Modern Morality vs Game Setting

[Cleretic]

See, when I saw this thread topic, I thought we were gonna be talking about slavery. You know, the thing that confirmably exists in multiple nations we've visited (I've counted at least four, more if you count 'Garlemald' and 'Garlemald-occupied nations' separately).

Something we have to remember is that the game setting is not 21st century Earth, and does not share its morality. It's very nebulous exactly what level of comparative development the game world is in, since over the course of the game we see nations based on things ranging from 19th century Japan, Crusades-era Vatican City, to a 17th century mythical city, to a mashup of the Roman Empire, Nazi Germany and Cold War Eastern Europe. But all that can really be confirmed is that FFXIV's world hasn't caught up to us. That's just fine for a story, but it does mean that they haven't gotten to modern cultural mores like 'completely outlawing outright slave trading' and 'completely understanding that torture is bad'.

They're getting there, though. Limsa is several centuries ahead of the curve in recognition of the sins of colonialism.

[KariTheFox]

See, when I saw this thread topic, I thought we were gonna be talking about slavery. You know, the thing that confirmably exists in multiple nations we've visited (I've counted at least four, more if you count 'Garlemald' and 'Garlemald-occupied nations' separately).

Slavery is a weird one in the setting because we see it referenced a lot, but rarely see it in practice. Ul'dah seems to practice some kind of debt-based slavery as punishment for crimes, and you can become a gladiatorial slave as a way to pay off you debts too. Limsa regards slavery as illegal and Yellowjackets root it out when they can, but pirates do participate in some kind of black market slave trade (where are the slaves being taken is unclear).

Garlemald seems to have slaves, though it is interesting that the practice appears to be kept away from people in the ordinary core. Provincial Governors appear to employ slaves, but in Garlemald proper the only slaves were tucked away in Cerulea Ingens and put to work there.

[Cleretic]

Slavery is a weird one in the setting because we see it referenced a lot, but rarely see it in practice. Ul'dah seems to practice some kind of debt-based slavery as punishment for crimes, and you can become a gladiatorial slave as a way to pay off you debts too. Limsa regards slavery as illegal and Yellowjackets root it out when they can, but pirates do participate in some kind of black market slave trade (where are the slaves being taken is unclear).

Garlemald seems to have slaves, though it is interesting that the practice appears to be kept away from people in the ordinary core. Provincial Governors appear to employ slaves, but in Garlemald proper the only slaves were tucked away in Cerulea Ingens and put to work there.

There's also evidence of it in Kugane, and most overtly, Yotsuyu was sold into it (after Garlean occupation of Doma, so it's hard to say if that's 'Garlean slavery' or 'Doman slavery'). That last one I see people struggle with every so often, as Hien's reaction to the whole situation... well, it has a lot less anger towards the actual slave-owner than a fair few modern people are comfortable with. To a degree, rightly so, but it's indicative of the people in the story having a markedly different cultural perspective than the people consuming that story.