First: pet mechanic is your non violent method of gaining companions.
Second: more in line with the original suggestion, free abandoned thralls from their previous owners servitude.
Kill two birds with one stone. No more abandoned thralls all over the damn map, and you get non agressi e method of gaining thralls.
If we are making suggestions for alternate recruitment here are my three…
Conversion - use altars to convert to you cause
Mercenaries/paid labor - use coin to hire thralls
Friendship (?)/Loyalty - some form of passive taming by which you win loyalty of thralls.
I wanted this from the very beginning! What a great idea, this would be huge, and a great way to add quests and more fun PVE, single-player gameplay to the game. 
I think this was supposed to be a thing from the wheel of pain areas in Sepermeru. Towards the end of EA they mentioned a merchant to buy randomly generated broken thralls.
A great idea, alternative ways of doing things adds replayability.
I imagine some would flock to our settlements looking for shelter or offer their services for it? Maybe certain items/building could build up our prestige (like wells, fields, shrines) and some lower it (torture table, wheel of pain?) building up our legend as a savior of this forsaken lands? 
Never viewed my thralls as slaves IM clubbing criminals and re-educating them to learn life with me is better and easier. All they need to do under my care is stand there and I will go gather food for them and build a shelter for them. Them attacking bad people that come near me is because they’re protecting the person that IS their slave. IT’S I who needs to feed them clothe them and build shelter I AM THEIR slave and they like my services so much they help protect me.
Your average exile is probably tired of living in a tent down by the river and being attacked by crocodiles. If you aren’t picky, basic help should offer to work for you once you have four walls and a bit of extra space. Higher skilled individuals could come knocking if you have a nice, well defended bed for them.
I would love to have the choice to play the hero if I wanted. Maybe it could come with the drawback of not being able to club… er choose exactly which helper you want.
I also want to see more depth to the existing thrall system though that is another topic.
Your a barbarian… The lore of the world, books and games, is slavery. If you’re not up for slavery have others in a clan do it for you.
You are not a barbarian. Given that many of the lands or origin are highly civilized that much is clear. While slavery is common in Hyboria the namesake of the game and many people in the stories are opposed to it. Hyboria has just rulers too.
Sure Exiles is supposed to be a harsh land but it would be great for playability and replayability to have options beyond slavery.
He suggested alternatives. Not asked for a complete removal.
Maybe he is like Conan, you know, who prefers friends, lovers and allies over slaves.
Your right. Correction you are a civilized person that is now a member of community/region that according to the lore is the one of the most barbaric areas. Conan hates slavery because of his history, being one as a child, does that to a person. For anyone not living in that area your a barbarian to them.
As for game mechanics sure it’d be nice but that’s a lot of coding. They would have to implement one or more ways to enable it so thralls can be gained without the slavery route. But they need to make it an equivalent time base, and multiplayer would be impossible because that gauge would be for individuals or same gauge for every player? All that work you did for another player to snipe him/her at the last second which is thing in some PvP servers. Faction based relations to gain thralls? That is still more coding than is necessary. The religious indoctrination would be a far better route than a quest, 1hr for training for a 1hr quest, I’ve got better things to do. Buying slaves and “freeing” them could be another route it at least gives more value to coins. If you haven’t noticed your person is a criminal to start with so if you want redemption just go it alone like Conan and slaves won’t be an issue. Or better yet go play Ark than again those poor enslaved dinosaurs.
Almost every society in Conan lore (as well as in real life) is built on the backs of slaves. Those in Conan lore that don’t rely on slavery use equally nefarious means such as necromancy hence why I believe undead thralls should be the only alternative we get if any.
FO4 styled radio tower? Obviously a banner or something. But slaves is a cornerstone of Conan lore just let this thread die already.
Hmm, as others have mentioned it would be cool to have the option of roleplaying the game in a different way (lots of games offer good, evil, or grey playstyles) but to implement it well in this game would probably require a lot of work… as in a full expansion’s worth.
And the thing is, I doubt that such a feature would have enough popular appeal or add enough to the game to sell such an expansion, unless they could tie it in with some exciting new content and enrichment of the game world itself. Yet you’d still just be ordering your slaves, err, volunteer army around anyway, unless they REALLY revamped the game, but I don’t see that happening any time soon. They’re still adding features they talked about in early access and the thrall system is semi-functional and lacklustre as is.
Personally, I thought I might feel bad with the whole slavery thing as I’m someone who normally baulks at roleplaying the darker paths in games, yet CE has really charmed me. And I don’t even feel like I am playing an evil/bad character - it’s not that sort of game, it’s more just light-hearted fun. CE doesn’t take itself too seriously and has actually managed to make the whole thrall-taking thing amusing and fun. The game has amazing atmosphere. From the taking off thralls to the ridiculous gibs and hilariously over-the-top death gurgles… to exploring the hostile, barbaric world, clambering around and sliding down enormous sheer cliffs, slaughtering all foes before me… game is super fun as is. I’ve embraced my inner barbarian and I’m loving it
I agree with the OP, and one of the first suggested implementations of having rescuable prisoners in the enemy camp’s cages, that you must free and then carry to a “healing bed”, seems like a very simple way to go about this alternative without differentiating much from the mechanics of the current system.
Exiles Retirement/firing: Will stuff you in a small box and forget about you.
I was so hoping this thread had died…
So just like retirement in real life unless you are rich? 
How so? While I personally don’t have a problem with slavery in the game - it’s so over-the-top-cartoonish that there’s absolutely no real-life-allegory in it - it’d be great to have other options.
There are so many more issues in the game that needs addressing than figuring out a balanced way to gain thralls outside of slavery. Additional coding, animations, possibly more station block(s) which means, more coding… See my point this whole issue is on their back burner with the settlement plans anyway. In whole I am just tired of seeing it because its like taking your kid to a store and they end having a tantrum about a toy or some candy. You aren’t getting it right now so stop.
And to top it off the “Conan hates slavery” defense is dumb because people don’t know any of the lore with this game. Conan isn’t originally a barbarian and he was slave at one point. Taken as a child, enslaved and placed on a wheel of pain that is why he hates slavery.
Our characters are criminals that sheet of parchment attached to your chest says it all. Other than a rping factor for all purposes you are criminal at different degrees of infamy. I don’t mean to say rping isn’t a viable way to play but to rewrite/make coding just players feel better about themselves is highly unnecessary at this point in the games infancy.
Let this thread die. Wait until the patches and the fixes have been made and content that would better support non-enslavement followers come out.
Okay, so you want the topic to die because you don’t like the idea. Well, fair enough.
I’m pretty sure the “taken as a child and put on the Wheel of Pain” is a movie invention. I mean don’t get me wrong, I adore the 1982 Conan movie, which was my first introduction to the character, but I don’t think it’s part of the backstory for the “original” Conan from Howard? I could be wrong. He’s certainly “a Barbarian” in all cases though.
Eh, they’re certainly convicted but it’s left entirely to the players to decide whether that was legitimate or not. Just because every Elder Scrolls game likes to start with you imprisoned, doesn’t mean you have to be a slaver and a murderer in those games. And those pieces of paper… it’s a joke. Have you read some of them? “Breaking the fourth wall” for example.
I disagree. Thread doesn’t need to die. People have every right to show that there’s continuous support for alternative means of acquiring thralls if they want to. Funcom will then decide whether it’s feasible to implement it, or not worth the effort.
By all means participate in the discussion and argue why you don’t like it (or don’t, up to you) but there’s no need to suppress the thread itself.