Slavery

Slavery is a lucrative business in the post-War world. Although many larger pockets of civilization have outlawed slavery, smaller dictators allow the purchase and sale of other human beings.

Slavery also happens to be one of the most controlled businesses in the post-nuclear world. Nearly all slave trade in New California is done through the Slavers' Guild, a collection of older slavers who decide prices and organize capture hunts. Anyone caught capturing or selling slaves without the blessing of the Slavers' Guild is usually executed. Since the Guild holds so much power, it often controls smaller towns where it operates, although from behind the scenes. Members of the Slavers' Guild have a distinctive tattoo covering most of their face, making them readily identifiable to both friend and foe, allowing the guild to make fast judgments when someone without "the tat" has a tribal up on the auction block.

As of 2241, the head of the Slavers' Guild is Metzger, whose headquarters is in the Den.

Slavers in the Fallout games do not discriminate between people based upon their race or ideology--anyone who can be easily cowed into submission, captured, and fitted with a slave collar is perfectly acceptable "meat" for them to use. Similarly, Slavers may be of any background themselves; their only qualifications for members to join them simply seem to be how tough and ruthless the applicant is.

Typically they act like Raiders with the exception that their goal is to kill the most dangerous of a group of travelers and take the rest alive. Their acceptance of the idea that every human life has a price tag gives them an extremely calm, even blasé, attitude towards cruelty in general (though unlike Raiders, they tend to not act unnecessarily cruel--they don't want to damage the merchandise).

Appearances in games
In Fallout 1 the only direct mention to slavery is by the Khans hostages.

Fallout 2 is peppered with slavers, most notably in The Den. The player is able to join slavers for extra cash, but his/her Karma will take a beating, and he/she will be branded permanently which ruins reactions of certain NPCs. There is also a large slave holding pen on the NCR/Northern California border run by a slaver named Vortis. Although there is frequent conflict between the slavers and the NCR Rangers, Vortis probably profits off of all the caravans who are known to purchase slaves as porters and sell them off at the end of their journeys.

Slavers play a fairly large role in Fallout 3 as well. Paradise Falls is a slaver town, and several quests feature slavery as either major or minor elements, most notably Head of State and its association to slavery in America prior to the American Civil War and Abraham Lincoln's role as the 'Great Emancipator.' Additionally, the Vault 101 Dweller can capture people to sell to slavers. Alternately, the Player can kill slavers on sight. An option in the quest Rescue from Paradise involves the systematic slaughter of pretty much all the slavers in Paradise Falls; one of the rare instances in gaming where town slaughtering is karmically good. See Slaver Reputation for more information.

The player can even own slaves such as Clover, and a kid named Squirrel who will aid him in his travels. The player does not have the option of activating the explosive collar on their own slaves.

The number of slaves present compared to the number of slavers is remarkably low, meaning that the slaves are being shipped off somewhere. It is revealed by Werhner that many of these slaves are being shipped off to work at The Pitt in the DLC of the same name.