Slave Race: Difference between revisions
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* [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[Known Space]]'' setting has several slave species. Far back in galactic history the Thrintun used their psychic powers to enslave many species. They are simply known as Slavers. One of the slave races, the Tnuctipun, fought back with biological weapons: the war killed off any species with a notochord, galaxy wide. Later the warlike Kzin are thought to have been raised from a primitive state by the Jotoki only to enslave their employers once they had the means. The Kzin went on to enslave the demonform Kdatlyno.
* In Deborah Chester's ''[[Alien Chronicles]]'' trilogy, the reptilian Viis have done this to numerous races, going so far in some cases as to alter the captive races' known history so they didn't know they wasn't a time they weren't slaves.
* ''Summers At Castle Auburn'' has the aliora, who are rather like elves. Human hunters capture them from their homes and sell them as
* ''[[Animorphs]]'': Many species are slave races of the Yeerks, including the Hork-Bajir, the Garatrons,the Gedds, and others.
* In ''Farewell to the Master'', {{spoiler|''Gnut'' is the master}}.
* One of the greatest examples is ''[[Happiness in Slavery|Homo Servus]]'' from [[S.M. Stirling]]'s [[The Draka|Draka]] tetralogy. The ''Servus'' have been genetically engineered to derive orgasmic pleasure from subservience to their masters ''[[Superior Species|Homo Drakensis]]'', and are incapable of functioning independently . Both species were once normal humans, but, unluckily for the rest of humanity, the Draka were [[Nietzsche Wannabe]] [[
* The House-Elves from ''[[Harry Potter]]'' are another example of a slave race that's only [[Happiness in Slavery|too happy]] to be enslaved. They're probably based on the fairy tale "The Elves and the Shoemaker," which in turn is based on European folk tales of kobolds and similar household spirits; being bound to a house that benefits from their service gives their lives meaning, and being set free is a sign of disapproval with the services they've rendered, a very depressing concept for a creature that defines themselves by their capacity to provide excellent service
** The official in-universe line seems to be that they spontaneously became a [[Slave Race]] on their own, voluntary [[Servant Race]], as it were, and/or that they have always been like that. Note that in stories of house-elves they are fiercely independent and extremely proud beings who do not follow orders and strongly resent being treated as mere servants, prone to spoiling the milk or tying your hair in knots if annoyed, and that presumably at some point around the passing of the Statute of Secrecy they were somehow forbidden from living in Muggle houses.▼
Hermione is a strong believer in freedom for house-elves, but she bases her philosophy about this on Dobby, who was a unique case in that the family he served was so abusive (frequent death threats, ironing his fingers as punishment) that it was ''worse than freedom'' by [[Blue and Orange Morality|elf standards]]; her position has actually made her extremely unpopular with the school's resident horde of elves, and when she was attempting to duplicitously free them, they went on strike, forcing the already-free Dobby to clean Gryffindor Tower all by his lonesome.
▲** The official in-universe line seems to be that they spontaneously became a
*** Also note that 'attempt to pay them for their services and they will go away' was a general formula invoked sometimes to clear out a house-elf who'd gone lazy and troublesome and started spending all their time playing pranks instead of helping 'round the house. [[Sadly Mythtaken|Mythologically]], one could not actually ''command'' a house-elf any more than any other kind of elf.
*** They also left if you kept the place so tidy they felt marginalized.
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* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s "The Hyborian Age", the [[Backstory]] to [[Conan]], Lemurians.
{{quote|''In the distant east, cut off from the rest of the world by the heaving up of gigantic mountains and the forming of a chain of vast lakes, the Lemurians are toiling as slaves of their ancient masters.''}}
* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''[[Prospero's Daughter]]'' trilogy, the air spirits were enslaved by Prospero for a millenium, not yet up. Miranda realizes at one point that participating in this is blocking her desire to be a
* In [[John C. Wright]]'s ''[[Hermetic Millenium|Count to a Trillion]]'', the aliens' plan. Not
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** In "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S18/E05 Warriors Gate|Warriors' Gate]]", the Tharils, exploited for their navigational ability. To be quite just, they had exploited those abilities to act as slavers. One Tharil pleads with the Doctor that they have suffered long enough for what they did.
** Series 6 brings us the Gangers/Flesh.
** In ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S3/E06 The Ark|The Ark]]'', the two
** ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S10/E04 Planet of the Daleks|Planet of the Daleks]]'' features the Spiridons.
* The Kalish in ''[[Farscape]]'' have been enslaved by the Scarrans for some time, acting as technicians, bureaucrats, and occasionally spies: they have it better than most Slave Races, but they're still oppressed and abused by both their Scarran masters and the Charrid mercenaries they work with.
