Is slavery still widespread and legal?

The horde has their gladiator fights with captured slaves (the alliance did too in recent memory, as seen with the gladiator fights they made Thrall do when he was young), and both horde and alliance took Pandaren slaves upon landing in Pandaria so they could build stuff for the Horde/Alliance.

Taking slaves still seems to be official policy for both factions, even if sugar coated and hidden most of the time in game.

What Im still unsure about is who is fair game to be taken as a slave? Presumably humans have a taboo about taking other humans as slaves for example.

The slaves taken in the Pandaria intro quests on both sides were because of the Sha corruption.

Regardless, 2020 Blizzard would not touch this topic with a 20 foot pole. Only goody-two-shoes left in both factions. I’m sure Varian’s enslavement is somehow Sylvanas’s fault as well.

9 Likes

Seems like a real stretch to paint the Pandaren Volunteer as slaves.

2 Likes

My Apologies, I must have mistaken the “friendship bracelets” for shackles.

8 Likes

No big. They aren’t wearing shackles at all as far as I know.

There is implied forced labor going on, If you want to ignore it that’s pretty messed up.

5 Likes

The WoW Comics which introduced the Two Varians idea had it stated that the Horde’s Slave Trade was Illegal and being done behind Thrall’s back.

Of course that means Thrall is ignorant of Rehgar Earthfury’s ownership of Varian as he probably would have ended up arrested or executed if it was discovered.

The Alliance itself never bothered to remove their Slave Trade as Thrall notes it’s existence in Cataclysm.

11 Likes

They’re expressly called volunteers, the primary implication is they signed up for work and don’t like it a ton. But the Horde is supposed to have plausible deniability in this belief.

Even if it was true, ignoring it would hardly be messed up.

Because the first thing you do when strange races you’ve never seen show up is “volunteer” to work for them for free? Of course the Alliance would call them “volunteers”, calling them Slaves would probably hurt the more “morally right” types feelings…though probably not enough for them to do anything about it.

Even if you want to ignore this fact, the Gladiator fights that the Alliance Made Thrall perform in show that enslavement is an old and entrenched tool of the alliance.

2 Likes

Buddy, that part isn’t even at question. That’s what the Pandaren tell the Horde.

We originally welcomed the Alliance as friends. Several of our villagers volunteered to help them build an airstrip.

That’s not what the Alliance calls them, that’s what they’re marked as in the game. I’m not even sure the Alliance can see them at all. I flew over on one of my guys and the area was empty with Horde banners, I had to log on a Horde alt.

I’d hardly say old and entrenched by that. But obviously it has happened before, might still happen some. You just picked a really bad example.

3 Likes

thrall was a hypocrite

1 Like

Could have sworn I just had to do a quest on my goblin where I had to free pandaren workers from an alliance camp. Last I knew volunteers don’t usually need freeing.

4 Likes

People are usually smarter than Pandaren and don’t require, ‘If you find them, , let them know that it is time to come home.’

2 Likes

Thrall and the Orc gladiators was one person, using them in secret if I remember correctly (and Blackmore was a jerk to everybody), as for the Alliance “slave” Pandaren in Jade forest… many of them actively state they were actually employed… “I was not (hired) to build a military fort! I’m outta here!”-Some of the Pandaren “freed”… keep in mind that this is from the Horde perspective, meanwhile the Alliance side DOES denote that they are slaves and has some interesting alternative dialog.

You should see the actual human #s for human trafficking. Biggest tragedy facing the world today next to hunger and forcible addiction. CO2 exhaust too.

Stay chipper out there! Loads of work to do.

Oh, and animal shelters.

Pretty sure it was condoned by Terenas.

So the defense you’re going with is "the group based on a very large real-world culture are just that dumb"?

You might want to rethink that strategy, pal. “The sha made us do it” is actually a less damaging angle here.

7 Likes

The group very loosely based on a large real world is also depicted as incredibly silly and naive at times in-game, no question.

Why? That’s on Blizzard. Acknowledging a presentation isn’t the same as supporting it be perpetuated in the story. And doesn’t reflect my view of the people it is loosely (I’d probably use the term incorrectly) based on.

Like we can acknowledge the Siamese cats in The Lady and the Tramp are loose negative racial stereotypes. But pointing that out doesn’t equate to thinking it is actually true to life or accurate.

4 Likes

This would be odd, since it was Terenas who ordered the internment camps on the idea that they would eventually lose their blood lust and tried to reason with the Orc leader, holding vicious gladiator battles seems kind of antithetical to such an idea…

I feel like people misuse the word, ‘Slave,’ on purpose to drum up drama.

Slavery comes with an economic component. Slaves are property. They are typically bought and sold. The Horde practiced slavery; gladiators are bought and sold to fight in Orgrimmar’s arena. I’m not sure if this is still a thing after the changing of hands of a number of Warchiefs, and now a council. The Alliance practiced slavery; Thrall was the property of Blackmoore. I don’t think Orcs were being bought and sold, but a number were considered the property of others. I’m not sure if that was legally on the books though. Arthas witnessed one such fight once, but whether he knew those Orcs were considered property, I don’t know. I’d assume so.

In the case of the Pandaren in Pandaria? They were not slaves. They volunteered to assist the Alliance forces in building a base.