Greetings one and all.
It has been almost 10 years since I published the First Holders handbook, followed soon after by the second handbook. well after all that time, and some thought with the assistance of Brother Theodosius Savnar. I have a new version out. Please feel free to access it on galnet Holders Handbook V.2 and yes once again I am expecting a lot of feedback and do not think it will all be good.
This handbook says little to nothing about the actual responsibilities and authority of a Holder in service to Holy Amarr. Nor does it accurately describe the wide and varied conditions that govern the many types of criminal slaves and indentured servants who live within the glorious light of Holy Amarr.
If you are a Holder who has, to the shame of your forebears, not been adequately trained in the responsibilities and duties of the ancient and honored role, I must recommend against using this guide.
May I ask exactly why you are opposed to the use of the Vitoc method and corporal punishment? Both are proven to be very effective control mechanisms, especially the former in the case of slaves required to do complicated and unsupervised work.
Your methodology seems to restrain itself to only the meekest of servants in a Holderās employ, assigned to the most favorable of positions. How would you apply these to hardened, disgraceful criminals rejecting their position as subservient and seeking to break their bondage?
I believe someone has replaced the word āpetā with āslaveā in the editing of this manual.
No part of this advice should be applied to human beings by anyone. I do not believe it warrants comment on relevance to holders and slaves specifically, since this is clearly never to apply to any person ever, regardless of position.
ā¦Right?
Lady Abigail Renaud
Holder of House Renaud
Loyal Vassal of House Sarum
This book was originally written in response to an event in YC 110. I will post the details below.
Following the Fifth Capsuleer Alliance Tournament in March YC110, Amarr officials discovered a pair of Bestowers belonging to a trader named Mastuk Rinmumi abandoned in a station docking port. After forcefully entering the transports, the officials discovered thousands of slaves, trapped in cramped quarters without sufficient food or water. When questioned, Rinmumi claimed the slaves were the settlement of a bet with another trader named Edophia Agmarn. Agmarn, however, refused to accept the slaves, claiming their condition did not meet the terms of the bet.
The Theology Council launched an investigation which ultimately cleared either trader of wrongdoing. It nevertheless urged all Amarr slave owners to take proper care of their slaves. The lack of legal action against either trader for the inhumane condition the slaves were left to endure sparked outrage both within and outside of the Empire.
You seem to have thisā¦ rose tinted vision about how parts of the Empire treats its enslaved populations, even for a Holder. I believe there was even a syndicated news article circulating at one point about a set of holders being surprised that slaves even had names some seventeen or so years back? Should tell you a fair bit about the range of treatment that exists in and of itself, much less the more extreme physical punishments that are expressly legal within the Empire.
While I abhor slavery as a concept, this guide is more humane than many examples Iāve seen elsewhere.
Did I make any sort of argument that there isnāt abhorrent treatment of slaves within the Empire?
No.
Did I say that other holders treat their slaves better and donāt need someone to tell them how to do it?
No.
Did I write something purporting to be a āHolderās Handbookā, claiming to be for those who āwant to learn how to be a better Holder in my personal opinionā, for public consumption and criticism on a public forum for those from not just the Empire, and certainly not just circles of nobility, but a forum for those across the entire New Eden cluster?
Absolutely ā ā ā ā ā ā ā not.
I hope thatās more clear, since you seem to confuse my issues (to put it very very mildly) with this āhandbookā with having distorted or deliberately ignorant views on some of the horrible treatment of slaves within the Amarr Empire or some sort of defense of the concept of slavery.
Despite being a āHolderās Handbookā it focuses entirely on the treatment of slaves and reads like a pet care guide youād read on some new-age all-natural Mommy blog, or a Galnet site that gives psychological advice to people claiming to cure their very complicated issues despite having no medical degree or clinical certifications.
And yes, it is a very humane guide compared to many that have been written, but lets look at the actual contents, shall we? Here was one of my favorite snippets.
Punishing a slave can be as simple as locking them in their room, denying contact with the outside world, or contact with their families. If you allow your slave to have a relationship with someone, revoking that right for a week or two can serve very well also. Even putting them on bread and water for their meals can serve well.
Ah, the fine art of disciplining slaves through emotional abuse.
The second thing is physical status, if they are ill, malnourished or severely injured. Do not discount them but buy them, you can force a cheaper price, and then get them medical attention as I stated back in chapter 1.
The time honored haggling technique of saving the tiniest fraction of my wealth by leveraging someoneās health and wellbeing.
This is one of the most dehumanizing and disgusting things Iāve read in a long while. I have said nothing about or in defense of other inhumane practices in the Amarr Empire, nor will I. But again, that was never the subject, let alone the purported guide for how to ābe betterā posted by a Duchess of the Khanid Kingdom in such a manner that advocates for treating slaves as little more than slightly intelligent pets.
