Post by psychopathickids on Sept 25, 2014 0:51:33 GMT
Poverty, crime, orphaned children who must beg, steal or prostitute themselves simply to keep their bellies from throbbing and their forms concealed enough to ward off the elements, all problems every nation and people have dealt with since the inception of large scale agriculture and heavily populated cities. Each has developed its own way of warding against these social issues or has chosen to allow them to continue unhindered in the hopes that those so afflicted would simply die out over the ages, and the peoples of the Southern Shore are no different. During the lifetime of the Prophet-Emperor Raegar Khaitis the Ancient the city states and villages which would eventually become the Crowned Republic of Lucente proper and its successor states were largely too small and tribally organized to have such issues become a problem prevalent enough to justify official action, though the beginnings of what was to become the custom of the Food Walk had already begun in the Western city-state of Juturna. The women of the semi-noble aristocratic great Houses of the Republic would gather baskets of food stuffs, and walk the town or city delivering the contents to the needy as was deemed necessary and proper, though simply providing for the short term problems of the poor was observed over generations to do little to address the greater issues behind the institution of endemic poverty, and slowly the Food Walk began to take on a secondary purpose; the identification and eventual recruitment of potential house servants.
House servants as an institution along the Southern Shores fill a middle role between free employees and slaves alien to the Survaek Empire and their meticulously scrupulous secretaries and scribes, and though technically attached to the House to which they had been sworn, generally as beleaguered children, they cannot be bought, or sold, and are not considered property of their house or its inhabitants, trademarks of the typical chattel slavery practiced elsewhere throughout the ages. Their lives and wellbeing are protected along traditional lines governed by custom and diction peculiar even among the common people of the Southern Shores, and nearly impossible to navigate by any foreign to her coast. It is commonly held that the only people who understand the oft’ unwritten and misunderstood laws and codes of conduct between House Servant and House Member in totality are those that have firsthand experience with the institution, and years if not decades of it most often beginning when they were small children, though some elements beyond the simple promise not to buy or sell servants nor hold them as property are clear even among foreigners; a House servant may not be killed, beaten or punished unjustly, and in all but the most extreme cases, generally murder, rape or treason, punishments may not cause permanent harm or mutilation to the recipient’s person, though the exact definitions of ‘harm and mutilation’ are less than crystal clear, a house servant may not be made to perform any duties on behalf of the House which might endanger their lives except under the most extreme of circumstances, and are not expected to serve as soldiers or guards on behalf of the house.
Just as unclear among outsiders are the exact duties and obligations a house servant owes the members of a house, though some have been made clear over the generations through the observations and writings of those who have stayed as guests of the Southern Shores in the homes of one or more of the noble Houses. The House servant is expected to obey requests made of them up to and including pleasuring house members and guests in any imaginable manner, as many an honored guest of the Southern Shores has regaled his company upon returning home, though they may not be required to perform tasks which might endanger themselves or which present undue risk of permanent injury or duress, and can neither be forced to keep or not to keep any pregnancy which might result in the course of fulfilling their duties. In practice, servants are typically required only to act as grooms, water bearers, and couriers or cup bearers, water bearers, and assistants to handmaidens, boys and girls respectively, until coming of age (upon reaching fifteen years or flowering, respectively) at which time they become manservants or handmaidens proper, and are tasked with bearing palanquins, tending to horses and serving as general handymen or aiding in bathing, grooming and dressing house members and guests, preparing and serving meals, and keeping the general state of the household clean and well kempt. Upon reaching an age which might make the fulfillment of said duties overly difficult or outright dangerous, the house servant is regulated to the relatively easy task of watching over and educating serving boys or girls, respectively.
