...you grew up as property -- valued property, to be sure, but property nonetheless. From your earliest days, you were clothed, trained, fed, watered, rewarded, and punished according to the wishes of your owners. You know nothing different than this life, and it is normal to you. If Southern, you were raised in the slave pens of either Borsail or Kasix; if Northern, you were raised in their counterpart in Tuluk, House Winrothol.
You never knew your parents. You might hear rumors about them or their fate, but it's impossible to tell which are true and which are lies that other slaves tell you to make themselves feel better about their lots. You have been handled by trainers for as long as you can remember, and there has been very little, if any, nurturing in your upbringing other than that which you share with your bond mate. You have been taught that, if you keep your nose clean, all will go well.
Your training has taught you how to ply a trade, whether fighting or simply brute labor. You have learned to follow a militaristic daily routine; it is this routine that soothes you. Your instruction has taught you how to properly address your owners, free people, and other slaves. The majority of muls are destined to become gladiators or guards. Gladiator slaves do not necessarily learn practical skills, but those geared toward dramatic effect. However, their ability to fight is sure. Poor performers may be punished or reformed into less desireable positions.
Punishment often comes in the form of a loss of privilege, the worst being to become a prisoner locked away in isolation. Poor gladiatorial performers may be removed from violence's stage, never again to hear the crowds roaring their name, or share the privileges of a favored gladiator, and be relegated to cleaning the sewer or acting as a guard on desert duty. Weak muls who have neither talent nor physical prowess rarely, if ever, survive childhood. Intractable slaves who refuse to fight or work are sent to short lives in the obsidian mines in the south or used as training material for other muls in the north.
Most muls, valued property from the start, strive for better status with their owners. Perhaps you strive for recognition or even fame. Your obedience may be rewarded by a better lot, such as being trusted to oversee other slaves or taking part in more favorable arena fights. A loyal and successful fighter might be rewarded with visits by pleasure slaves or better quarters. But even the most regarded mul might still bear the marks of whippings and other abuse, just as any slave would.
You speak fluent sirihish, the language of your owners, but you also have some knowledge of mirukkim, the dwarf tongue. You feel kinship with neither dwarves or humans, but their presence is more comfortable than that of the elvish race. You possess dwarvish patience and endurance as well as an obsessive edge.
You know there are many others like you. Rumors suggest that a handful who have managed to escape through luck, cunning, or brute force, live in isolated spots outside the citystates. However, to talk of it is treasonous and likely to see your privileges revoked. As a result, most muls refuse to acknowledge the existence of the escaped slave, referring to them as 'dead in the desert'.
How others regard you is directly linked to the status granted to you by your owner. Most people keep a healthy distance, while others simply give you orders and expect them to be obeyed. Interaction with other slaves may be similar to the types of interaction that non-slaves share with one another, although even other slaves are wary of you and what you are reputed to be able to do. As you were born into a more valuable position than most other slaves, other slaves may attempt to trick you to undermine your status with your owner. Others may seek to use you as an ally against other slaves or for treasonous purposes. You know that your fellow slaves are not always to be trusted.
The exception is your bond-mate. Though they may be any age or gender, bond mates are frequently human. These people you inevitably trust and protect. Often, these are other slaves you were raised with, as a half-sibling, and who rely upon you for protection. Sometimes they are introduced to you as a reward or out of convenient serendipity. Sometimes they are slaves who you are paired with to assist in your tasks. Bond mates frequently return genuine kindness or even love to their muls. The loss of a bond mate is traumatic, and it may have happened to you at one point during your life. This rarely happens as a form of punishment, because loss of a bond mate can ultimately break a mul's conditioning. Bond mates are not replaced quickly, probably because it erodes the mul's ability to bond with a subsequent bond mates.
© 2002 Armageddon Mud
Submitted by Sanvean Revised by Djarjak