Drow estate's rural Slave Barracks By Imperator-Zor Watch

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In the last thousand years the Drow have become more and more trade oriented both in terms of sending ships out and in allowing and (in spite of the efforts of the high elves and some grumblings among the more traditional Drow warrior houses) encouraging foreign ships to put into their ports. Even so, most of these visitors never go beyond the docks, custom houses, inns and warehouses of specially designated and isolated (either by walls or water) non-drow trade quarters. Few of these traders enter the cities proper and less go into the countryside. Those few which have done so note that there is a distinct difference between the places of the Drow and their chattel. There are vast numbers of personal servants and the workers, clerks and artisans of small entrepreneurial houses who live in their master's homes, but the bulk of slaves are housed from their masters in either complex or farm barracks.



This style of slave barracks is most common among the large agricultural estates, though variants are common in the cities and colonies though these are built together like row houses. Generally they are built out of a combination of brick and local stone near the base with tiled roofs, making sparing use of timber. Windows are high. This building has four floors plus a loft and basement, though slave barracks as tall as seven storeys are not unknown even in rural quarters as their masters feel that small single story farmhouses waste valuable arable land. The one pictured above accommodates some eighty six residents. As a general rule the loft is considered the home of the higher ranking slaves and is more comfortable while having to sleep in the basement in chains is considered a mild punishment.



The primary function of a slave barracks is the housing of slaves. There are bunks for slaves as well as some racks for the storage of personal items (which are periodically inspected, more frequently if recently captured slaves exist in the workforce), sinks for washing using rain water, a few chairs, a fairly well developed heating system using ceramic pipes and a couple of fireplaces and a laundry in the basement, but it is not intended as a full home. The preparation of food and (leaving aside the nursing of infants) eating in the barracks is forbidden. Meals are eaten in separate dining halls situated nearby in case of fire and every other day slaves are required to bathe in a communal bathhouse (in addition to washing their hands). These buildings exist along with a few workshops and warehouses, a small shrine mainly dedicated to the drow slave religion, a rest house for drow overseers, a platform for public punishments, stables, pig pens and clerk's office/infirmary makes up the core of a small community tasked with sewing, raising, harvesting and processing the crops of a section of the estate (usually between one and three square kilometers), though this arrangement is also used for managing plantations, ranches and orchards. The slaves also engage in the maintenance of the estate and are often rented out during the winter months.



In addition to fieldworkers each barracks usually has at least a carpenter and a cook with their apprentices. Smiths to maintain tools and potters are common but are still more barracks without them. Clothing is usually homemade in the barracks. Though many drow estates like to be as self sufficient as possible and have their slaves weave their own cloth, factory cloth is becoming increasingly common. As a general rule male slaves tend to remain attached to one specific barracks, dying in the same one that they are born into unless sold to another owner, while female slaves are transferred from barracks to barracks after puberty to avoid inbreeding. Slaves with specialized roles that require them to move across their master's estates (carters, carpenters and nightsoil collectors) on a regular basis are often kept separate from fieldhands. Barracks as a rule are built to last and usually remain in use for centuries being repaired and rebuilt. Each farm barracks tends to develop its own culture as time goes by.

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