in the American force is its 'Stabilizer' special rule. This lets the M4 maintain it's rate of fire of 2 on the move, though it suffers a -1 to hit. This gives you a higher chance of hitting a shot in almost all situations, making the American M4 the king of mobile warfare and exceptionally flexible. A second point in the Sherman's favor is the sheer number of machineguns it brings, pumping out 5 shots per tank stationary and making it very capable at pinning enemy infantry and blocking enemy infantry assaults.

The US has a few different platoons to bring their M4s in late war. The first is the Dday formations, which bring M4 Sherman and Sherman 76 platoons. Compared to the bulge platoons, the 76mm platoons are more expensive and the 75mm platoons are slightly cheaper for their value. That being said, the Dday formations are less flexible than the Bulge formations, with homogenous platoons and fewer M4 variants available.

The Bulge formations is where the Sherman really blossoms into its full potential. The US unlocks access to the Late 75mm M4, the Easy Eight, the Jumbo, HVAP ammo, and up armored M4 variants. The coolest part though is that you can mix and match any of these variants freely within a platoon, letting you essentially customize your force completely ''down to the individual tank'' (with the exception being that you can only bring one jumbo per unit, including the HQ). Do you want something to hunt heavy tanks? Boom, E8s with HVAP, maybe a jumbo. You want something a bit more durable to maybe duel with enemy heavies and mediums? Slap a Jumbo 76mm on with some 76mm M4s and add some 75mm M4s with smoke. Need something cheaper to support and flank? Bring base M4s and tack on a jumbo for some good survivability. The possibilities are truly as endless as your imagination.

First off, we'll go over some of the command card options available in the Bulge: American book. The first is HVAP. This card costs half a point per tank and boosts all your 76mm cannons to pen 13. This is practically a must take, taking your 76mm M4s from scary medium tank hunters to capable heavy tank hunters as well for a relatively trivial rise in points.

Second is the uparmored sherman. This can be added to M4 (late), M4 (76mm), and E8s on an individual tank basis. This costs a point and boosts the front and side armor by one in exchange for a -1 on its cross rating. This can really help deal with medium tanks like the Stug and Panzer IV, but still leaves you rather vulnerable to heavy AT and limits your ability to take cover from them. As such, it really depends on your local meta if you take these: if PaK 40s and stugs or other medium tanks are the thing where you're at, or if you just really like the look, then take them! If not, it's not really worth it.

====M4 Sherman====
This is the generic stat card for the M4, M4A1, and early M4A2s in US service. The base M4 Sherman is a cheap middle of the road tank with a cannon that can deal with enemy medium tanks and armor that keeps it safe against light and medium antitank guns. That said, AT10 will struggle against the side armor of 8 on heavy tanks like the Tiger and IS-2, meaning that while the 75mm is a capable vehicle in most situations, it struggles against heavy tanks. Use the maneuverability provided by the stabilizer and artillery smoke to avoid enemy heavy tanks and heavy antitank guns and focus on breaking through and exploiting enemy light vehicles and medium tanks. This is where the M4 truly shines, being cheap and mobile. In addition, it has direct fire smoke, meaning that this tank can act in support to help smoke out enemy tanks and cover your own infantry and tanks from enemy infantry and antitank guns.
====M4 Calliope====
[[File:M4 Sherman Calliope Statcard.jpeg|thumb|left|The stats]]
Rocket's on a armored platform, and before you ask, the gun is [[pretend|fake]].
====M4 (Late)====
This is the stat card for the later model M4A2s and M4A3s in US service. These models had their frontal armor increased to 65mm and wet stowage installed, but retained the reliable 75mm cannon. In game this gives them bonuses to frontal armor and remount, something that can really help in duels with German panzers. This tank is just as versatile and capable as the base vehicle, though without improved penetration it will still struggle to deal with heavier enemy armor.

====M4 (105)====
The M4 (105) is the odd one out here, being essentially an artillery/assault gun variant on the Sherman. It's got an AT9, FP2+, Brutal and Slow-Firing 105mm gun as well as the FA7 of the 76mm Sherman. All in all, it's kinda hard to find a place for, trying to fill a niche that doesn't really exist. It's got the armor to go toe to toe with enemy mediums, but not the penetration. It's helpless against heavies. It's job as artillery is done better by the cheaper priest and 105mm towed artillery. It lacks the volume of fire to deal with enemy infantry platoons in direct fire. It may find a place hunting enemy light and medium AT guns, but it will get slaughtered by enemy heavy AT. It might be useful as an integrated artillery asset in an M4 tank company, but you have so many other units you can put in there, why bother. If someone comes up with a use for this thing, let me know!

