Felandris wrote:
If I may put in my 2 cents?
I like this story Caesar has written. It is a good representation of Vorstaed's idea which is a good one; to combine slave labour with the illusion of occult magic. The same has probably happened many times in real life history, so it makes sense.
The scientist in me wants the details to the indoctrination of the slaves to be centered around their thought processes, which could have been altered by drugs used to manipulate and control them, possibly also leading to the discovery of such slavery, if the side effects also led some to aggressive behavior? Or even if the drug was administered unintentionally, through local flora or even inhaled from a gas leak in the mines? Although the gas would have affected everyone involved, not just the slaves...
If the local flora were behind this, this would also help to explain the first and second of Caesar's loose ends, why the area was left, and probably will be left, for some time, and why the construction was so erratic.
As a potential alternative:
Slavery based on indoctrination without the use of drugs is possible, as shown in the case of Mauritania, a country where slavery is de jure illegal but still practiced widely. One of the issues with abolishing slavery there is that individuals raised as slaves from birth come to view themselves as undeserving of liberty and less than their masters. It is possible that slaves could be controlled in this manner in the Minervan case.
Also, if the buildings were constructed rapidly and with little planning by the "Minervan Revival" as Ceasar suggested, then it is possible that they were built speculatively but ultimately never inhabited, possibly due to people having qualms about living in homes built by slave labor.