Laborers

Every city has a large force of laborer slaves. About half are owned by enterprising freemen who make their livings building homes, shops, merchant emporiums, and other private structures. The other half are usually owned by the monarch, overseen by the templars, and spend their time building and maintaining various public structures such as bridges, temples, and city walls. Generally speaking, slaves owned by the freemen are well-fed and cared for, for they are an investment that the owner does not care to squander. Laborers owned by the king, however, are fed barely enough to keep them alive, and once they prove too weak to work, they are executed. As agents of the monarch, the templars can always procure more slaves by arresting minor law-breakers or vagrants. The ranks of the laborers are dominated by strong races such as dwarves, half-giants, baazrags, and muls too old or maimed to fight in the gladiatorial arenas. At least half of any city's slave population are farmers owned by the nobles. These starving dregs labor in the fields around the city, working the soil, carrying water, digging up man-choking vines, and picking poisonous insects off crop leaves. If an overseer sees a slave touch his mouth without permission, he whips the man mercilessly. If he catches a slave stealing food or water, he cuts off the thief's hand. When a slave loses both hands, he can no longer work and is put to death. The only consolation in the farmer's life is that when a tribe of raiders attacks, or when a flock of wild erdlus races through a field, he can sometimes escape into the desert. Whether or not this is an improvement is hard to say, but the desire for freedom often outweighs the urge to live.