====M4 (76)W====
This stat card represents the M4 (76)W, M4A1 (76)W, M4A2 (76)W, and M4A3 (76)W fielded by the US. The M4 (76) is a capable enough antitank vehicle, with a 76mm high velocity gun that bumps the antitank up to 12, wet stowage that gives it a 3+ remount, and a front armor of 7 thanks to the up armored T23 turret. This, combined with the stabilizer, makes it a capable QRF vehicle for dealing with heavy tank breakthroughs as well as the king of dueling with enemy medium tanks. It also makes it a relatively pricy vehicle, with a full veteran platoon coming in at 28 points for 5. Nevertheless, this is currently ''the'' final word in American antitank and will serve you well if used properly. Consider escorting them with some form of infantry to help assault and capture enemy tanks, because FP3+ always bails when you need it to kill and chances are you really can't afford to lose these tanks. Something worth noting is the "No HE" rule on the main gun, meaning it suffers against infantry, but if you were looking for an infantry killer you shoulda just gone with the cheaper 75mm anyway.

====M4A3E8 Easy Eight====
[[File:Sherman Ez8 Statcard.jpeg|thumb|left|[[wikipedia:Easy (Commodores Song)#Im Easy/Be Aggressive|"Cause I'm eaaaasssaayyy~!"]]]]
The E8 takes everything the 76mm does and does it better. For a point boost, it gets 2 major bonuses: a 2+ cross and smooth ride, which essentially says that as long as it moves less than 4" it fires as if it was stationary. This is essentially a '''free''' blitz move that lacks some of the major drawbacks of an actual blitz move: you can assault following it (lmao you better be desperate to assault with M4s) and you can stack it with a regular blitz move to get an 8" blitz. This makes them the unparalleled masters of terrain and reserves, with their ability to reliably traverse all kinds of terrain and shoot at full rate of fire on their first turn on the table. That said, these things come with a hefty price tag: 7 points per tank for the elite variant, as much as a Soviet IS-2 heavy tank, and its not very tough for that cost. Be careful with them, use terrain and smoke to keep them alive so they can do their job. You aren't a brainlet Soviet or German player that can just push his tanks forward and suck up shots, you're a US player, be smart about it. It's generally smart to take this variant by itself, since the other variants will often slow it down, particularly the Jumbo.

====M4A3E2 Jumbo====
One tank in each Sherman platoon may be upgraded to one of the heaviest armored tanks in the game, the M4A3E2 Sherman Jumbo. This thicc boi has front armor 11 and side armor 8 and comes in 2 variants, the 75mm and 76mm. Paired with the target allocation rules and smart use of terrain and distance, this tank can effectively halve the number of casualties you take to AT14 cannons ''at least.'' This does come with a massive drawback though: 4+ cross. This really limits your options when it comes to using terrain and advancing through walled fields, though its armor reduces your need for such cover. Consider pairing it with a lucky card to help with the occasional failed armor or target reallocation.

==='''British'''===
The US provided the British with 17,184 Sherman Tanks of all models throughout the war.

A notable British variant was the Firefly, which carried a QF 17-pounder 76.2mm cannon. Introduced in early 1944, Sherman Fireflies could pierce the armor of Panther and Tiger Tanks.

As a notable aside, it was the Brits who decided to give the M4 medium tank the official designation of Sherman.

==='''Soviet'''===
Some 4,102 Sherman Tanks were sent to the USSR as part of Lend Lease. These were notably equipped with Diesel Engines so they could use the same fuel that T-34s used. Fun fact: the Soviets that got to ride into lend-lease Shermans were full of praise about it, rating it as equal or even better than their own T-34; unlike the M3 which they called the "grave for seven brothers". The higher level of quality control also played a factor in it's success on the battlefield, with the survival rate of M4 crews being 4% higher than that of T-34 crews.

==In Real Life==
[[File:M4 Sherman IRL.jpg|thumb|"This American tub's not half bad wot?"]]

The M4 epitomizes the US Government's commitment to supplying its soldiers with massive quantities of almost good enough equipment. From the onset, the M4 was designed to maximize easy of repair and part longevity over all other concerns since the damn thing had to serve an ocean way from the factory making the parts for them. Mechanically, it was largely a continuation of the ''definitely not good enough'' M3, minimizing the amount of factory changes needed to produce it. Ultimately M4's would be churned out by a dozen companies with half a dozen different engine setups, ranging from V8's to twin diesels to repurposed aircraft engines. Its slab-sided high profile was a consequence of a secondary requirement that it be easily transportable by existing railroads, which initially limited its overall width to 103 inches. It is ironic then that all these considerations in mind, most of which were pragmatic consideration for logistics of waging an overseas war, that the vehicle would be named after one of the United States' most infamously pragmatic Generals.

