Not only does it get it done, 'every other person is born free' is probably broader than it appears. Best not say that aloud.

"I second the proposal."

Also, message to the Count: Is this intended to also abolish inherited indenture and forms of serfdom for non-halflings, with that first line? I'm in favor, but I think the floor might not be, and they might notice.

Coeliaris holds Tillia's hand. "Hear, hear!"

Message to Theopho: That part of the first line is symbolic—this specific proposal is intended to address halflings only. There was debate in the committee about this but we decided to focus on something concrete and easy to understand first.

Lluïsa doesn't really have a personal opinion. Sure, all sounds fine. Clap clap.

It's not worth fighting for, not when the liberals are being a pest about putting the country to rights, but it's well said. He'll vote in favor, and if it passes all the better.

"Slavery as an institution predates Asmodeus. However, it is Evil, and it became more Evil under Asmodeus, as Hell introduced new cruelties and depredations, and made slavery more widespread. Every part of Asmodean Cheliax, when it freed itself, ended the institution. It is damning the people of Cheliax and it is against the will of all of the Good gods.

Further, the uncertainty about the legal status of halflings has been for the last year very damaging to Cheliax. Neither halflings nor those who own them have been able to make long term plans secure in their future status. It is the duty of this convention to bring this chaotic state of uncertainty to an end as much as to bring this Evil institution to an end. When halflings are free, they will be able to arrive at employment contracts on predictable terms as all subjects of Her Majesty. I know many of you to have worries about the economic implications of the end of slavery. I have researched this also. I believe that the economic damage done by having this matter hovering over our heads unsettled is far greater.

Even if you are not moved by the fact that this vote will be counted in your favor before the Judge, even if you are not moved by the plight of hundreds of thousands of suffering people, ending slavery today, by this vote, will be better for the economy and the rule of law in Cheliax than every plausible alternative."

Enric thinks this really should’t have taken a week, they already voted last time. Maybe it’s because of complicated law reasons, but try telling that to the small ones. He met some while he was hiding outside the city, they were hiding too. Said the boss was trying to put them in a bag and sell them to a wizard, before abolition passed. But now is better than waiting even longer. 

The halflings do the work and the tall folk get all the credit. She'd make a speech but she probably can't do it without sounding like she wants to murder half the room.

Clap clap clap. He'll get in line to make a speech.

"An excellent proposal, and about time we got to it! Our neighbors in Andoran have made many other mistakes, many with their fleet, but before the Judge and Law, they will never have cause to regret abolition, and nor should we!"

Yeah, yeah.

Korva's most immediate feelings about slavery continue to be bitterness that the orc nursemaids were replaced by goats, but given this has already happened, further disruption is whatever.

Obviously this needed to happen. She's glad they finally got around to it.

...The fact that it's only halfling slaves is bad, but she doesn't see a way to get that fixed on the floor without risking killing it and and it's not really something Virtuous Churches can send to the floor. Maybe she can talk to Victoria about getting freedom for every other kind of slave through rights, or something, if there isn't going to be a followup proposal pretty soon. 

Felip takes the podium.

"I think this law has a simple and laudable goal: to establish the legal equality of humans and halflings. To put such a sentence in the constitution would please me.

But these paragraphs? They overreach. They give to halflings rights that humans do not and should not have. Many Chelish humans are serfs who are bound to their lands, and may not leave them without permission, and their children will inherit their status. Shall we upend the whole country for this?

Slavery, as it was practiced under the Thrunes, was Asmodean and none wish for the return of Asmodean slavery. But parenting, as it was practiced under the Thrunes, was Asmodean as well, and it is not our desire to see no more children born in Cheliax. Instead it is to teach proper parenting by word and deed, and surpass the past by restoration of proper relationships, not by calling for parents and children to abandon one another.

Holy Iomedae selected only two clerics in all of Cheliax, and I believe she intended for us to consider deeply her meaning in doing so. Select Blai Artigas was once Asmodeus's, and is now Iomedae's; his existence is proof that repentance and correction are possible. She wishes for us to be patient with the people and institutions of Cheliax, and to see the good that they can become, not the horror they once were.

Abrupt changes to the status of many Chelish farm workers in the middle of summer will be felt at harvesttime. In the aftermath of the war and resulting chaos, the productivity of much of our farmland decreased, and I worry a second such blow will be measured in empty bellies and full graveyards. Converting the unfree halflings outside of the cities to serf will be less damaging to the harvests, even if it will still imperil the finances and loans of some farmers.

The bonds between the people of Cheliax are too few and too shallow. Let us not sever them further."

Blai was WHAT — he's lying, he has to be, he's an Evil noble so he's trying to turn them all against Iomedae—

Enric would like to represent the ‘serfs should also be free, even the human sized ones’ perspective’ here. He’ll get in line. Maybe by the time he gets to the front, he can think of the right way to say it.

What the hell is a 'serf'?

OH WOW THIS IS JUST AS BAD AS HE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE. DID SAUER GET HIM THE BODYGUARD YET

Yes she went up and asked and came back with a grim Osirian man who has been standing here looking disapproving of everything. 

WHAT IF HIS BODYGUARD IS ANNOYED WITH HIM FOR HOW MUCH HE NEEDS BODYGUARDING

Lluïsa feels, absurdly, like laughing.

She had been in line to give the kind of speech ex-Asmodeans want the chance to give about how she freed her slaves and it went fine (because she indentured them instead which works just as well, but she won't say that part). Instead:

"All our hearts cry out to Iomedae for guidance but if we read too much into who she clerics I am worried we will have to conclude she wants to burn us at least as much as she wants to reform us. Or maybe do both at the same time?"

'Every person born in Cheliax is born free.' It is as pro-Chaos a law as any she has heard proposed. Not that she's against freedom, personally, but the essence of Law is to constrain it.

Halflings don't hatch self-sufficient from the egg. If a child is born free of obligation, does it follow that none have an obligation to the child? Or does the child acquire obligations by being fed and housed and taught, reproducing slavery under yet another name? If a halfling 'serf' gives birth, can the serf-owner refuse use of their property in caring for it? 

These preople seem to be trying to invent the most complex law they can get away with, rather than the simplest one they can follow. What if someone passes a motion saying 'true freedom is the freedom from debts, everyone is born without debt' and then a judge rules halflings can't take out loans? 

Feathler is, separately, very worried they are writing themselves into a corner where they will have to declare everyone they don't like in the future 'not a person' to avoid giving them freedoms and rights. But she has learned the lesson that getting up and saying things from the podium often makes people agree with her less, so she's trying to limit her comments to matters bearing directly on the forests.

Felip did consider what She meant with her other choice but he'll have to get back in line to explain.

Oh no he’s trying to figure out how to explain that halfling serfs and also human serfs should be free, but now the noble who said to make them all serfs is right behind him? 

After all the important people in the room denounced slavery he'd never have dared get up and say the obvious truth, but now they have anonymity from the Archmage, so:

"I'm against this because it's a bunch of lies. Halflings are slaves. We could decide to free them if we wanted but it's not actually true that they are by their nature intrinsically free persons. Lots of people are slaves. It's not about intrinsic nature at all, it's about whether someone owns them or not. Let's not vote for a bunch of nonsense."