[align=center]The Slave and the Blacksmith, by Uhr-Kulmbizharr[/align]
Once upon a time, there was a blacksmith who laboured every day in his smithy. He would heat the metal in the forge fire, strike it with his hammer and harden it in a barrel of tempering water before reheating the metal. All the time, his slave pumped the bellows. One day, the blacksmith worked for long hours to turn steel into a blade, yet his slave tired of his work at the bellows.
In secret, the slave cut into the water barrel with a knife. After a while, it had leaked dry. The next time the blacksmith reached out to quench the steel in the water, it was gone.
“This was the last barrel. The steel will spoil without liquid to harden it in,” said the blacksmith.
“Is that the end of your work today?” asked the slave.
“No, but yours,” replied the blacksmith and quenched the blade in blood by running it through the slave, for such is the fate of those who would shy from work and destroy their master’s possessions.
- The Slave and the Blacksmith, by Daemonsmith Uhr-Kulmbizharr the Blind, the renowned Chaos Dwarf author of fable stories during the foundation of Zharr-Naggrund
Cases like this almost make you think it might be worth investing in a (limited) education system for slaves - a smarter slave would have seen this ending coming a mile away ;p
Cases like this almost make you think it might be worth investing in a (limited) education system for slaves - a smarter slave would have seen this ending coming a mile away ;p
Dînadan
Quite true! Slave labour is a relatively unproductive labour that can be compensated either by increased numbers of slaves, or a more efficient labour in general.
Taking into account that we most likely will end up in our own bubble in chaos, we need to cut our governmental expenses: that is killing and torturing slaves. We will hardly have the same amount of slaves soon. Not to mention that the price will most likely rise due to the cut in the supply and growing demand. Knowing how unwilling we are (alas, there is still plenty of "dwarven" left in us) to spend our savings, and since our investment rate in slavery is traditionally low, we may soon find it most difficult not only to continue building our ziggurats and maintaining our infrastructure, but also continuing our scientific research.
For example look at the new dwarven gyro copters and gyrobombers. Most ingenious! And what do we have? We mostly focus on big land-based artillery, trains (without rails even). Yes, we compensate it partly by magic, but still.
So the best strategy should be giving basic smithing, engineering and reading skills to the most capable of ogres, hobgoblins and greenskins while tightening our grip in security and fortifying out labour camps, mines and such. In a generation or two we will get a much more capable battle force if we make sure that they do not run away. However, I'd love to see them try and run from our bubble. ) :~
So the best strategy should be giving basic smithing, engineering and reading skills to the most capable of ogres, hobgoblins and greenskins while tightening our grip in security and fortifying out labour camps, mines and such. In a generation or two we will get a much more capable battle force if we make sure that they do not run away. However, I'd love to see them try and run from our bubble. ) :~
The_Penguin
I'd say better not to teach smithing and engineering to the Greenskins but rather to human slaves; last time we tried to improve orcs, we nearly lost the capital!
I suppose you are right. Humans are feeble by stature, but definitely much more clever. I guess we might teach them even a slightly advanced engineering after all. And get the greenskins to work for them as assistance. We can not expect them to work together against us (mailings and orks do not get along very well, as you know), but that might be a great aid to our cause.
Plus, I am not sure, but do we make enough effort to turn our slaves into worshipping Hashut? Rituals and worships can be stronger than even the heaviest chain. )
This one was good ! However i have a hard time seeing the dawi zharr being as bloodthirsty as they often are depicted. Dwarves loves gold and wealth and this quality is even more enforced in the greedy chaos dwarfs. And slaves are certanly a measure of a dwarfs wealth. Of course one needs to set examples from time to time too.
@Dînadan and The_Penguin: Interesting discussion. Personally I prefer the Warhammer world as the one-minute-to-midnight pre-End Times it has always been, but let’s see how the End Times approach turn out. A slave drought would indeed be serious!
@Forgefire: Tackar! Well, it’s Warhammer, so it’s supposed to be grimdark and over the top. You’re bound to see a lot of cruelty and and even killing of slaves, but the slaying of slaves would rarely be on a large scale. The large scale die-off would be from exhaustion, starvation and sickness from working to death in mines, quarries manufacturies etc. Chaos Dwarfs are certainly Dwarfs at the core, so I imagine them as calculating enough to primarily indulge in a little slave killing when their growth of slave wealth firmly exceeds the losses. Dawi Zharr are more ostentatious than ordinary Dwarfs, after all, as is evident in the big hat range.
And having a sacrificial religion, where you actually burn part of your wealth on a regular basis to honour divinities, probably influences the Dawi Zharr’s way of treating slaves that have displeased them.
The point you make about resources and slaves is very much true for real history as well. Slaves were expensive, and the rule was to not kill your own life-long investments even if you treated them brutally and degraded their lives.