Slaver's Guild

This page is part of the world information. In fact, it's a snippet of economy and trade - trading outfits and centers

The Slaver Guild:

Short overview and history:

Abusing the weak, including forced labor and forced prostitution is really not a novel idea, that no one ever had before the Great War. The first decades after the bombs fell were informed by ruthless battle for the very survival. Only when the nuclear winter slowly ended, real agrarian production restarted and humanity fought itself bit by bit out of the ashes to rise again like a phoenix, the historiography began again – and humanity proved, that their history does not change.
It was nearly unavoidable, that the “strongest” would exploit the “weakest”, even if surely no one would have counted with a well organized exploitation starting that quickly. According to rumors, that over time became legends and myths, the first leader of the Slaver Guild was called Garvis, a merciless murderer and raider with too much education. Instead of raiding a small farmstead and sadistically torturing it’s denizens for a day or two, until it stopped being funny (or the victims were dead, whatever happened first) until the “joy of a new toy” was gone, he asked himself, why not just keep the denizens of this small farmstead? Why not force them to work for us all the time? Why have the short lived fun of a few days full of pain, humiliation and rape, when we could keep the beautiful daughter alive, so she can be available year after year.
Out of Garvis ideas the Slaver Guild was created, though no one really knows when and where that was. To be fair, it has to be said, that most inhabitants of the Wasteland despise this practice and do not buy slaves, but there are enough exceptions, that buy cheap labor from the guild and let it work.
The Guild probably began in northern Nevada, the headquarter however moved around 2210 to the Den in northern California. Since 2235 Metzger leads the guild in California, a man of whom many think that the legendary Garvis looks rather nice and compassionate in comparison too.

Structure, size and organization:

The Guild is hierarchically organized: Metzger is on top. He alone gives out the important instructions, decides who will be a business partner or ware, leads the largest part of the organizational work and sets the standard for the treatment of the “wares”. He also gives out single assignments or duties to deputies of his own choosing, his so called Lieutenants.
According to estimates by the intelligence division of the NCR Rangers there are around 300 members of the Slavers Guild in 2247, that can all be recognized by a prominent, artistic tattoo in their face, usually on the temple. Since Metzger most certainly knows, that many mighty organizations in the Wasteland are not very friendly towards the institution of slavery, he makes certain that no one but him has insight into every aspect of the business, so that through the loss of a single Slaver that would be “convinced” to share all he knows before he dies, the whole organization wouldn’t be endangered.

Business practices:

Slavery in the post apocalyptic Wasteland is not racist. The Guild acquires new slaves by raiding and capturing the weakest and most defenseless – those are, for a large part, so called “wild” tribes, that live on the land and use little in the way of technology (many of those tribes do not even have firearms) – or even small settlements, that do not count as wild tribes in the eyes of most of the Wasteland, but have little more in the way of technology.
New slaves receive collars, of which there are several versions. The most used is just a heavy, iron collar with attached rings to chain together several slaves on one, long, chain. Others have a small, electrical supply and electrodes, that allow the overseers to torture the slaves with electrical shocks by using a small remote control until they become docile. The rarest kind, that the Slaver Guild has only in very limited numbers, contains a bit of explosives, just enough to guarantee that the head will be immediately and completely severed by the explosion. The overseers like to attach these collars to the children or spouses of “troublemakers”, to apply further pressure on them. The explosion can be triggered by a radio signal. There is a different setting, too, that triggers the explosion once a certain radio signal is no longer received. This allows for easier transportation of slaves, since one doesn’t have to continuously keep the slaves fenced in, but instead just has to watch the sender, since the slaves can’t move more than a few hundred yards from it.
The Slaver Guild does not only trade in human beings, but generally in every kind of ware, selling of which requires a complete lack of any morals: outlawed weaponry, poisons and drugs.

Current situation and plans for the future:

After the Chosen One destroyed the drilling rig of the Enclave in 2242, the Guild lost one of their biggest and best paying customers. Luckily, the Enclave wasn’t the only customer the Slavers Guild has in 2242: Vault-City and the Mordino Family in New Reno were still interested in cheap labor or guinea pigs for new drugs, which gave the Slavers Guild a certain buffer to balance losses and find a new set of customers.
The solution was close to hand for Metzger: he immediately started to sell slaves in small groups or even singles to private customers. Furthermore the Guild not only began selling more and more outlawed weapons, but also building more regulars trading routes to the north: something they made impossible to the Crimson Caravans and other trading houses of the NCR with all force, going after possible competition in the north with a vengencance.
In short, the Guild of 2247 is going strong – and unfortunately it looks as if nothing will change that in the short-term.