Right. Clan houses can range from a single family unit up to multiple units with residents and associated people in the hundreds. This is true for most clans, with urban clan houses usually being more concentrated in terms of the ground space they occupy and rural ones being more spread out. For urban compounds, think Meso-American residential complexes - what early explorers called 'palaces' or Ancient Egyptian town houses. For rural, think everything from single family houses with out buildings all the way up to the small villages of typical Roman 'villas' or Ancient Egyptian country houses. Lots of example of both on the web, and looking at South Asian equivalents would also be useful. Again, that's what Phil was familiar with - he started his career as a Meso=American anthropologist, then became a South Asian linguist. Rural clan houses tend to be more for agriculture or crafts; urban for crafts and trade. Urban clan houses can also be for purely residence purposes, with the working spaces elsewhere in the compound or elsewhere in the town / city.
(May I commend to your attention:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmanabhapuram_Palace
Slaves are normally housed in specific quarters, with the quarters being less sophisticated as as the status of the slave gets lower and lower. 'Household' slaves do sleep in the house, with decent quarters near the people that they serve; noble people never go into those areas of the house, if they can help it. Locking them up at night is rare; if one had a slave that needed this, one would sell them off or donate them to the Imperium - or to one's temple. The Imperium treats runaways very severely - if they are lucky, they get killed out of hand - and usually fines the owner for not properly training the slave to obey orders. As you mention, it's very well understood by both parties what the agreement is - the slave gets decent treatment, and the owner gets work. In return, neither causes trouble for the Imperium.
There have been slave revolts; Ferinara was the most recent one, and it was a very, very nasty business. The fief-holder got the idea that he could have his own private army by arming his slaves; I think he was hoping for Janissaries, and what he got was Spartacus. The Imperium promptly crushed the revolt, but it was a very bloody and very messy business. It's why Chirine does not own slaves; being murdered in one's bed does cause one a few problems.
Does this help?
Originally Posted by CRKrueger
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks