Of the volotlings

Of the volotlings

It is unknown what causes a person to become a volot or to give birth to a volot child. Children of two volot often are not volot themselves, and volot can be born to regular people just as often as to other volot. There is no such thing as a half-volot – you are either volot or not.

Usually when people say "half-volot", they mean the volot races, or volotlings. Volotlings are a product of volot shape-shifters (or insane volot) mating with animals. Some of the resulting hideous hybrids not only survived but were able to procreate either with animals or their own twisted kind. Thus appeared volotlings, such as trolls and goblins, centaurs and peri. The level of sapience and indeed the level of humanity in volotlings are diverse and unpredictable. In different lands, the attitude towards different kinds of volotlings is also diverse: in some lands they are reviled and killed on sight, in others efforts are made to bring them into the fold of humanity, not always successful.

(no subject)

Of the institution of Slavery.

In the beginning, everybody in the world was a slave of the volot. One of the innovations of the Empire was not the abolishing of slavery, but allowing regular people to own slaves, too. After Judea became a province of the Empire, and belief in the Creator spread across all the lands, the Jewish rules for the treatment of slaves were adopted on the imperial level.

A free man can become a slave either by his own will, or if convicted by law. Terms of indenture are usually in between 2 and 20 years. Children born to slaves are set free when one of the parents is set free, or when they become of age, whichever comes first. A slave who is too old to work by the time he is set free is entitled to either a monetary pension from the former owner, or to living arrangements made for him by the owner. Slaves cannot be sold unless the establishment where they work is sold, or if the sale is sanctioned by the Slavery Consulate.

For every five days of work a slave is entitled to one day’s rest and one day of learning (usually religious instructions or else reading, writing and sums). It is unlawful to maim or kill a slave: the penalty for this is the same as for maiming or killing a free man. Any slave forced into a sexual relationship of any sort with a master, is given her or his freedom (or allowed to switch masters if such is the slave’s desire). The working conditions for slaves must adhere to strict regulations: in fact in several lands of the Empire hired workers band together and demand that their working conditions be brought up to Slavery Consulate standards.

Of Religion.

Of Religion.

In the land called Egypt there dwelt, a few centuries before Romulus and Remus, a tribe of people called ha-Ibiru. They were slaves among slaves, working for the powerful archvolot rulers of that land. But they were not inclined to worship the archvolot. They claimed something that has never been claimed before: that no one walking on the earth, not volot nor archvolot was worthy of worship, that only the supreme Creator of the world was to be revered as one and only God.

The ha-Ibiru openly defied the Archvolot of Egypt, and, surprisingly enough, forced them to admit defeat and let their tribe and everybody who wanted to join them leave the land. Then they entered a long and terrible war with the archvolot Dagon and Baal-Zebub, and their devoted volot-worshippers. Again, to everybody’s surprise, they won. Some said it was because the leaders of the ha-Ibiri were themselves powerful volot. The ha-Ibiri said it was because their God, infinitely more powerful than any archvolot, was with them.

Time passed, and the luck of the ha-Ibiru (or their God) did not always help them. They have been conquered and subjugated by archvolot after archvolot, but they never lost faith in the Creator.

For the Empire, which by that time has gone through several volot-related crises, the peculiar faith of the ha-Ibiru appeared a wonderful idea. The Warrior Consul of Rome, Gnaeus Pompey, in one of the very rare moments in history when Roman forces invaded another country, came to the assistance of the Judeans, as the descendants of the ha-Ibiru came to be called by then, and helped them to overthrow the rule of the archvolot once and for all.

Judea became a part of the Empire, and Pompey invited the learned men of Judea to leave their land, and come live among the peoples of the Empire, teaching them about the Creator, promising them great honors and gifts.

In about two centuries, several different forms of faith in the One God have spread throughout all the provinces of Rome.

It appears that a volot who has been baptized and consecrated to the Creator, becomes immune to worship. He gets no power from it, and loses no sanity because of it.

Oдин Серый, другой Белый, два великих мага.

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