* The humans (called cows) of Pylea were a slave race to the demons there in ''[[Angel]]''.
* The Goa'uld of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' consider every race a slave race, but particularly humans and Jaffa.
* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' featured the Jem'Hadar, a genetically engineered race of super soldiers designed to be fanatically loyal to the Founders of the Dominion. They could be considered a [[Servant Race]] of [[Proud Warrior Race Guy
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* The human ancestors of the [[Dungeons and Dragons|githyanki and githzerai]] were enslaved by [[Cthulhumanoid|mindflayers]] for millenia and subjected to [[Body Horror|horrific experiments]], but they [[Turned Against Their Masters]].
** In the ''[[Greyhawk (Tabletop Game)|Greyhawk]]'' setting, the [http://www.canonfire.com/wiki/index.php?title=Derro derro] are the descendants of human/dwarf hybrids who were bred as a slave race of miners by a [[Magocracy]]. After the empire fell, they fled underground and descended into barbarism.
* In the ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' storyline, during the ''Tempest'' expansion/StoryArc, the evincar Volrath employs
** One of the [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=131006 cards] in ''Planar Chaos'' discusses an alternate timeline, in which Mirri befalls Selenia's curse, eventually ascends to the position of evincar, and exterminates the moggs in favor of the [[Rubber Forehead Aliens|the Kor]].
** The Neurok were slaves (or at least a subordinate race) to the Vedalken, at least [[Turned Against Their Masters|until they took over Lumengrid]].
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** [[Final Fantasy VIII|Guardian Forces]] are technically this. Well, the equippable ones, anyway. Delves into [[Happiness in Slavery]] as well. Unfortunately, there isn't much explanation into this point.
* Everything that isn't a Pfhor in ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]''. The [[Mind Control|mind controlled]] cyborg S'pht are given the most attention out of these, due to their rebellion being a major turning point in the conflict. The Pfhor plan on turning humans into this too, but according to the second game's epilogue, humanity eventually wins.
* ''[[Dragon Age]]'' elves are a
* Many of the races of the Covenant in ''[[Halo (series)|Halo]]'' qualify. The Grunts are the more obvious examples, while the Jackals take out their frustrations on serving the Prophets and Elites on the Grunts. Engineers as well, though they're happy as long as they're fixing machines. Brutes were this under the Elites {{spoiler|until the Prophets promoted the Brutes over the Elites}}.
* In the lore of ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'', the Imperials were once a slave race to the Ayleids before rebelling and forming the Empire. The Khajiit and Argonians were primarily used as slaves by the Dunmer (Dark Elves) in Morrowind, with slavery allowed in Morrowind despite being banned in the rest of the Empire, due to an agreement the Empire made when they annexed Morrowind. After [[The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion|Oblivion Crisis]] the Summerset Isle, the land of the Altmer (High Elves) seceded from the Empire and annexed Elsweyr and Valenwood treating the Khajiit and Bosmer (Wood Elves) as slave races.
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== Real Life ==
* Blacks were used as slaves by several European nations, and by white Americans all the way until the Civil War. Native Americans were also used as slaves (and not only the US, but even more frequently in South America). Problem was, the Native American slave populations kept dying because of European diseases. So their owners solved this by importing African slaves to America instead.
** [[Your Mileage May Vary|YMMV]]. The African version of slavery varied over time and space, but in many areas, it was relatively
* The Helots, slaves/serfs of the Spartans, who outnumbered the Spartan citizenry by so much that the Spartans had a tradition of hunting them down and killing them. This wasn't considered murder; one of the duties of the ephors (Spartan magistrates) was to declare war on the helots every year so that Spartan citizens could legally kill them (the fact that they were surrounded and vastly outnumbered by slaves who had every reason to hate them is believed by some to account for the Spartans' extreme militaristic badassery). The people from Sparta certainly considered themselves to be a breed apart. To the point that, in order to be a Spartan soldier, you had to be able to trace your origins back several generations of pure-blooded Spartans. This... did not work out so well for them, as being so incredibly exclusive in who can be a "soldier" tends to result in running out of trained soldiers. Not all wars are fought in very narrow mountain passes where numbers don't matter.
** It is pretty much universally accepted that Spartan [[
* This is what [[Nazi Germany]] had in mind for practically all of Eastern Europe during [[World War II]], including the Poles, Ukrainians, and Russians. Their lands would be settled by Germans, and the remainder of the local "subhumans" would be their slaves. The ''remainder'', mind you. After about two thirds of the natives would already have been exterminated through organized starvation and ethnic cleansing.
** The Nazis even invoked the above example; Heinrich Himmler once said that the Russian people would be the Helots to Germany's Spartans.
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