Aeon Amadii wrote:
Now here's a man with a legitimate argument, one that I appreciate fully except for one consideration. Where does the Empire obtain their umm... 'slaves' as it were..? Is it from within the Empire? And to that extent, where does the Empire's boundaries begin to feather? At what point does it stop being "This is Amarr. The Empire." and the rights and establishments of other sovereign nations who strictly oppose indentured servitude begin to take over?
See, I'm all for cultural diversity. I'm even cool with a bit of slavery, provided it's written into whatever slack-jawed charter or constitution crazy people come up with and it's on their own turf. What I'm not cool with is this sort of hamfisted attempt to exercise that logic as if the Amarr want to go around claiming worlds all nimbly bimbly. You want to own slaves on your own worlds? Fine by me, but when you start to say "This is the Empire" and that feelings, justice, pride, - yadda yadda - don't matter, as if your golden regime overshadows the rest of humanity... Yeah, I might have a problem.
Thank you sir for your...kind words.
And some valid questions.
To be very brief:
The Majority of slaves within the Empire are Minmatar. Most are born into the position. The Empire does make new slaves from prisoners of war and slavery is used as a punishment for criminals. Some Holders buy and sell on the open (SCC) markets. The profession of "Slaver," a person authorized by the Empire to acquire, buy and sell "Controlled Personnel" has waned since the inception of the CONCORD treaties. They still exist and you can still hire them on SCC markets, but mostly these days new Controlled Personnel are taken by the Nobility, high-ranking military figures or high-ranking clergy.
In the interests of your cultural diversity, legal slavery within the Kingdom of Khanid has a few notable differences. First is that we don't border Minmatar space. So we haven't had near as much opportunity to get new stock from the Republic. So, we've had to adapt. That meant taking Controlled Personnel from everywhere else. This has left the Kingdom with a much more diverse slave stock than the Empire. We made many more from prisoners of war or criminals. We use slavers more often and raid into NullSec to acquire new stock.
As in the Empire, Holders are the primary legal owners of slaves. However, the Kingdom is somewhat more liberal with slave ownership, openly allowing non-nobles to own slaves should they be capable of affording them. The SCC treaties helped make this possible. It's rare. Capsuleer ownership is rare too, but gaining popularity.
At what point do the rights of other nations who oppose slavery take over? At the border. CONCORD and local border patrols make sure to levy fines on ships who try to transport Controlled Personnel out of the Empire or in from NullSec.
In the Ammatar Mandate, it's even more weird. Traditionally, the Mandate slave owners were primarily Minmatar. Over the years, especially after more Amarr Holders began living there, it looks a lot more like the Empire proper. There are still Ammatar (Matari) owners, but they are no longer the majority and they've settled into a quiet working relationship with their Amarr neighbors (if you ever want to start a bar fight in Amarr, drop the words "Ammatar Holder" and watch what happens).
Your last point is a can of worms. Amarr Conservatives will tell you exactly that
all must be reclaimed. This makes our friends in the State nervous, so they don't usually say it much in mixed company. In that light, the Light of God, Amarr does overshadow the rest of humanity.
The point of it all is that my associates among the Amarr conservatives, those who have argued here the loudest about this petition and how it should be only Holders owning slaves, are correct in their quotations of Scripture, but blind to the realities of the galaxy we live in. Our governments, Amarr and Khanid, signed willingly our treaties with CONCORD, the SCC and the other four (now three) main governments. Traditionally, as much as we follow our Faith and our Scriptures, we should not be questioning the words of our leaders. Especially in public. If they want to go against the Will of the Empire, that's on them. Me? I'll follow my King and my God and the Laws of my People.