The most wretched existence facing any Old Worlder is a life of forced servitude, whether it’s in the mines of the horrid Ratmen, serving in the Pleasure Palaces of distant Araby, or being subjected to a life of pain and misery as a Thrall to a Jarl.[1a]
Overview[]
Each raid against the coasts of the Empire and Bretonnia find more and more people captured and brought back and forced into a life of endless toil and service to their masters. Such thralls are not contained to just the women and children abducted, but also include warriors captured on the field of battle.[1a] A living, breathing slave is much more valuable than the soulless vehicle of rotting flesh left after he dies.[2b]
The life of a thrall varies depending on the capturing tribe. Mostly, thralls are used as labour, building Longships or working in the frozen fields.[1a] Any slaves observed to be adept at beast tanning or metalwork, for example, live the short remainder of their able-bodied lives doing hard labour.[2b] Some thralls are taken as fourth or fifth wives, selected for their appearance rather than their station. But for most, their fate is to be sacrificed to curry the favour of the Dark Gods. When a new Dragonship is finished, the Norsemen line the approach to the sea with screaming slaves, to crush the life out of them as the warriors push the boat into the waters. Before a new raid, a thrall may be disembowelled, his guts flung out to the seas to appease the Daemons of the waters, whilst his corpse is strung up on the mast to feed the crows and other spirits of death. Seers kill thralls with impunity, using innocent blood to conjure spirits from the Otherworld. Though some thralls may receive decent treatment, most face a gruesome fate.[1a]
Blacksmiths[]
Norscan smiths are usually thralls, stolen from the southlands and only kept alive due to his useful skills. In the most basic of surroundings, he is given access to a very basic workshop and crude forge, where he is forced to beat and shape armour fragments and shoe the Marauders' vicious steeds.[2c]
The addition of a brick kiln to a smithy’s workshop can have major effects for the Norscan warband it belongs to. As the group grows, so too does its requirement for better and more plentiful weapons and armour. Providing a purpose-built kiln means higher temperatures can be achieved for metallurgy and roasting iron ores, enabling the manufacture of more advanced contraptions of war. This includes things like beast armour and components for chariots that make them faster and more able to inflict maximum damage.[2c]
The magical embers found in the perpetually-aflame pyres of the Chaos Wastes burn hotter and for much longer than any fuel in the realms of Norsca or anywhere further south. This makes them extremely useful for use in a smithy’s workshop furnace, as a fire that burns hotter for longer can create much harder weapons and armour. Obtaining the embers is not easy, however, since transporting them can be complicated, and not to mention that very few individuals actually enter the Chaos Wastes and return to tell the tale.[2c]
Butcher's Captives[]
"Give a captive a sword and he becomes an expendable sparring partner."
- —A common use for the captives of the Norscans.[2a]
There is more than one use for a captured foe. Though the altars of the shrines are ever thirsty for more blood to be spilled on them, those captives fit and strong enough are put to a different purpose. Crudely armed, they are then used for sparring, or target practice. For the savage, hardened warriors who inhabit the northern wastes, this is sport and pleasure in one, and may even increase a warrior's skill, before they tire of the inferior opponents and go looking for something more... substantial to fight. And in the unlikely event captives are not killed during the practice, they can always be sacrificed to the Gods later.[2a]