Pseudo slaves race or force of nature with alignment race

[EldritchCoomer]

Okay, the title may be a little weird, but let me explain myself here.

So in the story I'm writing there is a certain strange rave that's so alien to the rest that it brought on this weird question.

Do to Begin I'll explain the race. They are nymph's (spirit's of nature for those that aren't aware) split into four main sub-races like the main elements.

Infrit- fire nymph
Sylph- wind nymph
Naiad- water nymph
Gnome- earth nymph

Cause of the nature of these creatures and the fact that they are just everywhere and not too much that a place would be overpopulated cause of them and they have no need to eat or drink.
They also gave the special ability to scry, call upon divine power, rune crafting, and take no physical damage.

What I'm saying is they are extremely important, not exactly a powerful race in terms of power level, but still very powerful.

I'm a little on the bench if the I'm writing which is kinda dark, depraved and light hearted in a way would keep them as like pseudo slaves.

Like limit their movement, pair them up with other races, use their special skills for their advantage, mistreat them, behave as if letting them exist= them serving what ever major race is in that specific part of the world, or segregate them.


On the flip side I wanted to pose another idea where they do whatever they want. They are totally free and with their own autonomy of which no one controls them and just tries to bargain them to do stuff for them. They are not loyal to any state. If a place is at war the nymph's would leave abd if the entire world were to go to war the nymph's would intervene which is what I want to bleed into the story of some big shots talking about a way to either trap or some other means of nullifying them so they can have wars with other nations for money or greed. I ask want it to explain why most nations aren't heavily armed and have more friendly ties with each other sometimes.


Anyway that is all, I hope to get some helpful responses on my problem to better get an idea on what to do with them.

 

[BearlyAlive]

Just make them slaves since there's no way enslaving what literally boils down to nature and magic incarnate could ever go wrong...
Unless you want to delve into torturing nymphs to squeeze out their abilities while slowly torturing them to death. You'd still have the same problem as above, tho.

Unless you want them to turn the tides (literally) and rain down fire and sword on the whole world you either have let this happened already for lore and people keep them in "polite servitude" (or whatever you'd call employing things that could destroy your very world if they were inclined to) or you go with the second idea and let them be the part of nature that can more or less be reasoned with.

 

[EldritchCoomer]

Just make them slaves since there's no way enslaving what literally boils down to nature and magic incarnate could ever go wrong...
Unless you want to delve into torturing nymphs to squeeze out their abilities while slowly torturing them to death. You'd still have the same problem as above, tho.

Unless you want them to turn the tides (literally) and rain down fire and sword on the whole world you either have let this happened already for lore and people keep them in "polite servitude" (or whatever you'd call employing things that could destroy your very world if they were inclined to) or you go with the second idea and let them be the part of nature that can more or less be reasoned with.

The nymph uprising would make more sense, but standing up to your oppressor's and finding your place in the world and fighting against generational injustice isn't something I want to touch in abd it's not the themes of the story or at least not yet, hmm I'll give this some thought.

 

[J_Chemist]

As we see in other literary things, even in reality, weaker races are capable of enslaving stronger races through generational manipulation and various "tools" used to capture them. In this case, it really depends on what you want with your plot.

Humans are depraved creatures. We like to be in control and we are smart enough to make that happen. As you likely know; humans will go to any extent for pleasure and to better our own way of life, fuck everything and everyone else. Thus, if in your story you have a Human race that sees the Nymphs as a way to empower themselves, enhance their way of life, or otherwise be worthwhile to enslave, then you can bet that it's going to happen in some capacity. You'll also have weirdos who will be infatuated with them to the extent of wanting to defile them. Humans are weird like that.

With that in mind, different countries will have different views and the cultures will dictate how they deal with the Nymphs. You'll have your far rights and far lefts (those who worship and those who enslave). You'll have the neutrals who don't care. You'll have those that coexist and you'll have those who hunt them. If the Nymphs are that prominent within your world as I'm sort of envisioning, then you're going to have a wide range of interaction choices available to you.

But, of course, that also depends on the World History. If the Nymphs turned on the Races of the World at some point or caused some negative karma to build up over the generations, then you might have the global hatred of them. Or, if they rose up in the past and were conquered, then it might already be established world wide that the Nymphs are a Lower Race by every other Race, thus they are globally seen as slaves and workhorses.

