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

[lapillus]

Hmm, maybe see how leased property is handled since that seems to be the closest analogy in our world. I can see Commerce simply taking back control of the slaves until probate is settled since technically they own them, at least if there are have been any protests filed or if the deceased died intestate. I think that this is not only fear of slaves running but of potential heirs taking slaves away that might prompt this and that it's probably easier/cheaper to bring them into a hostel than plant Commerce slaves in the house to oversee things.

[poisontaster]

That would be my assumption too, with the cost of their keep being charged against the estate after settlement.

[darkrosetiger.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Would the size of the estate make a difference? In this case, it would mean disrupting the household for a couple of weeks where stuff wouldn't get done, plus having to resettle ~12-15 people.

With Dylan, it was probably pretty easy, since he was the sole heir. For this fic, though, the master's disinherited his two children, leaving them with just enough of an allowance to keep them out of slavery, and is leaving the rest to his great-nephew; I need to decide what the nephew finds when he shows up to claim his inheritance.

[lapillus]

I'm not sure about that. Perhaps household/body slaves are treated differently from ones involved in the running of business ventures owned by the deceased, since if you take away all workers it would decrease the value of an estate (which presumably the government doesn't want due to tax losses).

[guard-the-cards.livejournal.com]

I would think that in that case it would be like property, you know, you have someone who the will assigns to care for it until the heir can collect. It could also be that commerce sends someone who is trained in that, like one of their slaves, to act as a governing body over the estate.

Because if it was a working estate and the slaves were sent to commerce all that money would be lost, instead Commerce would just take their fees out of the inheritance, or out of the production of their time running it.