Okay, personally? I can see what Lycanthrope (because i dont know what character he has, to be honest) means, and i agree actually. Andrea is my slave-character. She is used to be the lowest thing on the social ladder, to be abused, to be treated badly, beaten and after all she was more like a rare sex-slave as a chameleon. So something people got and thought "Well, look how wealthy i am." She was a furniture or maid at best, and tied to a chair in a questionable position at worst - and most importantly - most of the time, and her personality is nothing anyone cared about. She had one use and her vocal cords where cut so she could not annoy her owners with anything else... It's... probably odd but i kind of like that idea of a character like that. The point is she is not dumb, she is not under educated because of her life before her abduction, but with one exception that never mattered. And that kind of what i think a slave has to go through. They where poor people that got into slavery either by abduction or by being born into it because one reason or the other made them appear worthless to a majority.
Its the thing of the owner of course how he treats his slave. Andrea was owned by Sansha and Tari till they stopped playing and is now owned by Vheljen who are both nice characters. They treat their slaves more like friends, housemaids, people paid to work for them. I admit i would like and have liked them to be much more strict, but im fine with how it is too because it is and was fun playing with them always, but i agree strongly here that the laws should be more strict. In RL and most of my characters despise slavery obviously but... For the RP you either keep slavery and have it feel like slavery due to laws and restrictions that need to be enforced by the owners, or you can kind of drop the idea all together. I think we kind of play that role because we... got a strange enjoyment for this feeling of being controlled, owned, held in check and all. So just as well give us pressure by law. x..x I... actually liked the idea of this check up for slaves if they had any sort of illnesses or what nots, and i was... kind of sad it was not really a thing and just flavor-text for the news... because it would give a bit of that feeling of pressure, which is also something important for a character if you want to develop him or her.
If you make slaves sell themselfs and this is the only way they become slaves, i could not play Andrea by the way. She spend half of her life as a slave, and despite being still rather young, she can not just go and do things on her own, which was quite a thing to rp with since i made her, with characters trying to help her develop into something that can live on its own. If its a decision, it is not a slave to begin with anyhow, which you can also see out of Lycans post. Its an entirely different thing then, so if you want to do that, you can just as well throw it out entirely because it misses the whole point, and you are nothing but a butler. Just my five cents!
So about the characters...
Most of them are against it. Kira risked being jailed.. or at least wanted for a while to free a group of slaves (but thats not ic knowledge, nobody caught her after all till the thing was payed for). She is a street-kid grown up after all, and somehow feels close to people that are in a similar situation like slaves are, but even worse off as they lack the chance of a free will. Robin was a slave and is still so traumatized he does not like living in cities, amongst another thing just few people know. Harleen despises slavery because she is a very very moral doctor. She has something like the Hippocratic oath for herself, even helping wounded enemies and obviously slaves don't work with a personality like that. Thats some examples.
However, some of mine are pro or indifferent. Quinn does not care, simply because she follows the laws very closely unless the one making them is corrupt or the law itself is against the laws of Kynesguard. But even tho slaves are innocent; When the law protects slavery, she cant involve herself. She is like that. Miralda and S'Kifcha both got a certain Agenda: If you are a slave, and are not strong enough to stop being a slave, you probably are better of as one. Miralda does that in a careless manner however, while in S'Kifchas case, it is an opinion, but she will gladly aid anyone who is willing to break free. Both had to fight a lot to be what they are, but are much rougher then Kira is in their judgements.
I think we should not at all remove that concept tho... Maybe the majority of played characters is against it, but lets assume the NPCs are all loving it. |D