Why haven't The Faceless Men moved against other cities?

[Lucia Targaryen]

We know that the FM were involved in The Doom, either causing it directly or by assassinating the sorcerers who held back the Fourteen Flames. And we know that they began in the slave mines of Valyria and that Braavos is strictly against slavery.

So why haven't the FM assassinated those involved in the slave trade? It's not like they're lacking in gold and resources. In most cities slaves outnumber nonslaves by a significant amount. You'd think it would be easy for them to free these slaves and start rebellions.

And if you're wondering about mercenary companies, either have Braavos hire most of them or kill the higher ups at once. The rest of the sellswords would either disperse or try to establish new companies. It's not like the Free Cities or Slavers Bay have dragons or sorcery to interfere. 

[Loose Bolt]

I assume that basically same reason why any wars against drugs or booze had failed. Or money talks and shit walks. There simply would be enough people to gamble their lives for opportunity to became rich. So as long there would be demand for slaves there would be someone who would capture and sell slaves.

[sweetsunray]

17 minutes ago, EvanSol919 said:

We know that the FM were involved in The Doom, either causing it directly or by assassinating the sorcerers who held back the Fourteen Flames. And we know that they began in the slave mines of Valyria and that Braavos is strictly against slavery.

So why haven't the FM assassinated those involved in the slave trade? It's not like they're lacking in gold and resources. In most cities slaves outnumber nonslaves by a significant amount. You'd think it would be easy for them to free these slaves and start rebellions.

And if you're wondering about mercenary companies, either have Braavos hire most of them or kill the higher ups at once. The rest of the sellswords would either disperse or try to establish new companies. It's not like the Free Cities or Slavers Bay have dragons or sorcery to interfere. 

Valyria was easily destroyed because they relied on magic to stay safe in an area that would otherwise get them killed. Magic was their power, but also their weakness. In some ways, magic can become a crutch. On the one hand it can give you an enormous advantage over others when you're the sole one being able to use it, but if it's the sole way you can maintain that power, then it's nothing more than a crutch really. This is why the Ghiscari feel superior to the Valyrians - they got to where they are, without magic. Although much of that region is such a backwater that they rely on circus armies (with plumes and on stelts).

How does this enable the FM or make things more difficult for the FM? There's a difference between assassinating 14 irreplaceable magicians and assassinating multiple whole houses. Sure, the FM could assassinate a leading slaver, but he'd have several sons or cousins or a rival slaver house who'd fill in the gap. And even if they killed lots of those, then there's no assurance some villainous, might-is-power butcher takes their place. Astapor is a perfect example to this. Dany got rid of most of the slaver class there, even installed good men to rule, but without an army and guards (the Unsullied) that city was defenseless against their neighbour and open to coups performed by some common man who's just as evil as the prior slavers were. 

My point about magic as a crutch is also made in Meereen. With the news of how events unfolded in Astapor (a complete disaster and failure in the end), she decides not to leave Meereen with a power vacuum and rule it herself. Soon, she finds herself obliged to lock her magical advantage away. She has to rule without dragons, and doing so, she experiences how most of it requires compromise and she loathes it, but she has to because she cannot otherwise end the insurgence within that city. Now, Dany actually succeeded in acquiring peace that way... she had her victory, without the reliance of magic, but sadly enough she doesn't believe she had. She believes she fails, because someone tried to assassinate her (or wanted her to think someone tried to), and because deep down she resents the price of those compromises, and loves the freedom she gains by relying on dragons. So, in the end, she chooses the power she can acquire through magical means over those hard won small victories gotten through negotiations and compromises. 

Now, the FM do use a form of magic, with their faces, but it's not such a magic they can have and maintain power over a whole population and do whatever they like. In fact, as we see with the training, they make sure their apprentices could do what they do without magic just the same. If for some reason, the FM didn't have their magic, they'd be as good at it. It certainly does not give them the power to perform an Astapor or a Meereen. And eventually it's not just the FM, but the Braavosi. They cannot risk their people ending up as target of those powerful men and women they mess with.

