TheoriRegarding Indentured Servitude
#1
Causes
Indentured servitude  occurs legally for three chief reasons:
1. A person deep in debt agrees to serve a debtor, with their expected pay instead going entirely towards repayment of the debts.
2. As part of the Treaty of Hessalia, where many Rhoynish were enslaved, though many were also granted citizenship, or sentenced to imprisonment.
3. As a form of legal punishment for a crime; usually such a punishment establishes the detainee as under the power of the Crown directly, rather than any particular owner.
Indentured servitude in cases outside of this is considered highly illegal, and the owning or sale of illegal slaves carries a punishment of up ten years imprisonment.

Emancipation Rules
The indentured cannot in Essharan society be freed on a whim. The following are the acceptable reasons for emancipation, without conditions to be adhered to by both freedman and former overseer.
  • The person has performed a great service to their owner, such as saving their life.
  • The person has been ordered freed by the crown usually this is as the result of a royal or parliamentary pardon.
  • The person has, with permission of their owner, served for at least five years in a militant order, such as the Watch, First Light, or the Church.
  • The person is, with their owner's permission, entering the clergy.
  • The person has either repaid in full their debt to their owner, or has had their debt forgiven.
If the person does not meet these conditions, their emancipation is subject to the following conditions:
  • Their owner must pay a three thousand coin bond to the state, to be held as collateral. This payment is returned three years after the emancipation, so long as they have not broken the law. If they have, the payment is considered claimed to the crown.
  • Their owner must arrange paid work for them, so they might continue to serve as productive members of Essharan society.
Whilst the indentured  may be freed by their owners under the conditions above, they may not free themselves. The penalty for unlawfully leaving the service of one's owner is steep, and may involve imprisonment or harsher punishment, at the discretion of the owner.

Legal Protections
There are legal expectations so that the indentured are not mistreated harshly. Whilst the enforcement of these expectations can occasionally be lax, when a breach is enforced, it is considered a crime, with serious punishments. All people enjoy equal protection under the Crown Law of Osrona as a freed citizen, with the following exceptions:
  • The indentured who attempt to escape their owners may be punished at the owner's discretion, up to and including execution, though this is exceedingly rare.
  • Physical punishment of the indentured is permitted, although it must be proportionate to the degree of the offense committed, and a complaint may be made against an owner should they be mistreated as such.
#2
Approved after some edits.
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