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[panamakira]

@Naitake

Yeah I'm sorry I'm not adding to the "fictional" discussion of slavery in Thedas and how expensive they're compared to my magic staff. I love this kind of topics because the ****s come out and play and pretend to have a smart discussion about fictional slavery. Look at real history and you can figure out why the slaves in Thedas happen to be bit pricier than a magic staff. It doesn't seem far off to think you might find better uses for living things as they come off as an investment in the long run.

/Please excuse me.

[moilami]

TheCreeper wrote...

Okay towards the end of a demo Hayder mentions that the slaves where worth "100 sovereigns a head"  now maybe I am a bad judge of  the Tevinter slave markets but that strikes me as a of a lot of money considering that in origins the most powerful and expensive Mage staff was about 125 sovereigns. So Why are slaves about as expensive than ancient powerful weapons of doom?

I think the mage staff was too cheap. You could get like 100 swords with the price of one slave. Or 120 swords with the price of the staff. Slaves were expensive in real.

[Sabariel]

Maybe they were sex slaves... *cough*

[Zanallen]

Isn't slavery illegal in most of Thedas? Wouldn't that increase the risk for slavers and thus drive up prices? Besides, do we know what race these slaves were? Elves are pretty common and probably cheaper. Humans and dwarves, if legal to own, would probably be rarer and more expensive.

[Aermas]

Think about the price of an Kalashnikov. By today's standards it is one of the primer firearms, It's price is comparable with that of slaves.

[Grumpy young man]

Aermas wrote...

Think about the price of an Kalashnikov. By today's standards it is one of the primer firearms, It's price is comparable with that of slaves.

Yes but slaves are a "commodity" that can't be technologicaly duplicated by almost everyone;).  

[koshindan]

social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/6168204/5#6178503

We had a discussion about this before. In real life, slaves were expensive. Some slaves would easily sell for a over a hundred swords.

Besides, a slave could pay for itself within a few years. 

[Blackout62]

Oddly enough this was discussed earlier in a long lost thread. Someone had actually run the numbers from the price of a prostitute at The Pearl in DA:O and guesstimated that 100 sovereigns is about the right price for a slave. Though theoretically if D = the price of a slave in Thedas, A = the price of a prostitute in Thedas, B = equals the price of a prostitute in a slave owning society, and C = equals the price of a slave in the same society then C / B should equal the same as D / A. With inflation put into the mix we could also use the results of this formula to figure out the rate of the Thedas Sovereign compared to about any currency.

And ninja'd on that previous discussion.

Modifié par Blackout62, 03 mars 2011 - 07:47 .

[Vicious]

They were going to Tevinter. One of the overlords there was going to use the entire ship of slaves in a blood magic ritual to extend his already unholy strength, power, and lifespan.


So he paid a lot to ensure

A) He wouldn't get outbid

The smugglers would be tripping over themselves to deliver the slaves for THAT kind of money.

Luckily Isabela isn't soulless.

[casedawgz]

Forget the mage staves. Why are those slaves so much more expensive than the slaves in DA:O. The money you get after beating up the slaver in the alienage is not remotely equivocal to 100 sovereigns a head. There were like 20 elves in those cages, and I think the total for all of them wasn't much more than a hundred.

[Nyaore]

I think the prices also have something to do with the fact that slavery isn't something that's regulated just to Tevinter, as I seem to remember there being a line of dialogue in Origins that mentioned that it was practiced discreetly in the noble circles of Orlais. Not to mention the fact that acquiring and then transporting slaves through nations where the practice is supposed to be illegal might add a certain amount of risk to such transactions. So when you combine the laws of supply and demand, the risk involved to the slave traders themselves, and also the quality of each individual slave, the price can and probably will skyrocket.

[tasca1180]

My problem is not that slaves are expensive, but that Zevran was so cheap (no pun intended). I remember him telling that the crows bought him for a few sovereigns and that it was a good price.

Mh, maybe the slaves have staves? You know, the slave is just 5 gold, but the staff is 95?

[Xerxes52]

Slaves are expensive. Just look at the Roman Empire, or even the United States pre-Civil War.

Only the rich can really afford slaves, and even then it is a major investment.

[Icinix]

It's prices like that that caused a change in the way we have slaves now.

You would have had to pay 100 gold pieces, then you would have to feed them, and house them.

Eventually they'll learn to drive them into economic slavery where they have to go to work, then feed themselves, then house themselves, then clothe themselves...you know. Like life.

[Stazro]

tasca1180 wrote...

My problem is not that slaves are expensive, but that Zevran was so cheap (no pun intended). I remember him telling that the crows bought him for a few sovereigns and that it was a good price.

That can easily be explained by exaggeration. "I've been so miserable that I've been sold for a song."

[Nyaore]

tasca1180 wrote...

My problem is not that slaves are expensive, but that Zevran was so cheap (no pun intended). I remember him telling that the crows bought him for a few sovereigns and that it was a good price.

Mh, maybe the slaves have staves? You know, the slave is just 5 gold, but the staff is 95?

To be fair though, he was still a child when that happened and one without many skills. Even if he did show promise in some aspects of his character, the Crows would still have to invest a lot of money into properly training him to grow up into the assassin he would become. If he proved to be no good at the kind of work they wanted from him, chances are he would be disposed of. And I definitely remember Zevran saying somewhere that the training to become a Crow can indeed be fatal. Now imagine paying a lot of money for an unproven whelp only to have said whelp die before the investment can be returned. It simply doesn't make much sense in the long run to do so when you think about it, as the losses could often outweigh the eventual gains if most of the potential recruits die before they can make the organization a profit.

There's also other factors to consider as well. First he was living in a **** house and was probably sold as a way to make a cheap buck, rather than by some enteprising slaver who knew the market value a slave could bring. He also was never directly taken by slavers and transported around a largely anti-slavery continent for parts unknown, which is one of the reasons why I'm sure the price for the slaves in the Isabela quest was so high. The Crows are also well respected and feared in Antiva, and I'm sure that the authorities are willing to turn a blind eye to their procurement techniques in order to avoid incuring their wrath. This lack of judicial oversight probably makes acquring slaves for the Crows much cheaper than it would for other organizations that lack their fearsome reputation.

[Kharn-ivor]

100 sov a head?...welllll maybe Hawke should set up shop