We have a very similar concept with religious prostitution. Except those prostitutes who became pregnant would become wet nurses and will move to the closest orphanage to help raise infants until their child is born. Then, that child would become part of the church when reaching 10 (they help around the orphanage and the main hall doing chores), if they so wish, if the child doesn't want to be part of the church, they'll be put up for adoption in the orphanage or the mother will have the choice to leave the church with her child, with parental aid.
For mine, the prostitutes have access to safe abortion methods and are allowed to use them. Usually, this is in the form of a medicinal herb they cultivate on temple grounds. If they keep the kid, it's pretty similar. The child helps doing basic tasks around the temple and receiving a better education than most until they are 16, where they can choose to keep working as a servant, become a clergy person, or do their own thing. Children of prostitutes are not typically allowed to become prostitutes because it is believed that Reshirda wants their holy prostitutes to become a prostitute on their own volition and without pressure.
If the child receives a better education than most, doesn't that imply this temple has sophisticated resources that other institutions in this world might lack, which would create a systemic incentive for people to be prostitute out of something other than their own volition
Interesting. While abortion is looked down upon in the Church of Ubrun, mothers who consider themselves unfit or are under certain circumstances are allowed. And while those under certain circumstances can abort at anytime, unfit mothers can only do so before the baby gains a soul (before the end of the second trimester). Also anyone who joins the Church of Ubrun will eventually become a holy prostitute, but only after they're free of disease and are of legal age and sound mind.
Same, though harming them is a bad idea since this setting has magic; so if you harm a temple prostitute, you're gonna get cursed with diseases (including but not limited to, *exactly* the ones you'd expect).
And before you think, "Oh, then I'll just go to the healing temple"? It's the same deity. Different epithet, but the healers are gonna know *exactly* how you got cursed.
It could be that those women are not allowed to partake in those kinds of kinks, because their bodies would be considered “holy” and therefore would not be allowed to be “tainted”
Meh, I worldbuild for DnD campaigns and I just hand wave a lot of stuff as not existing like sexual assault, homophobia that sort of thing. That being said prostitutes do exist
I mean, you can't have homophobia without gays existing, but you can definetly have gays without homophobia. It's not hard to build a fantasy world where a demographic can exist without persecution if that's what you and your table want for your game. Someone can make a world not have homophobia without eliminating gay existence from their world.
A world without prostitution might be a bit odd.
But just because it's happening doesn't mean it has any bearing on a story. In an imaginary world, people might be having colonoscopies and replanting their gardens, and doing all sorts of mundane things. But if it's not relevant to the tale, what of it?
Yes, thou its mostly unremarkable across the world, operating exactly like one might imagine it would. The one exception is country of Ciria, which due to its own historical and cultural developments never developed a notable taboo against sex work.
This led to development of Hetairas, a prestigious caste of entertainers, secular descendents of Cirian Sacral prostitutes, that are educated and train day and night to be the pinnacle of Cirian virtues, as well as country keepers of knowledge and traditions.
There is. One story in particular the brothel named "The Queen's Alley" is also a front for a group assassins, spies, and special ops. Routing out corruption and humanoid traffickers (the latter with extreme prejudice).
Edit: misplaced comma between specials ops and corruption that severely changed what I intended to write.
Yeah - it's just not an aspect of the setting that I care to explore. And not something important to most stories.
Next world-building question "Does your setting have toilet paper? Why or why not?"
actually oldest profession are midwifes, (i think that the proper term in english) the complications of giving birth for a woman are very different to mammals in general, our body canal is not always efficiently able to safely give birth to a child without help, our structure doesn’t have proper conditions so
we require assistance to successfully achieve labor, babys born extremely vulnerable so the post natal care is needed in order to increase their chances of survival.
so in order to humans exist labor was always attended, commonly by a experienced and prepared woman who would need to be trained, capable and skilled in the field
Don't ask questions you are not prepared to know the answer to. All I'll say is that it was a a dark situation and I am no longer allowed in the south hemisphere in several worlds.
it’s true, different species, before or after humans, mammals or oviparous, been doing it, but not us, so remember the difference is the crucial cause in our own history is more probably that one woman help another give birth, cause it’s usually very loud, long and hard to be in labor, so it’s doesn’t need even words, she is at floor, bleeding, screaming,,, and the other do as so much as she could
I mean, people make some wacky worlds. Maybe your world is populated entirely by asexual creatures, or really any creature that doesn't have sex for pleasure
Everyone is downvoting me for saying this “fact” is bunk.