The children born of those sworn to a noble House are free as any other, and the members of the House proper are expected to teach these children a trade, generally that of elite soldier for potential recruitment into their Household guard, or that of picture perfect housekeeper, a proper match for whom they are also expected to find, court, and offer dowry enough to ensure a good match in keeping with the station of one raised in a noble House, and in this way hopefully avoid feeding the cycle of endemic poverty, ensuring all have a proper place in the world, be it common folk, house servant, or children of house servants whom are provided a trade which might keep them in coin enough to ensure they will never go hungry nor want for shelter or adequate clothing. Of course this system isn’t perfect, it is almost unheard of to swear any adults to the house as servants leaving those who have fallen into poverty in their adult life to mostly fend for themselves, and it does little to address issues of poverty due to mental illness or crime performed of the perpetrators volition, though these are seemingly small parts of the greater problem culturally seen as less deserving of official response on behalf of the noble Houses proper.
House servants as an institution along the Southern Shores fill a middle role between free employees and slaves alien to the Survaek Empire and their meticulously scrupulous secretaries and scribes, and though technically attached to the House to which they had been sworn, generally as beleaguered children, they cannot be bought, or sold, and are not considered property of their house or its inhabitants, trademarks of the typical chattel slavery practiced elsewhere throughout the ages. Their lives and wellbeing are protected along traditional lines governed by custom and diction peculiar even among the common people of the Southern Shores, and nearly impossible to navigate by any foreign to her coast. It is commonly held that the only people who understand the oft’ unwritten and misunderstood laws and codes of conduct between House Servant and House Member in totality are those that have firsthand experience with the institution, and years if not decades of it most often beginning when they were small children, though some elements beyond the simple promise not to buy or sell servants nor hold them as property are clear even among foreigners; a House servant may not be killed, beaten or punished unjustly, and in all but the most extreme cases, generally murder, rape or treason, punishments may not cause permanent harm or mutilation to the recipient’s person, though the exact definitions of ‘harm and mutilation’ are less than crystal clear, a house servant may not be made to perform any duties on behalf of the House which might endanger their lives except under the most extreme of circumstances, and are not expected to serve as soldiers or guards on behalf of the house.
Just as unclear among outsiders are the exact duties and obligations a house servant owes the members of a house, though some have been made clear over the generations through the observations and writings of those who have stayed as guests of the Southern Shores in the homes of one or more of the noble Houses. The House servant is expected to obey requests made of them up to and including pleasuring house members and guests in any imaginable manner, as many an honored guest of the Southern Shores has regaled his company upon returning home, though they may not be required to perform tasks which might endanger themselves or which present undue risk of permanent injury or duress, and can neither be forced to keep or not to keep any pregnancy which might result in the course of fulfilling their duties. In practice, servants are typically required only to act as grooms, water bearers, and couriers or cup bearers, water bearers, and assistants to handmaidens, boys and girls respectively, until coming of age (upon reaching fifteen years or flowering, respectively) at which time they become manservants or handmaidens proper, and are tasked with bearing palanquins, tending to horses and serving as general handymen or aiding in bathing, grooming and dressing house members and guests, preparing and serving meals, and keeping the general state of the household clean and well kempt. Upon reaching an age which might make the fulfillment of said duties overly difficult or outright dangerous, the house servant is regulated to the relatively easy task of watching over and educating serving boys or girls, respectively.
The children born of those sworn to a noble House are free as any other, and the members of the House proper are expected to teach these children a trade, generally that of elite soldier for potential recruitment into their Household guard, or that of picture perfect housekeeper, a proper match for whom they are also expected to find, court, and offer dowry enough to ensure a good match in keeping with the station of one raised in a noble House, and in this way hopefully avoid feeding the cycle of endemic poverty, ensuring all have a proper place in the world, be it common folk, house servant, or children of house servants whom are provided a trade which might keep them in coin enough to ensure they will never go hungry nor want for shelter or adequate clothing. Of course this system isn’t perfect, it is almost unheard of to swear any adults to the house as servants leaving those who have fallen into poverty in their adult life to mostly fend for themselves, and it does little to address issues of poverty due to mental illness or crime performed of the perpetrators volition, though these are seemingly small parts of the greater problem culturally seen as less deserving of official response on behalf of the noble Houses proper.
