Complaining about a piece of Oblivion-given Morrowind lore, abolishing slavery leads to civil war, yeah, but the details... Options

[Kazaera]

(mods, please move this if this is in the wrong place? I couldn't figure out where this topic would go.)

So I was reading up about what happens in Morrowind post-game, according to Oblivion, and ran across this little tidbit.

Apparently Helseth incites a civil war, which he and his allies win, in order to break the power of the Great Houses and consolidate his own. And how he starts this is by banning slavery.

So far, so good. This sort of makes sense, given how fraught slavery is as a topic.

Except. That the civil war apparently happens between Hlaalu and Dres on the anti-slavery side and Redoran and Indoril on the pro-slavery side. Telvanni is Sir Not Appearing In This War.

First, the minor WTFs: Redoran is the in-game house that seems to make least use of slaves, and Indoril seems to be presented as very close to the Temple, also sort of military/religious and not a major slave-owning power either. Since slavery is also a matter of Dunmer tradition and so on, I could buy Redoran and Indoril *supporting* the major slave-owning Houses who protest against this, but have some trouble seeing them being the only ones... considering that of all the houses they would possibly be affected least from everything we've seen. (Hlaalu's got plantations. Worked by slaves.) I also have a lot of trouble seeing Telvanni stand by and do nothing, considering they're very pro-slavery and use slaves a lot.

But all of that pales next to Dres.

I mean, we don't know much about Dres lorewise. But what we do know is that: they are an agricultural House. They have huge, huge plantations that rely solely on slave labour. They are very anti-Imperial, very much Temple-supporters, apparently traditional allies of House Indoril, and very, *very* opposed to abolishing slavery.



I actually considered having slavery outlawed somehow in my Morrowind fic and ending up going "no, that would never happen because Dres would never stand for it." And now apparently, canonically, they not only have but fought a war to abolish slavery???

Especially because... you know, from Dres's description, this would totally ruin their economy.

Of course, apparently (I haven't played Oblivion myself so I'm going off the UESP wiki) you hear rumours that House Dres has "remodelled its economy from an agricultural one to a mercantile one". To which my reaction is twofold:

1. What, overnight?

2. ...if House Dres is the only primarily agricultural Great House, and it magically swaps its economy for one based on trading, then... where is the food coming from?

I have been continually WTFing over this piece of lore since I stumbled across it. Honestly - has anyone been able to make any sense of it? Because I'd love to, really, but I just hit "House Dres" and go "......what."

[Destri Melarg]

Yes, but you are only looking at Vvardenfell. What of Hlaalu's business on the mainland? Since there is no other mercantile house in Morrowind, it stands to reason that even if they do not own mines or plantations on the mainland, their trading operations are just as extensive there as they are on Vvardenfell. Hlaalu is already in competition with the East Empire Company. Dres changing to a trading house would put a serious cut into their business on the mainland, and if Dres was successful there, expanding their business to Vvardenfell would the logical next step. It would be like John Deere deciding to make cars and sell them U.S., and allying themselves with Toyota. They would still put a crimp in Toyota's business in the U.S., even if they were not selling cars in Japan.

Interesting point, but nothing I could find in the lore indicates that Hlaalu’s mainland holdings are that extensive. Assuming that they are for the moment, it would still be prudent of Hlaalu to ally themselves with Dres as Dres changes from an agricultural house to a mercantile house. Not only can they oversee that change (keep your enemies close), but they can also insure that any competing interests of the two houses are minimal. If Hlaalu’s interests on Morrowind are small or non-existent then the alliance forged by Helseth makes even more sense. In this way Hlaalu can encourage Dres’ makeover into a mercantile house for the express purpose of providing them a foothold on the mainland.

From the point of view of House Dres an alliance with Hlaalu makes sense because changing times dictate a change in their House philosophy. After the events in Tribunal most of the Dunmer refuse to believe that ALMSIVI is no more, but I’m sure it wasn’t difficult for Helseth to convince the higher ups in House Dres that there has been a change in the viability of the Temple. In such tumultuous times allying yourself with the most financially powerful house seems a prudent choice. I can also see the wisdom in moving away from strict reliance on a slave labor force that is shunned by the rest of the Empire.

OTOH, I agree that opposing abolition purely from the point of view of tradition is reasonable. That tends to be how it works IRL, even when it can be cheaper in the end to hire people for a pittance, charge them for rent, food, and every other thing they need to survive, and be able to simply fire them when the economy is bad.

I think that whatever side is supporting abolition, it is not from a sense of elfmanity, but purely being done as a political move to destroy the Houses in opposition to them. I am sure the traditionalists even in the houses that support it will be salved by the fact that making slaves free does not make them anywhere near equal.

I agree. This is what I get from both Redoran and Indoril. Redoran would oppose abolition just because Hlaalu supports it. And Indoril would ally themselves with Redoran because Redoran's stance opposes the Empire. And also because Redoran is in opposition to the new direction of their former ally, House Dres.

This is an interesting debate.