In Etelel, debtor slavery (being sold when one cannot repay significant debts) and prisoner slavery (usually of the survivors of warlike Hinterland tribes who had to be eradicated) have long been legal, tolerated, and expected. With the Ruling Coven's wars on Aerelen, the slave trade was much expanded by a flow of elven slave women to be sold at Covenate settlements. Since the official peace last year, this supply has been reduced. Rivertown Auction Square in Deepharbor is the primary market for what slaves are intermittently available from unsanctioned raids by independent Etelelin Slavers. The Verdant Market and Ironford Shops may occasionally have a few on hand if the player goes asking.
Characters in the Covenate of Etelel will not be surprised or shocked by slavery unless they are young and naïve. They will react to slavery based on their moral alignment - evil NPCs won't care or even be amused; neutral NPCs will look the other way, not questioning a legal practice; good NPCs may make a comment to indicate their disapproval but are still conditioned to see it as normal. Even when characters with a soft heart or conscience might disapprove of slavery morally, they are used to seeing elven slaves here and there. The people of Etelel have become jaded, for the most part, about the evil being wrought upon their neighbor. These elven women are not debtors or aggressors in a war. Their exploitation and oppression eats at the heart of Etelel, breeding a callous amorality in most of its people. This tolerance of cruelty and tyranny suits the Ruling Coven just fine, and is one of the reasons they allow nominally-illegal slaving gangs to continue raiding for women across the border, even during a negotiated peace with Aerelen.
Covenate slaves are not allowed to be bought or sold in Silverhold but may be brought there, though the people will be much less approving. Slavery is banned in Aerelen.