Misery Row

Misery Row is a street running along the eastern edge of the Coins district of Absalom, and was until recently was the only street in the city where the slave trade was always legal. Slavery was abolished in Absalom following the events of the Fiendflesh Siege of 4717 AR.

Description

Misery Row is elevated from street level by a massive platform running its entire length, creating a wall that separates the Coins from the Merchants' Quarter; access to the street can be gained via stairways located every few hundred feet. Although it is officially part of the Coins, no member of the district council or Token Guard visited the street for political reasons while slavery was legal, although council members and the Captain received a kickback from every slave sale. Most slaves were held and sold from pits sunk into the elevated wall that is Misery Row itself, giving the street its nickname: the "Slave Pits of Absalom".

Since the abolition of slavery, Misery Row has become a run-down slum inhabited by some of Absalom's most desperate and depraved criminals.

Historic slavery on Misery Row

Access to the slave market was restricted due to its elevation, but Lord Gyr prohibited using magic to harass the slave trade. He otherwise ignored mundane efforts to free slaves, as well as slaver reprisals on would-be liberators. The street was filled with both slave traders and buyers day and night, and the local guards generally did little to inhibit the coming and going of anyone who could reasonably be assumed to be doing business there.

Merchants

One of the best known slavers of Misery Row was a Vudrani man named Pardu Pildapush who owned Pildapush's Chattel.

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.