What to do with prisoners in Norland

They might be a nuisance, but prisoners can actually help your realm of success. Here's how to deal with them, actually helping the prosperity and security of your community.

Where do you get the prisoners?

Imprisonment forms part of military strategy. After a successful battle, prisoners can be taken back into the settlement; often injured, crippled, they cannot always be absorbed into the working bodies, but they can also provide a source of inexpensive labor and or can be trained as professional fighters.

The prisoners can also be sourced out of the local population. Those who have been convicted for offenses such as vagrancy or theft can be captured by city guards or bought from traders like the Holy Caravan. That gives way to turn up with labor, or a batch of freshly trained soldiers.

This is a strategic decision that involves the capture or the sale of prisoners. While the prisoners could pose several advantages, it is vital to heed the potential costs and risks from doing so. For instance, the prisoner will need food, clothes and a place to stay. More over there is the risk of rebellion or escape if the treatment conditions will be unfavourable to the prisoners.

The Holy Caravan is a common source for prisoners. Often, this traveling merchant group will have prisoners for sale. Other times are bandit camps or enemy settlements. Prices can and will vary based on a prisoner's health, skills, and age.

A long-term perspective on benefits and costs should be taken into consideration while making such a decision. While the prisoners themselves can constitute a good source for labor or military power, resources and their management also constitute the other side of the coin. Thus, decisions to acquire or sell prisoners must be taken after a careful consideration of the pros and cons.

Where to keep the prisoners?

Prisoners have special needs as opposed to free citizens. You will have to erect a prison ward to keep them in.

In order to build any prison ward, you will need to research "Keeping Prisoners" knowledge. You can do so by assigning a lord to study the book of the same name, which you should have in your inventory already when the game began. If you lost it, you can buy it from the Caravan.

Once this skill is learned, click on the "Construction" tab and then select the "Housing" category in order to build the prison ward. Remember, you must already have a library constructed to be able to learn from books.

A prison ward holds up to 21 prisoners and will automatically assign one of your citizens as a warden. It also comes with an altar, so their religious needs will be taken care of.

It is recommended to build a prison ward as soon as possible. Prisoners can happen to appear in your settlement at any moment, and their decent living will cause discontent for them and for your citizens.

What can prisoners do?

Labor-capable prisoners will work for three extra hours without pay daily on communal jobs, together with villagers. This is a very nice, inexpensive labor force. However, they do need to be fed. The feeding arrangements can be changed in the "Finance" menu.

Making prisoners' lives miserable may have some unpleasant consequences. Unhappy prisoners will try to escape or even riot. Regular patrols by the guards and attending to prisoners' needs avert these situations.

Many prisoners of war are highly experienced in military matters. Once you absorb them into your army units, you immediately give them their freedom and raise their morale.

And here we end our what to do with prisoners guide on Norland, hoping that we could provide our maximum assistance in dealing with prisoners.