====== Slavery ======

There are a number of socieoeconomic conditions that could reasonably be called slavery around Focus.



One practice during the age of decadence was a form of debt servitude whereby those who could not pay their tithes to the local lighthouse would be pressed into service in order to pay their debt. The alternative was to have the power to their home cut off.



If you were a woman, this could actually turn into a career building opportunity, especially if you were thinking of entering the seminary anyway. Women would be put to work as acolytes, maintaining transmission lines and other power infrastructure, but eventually they'd be granted the privilege of helping tend the star hearth along with the hearthkeeper.



If you were a dude, things could get dicey depending on where you lived. If there were no other Bright Way institutions around, you'd get the worst job of all: a page, which was basically an errand boy or gofer. There was little in the way of transferable skills associated with being a page. If you lived near a chapter of the Knights of the Sun, you could become a squire--a mechanic repairing the knights' mechs. A grease monkey fox, if you will. As with the female acolytes, there was a fair amount of upward mobility here, and many sainted knights started out as indentured squires.



If the Farspeakers had a presence in your city, either men or women could be pressed into becoming an apprentice for a master admin. Master admins were typically bitter misocynoidic recluses who preferred machines to other yinrih, so the experience wasn't usually very pleasant for either party.



The overall experience of these serfs could very wildly. Hearthside was generally the most favorable, with many people entering into serfdom deliberately if they couldn't find a job elsewhere. Yih was likely the worst, with serfs being treated nearly as chattel.



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