House Valcas manufactory slaves

In total House Valcas directly employs some forty seven hundred Drow (including wage employees, wards and members of of it's vassal houses) and owns some Thirty Nine thousand slaves. These are employed in various functions from manning it's trade fleet and managing it's banking affairs, but a large section of them man their shipyards, ironworks and manufactories which provide a variety of products ranging from bricks, ropes, paint, glass products, tools, canvas, pots and pans and much of Valnothron's weapons and armor (though it has only a comparatively minor presence in the runesmithing trade thanks to the guild's efforts). Factory style production has been employed by the Dark Elves for millennia, though the scale to which it has been used has increased over the last few centuries and in particular since 16 IA when a series of large orders for flintlock weapons led them to increase their operations. While there is some involvement in manufacturing by Drow artisans in the actual assembly of things, most of the hands on work in these facilities is done by slaves.

The recent expansion of operation has meant that a greater number of  new stock has been brought in than is usually the case, but even so the majority of slaves are born and raised in House Valcas's manufactory complexes. Most of these slaves work twelve hours a day, leaving aside a half hour break for lunch as well as a half day every fortnight. They are mostly dressed in canvas which is patched as often as needed. Labor is broken up into a variety of specialized fields with consecrated slaves being used as sectional overseers and in most sensitive areas of manufacturing. A system of rewards (which includes extra down time, more food, sweets, alcohol, tobacco products and sex) and punishments (which start with removal of privilages to spending nights in a dark brick box to corporal punishments ranging from beatings to torture) keep the slaves incentivized. Religion also keeps slaves compliant, as does a tradition of theater associated with it. House Valcas slaves are as a rule better off than those employed in many other Drow Manufactories as (following the example of Galthirith) some concessions to safety were made such as work gloves and steel toed shoes. Even so while they are noticeably less frequent than in other places a fair number of House Valcas' slaves end either in industrial accident or are maimed to a degree that they can't work are put down (usually by poison administered via food and alcohol). To their masters the costs of a few protective items that save them from having to buy and train new chattel to man their equipment is a worthwhile investment, but there is no point in keeping around those slaves who are maimed despite those efforts.