I know there is no evil in this day and age then the slavery of a human being, and talking about slave trade is not the happiest or desirable of subjects. For the Setting of the 41st Millennium though, such moral guidance on which we hold ourselves do not exist as the norm and are in-fact politically, physically and spiritually dangerous within the Imperium. So, the following question is in the spirit of that setting, and I do not condone slavery outside the works of fiction.

While its has been my personal opinion that the Red Schola and its Tutors are easily the biggest front for a Manipulative Xeno Evil or a Heretical cult with their methods and ease in which they break the minds and bodies of once free humans and turn them into living tools and objects. The inclusion of purchasing such services didn't show itself within any of the rules or supplements for Rogue Trader that I currently posses. More then once I've been asked by my players about purchasing slaves from the Schola or other sources to fill skill gaps, have as useful tools, minions and agents, or a display for their character's personality.

Slave Warriors, personal harems, sleeper agents and assassins, I even had the groups Explorator ask about possibly purchasing a 'surgically' mute apprentice/personal body-slave. So far I've been combining a bit or role play and every now any then a quick roll on the acquisition table, but I wish I had a bit of a guide to help judge "Rarity, quantity" and “quality.” I looked at the contact rules for Dark Heresy, but I haven't figured out the best way to translate that into acquisition based table.

Are there Profit rules out there for acquiring slaves? If not, I would like to hear from the community on their thoughts and ideas on the subject, and possibly the dangers of relying to heavily on slaves and those they buy them from.

I would imagine the few retraints in the Imperium about how slaves are treated are probably nonexistent in the Expanse. That being said, I would just look at how rare or bizaare the talents of said slave or slaves are. The biggest factor is what is it worth to the buyer? One buyer might want a highly skilled harem, or one buyer might want a Navigator or skilled killers. The skies the limit I would imagine. Make the acqusition hard all around. Human chattel of specific skills should be hard to acquire I think.

As far as the danger of using slaves, I think slaves are so common as to be given no more thought than a piece of common furniture= they perform a service and that is all. We are not talking about a society where Human Rights are practiced all around. Individuals in the highest classes seem to have normal rights, but serfs and slaves have no freedom. They even seem to be fed corpse based foods, i.e. Soylent Green, and this does not seem to be a problem for them. Also, the Rogue Trader is God on his ship, and can likely enslave anyone he wishes on board. I wonder if individuals operate under charters which protect them like the RT Charters. This would seem likely, otherwise what keeps someone from just kidnapping and enslaving whomever they have the power to enslave?

Had a little trouble while editing. Sorry for the clutter, hopefully the repeat gets taken down soon.

The rules for hiring men, Astropaths, Navigators, etc, in "Into the Storm" might help somewhat

"Into the Storm" sounds like it might be most helpful, if it was available for purchase in my area. I will look up on that resource when it comes but as for right now I would still like to hear if anyone has come up with their own system or their suggestions on the matter.

I broke open the main RT book to look deeper into the position of slaves in the Imperium. Not much is said, except I did find a reference to Mercantile Rogue Traders (page 324, 1st paragraph) having "individuals indentured to their service before birth," A direct reference to illegal slaves on page 346, A colony of arogance "at further ruinous cost, she provided the exiles with illegal slaves from Footfall,".

So my question is what is an illegal slave and what it is a legal slave? There are clearly indentured servants, which usually means they have rights and a chance for freedom. Any clues?

A lot of it relies on the planet (that you took the slaves from) in question. If slavery is legal there, it's all good. Laws on things like slavery, indentured servents, all that jazz is entirely down to individual planets, the Imperium at large doesn't care.

I would imagine that, when it says "illegal slaves", it probably means people just snatched from their homes and villages and chained up and put on the next ship to Footfall, people basically kidnapped.

That was my take on it too. I have noticed in several adventures it rewards the players for selling the pilgrims or colonists after saving them!

I am still curious about the legal ramifications of Indentured Servants. I believe that most of your player types would have a Man At Arms status in the Imperium and would be protected from some abuses of power. But if they were indentured to the Rogue Trader, that would make a big difference. I think arbitrary violence would be illegal. A Man At Arms would be a free subject though. It would be nice to see some more of the fluff on the status of subjects of the Imperium.

Grand Inquisitor Fulminarex said:

One thing to note is that a lot of indentured labour - going by old descriptions of the Administratum - seems to be hereditary as well, with children raised to assume out the duties of their parents.

IMO, the distinction between illegal slavery and legal slavery is mainly semantic, beyond local planetary law (and, frankly, I don't think that matters particularly much here - the Imperium as a whole employs indentured workers, afterall) - if the Imperium doesn't like the way you've obtained those slaves (raiding and piracy, for example), then it's illegal.

One imagines that slavery is probably not illegal as such within the Imperium. As No_1 says, states analagous to slavery clearly exist across the entire galaxy, and it's really a matter of semantics to distinguish many of these arrangements from slavery as was practised, say, in the Roman Empire. Individual planetary regimes may practice slavery in any one of myriad forms, and the Imperium probably tolerates this as long as the Tithe is met.

