SLAVES The most common term for a slave in Torvaldsland is bond-maid. Bondmaids commonly wear their hair long and are garbed in a kirtle of thin, white wool that is split to the belly. They often engage in hard work, chores such as churning butter, weaving on the looms, carrying bundles of wood or buckets of water and gathering verr dung for the sul patches. Thus, bond-maids usually derogatorily refer to southern slaves as silk girls. They feel that such girls are spoiled and coddled. They believe these girls have little better to do than to make themselves look pretty and await their masters. Most men in Torvaldsland prefer their slaves to have large breasts and large hips. Their hips are sometimes referred to as a "love cradle" and the best are "well adapted to cushion the shocks of an oarsman's pleasure." (Marauders of Gor, p.125) Bond-maids are sometimes given descriptive names such as Pouting Lips or Pretty Ankles. They can also be given the name they had when they were free as a slave name. The bond-maid circle is simply a circle drawn in the dirt. Though the circle depicted in the books was about twenty feet in diameter, there was nothing to say that the circle could not be smaller or larger. By Torvaldsland law, any woman that enters the circle becomes a bond-maid. The girl can enter voluntarily or involuntarily, such as bound and hurled in, and it is still valid. Torvaldsland raiders often capture new slaves on their sea journeys. When they return to their homes, these new girls are given a dose of slave wine before they can leave the ship. This black wine is kept in a tall, dark vessel. Attached to this container, by a chain, is a two-handled gold cup. The cup is ornate and decorated with a design of chained bond-maids. The chain design also decorates the rim of the cup. In addition, on five places of the cup, are the images of the five-bladed slave whip. A man's current slaves are commonly permitted to greet their master upon his arrival in port. One's slaves are kept in the halls at night and the last man to use a girl is expected to secure her for the night. Slaves often must eat bond-maid gruel, a combination of unsweetened, mud-like Sa-Tarna meal and pieces of raw fish. Bond-maids walk a certain way, different from free women, but no description of this is ever given. COLLAR A bond-maid's collar is often of iron, hinged and fastened by a rivet. Sometimes, a coffle rope may be used on a group of slaves. This is placed around their necks and the rope is ½ inch thick and cored with wire. The wire prevents them from chewing through the rope. The manacles used in the north are less ornate than those in the south. They are basically curved, hinged bands of black iron, ¾ of an inch wide and ¼ inch thick. On one of each of the two curved pieces is a welded ring. These two rings are joined by a single link, about an inch wide, ¼ inch in diameter and three inches long. Like all slave steel, slaves will not escape from these bonds. BRANDS There is less uniformity in brand types in the northern regions. One common brand consists of a half circle, with at its right tip a steep diagonal line. The half circle is 1 ¼ wide and the line is 1 ¼ high. This brand symbolizes a woman whose belly lies under the sword, akin to a Torvaldsland house where a man's weapons are kept on the wall above his couch, where his slave will be on the floor. This is also used as another term for a bondmaid. When she is to be branded, a girl is placed on her belly over a branding log. The log is about a yard thick and all the bark has been removed. There will be an anvil a few feet away and two canister braziers for the branding irons. The anvil will be kept on a large flat stone so that this heavy weight does not sink into the soft earth. A girl is branded for about five Ihn, two Ihn more than slave girls in the south. PUNISHMENT The men of Torvaldsland have a number of options for disciplining their bond-maids. If they are at sea, a girl might be stripped or remain clothed and be tied to an oar. During the rowing, the girl must be careful to breathe before she goes underwater. She must also worry about predatory fish which might want to sample her flesh. Girls who are disliked greatly may sometimes be used for bait. A girl might also be thrown to the thralls for their pleasure. The Whip of the Furs is a unique discipline where instead of whipping a girl you rape her, teaching her what it means to be a slave. THRALLS (MALE SLAVES) Male slaves are called thralls. They are despised and must obey instantly and perfectly or could be immediately killed. Torvaldsland men have little patience with thralls. Thralls wear short tunics of white wool and their hair is kept closely cropped. Their collars are hammered bands of iron with an attached welded ring. They often work in the fields and cannot leave the fields without permission or be killed. They cannot touch a bond-maid unless one is thrown to them for discipline. They are kept chained for the night in the bosk sheds. Thralls also can't touch the war arrow, or any weapon. They can be killed for even touching a weapon. Being a thrall is not an enviable position. Thralls once were even sacrificed to the gods of Torvaldsland. |