Nov 04
Do modern historians paint ancient Greece and Rome as evil because they tolerated slavery?
How come most evil humanoids in the game are usually portrayed as practicing slavery? Are drow and duergar evil because they practice slavery? Or are they portrayed as practicing slavery because they’re evil?
Sort of a chicken and egg situation I guess. Unless one tries to make a case that practicing slavery is not evil or that evil societies will not necessarily lead to the practice of slavery.
I guess you can have evil societies without slavery. The chicken never lays any eggs (in this poorly thought out metaphor, evil societies are chickens and the practice of slavery are eggs).
But some non-evil societies practice a form of slavery in the form of indentured servitude or work prisons for debtors and law breakers. Is that evil? Or is that an egg that doesn’t hatch? Made into an omelette instead?
I told you this metaphor was bad.
As a history student I can tell you that modern historians don’t even paint the actual slave holders in the 19th century as evil, since ‘evil’ isn’t a scientific term and implies a judgement from the historian. Thus a big no-no.