“The practice of slavery, as abhorrent as the idea might be to many who consider themselves civilized these days, were in actuality still a common practice in different corners of the world. From the some smaller sub-nations of the Caliphate in northern Ur-Teros, to a few City-States at our east, even to a few members of our very own Union of Nations, many places still practice slavery.

If we were to include the practice of slavery as punishment to the count, then most nations of the world in fact do practice slavery. Hard, forced labor are not an uncommon punishment for criminals throughout the world, and what is that but slavery under another guise?” - From a lecture by Garth Wainwrought, Dean of the Levain Institute of Higher Learning, Circa 691 FP.

Alvaro – no last name, as slaves were given no such things – had been a slave all his life.

He was born one, his parents both slaves at a farm belonging to one of the noble lords of Kolitschei. His family had been slaves for many generations, as his grandparents also worked their whole lives at the very same farm, over the very same patches of soil his parents worked when he was born. Such was just their lot in life, and he never questioned it.

The trajectory of his life changed drastically when he was five years of age. At that age, he was considered large enough to help his parents out with some minor chores. Alvaro was a large and strong boy for his age, easily as large and strong as those a year or two his senior, and he cherished the opportunity to help out his parents wherever they needed his hand.

It was during that time, when he was helping his father lift bales of harvested wheat into their wagon, that a recruiter for the fabled Warforged spotted him. That curiosity led the man to approach the small family of four – Alvaro’s little sister Nena was just born the year before and was strapped to their mother’s chest with a piece of cloth acting like a sling for her to rest on – and asked about him.

When the recruiter learned that Alvaro was but five years of age, he knelt before the young boy and looked him straight in the eye before he asked Alvaro the question that would change the boy’s life forever. He asked the boy whether he would like to be inducted into the order of the Warforged, as a trainee, with the possibility of joining the fabled order in full capacity should he prove competent enough.

Alvaro said yes without even thinking.

It was the young boy’s dream come true in the best possible way. The Warforged themselves were slaves like him and his family, but when one looked at the way they were treated by the free men of Kolitschei, the differences were like night and day. Where free men would often act as if slaves were invisible to them and only took caution around them to avoid damaging another’s property, the Warforged were different.

The Warforged were respected, idolized even, amongst the populace, both slave and free men. Even the nobles of Kolitschei had to tread carefully around them, for the Warforged answer only to one master, and that was the Duke that ruled over the region. Each Warforged was an avatar of war, trained from early childhood in the various disciplines of battle, cruel training that weeded out the worthless without mercy. Only the best of the best were inducted into the order once they were old enough.

They were the elite of the elites of the Kolitscheian military, and the reason why the Duchy was so feared to the point that its neighbors never dared to enter armed conflicts with them over the past two generations. Rumors even abound of people selling themselves into slavery in their desire to join the vaunted order of slave warriors.

So it was that Alvaro parted from his family after a modest feast with them that very evening. When his family returned back to the small hut they called home in the midst of the farmland, he followed the old warrior who had invited him towards a large compound built right next to the Ducal Palace. The compound was home to generations of the Warforged.

There he had his name registered and was shown to a room which housed at least fifty other children around his age, all crammed up in three-tier bunk beds with little amenities beside a straw mattress. Alvaro took it in stride. In fact, the thin, slightly itchy straw mattress was already better than his home, where he and his family usually slept on a straw mat spread over the hard ground.

Most of the beds already had two occupants by the time he arrived, so he looked around and finally found one that had only one occupant. Alvaro politely asked the girl who sat on the other side of the bed if he could sleep there, only to be answered by an uncaring, silent nod by the girl. Despite the curt welcome, however, the boy slept better than he ever had in his five years on that night.

Training began the next day, even before the sun had risen over the horizon.

It was then that Alvaro discovered that his group of almost sixty children was merely one of many. Over twenty such groups, all children aged five to seven, were awakened before dawn, kicked out of their beds where necessary, and made to perform various calisthenics and other physical exercises for hours on end until they sweated profusely under the unforgiving rays of the sun.

The children were drilled relentlessly and only allowed a short rest at noon, when they were given copious amounts to eat and rich milk to drink. More than a few children had collapsed and refused to go on just that morning alone. They were soon removed from the facilities and sent back to their respective homes, their chance wasted.

Alvaro persevered through the harsh training. Over time he realized what the instructors meant to do with the grueling physical workout and rich food. All of it was intended to build their rather malnourished bodies into a body more suitable for a warrior. The already tall boy grew taller and larger like a sprout as he relentlessly worked out day in and day out under the not-so-tender care of his instructors, the only goal in his mind was to make his parents proud by becoming one of the vaunted Warforged himself.