[Lord Varys]

The Faceless Men are a death cult. They are not exactly at the forefront of societal change. They see death as a gift, not as something that is dealt out deliberately to cause societal change. 'All men must die' and 'All men must serve' are both shitty, conservative-reactionary attitudes. They reinforce things as they are.

Sure, Braavos on a whole is anti-slavery ... but the Faceless Men do demand a price for their services, may even have demanded a price for causing the Doom of Valyria. Although considering they themselves go back to slaves who were exploited and crushed by the Valyrians it might be that they saw this thing as personal, possibly viewing the creation of the Faceless Men themselves as a proper price for arranging the Doom.

In any case, something as petty and self-serving as freeing people from slavery isn't something the Faceless Men would do. In fact, if you look at the Doom the Faceless Men probably killed millions or billions of innocent slaves working their asses off in the Fourteen Flames, Valyria itself, and in all the cities and towns and villages in the Lands of the Long Summer. This wasn't an act of kindness, it was a monstrous crime.

If they had cared about it they could have used their powers to merely kill the Valyrian elite or the Valyrian dragons, bringing about societal change that way.

[Finley McLeod]

2 hours ago, EvanSol919 said:

We know that the FM were involved in The Doom, either causing it directly or by assassinating the sorcerers who held back the Fourteen Flames. And we know that they began in the slave mines of Valyria and that Braavos is strictly against slavery.

So why haven't the FM assassinated those involved in the slave trade? It's not like they're lacking in gold and resources. In most cities slaves outnumber nonslaves by a significant amount. You'd think it would be easy for them to free these slaves and start rebellions.

And if you're wondering about mercenary companies, either have Braavos hire most of them or kill the higher ups at once. The rest of the sellswords would either disperse or try to establish new companies. It's not like the Free Cities or Slavers Bay have dragons or sorcery to interfere. 

You are making a giant assumption.  No, we do not know if they were involved in The Doom.  Some readers believe that but that does not make it so.  The slave mining operations were killing a lot of people like they were worn out drilling equipment.  One would think it served the interests of death to perpetuate this practice because it was killing a lot of people and breeding more to die later.  It's a death machine like the abhorrent manner in which livestock are used today.  It was in their interest to maintain this conveyor belt of the dead for their god.  Slavery breeds to slaughter.  The Many-Faced God would approve of slavery.  It is the opposing God who do not approve of slavery, R'hllor.  

 

[Lord Varys]

3 hours ago, Finley McLeod said:

You are making a giant assumption.  No, we do not know if they were involved in The Doom. 

The kindly man himself claims that the first Faceless Men eventually brought the gift of death to the slave master - i.e. the Valyrians. This very much implies they were behind the Doom.

3 hours ago, Finley McLeod said:

The Many-Faced God would approve of slavery.  It is the opposing God who do not approve of slavery, R'hllor.

R'hllor's followers - who, for the most part, are slaves, at least in Volantis - have no issues with slavery. The Faceless Men as such should also not have issues with slavery, but they certainly have issues with killing indiscrimately. Death is a gift to them, not something you deal out indiscriminately. In that sense they would not really approve of slavery as a means to kill people indiscriminately.

[John Suburbs]

On 1/26/2020 at 7:37 AM, EvanSol919 said:

We know that the FM were involved in The Doom, either causing it directly or by assassinating the sorcerers who held back the Fourteen Flames. And we know that they began in the slave mines of Valyria and that Braavos is strictly against slavery.

So why haven't the FM assassinated those involved in the slave trade? It's not like they're lacking in gold and resources. In most cities slaves outnumber nonslaves by a significant amount. You'd think it would be easy for them to free these slaves and start rebellions.

And if you're wondering about mercenary companies, either have Braavos hire most of them or kill the higher ups at once. The rest of the sellswords would either disperse or try to establish new companies. It's not like the Free Cities or Slavers Bay have dragons or sorcery to interfere. 

Whatever the FM did in Valyria, it set the wheels in motion to unleash the power of the 14 flames to destroy the city. That isn't an option in any of the free cities. They could kill a slaver and another will take his place, usually a son. They could kill a hundred slavers and a hundred will take their place. Slavery is too ingrained into the culture to be removed by mere assassination.