What's crime and punishment like in the world?
Could we assume there's penal colonies, prisons, capital punishment and the like?
If so, which ones are prevalent in certain societies etc etc.
Good Question.
Prison is a thing, there have been 3 prisons in Calidor's history. The first was Greystoke Prison just north of the Wards, the inmates worked in the mines. This became too crowded and there was a large prison escape roughly 75 years ago, at which point land was bought from the Wyler family and Blackmoor Penitentiary was erected on the island. All prisoners were moved there. Fifteen or so years ago, some sort of calamity struck Wyler's, and the lunatics overran the Asylum and opened the prison gates. The CDF cordoned off the island and declared it a Militarized Zone with no trespassing, because the situation was contained and a rescue operation was deemed too dangerous. At this point Calidor, Sinecliff, Neermore, and Dvergerhove + several other southern Domes had started joint construction of
Wardenclyffe, an extremely large prison complex far to the north of Calidor, nestled in the Dvergerhove Mountains atop a steep cliff, only accessible via a single rail line and a large freight elevator inside the mountain. The prison is separated into 4 blocks, with the Dwarven Domes having two, Neermore and Sinecliff sharing another, and Calidor having its own. Only the worst criminals are sent to Wardenclyffe, and at least for Calidor the sentence is never less than 5 years for someone, "getting sent up track." There are many horror stories about torture and cruel and unusual punishments for problematic inmates, including tales of prisoners left to hang by their arms from long shackles over the side of the cliff, however many of these are assumed to be horror stories to scare people.
Other stuff, broken down by region:
CALIDOR:- Other than prison, Calidor does have the death penalty. Executions (beheading) are carried out in The Block in Trades, in front of the CCPD Station. A recent development is an "electric chair" that is thought to be more humane, however it has yet to be used. The chair is inside the CCPD station.
- Any criminal can request a trial by combat or to serve their sentence in the Arena, in which case they are jailed under the Arena and must fight to the death in special execution events. This practice has mostly fallen on the wayside, and no one has chosen the trial by combat in decades.
SINECLIFF:- No death penalty, the harshest punishment is life in Wardenclyffe without parole.
NEERMORE:- Death Penalty, execution by either hanging or firing squad.
DWARVEN DOMES:- Prison is a thing.
- A Dwarf specific sentence in many domes is to have your Dome lineage stripped and to be exiled, banished to Svidgard.
- The Northern domes of Sma Stjern and Hvithavn both practice execution as they do not have rail lines to easily access Wardenclyffe. Hvithavn generally carries out execution at sea, including leaving prisoners on rafts in the ocean without any paddle and a single loaf of bread and a single skin of water.
SADERIA:- The Tower of Sader is the primary prison for the nation. Torture is common, including absolutely medieval punishments like drawing and quartering and the iron maiden. The Tower is consequently the root of the term "sadism" due to its long and bloody history of torture and corporal punishment.
- Executions are almost exclusively beheadings, and the heads of the executed are displayed on the walls of the capital city. Sometimes the prisoner is first crucified for 3x3 days, then beheaded. During the nine days they are fed only salted water, lemons, and stale, moldy bread, to ensure they survive the ordeal to be alive when their head is removed.
UR:- There are no prisons, only slavery.
- Slavery ranges from indentured servitude to a lifetime of work in the mines. Slavery is NOT hereditary and once a slave has served their prescribed sentence, they are freed. The type of servitude is dictated by the crime, only the harshest of criminals receive life in the mines. Slaves are fed and clothed, and their masters are prohibited from beating them (excluding those working the mines) because they are considered the property of the Holy City while serving their sentence, not the direct property of their master. Masters who abuse their slaves often get harsher punishments and longer terms than the slaves themselves. Slaves retain the bulk of their personal wealth and property in trust to either the city or their next of kin while they are serving their slave term.
CASSIAN WETLANDS REPUBLIC (Non-Aian):- Darkmeer Prison lays in the swamps far to the southeast of Hexxen, a lone castle in a festering bog. Prisoners are kept there for various lengths of times, with nobility retaining the right to hire out prisoners as cheap labor.
- Execution is not allowed, though those deserving of such a punishment are brought to Darkmeer and sent out into the mire with only a roughshod burlap shirt and pants, and a wooden spoon. Nothing else. No one has ever survived the trek out of the swamp, or so they say.
AIA:- Naval punishments, including flogging and manual labor.
- Execution is almost exclusively walking the plank or, for the truly depraved, keelhauling.
SEDIS:- Corporal punishment is common, specifically caning.
- Chosen form of execution is to be burned at the stake.
- The Priory maintains a secret prison complex in the desert whose location is unknown. Criminals sent there are either never heard from again or return as staunch members of the Priory and considered redeemed and enlightened.
SOLATEUM:- Banishment is a common form of "light" death penalty.
- Being buried alive with only your head exposed and left to die in the sun is a common execution method for non-Elves.
- Prisoners are otherwise held in multiple small jails around the city and expected to till the fields or perform forced labor around the city.
ASTRUM:- No death penalty, only exile to the desert.
- There is a small prison off the coast which houses the rest of their criminals. The prisoners are made to mix tar and chop wood for the shipping industry.
LAN CHENG:- Foreigners are banished and instructed to never return on pain of "permanent incarceration."
- Gnomish criminals are sent inland, past the Imperial Wall to a prison facility that only the gnomes must know about.
EMERALD ISLES:- Corporal punishment is commonplace, including severing hands/fingers of thieves and flogging.
- There are still a few old prisons on some of the Isles, however they have no established penal system. The vast majority of criminals are forced into military service in the Navy.
- Those who refuse or are too dangerous for Naval service or banished from the Archipelago to a pair of rather desolate islands to the south, deep in the Southern Chimney known only as "The Spires." It is generally established that the islands are a deathtrap and the criminals have free run of the place, murdering and killing each other in an endless cycle of greed.
THE THREE FREE:- Exile to the Waste is a common "final punishment."
- Each city has its own prison system which they maintain.