Issued for the guidance of magistrates, castellans, wardens, provosts, inquisitors, and all officers entrusted with chains, cells, and lawful custody.
“The shackle is mightier than the sword—it preserves your enemy for proper use.” — Emperor Vega I
Let it be understood: imprisonment is not mere punishment. It is custody of value. A prisoner may be worth coin, confession, obedience, heirs, memory, or example. Therefore take care that no captive is wasted through haste, vanity, or incompetence.
You may imprison for the following causes, according to realm and station.
In Regin: bloodline falsification, rune tampering, oath-breaking, theft from winter stores, kinslaying.
In Eldoria: dream trespass, tree-harm, time-theft, memory fraud, forbidden Blackwound approach.
In Vega: lèse-majesté, defacement of imperial symbols, tax evasion, unauthorized magic, unsanctioned blood-mixing across kingdoms.
In all realms: Blackwound trafficking, flesh-ledger default, mirror commerce, dream-root distribution, boundary alteration.
If no proper cause exists, you may still imprison by order of ruler or court necessity. Record this as extraordinary seizure. Know that such arrests create grievance, and grievance matures into feud.
When you arrest, do so according to the custom of the land.
Regin: bind with rune-marked manacles, recite the charges while touching stone of the land, and seize the accused’s effects for inventory and rank distribution.
Eldoria: have the accused claimed by living bonds where possible, ensure witness in dream or memory rite, and present a branch or token of origin if required by local custom.
Vega: bind in red silk or iron under the tiger seal, prepare triple record of detention, and take blood for identity and lineage record.
If the arrest fails, declare the consequences immediately. In Regin, outlawry. In Eldoria, dream-marking. In Vega, liability upon kin.
If the target flees, resists, or raises their house, let the original warrant remain active and expand it as needed to include confederates.
Upon confinement, classify the captive. This is the first duty of a competent judge.
A prisoner may be:
Ransomable
Informational
Symbolic
Bargaining stock
Punitive
Experimental
Further mark them if Blackwound-touched, debt-collateral, dream-criminal, blood-oath violator, or time-debtor.
Do not place a contagious prisoner beside a useful one. Do not place a noble hostage beside a fanatic. Do not confuse value with innocence.
Match the cell to the purpose.
Regin confinement: stone binding, ice chambers, rune shackles, deep holds, winter exposure.
Eldorian confinement: living cages, dream tethering, amber suspension, root binding, endless grove.
Vega confinement: imperial forgetting, red cages, compliance collars, labor engines, the Emperor’s Collection.
For high nobles, foreign heirs, and politically useful captives, prefer house arrest, tower custody, or honored hostage terms unless terror is the desired effect.
For rebels, oathbreakers, and dangerous criminals, harsher confinement is lawful.
For those intended to disappear, do not write more than necessary.
A captive is an asset until proven otherwise.
You shall ask:
Can this person be ransomed?
Can this person be exchanged?
Can this person expose others?
Can this person be broken and returned as warning?
Can this person produce heirs or claims useful to the crown?
Can this person be made to sign away land, blood, or memory?
Do not execute what can still be harvested.
Some prisoners will resist. Some must be remade.
The standard progression is as follows:
Strip title, possessions, and public identity.
Disturb time through interrupted sleep, isolation, or false routine.
Alternate kindness and cruelty to unmake expectation.
Force confession, betrayal, taboo, or renunciation.
Rebuild the captive into compliance.
Mark prisoners who become Broken. A broken prisoner is often more useful than a corpse.
Mark those who become Mad or Fanatical separately, as they may contaminate others.
Women may enter prison already with child, may conceive in prison, or may be made to conceive by force, policy, or arrangement. You are not to treat this as uncommon.
Possible causes:
pregnancy discovered after arrest
illicit contact
coerced union
deliberate dynastic breeding
violation by guards or captors
If pregnancy is discovered, record:
probable father
legal status of the union
claim value of the child
whether the pregnancy increases or reduces the captive’s usefulness
Regin practice: the child may pass into wardship of the arresting house; the mother may receive temporary improvement of conditions until birth.
Eldorian practice: the child may be subject to separation rites; prison-born children are to be observed for unusual attunement.
Vega practice: bloodline value governs all; useful offspring may become state property or may lead to reassignment into breeding programs.
If a prison-born child threatens succession, note this at once. Prison-born children may become heirs, bastards, hostages, or erased names. Many wars begin in a cell before they begin in a field.
Expect despair. Some prisoners will choose death over shame, mutilation, conversion, or slow breaking.
If a captive attempts suicide, record whether:
the act succeeded
negligence enabled it
the prisoner’s family or faction may convert the death into martyrdom
A failed attempt justifies closer watch, harsher restraint, and reduction of means.
A successful attempt is a judicial failure unless death itself was strategically preferable.
In Regin, blood-debt may pass to kin.
In Eldoria, self-murder may incur spiritual sentence beyond the grave.
In Vega, the corpse may still serve as public instruction.
Every prisoner must be assumed to be planning escape, even when broken.
Review monthly:
condition of locks
loyalty of guards
hidden tools
correspondence traffic
family activity
priestly or magical interference
unusual dreams, illnesses, or Blackwound symptoms
Regin prisoners flee into mountain and weather; Eldorian prisoners into root, dream, and path; Vega prisoners into crowd, harbor, and corruption.
If recaptured, worsen conditions and make the punishment known unless secrecy serves better.
Know also that some escapes are false escapes. Letting one fugitive run may uncover ten hidden allies.
Death is quick. Rule often requires slower outcomes.
Where lawful and ordered, a prisoner may be subjected to:
Blackwound exposure
memory unmaking
flesh-ledger transfer
dream entrapment
permanent restraint in collection or study
Use such measures only where the captive’s continuing existence benefits the state, the house, or the court. Senseless cruelty breeds waste. Purposeful cruelty breeds order.
A captive’s children, lovers, sworn men, debtors, and servants may all have value.
You shall determine:
whether children are hostages, heirs, or liabilities
whether spouse retains rights
whether bastards must be erased, recognized, or repurposed
whether household retainers must be dispersed or folded into new service
Never imprison one body without considering the family around it. The captive is rarely the whole case.
Release is not mercy unless the record says it is.
A prisoner may be released:
for ransom
for oath
for marriage settlement
for hostage exchange
for confession rendered
for abdication signed
for service converted
for strategic appearance of mercy
The manner of release matters more than the confinement. A prisoner returned blind, branded, broken, converted, indebted, or publicly pardoned creates a different future in every case.
In Heilbronn, a prison is a court beyond the court: a place where names are reduced, blood is measured, heirs are made or erased, and enemies are turned into tools.
Chain carefully. Record precisely. Waste nothing.
A dead enemy feeds worms. A properly imprisoned enemy feeds empires.