Prostitution/Escorting and Noble/Merchant Houses.

[I R K00L]

It's me again, back with more questions about prostitution in Zalanthas.  :oops:

In my last post, I determined that prostitution was indeed, highly accepted in Zalanthas; especially when the said prostitute/escort keeps herself within the upper ranks of society, eg wealthy commoners and slumming nobility(lol).

What I was wondering though, this time, is say an escort/prostitute who keeps herself to higher standards seeks employment with a noble/merchant house. How would you feel this should be treated?

Should he/she be allowed to go about business, considering it doesn't interfere, or would she be fired/banned, or maybe even "pimped" out to other Houses/Merchant Houses at times? Opinions?

[crymerci]

I think, most of the time, that if you choose to affiliate yourself with one House, you can generally expect people from other Houses to be suspicious of you. Specifically, you can expect the higher-ups of other Houses not to want to get naked and vulnerable with you. Your boss might want to pimp you out, but your 'customers' will be wary of you. I would suggest remaining independent, or at least, seemingly independent.

[Bestatte]

Agreed with crymerci, though there's another option that hasn't been mentioned yet: the concubine.

A concubine is a "kept woman" or "escort" to whoever would claim her. She would be trained when very young in how to please a partner, often both male and female (since you never know which would want her more).

Rather than prostitute herself out on the street, she would be raised specifically to serve the wealthy and given lessons in diplomacy, ettiquette, storytelling, the usual "house servant" skills, and in other worlds outside of Zanthalas, needlepoint, quilting, and possibly even corsetry.

She would not replace the noble's mate, but rather enhance the House as a valued servant. Sex would only be one aspect of her service, though in this she would excel. She would avail herself to her keeper at any hour of any day, and subject herself to his/her whims on command.

In exchange, she would be given a decent place to sleep (perhaps in the servant's quarters within the estate rather than a slave's quarters on the grounds somewhere), exquisite clothes and jewelry to adorn herself and appear pleasing to her keeper, bathed regularly, well-fed, a salary or monetary gratuity "for services rendered," and the freedom to come and go as needed to run errands for the House.

Technically not a slave, she would serve for the life of the noble who acquires her, or until he tires of her, or until she is too old and saggy to retain his interest.

A chatelaine is another role I can see in Zanthalas...somewhat of a "den mother" to a group of concubines in service to the noble. She would have risen from the ranks within the concubine group and perhaps valued so much that rather than be let go when she aged, she would be given charge of the underlings.

Some of the concepts I wrote here came from a fantasy novel called "Maia" by an author whose name escapes me at the moment. Maia *was* taken as a pleasure slave, but there were other characters in the story who rose up from the slavery by virtue of their talents and grace and became highly paid and valued companions to their employers.

Love has *very* little to do with this, if anything at all. It is intended to be a business relationship, and marriage between the noble and the concubine would be considered absurd and the noble would be laughed out of society.

[crymerci]

Some of the concepts I wrote here came from a fantasy novel called "Maia" by an author whose name escapes me at the moment. Maia *was* taken as a pleasure slave, but there were other characters in the story who rose up from the slavery by virtue of their talents and grace and became highly paid and valued companions to their employers.

Girl...I was trying to remember the title of that book not a week ago. Next time I'll just ask you, heh.

For everyone else, here's the Amazon.com blurb

[Savak]

While I agree with the meat of the posts, I'm seeing a lot of medieval stereotypes slipping in.  For example, a noble concubine/whatever (not wife, not girlfriend, probably a slave-with-perks) in Zalanthas is unlikely to be a quilter, as quilts aren't much done on Zalanthas, and Kadians tend to handle the VAST majority of noble clothing affairs.  I'd imagine most "servant" activities would revolve around cleaning, looking nice in case visitors arrive, bossing around other slaves, and tasks we tend to fill with machinery (moving water, building fires, moving irrig beetles, feeding Master, etc.)

Prostitution per se would be extremely common among the general populace, and this lower socioeconomic demographic might loosely approximate the stereotyped system we all envision from RL.  However, the higher-class one goes, the less I see Zalanthan prostitution being an organized entity -- a noble wouldn't call up the local high-class-hooker joint for a couple of babes.  Instead I imagine them sending an aide off to bring back some lasses/lads from the local slave/concubine quarters, occasionally giving/trading them as part & parcel of political negotiations.  I seriously doubt a commoner prostitute would be able to successfully become a noble consort.  On the other hand, an enticing commoner of better class than a slum prostitute might be gathered up by a noble and effectively become their love slave.

While trust among nobles/the higher-classes is a significant issue, that doesn't mean having sex with a newly acquired concubine is necessarily dangerous, even if they WERE sent to kill you -- such scenarios could be played out in highly controlled circumstances.  Alternatively, the concubine could in turn be traded or utilized for those of a lower class (as in a noble dealing with a merchant).  The more paranoid/careful nobles may only keep and personally use a couple of concubines (again, the term itself isn't as important as the role they are playing).

-Savak

[Bestatte]

While I agree with the meat of the posts, I'm seeing a lot of medieval stereotypes slipping in.  For example, a noble concubine/whatever (not wife, not girlfriend, probably a slave-with-perks) in Zalanthas is unlikely to be a quilter, as quilts aren't much done on Zalanthas, and Kadians tend to handle the VAST majority of noble clothing affairs.  I'd imagine most "servant" activities would revolve around cleaning, looking nice in case visitors arrive, bossing around other slaves, and tasks we tend to fill with machinery (moving water, building fires, moving irrig beetles, feeding Master, etc.)

-Savak

That's why I was very specific in my wording:

Rather than prostitute herself out on the street, she would be raised specifically to serve the wealthy and given lessons in diplomacy, ettiquette, storytelling, the usual "house servant" skills, and in other worlds outside of Zanthalas, needlepoint, quilting, and possibly even corsetry.

[Jacques]

Let us not forget the ever-mysterious and often fantasized about PLEASURE SLAVES, trained from birth to please his or her master. One-time fee, yours for a lifetime! Buy one today!  

OK... that wasn't really supposed to be an ad, but it turned out like one.   :wink:  But for the very wealthy, they could also buy a small (or large - dream big) stable of slaves trained specifically for that purpose. No worry about spies or assassins that way, or about them talking about your particular fetishes or whatever. (What do you MEAN that Templar likes to dress up like a mantis?)