Slavery

Slavery. It was a predominant theme in "The Tribe," and it's turned into a pervasive theme in KTDARPG.

Looking back, the slavery in "Tribe" Season-1 was pretty much out there. Trudy & Dal running away from the mall and smack into a slaver tribe collecting strays to sell. The tribe gathering on the beach, with Ebony strolling along, checking out the flesh for sale.
That was just the beginning. The Guardian & the Chosen pretty much made slaves out of anyone who didn't worship Zoot. Then there were the Technos. Slavery to technology (or addiction or whatever you wanna call it) was the form of control Ram used to take over the city. And Mega was even worse.

Our game started kinda the same way. When I first joined the game, my character's first scene was walking into a slaver-tribe's camp and looking through the bars of the compound where they kept their stock. It was kinda chilling ... and it still is.

Through 4 seasons & part of a 5th, slavery is still with us. In our game-world slavery is another form of survival. We continue to explore that theme, and it still has nuances we're discovering. It also still has relevance to the tribal world we've created and how our characters approach their own places in that world.

Physical slavery, slavery to dreams or loss, the enslavement of the weaker & smaller among us, slavery of the mind ...

It's harsh but it's real. We see it in our real-world every day. Hunger & need enslave just as surely as the strong keep overpowering the weak and using power to keep them down. Empires are generally built on somebody's back.

Maybe we'll work it out eventually. Find a solution. Move on.

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"