Everything

Slavery did not end in the 1800s. True, it’s no longer legal in most parts of the world, but like most forbidden pleasures, it simply went underground. The Pipers are not the only slave network in the world, but they are perhaps the most organized. Rooted in Hilf Al’Aj – “the Ivory Pact” forged between European and African merchants at the core of the Triangle Trade – the modern Pipers manage an international pipeline of human misery and unfettered profit.

In the old days, slavery involved rounding up victims or enemies, hauling them off to a staging ground, transporting them to market, and then buying and selling that human cargo. Back then, the process took months or even years; today, it can take less than 48 hours, and the cargo often comes to the buyer. Refugees, illegal immigrants, people seeking new starts, even children sold off by desperate or uncaring parents – they all follow the Pipers to the gates of someone else’s hell. For the price of a promise, certain people will hand themselves over to guides, employers, talent agents, and gentlemen of means. And with modern transportation making the whole deal quick and easy, new merchandise can board a plane in Vilyuysk and wind up in Abü Zaby, Tokyo, or Los Angeles within a day or two. Smart Pipers can even get the cargo to pay for the ride, perhaps picking up a finder’s fee on the other end of that transaction.

As with many other Nephandic sects, most Pipers are dregvati, not full-fledged Fallen mages. They’re just in it for the money and for the sense of power the business gives them over other human beings. Even so, the most formidable Pipers are either Awakened slavers or invested cultists with demonic patrons and abilities. Some even see themselves as servants of God, though a fair number of Pipers believe in nothing at all. It takes a special kind of deadness, after all, to sell people for a living. And though the original cargo traditionally consisted of African prisoners or European convicts, today’s Pipers buy and sell everyone: Chinese children, American tourists, pretty girls from Eastern Europe, migrant workers from Central America, war refugees and curiosity seekers and religious pilgrims who happened to pick the wrong travel agency… there’s a market for them all, and customers across the globe – occasionally Nephandic but typically mortal – will pay plenty to acquire their own human possessions.