Hoth: Blood and Ice

[Dapper Dog]

Sith Empire: Xenophobia and Slavery

Unlike say the Hutt Cartels and the approach of slavery as a cost saving initiative or money making endeavor, slavery in the Empire is more about domination and the right of power of the state to subjugate the weak and put them to use for the greater good of the people. It is based on the ideal that the citizens of the Sith Empire are simply of better stock than other lesser species in the galaxy.

For a typical citizen of the Sith Empire, slaves are beneath notice, most people don’t have slaves as they can’t afford them and for the most part don’t need them as the standard of living is genuinely high. Slaves are predominately used by the state for public works, monuments, and dangerous hard labor. Domestic servants are only common among the wealthy families and only the wealthiest possess armies of slaves, most simply lease them when they need them as the long term expense of maintaining slave labor is rather expensive over the long term.

This means that while slaves are a part of life in the Empire they are not part of the common person’s experience, due to either proximity or lack of wealth to need them. Slave labor is relegated to the state and the wealthy elite. This does not mean that everyone believes slave labor is right just that those in power see no political need to change the status quo. Keep in mind that slavery in the Empire is not just relegated to non-human species, the bulk of slave labor is often human born into the role due to an accident of birth. It does stem from the Sith mentality to dominate the weak and the belief that the weak serve the strong.

This also extends to why non-human species and those not of pure Sith blood are looked down upon in the Empire. The earliest Dark Jedi that conquered Korriban were mostly human and those non-human lines either died off or were suppressed once the ideology began to take root.

The xenophobia that is present in Imperial society is an outgrowth of belief that these bloodlines dating back to the dawn of the first Sith Empire are the most pure and therefore most powerful Sith bloodlines. This has no real basis in fact but the Sith believe this, especially Conservatives and Moderates, and it holds sway of how they perceive their family lineages and organize the nobility. The most powerful noble lines can trace their roots back to the Dark Jedi, the minor houses tend to lack that pedigree. The main issue is that powerful Force Users still arise from non-human species and this challenges the status quo.

It was only recently perhaps in the last two centuries that non-human Sith were even accepted within their ranks, but many have gone on to become powerful Sith and now even sit on the Dark Council. This change has begun to filter down and acceptance of non-human species is gaining ground albeit slowly and more often in the outer regions than the more pure core regions.

There is even a movement to abolish slavery within the Empire called the Free Worker’s Movement, that believes slave labor depresses worker’s wages, it has support of forward thinking Sith as well but the movement is at its strongest in the outer regions though with Darth Hoshi publicly backing the movement it has gained a great deal of popularity and prestige and also a slew of enemies that want to see their voices silenced. Time will tell if they survive this newfound surge of popularity and scrutiny.

The new regime is more tolerant but still the old ways hold sway.