Again, Plot will dictate the angle you take and the World History will dictate how far along that slider you move. Establish those details early and you should be good.

 

[EldritchCoomer]

As we see in other literary things, even in reality, weaker races are capable of enslaving stronger races through generational manipulation and various "tools" used to capture them. In this case, it really depends on what you want with your plot.

Humans are depraved creatures. We like to be in control and we are smart enough to make that happen. As you likely know; humans will go to any extent for pleasure and to better our own way of life, fuck everything and everyone else. Thus, if in your story you have a Human race that sees the Nymphs as a way to empower themselves, enhance their way of life, or otherwise be worthwhile to enslave, then you can bet that it's going to happen in some capacity. You'll also have weirdos who will be infatuated with them to the extent of wanting to defile them. Humans are weird like that.

With that in mind, different countries will have different views and the cultures will dictate how they deal with the Nymphs. You'll have your far rights and far lefts (those who worship and those who enslave). You'll have the neutrals who don't care. You'll have those that coexist and you'll have those who hunt them. If the Nymphs are that prominent within your world as I'm sort of envisioning, then you're going to have a wide range of interaction choices available to you.

But, of course, that also depends on the World History. If the Nymphs turned on the Races of the World at some point or caused some negative karma to build up over the generations, then you might have the global hatred of them. Or, if they rose up in the past and were conquered, then it might already be established world wide that the Nymphs are a Lower Race by every other Race, thus they are globally seen as slaves and workhorses.

Again, Plot will dictate the angle you take and the World History will dictate how far along that slider you move. Establish those details early and you should be good.

Thanks for the input, but I don't think I'll go with the enslavement route, it feels too murky to try and write and it'd just piss off my main cast to commit genocide so I'll put some parts of the world to use manipulation tactics to get to do what they desire and some that ate neutral or reveer the race.

Since they are every where and only stay in seemingly peaceful places or places that aren't in heavy conflict for the ones that don't have a emotional attachment to individuals.
I'll put that as insensitive to quell most conflict as things go to shit fast when they are not around.
So mostly war monger's or truly sick people would even consider going to war.

 

[georgelee5786]

Deprive of them of food to weaken them, have them stay awake for long periods of time to mess with their mind, blind them, deafening them, would all make them more passive I think

 

[Empyrea]

I like your idea of using them as a reason for a lack of wars in your current setting. You said greedy people could be trying to find a way to get rid of them so they can war monger and profiteer. That's where your instances of slavery can come in.

If you end up wanting to go darker, have their free spirited nature be the source of their power. So the enslavement changes them on a fundamental level, causing the worlds balance to shift darker. As always, write something that you enjoy.

 

[EldritchCoomer]

Deprive of them of food to weaken them, have them stay awake for long periods of time to mess with their mind, blind them, deafening them, would all make them more passive I think

I mean they don't eat so not possible, they are basically elemental beings.
I guess this one can work, but I gotta come up with a good reason for them to do so.
I'm a little on the bench on giving them human eyes or special eyes.
Still on the bench giving them all the senses humans have and not just xeno ones.

Also they are like extremely passive to the point where they won't tell you screwed up they'd just leave. You can do whatever you want as long as it doesn't effect them you won't anger freaking nature.

I like your idea of using them as a reason for a lack of wars in your current setting. You said greedy people could be trying to find a way to get rid of them so they can war monger and profiteer. That's where your instances of slavery can come in.

If you end up wanting to go darker, have their free spirited nature be the source of their power. So the enslavement changes them on a fundamental level, causing the worlds balance to shift darker. As always, write something that you enjoy.

Oh love the idea, but not the whole free spirit nature being the source of the power won't make sense for my lore, their free spirited cause of how vital they are to the world. I mean if they up and disappear the world would still move the same way do enslaving them won't do anything to change the world as a whole.

As for the enslavement making the world shift making it dark, I think the world is pretty dark as it is, I mean wars still happen, but no world or continental war will erupt so I think I can still work with this.

But man you all are some sick bastards, I didn't think you all would take the enslavement part that literal. I was on the thought on strained freedom and limited movement for a long time, I didn't want it to go that dark.