Deathwatches

[darkrosetiger.livejournal.com]

At some point, I'm going to be starting another Keptverse series, and I started wondering....what happens when a master dies? Presumably, you can will your slaves to your heirs, but until the estate is settled, would Commerce want someone in the household to make sure no one tries to run? What do people think?

ETA: To be more specific:

Lord X has been ill for several years, and has been comatose for the past few months. His breathing and heart rate suddenly become very erratic, so his Agent calls the doctor. About two hours later, the monitor flatlines. It's 3 am. What happens next?

Comments

[stewardess.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Now I'm picturing a ritual that has been slowly modernized.

In the old days, body slaves held 48 hour vigils over the dead master, and maybe shaved their hair off in mourning. Since modern burial methods make a 48 hour vigil impossible, and body slaves without hair on their heads have a lower value, the ritual has become almost entirely symbolic. But what would it be? I can imagine the ritual in Hawaii would be vastly different from the rest of the US.

[stewardess.livejournal.com]

*coughs* I swear I am not trying to bunny you into oblivion.

The body slave's death duties would include all the awful crap no one is prepared to deal with. For instance, answering questions such as: should the body be cremated with dentures and glasses or without? It would be interesting to contrast, in the story, the heir's concerns about his massive new wealth, and the old body slave's concerns, such as figuring out what to do with his master's dentures, or sex toys.

[darkrosetiger.livejournal.com]

What makes this even more complicated is that there is no body slave. The master's been sick for a while and didn't go out much, if at all. His former body-slave, Viggo, has been running the household, and his main concern is making sure that the new Lord Isaacs doesn't fuck anything up.

*halo*

[stewardess.livejournal.com]

So Viggo is the butler? Then he would presumably take on the role of Chief Mourner Among The Slaves.

I'm basing the scenario on the way slaves/wives were treated in the past when the head of the family died: badly. But I suppose slaves in the keptverse wouldn't be entombed with their master, or burned on his pyre, though. :p

I'm now starting to wonder about pre-Commerce days, and how and when and why government regulation was introduced.