Contrary to popular belief, the Sherman was very much intended to fight other tanks; its original 75mm gun M3 (the same as the M3's sponson gun, but more sensibly mounted in the turret) was the best possible tank gun the Americans had at the start of the war, and projects to find a replacement began as early as 1942. The 75mm was adequate against Panzer IIIs and IVs and could perform surprisingly well against the big cats as battles like Arracourt demonstrate. 75mm HE ammo was also highly regarded for its ability to kill enemy infantry, and the Marine Corps retained the older Shermans for this reason.

Early attempts to add a more powerful gun (at first the 3-inch gun from the M10 tank destroyer, and later purpose-built 76mm tank guns) resulted in extremely cramped turrets, significantly compromising the ability to lay guns and make follow-on shots. The British decided the added anti-tank ability was worth the compromises, resulting in the Ic and Vc "Firefly" tanks incorporating their massive 17 pdr gun; these were effectively ambush vehicles, and would always be incorporated into larger units with 75mm Shermans. The US would finally adapt the T23 turret (with 76mm gun M1) from the Pershing prototypes in the "easy six" conversion, although very few of these tanks arrived in Europe in time for D-Day.

The Sherman was one of the first tanks to introduce gyro stabilized guns, but it wasn't until the introduction of horizontal volute spring suspension in the "easy eight" E8 variant that it gained a reputation for being able to shoot on the move. Wet ammunition storage was introduced midway through the war, which did much to reduce the M4's tendency to burn on a hit. However, fuel and hydraulic fires remained a problem, earning the tank the "Zippo" nickname for its tendency to burst into flames.

Despite it's shortcomings as a combat vehicle, the Sherman can easily be considered one of the "greatest tanks of WW2". Sure, it didn't fire [[Tiger|88mm shells of death over 2km]], or [[T-34|shrug off dozens of 40mm AT shells]], but no one can deny that it fulfilled one goal that almost no other tank fielded in that conflict could: That it was everywhere that it was needed and did its job well enough, and could do just about anything you needed it to, from the Deserts of North Africa to the Jungles of Burma, the Mountain Passes of Italy, the Beaches of the Pacific, the Rice Fields of China, the Steppes of Russia, the Hedgerows of Normandy, and finally the Streets of Berlin. The Sherman was everywhere.

Shermans, being one of the most modular chassis/platforms in the entire war, had tons of variants that we won't waste your time with. Instead, we'll just focus on the two cool ones: The "105 Sherman" and the Flame variant.

Officially called the M4A3(105), the Sherman 105 is what happens when you look at the [[M8 Scott|Scott]], decide that its a good start, then proceed to shove a 105mm howitzer in the turret of a larger tank. 500 were built, and they were used in much the same role as the Scott, though probably in a more frontline role due to the heavier armor and having more glorious M1919 Machine guns.

The U.S. Marine Corps, somewhat fed up with dealing with people with Katanas and bayonets at close range with flamethrowers, decided to yank out the cannon and shove a heavy flamethrower, creating an "M4 Zippo". It gave up its anti-tank capability and shared the same overall shortcomings as the conventional M4, but Marines loved this thing, because torching the enemy in their caves and bunkers with a MEHTUL BAWK was vastly better than going in after them. Officially called the M4A3R3 because technical designations.

{{US Forces in Flames of War}}
{{British Forces in Flames of War}}
{{Soviet Forces in Flames of War}}

Toldi II

2022-05-21T05:24:07Z

2600:1702:2590:2FF0:CC5A:E73B:FDA9:A9EA: /* IRL */

The Toldi II tank, called the 42M Toldi II officially, was a light tank in service in the Hungarian Royal Army and a unit availble in Flames of War.

==IRL==
The Toldi originated in the 1930s from a desire in the Hungarian army to have a modern light tank for their army. The 38M was the first vehicle, armed with the same 20mm anti-tank rifle found on the Csaba. The improved version that is available differed from the first variant by simply having more armor, but not much else.

During Barbarossa, the Toldi II was used primarily for recon, due to it being completely outmatched by anything that the Soviets could bring. Some 42Ms were modified with 40mm guns in the field, and there was a prototype that would use a Pak 40 in an open casemate, but these were vain attempts to improve the performance that never came to fruition.

{{Hungarian Forces in Flames of War}}