Prostitution

> You rent a whores worth, not buy it. Remember it.
>
> Grayan Feld "Rockhand", owner of a brothel in Throes Peak

**Prostitution** is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment, usually in the form of currency. Those who sell their sexual services are more commonly known simply as **whores**. A building where people engage in sexual activities with prostitutes is known as a **brothel** in Soothereos, and they are distinct from **pleasure houses** in that brothels employ prostitutes whereas a Pleasure House's women are slaves.

## Prostitution in Soothereos

> All desires are valid to a man with a full purse.
>
> Grayan Feld "Rockhand", owner of a brothel in Throes Peak

Prostitution is tacitly legal in the Five Kingdoms, in the sense that there is no official law preventing brothels from openly operating in the major cities and towns. Organized religion does discourage prostitution, and it is socially frowned upon, but it is nonetheless present, sometimes seen as an outlet for "uncontrollable male sexual desires". Secular lords and kings have not (in general) tried to shut down prostitution, as taxing brothels is a good source of revenue.

Despite their vows of celibacy, some of the Knights of the Kingsguard have been known to engage in activities with the daughters of the King. This is, for obvious reasons, frowned upon and the removal of their title and rank comes soon after.

A common, generalized name for whores is "Ladies of the Night."

## *Famthas*

> Paved roads, attended beds of natures flowers, and plates of gold, all paid for by cruel and unnatural nature of the sex slave trade.
>
> An outsider, talking about the Sex Slave Trade city "Famtha" of Valrouge

Hidden within the dense forests of Uneers, the Famthas cities flourish as dark hubs of the sex slave trade. Operating beyond the jurisdiction and concern of the Haven Crown, these malevolent strongholds are controlled by immensely wealthy lords who profit from the purchase and exploitation of human lives. Swathed in opulence, their insidious activities remain veiled from the prying eyes of justice, as they revel in the depths of their depravity and perpetuate an unspeakable cycle of suffering. The cries of the innocent reverberate through the forest, unheard and ignored, as the Famthas stand as grotesque symbols of unchecked authority and the unfathomable depths of human cruelty.

Within these wretched enclaves, the affluent lords thrive on the trade of human flesh, reducing their victims to mere commodities devoid of dignity or agency. Their insatiable greed fuels their wealth, while the lives they buy and sell are shattered and discarded. The Famthas cities stand as haunting reminders of the darkest corners of humanity, a grim testament to the need for relentless pursuit of justice, the liberation of the enslaved, and the unyielding fight against the pervasive forces of oppression that stain the lands of Uneers.

## In real life

Prostitution, of course, existed in the real-life Middle Ages and throughout history. It has earned the euphemistic title "The World's Oldest Profession" due to how far back in history its practice can be traced. In medieval Europe, men were rarely outright criticized for visiting prostitutes, because no one - or rather, the men who controlled society and wrote the historical records - thought that the male sex drive was something which could be controlled. Men were never blamed for being unable to restrain themselves, and indeed, prostitution was often seen as a convenient release mechanism for such pent-up desires.

In the Middle Ages, most prostitutes didn't *want* to be prostitutes. Typically, they were desperate women on the fringes of society that had no other alternative and turned to prostitution as a last resort. Prostitutes were rarely well-paid courtesans happily working in high-class brothels, more often they were like Fantine in *Les Misérables*. Statistically, most prostitutes in the Middle Ages were "adrift" women who had no recorded family members - no support network to fall back onto, so prostitution was their only remaining alternative.

At the top of the spectrum are high-class courtesans, in the middle are brothel-whores, and at the bottom are street walkers dangerously wandering the back alleys at night. The problem is that in real-life, historical records which survive tend to skew the evidence towards more high-class prostitutes who interacted with the nobility - the nobles produced most if not all of the written records, thus surviving descriptions of "prostitutes" tend to be of the "high class courtesan" type of prostitute, not the "miserable starving street-walker" type. A small handful may have become relatively comfortable as high-class courtesans, but this too often leads to the misguided belief that prostitutes were happy "sex workers". The *overwhelming majority* were desperate women with no support structure utterly on the fringes of society, to the point that their suffering went unrecorded.