Thrall
"Do not make eye contact."
This is maybe the most valuable advice a thrall will receive in their captive life. To look into the eyes of your masters is to invite a wrath far beyond what is normally permitted towards their kind.
The most usual demeanour of Thousand Spears tribekin towards their thralls is contemptuous indifference: do not sully yourselves with thinking of them. Do not stoop so low as to pay them heed. Fortunately, this is a situation that (mostly) sees the thralls free from the direct harms of their masters (indirect harms, however - dehydration, death by sun, becoming the unfortunate target of a hadrassa steed-beast's hunger - these are different matters).
But a meeting of eyes changes this unspoken bargain of small and incidental mercies. The thrall is beneath the warrior; this is a truth than cannot be allowed to be broken. To do so threatens the entire subservient structure of the tribe, and invites an understanding that must never be permitted. Those who would violate this law must be punished.
There is the another, related taboo which threatens the lives and limbs of the thralls: sex relations between thrall and warrior. Many tribekin do not know that these forbidden affairs occur at all. Some, perhaps, guess at it, or become aware through scandalous rumour. The elders know (the elders always know) - but gods forbid they should ever allow the knowledge to spread.
Tribekin discovered to be having carnal relations with a thrall can at best expect swift and secret reprimand. "Never speak of these shames", they are told. "Bear them with silence, lest you invite upon yourself the true wrath of your tribe."
The less lucky - or more flagrant in their trists - have their tongues cut from their heads, so as never to admit their failings to their comrades. This may or may not be followed by the slow and agonising death reserved for traitors: chaining, naked, to a stone at dawn, and baking alive under the fiery suns over the span of the day. Their comrades know enough not to ask what they did; to lose the tongue, then suffer death? That implies a violation that cannot be spoken of.
The poor thrall, who in all likelihood never, ever wanted the tribekin's attention? Usually they are thrown to the hadrassa, to be torn apart as the creatures fight playfully over their writhing, screaming dinner.
"Do not make eye contact."
Image by Ellen
Thousand Spears
This is maybe the most valuable advice a thrall will receive in their captive life. To look into the eyes of your masters is to invite a wrath far beyond what is normally permitted towards their kind.
The most usual demeanour of Thousand Spears tribekin towards their thralls is contemptuous indifference: do not sully yourselves with thinking of them. Do not stoop so low as to pay them heed. Fortunately, this is a situation that (mostly) sees the thralls free from the direct harms of their masters (indirect harms, however - dehydration, death by sun, becoming the unfortunate target of a hadrassa steed-beast's hunger - these are different matters).
But a meeting of eyes changes this unspoken bargain of small and incidental mercies. The thrall is beneath the warrior; this is a truth than cannot be allowed to be broken. To do so threatens the entire subservient structure of the tribe, and invites an understanding that must never be permitted. Those who would violate this law must be punished.
There is the another, related taboo which threatens the lives and limbs of the thralls: sex relations between thrall and warrior. Many tribekin do not know that these forbidden affairs occur at all. Some, perhaps, guess at it, or become aware through scandalous rumour. The elders know (the elders always know) - but gods forbid they should ever allow the knowledge to spread.
Tribekin discovered to be having carnal relations with a thrall can at best expect swift and secret reprimand. "Never speak of these shames", they are told. "Bear them with silence, lest you invite upon yourself the true wrath of your tribe."
The less lucky - or more flagrant in their trists - have their tongues cut from their heads, so as never to admit their failings to their comrades. This may or may not be followed by the slow and agonising death reserved for traitors: chaining, naked, to a stone at dawn, and baking alive under the fiery suns over the span of the day. Their comrades know enough not to ask what they did; to lose the tongue, then suffer death? That implies a violation that cannot be spoken of.
The poor thrall, who in all likelihood never, ever wanted the tribekin's attention? Usually they are thrown to the hadrassa, to be torn apart as the creatures fight playfully over their writhing, screaming dinner.
"Do not make eye contact."
Thousand Spears
Comments
Post a Comment