Slavery is the practice of people being owned by others, usually in order to perform certain types of Labour and which essentially always comes with degrees of inhumane treatment. The worst kinds of the practice, such as chattel slavery, have become less prevalent over the centuries - but the practice as a whole remains far from being extinct. Slaves have long been made out of those captured in Warfare. Those who aren’t slaves, servants or serfs in any way are sometimes called freemen, though this is becoming a less necessary term in the world.
Slavery - a sensitive topic
Slavery is officially listed as a topic not included in Paizo’s worlds in their books, as backed up by their efforts to scrub it from their lore. In one sense this is understandable as a baseline, since slavery is a horrid subject that has left a lasting stain on humanity to this day. However, Ilija personally thinks that the topic is worthy of portrayal and exploration over being whitewashed away - and I wager that many would agree that horrid slavers make for good enemies. Rest assured that chattel slavers will always be depicted as villainous, and even when there are ‘softer’ forms of master-slave relations it is never intended to be portrayed as a positive thing, even if the characters involved may not be evil to the core in every way. For our games we will also likely not depict the most gruesome elements directly, much in the same way that we can understand that harm to children exists in the world but we don’t really want to directly portray or see it.
Much more common and accepted forms of slavery include what’s instead called Servitude, serving and helping a Master with lighter tasks at an estate, or Serfdom, not necessarily having a master but being forced to do Agriculture by the state and therefore not being allowed to leave one’s land.
Another form of common and accepted slavery is Impressment, the act of kidnapping people onto Ships just long enough they have no choice but to serve as a crewmate to survive - at which point they may simply accept their lot and become part of the crew. Ship crews treated badly however are also known to revolt against their captains.
Gladiators have historically typically been a type of slave, often promised the possibility of freeing themselves if they are successful enough.
The Titan called the Golden Heart is said to have started as a slave girl herself, and fought to free herself and her fellow slaves before reaching deityhood - though she is controversial for having possibly re-created the practice against those who she sought to punish.
Dragons have been notorious slavers throughout history. The lands of Lorgun are populated by the successful rebels of a Slave Revolt against Dragons.
In a twist of fate, Dragonbloods are often kept in Slavery and sold on the Black Market by Mogxan Kobolds. This is a practice that has come about through the Kobolds’ need to keep a powerful draconic creature in their hatcheries, in order to ensure their offspring maintain the perfect draconic appearance.