However, it may be the case (and this is just a thought, it's not based on any canon) that the Imperium may have an issue with interplanetary slave trading. Transporting large numbers of slaves from one place to another for the purpose of selling them on at a profit is potentially dangerous to the good order of the Imperium for a number of reasons.

Firstly, slaves-if poorly treated-are likely to be a vector for a whole host of transmissable diseases. There are references in canon to "hive viruses," deadly pandemics which intermittently sweep across the various hive worlds, causing billions of deaths. One would imagine that just as a public health issue, the Imperium wouldn't like the idea of humans being transported from world to world in conditions which are likely to transmit such viruses.

Secondly there's the issue of psykers. One would imagine that the slave trade is intermittently linked with the sale of unsanctioned psykers. If one is shady enough to deal in human misery and the ownership of human beings, it seems a logical progression to trade in more...exotic types of human, such as mutants or unlicensed psykers. Even if you don't intentionally trade in psykers, you're bound to carry an unsanctioned one eventually, as humanity is an inherently psychic race. The transport of large groups of humans who haven't been tested for psychic potential in warp-capable vessel is just asking for trouble, as an unsanctioned slave psyker could become a direct gateway to daemonic possession.

Thirdly, there's the issue of crime. While slavery itself may not be illegal across the entire Imperium, it may be illegal on certain worlds. Trafficking of slaves to these worlds - for whatever sinister or seedy purpose - may be endemic, meaning that the trade itself has an appalling reputation. Many slave traders almost certainly aren't going to just engage in dreary legitimate trades involving the sale of slaves from feudal worlds to work as miners on mining worlds: they're going to engage in shadier deals involving the smuggling of dangerous slaves to worlds where the practice is forbidden.

All this suggests to me that legal interplanetary slavery will be rare within the Imperium. Probably not unknown, but heavily regulated and closely monitored. Trading in slaves as an illegal activity is probably extremely common however, and one imagines is a matter dealt with on a regular basis by the Imperial Navy, the Arbites and the Inquisition.

That's all speculation, though!

I like the explanation that it possibly has to do with buying and selling psykers too. That makes a lot of sense actually. It also brings me to the conclusion that perhaps one world hiring an RT to go and steal the skilled workers from another world could be quite profitable.

I personally think that slavery is not illegal in the Imperium, nor is transporting them, so long as the proper documentation is in place. I totally agree with the disease vector issue. Perhaps the proper documents also guarantee health. Illegal slavery would be undocumented slave trade, which would happen for many reasons, like kidnapping a skilled work force, hijacking pilgrims, xenos slaves labor, psykers, whatever.

Don't forget the humble, ubiquitous servitor when you talk about slavery in the Imperium. Servitors are created from humans, so where do servitor factories get their raw stock from?

Often criminals, sometimes mass desaster casulties, some are even vat grown. And yeah, there's probibly some 'forced relocation' that ends up in the Servitorium

You can equip a starship with a facility to produce servitors from the crew. I assume they are dead or dying, but perhaps they are mutinous or just plain unlucky. Having one does cause a in crew morale.

I always suspected servitors were made out of criminals for the most part, but perhaps you have an indentured contract and you are rendered brain dead, maybe your mindless body must continue to fulfill the contract in some fashion, even if it is just as a gun servitor.

There is definitely some work needing to be done on this aspect of the Imperium. The class structure, who can do what to whom, contracts, obligations, etc. Or is it like the Dune Universe where what a Noble House does on its world is its own business, so long as the products keep flowing? That would be my guess.

Grand Inquisitor Fulminarex said:

Prisoners and disaster victims are common sources of biological materials used in manufacturing of servitors. On a Forge World, we also see the sick and infirm used, as well as those who simply fall behind on their work quotas. If you can't work like a normal human being anymore, the Priests of Mars will make it so you can work like a machine.

"We can rebuild him. We have the technology..."

-=Brother Praetus=-

It is to my understanding that the Imperium of Mankind does not object to slavery, that the forced servitude of humans in service to the Imperium is in fact divine and right. But it is only acceptable when done by agents of the Imperium. Planetary Governors are allowed to do terrible horrors to their own people and often the people of other worlds, but selling humans off to aliens, mutants, or heretics for any reason is deemed a crime in addition to consorting with the forbidden. Pirates, slavers, and agents outside of the structure of the Imperial bureaucracy are also criminals, though they can skirt a fine line if working for an Imperial governor or powerfull noble house within a sector.

Every human life is deemed the property of the Emperor and in his stead the Terran high lords, and so on and so forth, ending with individual planetary governors. So whether they let their people live under the false pretence of individual rights, or simply and truthfully as slaves is their planets leadership, or as to the requirements of the Imperium.

So, slavery in the expanse is illegal simply for the fact that the Red Schola is not an imperial organization and simply manages to exists because of its connections and its location. The slaves it produces are 'stolen' property, and only though who are outside the Imperium's reach or immune to its laws unenforced by the inquisition are able to really benefit from unsanctioned slavery.

Anywho, Its nice getting into conversation about this, but I was really hoping if anyone had come up with a formula for aquiring slaves of diffrent skill levels and uses, and any insight to flavour rules for using them.

And also, psykers are enslaved as a matter of course. Those who are too dangerous are slain, those who are too weak are fed to the Astronomican, and those who are powerful and obedient are trained to be useful.