Lady Deritan chose to write and share this, she gets to accept the judgement of it. That is the topic she chose to raise in this public forum and the one I have responded to. Nothing else. If any other holder, or subject of the Amarr Empire wishes to defend any other practices of abusing slaves, I will do my duty and hold them accountable for what they say here as well.
The problem with this guide is it posits the idea that slaves should not be punished and should always be freed in the end as the Amarr norm. It is not a treatise against current laws and practices, it is propaganda that tries to hide them from plain view and convince us that it is the Holderās job to be nice to their slaves so actually Holders are a-ok.
(That is not the Holderās job, despite what the propagandists would have you believe. The Holderās job is to uphold and enforce the Amarr hierarchy. The goal of Faith is no more to make every slave free than it is to make every Holder Emperor.)
Better than half the ones I find on a cursory search, many boiling down to ābeat until complianceā or āwithhold necessary amenities until subservience.ā Bonus points for āthreaten to remove access to vitoc at first sign of even minimal non-compliance.ā Donāt mistake me Ms. Rhiannon, I am not ignorant of the state of things, nor do I support this as an āupstanding guide to treatment,ā just that it is less terrible than many others you can find.
Imagine being so dumb you need a guide to keep your crew in check.
I agree it is, and there-in lies its danger as propaganda.
My dear Duchess,
This was an unexpected read, to say the least. Putting aside for the moment the actual content of the treatise, I am most surprised by the amount ofā¦ back-covering, the face-saving, included within. I can only imagine this was added by your assistant. Surely a Duchess of the Kingdom is not concerned by the opinions of those beneath her when it comes to how she keeps her slaves? As long as it within the remit of the Reclaiming, the path taken to enlightening slaves is entirely the Holderās to choose and if the path taken is a littleā¦ gentler than some, there is no shame in that.
Faithfully yours,
Lady Liliyah Setareh
Knight of Neyi IV
This handbook is further proof that the Empire has become liberal and degenerate because the Throne is Vacant.
Culture, religion, power, or even a wish to be more kind in an empire of tyranny, I donāt care what your reason for having slaves is, or how esteemed you view yourself for not keeping them collared and in chains. If you hold people as slaves, you are a blight on New Eden and will be purged with great fury from her.
A handbook on how to treat your slavesā¦ What a ā ā ā ā ā ā ā disgusting notion.
Iāve seen this holovid before, and to spare us all the time, here how it goes:
A nice Amarrian: āBut Heideran saidā¦ā
Elsebeth: āHeideran is dead.ā
The nice Amarrian: āBut we still follow his visions of peaceful reclaiming and freedom for all!ā
Elsebeth: āThatās nice, tell it to Sarum.ā
A wise man once wrote
"ā¦the fact that certain members of the oppressor class join the oppressed in their struggle for liberation, thus moving from one pole of the contradiction to the otherā¦ Theirs is a fundamental role, and has been throughout the history of this struggle.
It happens, however, that as they cease to be exploiters or indifferent spectators or simply the heirs of exploitation and move to the side of the exploited, they almost always bring with them the marks of their origin: their prejudices and their deformations, which include a lack of confidence in the peopleās ability to think, to want, and to know. Accordingly, these adherents to the peopleās cause constantly run the risk of falling into a type of generosity as malefic as that of the oppressors.
The generosity of the oppressors is nourished by an unjust order, which must be maintained in order to justify that generosity. Our converts, on the other hand, truly desire to transform the unjust order; but because of their background they believe that they must be the executors of the transformation. They talk about the people, but they do not trust them; and trusting the people is the indispensable precondition for revolutionary change.
A real humanist can be identified more by his trust in the people, which engages him in their struggle, than by a thousand actions in their favor without that trust."
I do not take particular issue with the terminology, but it is worth cautioning you that many foreigners would see in your words a level of personal freedom that we would not consider advantageous, or even desirable.
This handbook seems to be for ummmā¦ special slaves rather than a proper workforce management guide.
Not as full of technical details as the Kaztropolitan Rules Of Slave Ownership. Now that is a mighty tome indeed.
This is not a handbook for humane treatment of any human being. It is an insidious manual for indoctrination. One would find it better serving of purpose as toilet paper, rather than any form of instructive material.
That one so cravenly objectifies and belittles oneās fellow man or woman in this prattle is indicative of the lack of value that you place on them as humans and more of their āproperty valueā, or the potential return on investment that they may give you, rather than any genuine humanitarian desire.
No manifestation of slavery is humanitarian, humane or just, whether it is chattel or institutionally sanctioned enslavement, regardless of whether they follow a āguideā or a ācodeā. If one really want to present yourself as humane, one would immediately emancipate those restrained spirits and allow them to be given medical care to be deprogrammed of the damage they have suffered.
For shame.
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.