Trivium: Starcoast Crests

The personal crests are a big part of life in Starcoast City for many people. While slavery is legal, it is also regulated. Only those who volunteer or are convicted of certain crimes are enslaved. Additionally, a slave must be of legal age in order to enter into a contract.

When an owner, often referred to as master or mistress, gets their certification, they submit a logo to be used as their crest, as well as choosing a lone color for that logo. The outer circle of each crest is made up of identical symbols but the central icon is unique to its owner. The crest is then engraved into a metal disk with a colored crystal, which is then used to implant the crest on the back of its owner's dominant hand. When tapped, the crest will appear as a two-inch wide hologram for a few moments.

The disk is kept at the Starcoast Department of Slavery, where its subsequent uses are to mark a slave as their master or mistress' property. The crest is placed in the center of the slave's chest, appearing as a wider version.

Many contracts come with a set time limit, often in increments of years, but sometimes by months. This time limit is placed on the slave's crest, appearing as a countdown above it when visible. When the countdown hits zero, the slave crest will automatically dispel, by which point the master or mistress is required to free the slave of all bindings. This practice is common with convicted slaves.

There are also different types of crests. There are merchant and blank crests, which are white in color. A blank crest lacks the central icon until it is imprinted upon by a master crest by having them overlap while both crests are active. This is normally done for competitions where an individual bets their freedom. Merchant crests, on the other hand, have a central icon, but can be overridden by a master's crest once. A lock spell may be placed over such crests to prevent imprinting ahead of time.

With the exception of the blank and merchant crests, which are placed with the intention of being transferred, any change of ownership must be done through the Department of Slavery, where the crests and removed and replaced.

The main purpose of the master/slave crest is to prove ownership of a slave at a moment's notice. Many have entered contracts as part of the BDSM lifestyle and are often made to walk in public naked and/or in bondage. A slave may walk fully naked in the streets of Starcoast but, with a few exceptions, a free person cannot. It also proves that a master can forcibly restrain their slaves, even if they are struggling. This can sometimes happen with debt or convicted slaves who try to escape early, or those who just like to pretend to be unwilling.

The crests are not without controversy. Many forms of petrification can cause the timer to become stuck until they are restored to the flesh, preventing their contract from expiring when scheduled. To a lesser extent, it has also caused issues with marking members of the machine clan, due to it normally being placed on their bodies. However, this is rare due to the machine clan being a very private race, only sometimes moving to Starcoast and rarely entering contracts.

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Some backstory on the master/slave crests. A few of my stories depict the process by which people obtain their crests, but I thought it would be simpler to explain in one story rather then expect people to read all the Trivium stories.

Above are the crests I have so far, two of which were originally made by . I will update the image as I make more.

Learn more about the world of Trivium in my Discord.