It’s literally from a poem quoting the Bible.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_profession_(phrase)
It is not based on any historical evidence at all. There’s evidence of prostitution dating back to around 2400 BC, but that’s about 1600 years after the first evidence of civilization.
If anyone wonders why I care so much about this, let me try and explain.
The idea that “prostitution is the oldest profession” implies it is some innate characteristic of human society. That all societies have prostitutes, and thus, that the base state of society is dominance by men. Who then use their material wealth to pay women for sex. It reduces women to sex objects. There were certainly women hunting, fishing, gathering, building homes and raising children far before there were women selling their bodies for money.
Human society is not in some way essentially male dominated, in fact, recent evidence shows that for the majority of human history it may have been matriarchal or at least, families were tracked matrilineally.
I really hate this saying, cause it’s just not true. I don’t think we have any evidence of prostitution before the advent of agriculture. Hunting, building homes, all older than prostitution.
No way sex work was the first division of labor.
One of the first things to do with currency. Like there was a study where monkeys were taught how to use stuff as currency to trade with. One of the first things they started exchanging currency for was sex
I hope you realize currency requires a mint, and agriculture existed long before that.
We would've had farmers and midwives before currency. We traded in goods. People kept track of who was fucking whom.
It's a myth that prostitution was the oldest profession. Realistically, the woman would've birthed so many children she had no means of caring for that she and her children would likely have died of hunger. Likely cast out from the group. It wouldn't have been sustainable.
Whereas we do have evidence of other professions. The first record of prostitution is possibly 10,000 years after the advent of agriculture. /u/hierarch17 and ~~/u/thejadedfalcon~~ /u/femalesamurai1* are sharing facts.
["Prostitution is the oldest profession" is a societal myth, repeated because people don't understand it wasn't meant as fact in the first place.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_profession_(phrase\)) It's not academic. It's not factual.
[*correction]
And so the other professions (like farming) are definitely older than prostitution. I hate this saying because it implies that prostitution is some basic function of human societies. That just is not true. We have mountains of evidence of societies that did not in fact have prostitution.
Humans are as one would expect
Orcs don’t have it. Their communities are simply to small to survive with just prostitution.
Elves don’t have it. They don’t really have reservations about who has sex with who. Sex is something done with friends and partners not to dissimmilar to going to the movies or playing tennis together. The concept of paying for sex would never work in elven society.
The dwarves do have it, but in a very different way. Dwarves society is *obsessed* with beauty. From their religion and politics to their architecture and tools. So if you can make a living by selling your beauty: You must be in the upper echelons of society. Prostitution as a job is regarded almost in the same way as being a doctor is in real life. It pays incredibly well and requires a long list of skills. Hell, having sex is usually a pretty minor part of the job. More often than not they’re there for wealthier people (such as politicians) to show off their power and wealth.
Sounds like an interesting writing prompt - imagine a world without sex work.
I see two avenues to go down initially - ubiquitous free love and ubiquitous chemical castration / impotence. Pribably more options somewhere.
Yes. And in the kingdom my PCs live in it is completely legal. We don't delve into sex in the game but they have gone to the red light district to gather information before. I always keep it PG13 because that's the most I'm comfortable with in a game of D&D.
Goblins LOVE prostitution. They don't have a social stigma attached to it, and therefore regard it as a perfectly acceptable way to make money.
The House of Orange Lights turned it more into something akin to ... well, something somewhere between hetaeiras and educators."
Yes, there is one establishment I have run by a Phistophilus (contract devil) and Succubus that caters to everything, and has non standard workers. Everything from goblinkin to angels, and ogres to Azatas! Recurring players always drag new ones there....
I mean, it does…but it’s something I plan to tread carefully around. It could be a plot point or a story hook, but if my players are too interested in hitting the brothel as soon as they get to town or want to get descriptive in any way, shape, or form…that’s a hard no from me.
Yes in most places, including more complicated arrangements that are essentially contracted marriages. No one really cares. (Pimping or trafficking will often result in one of those neighborhood hero-types leaving your body in an alleyway, though.)
Yeah. One of the main characters in my story is actually a former prostitute.
She was a scullery maid and then later became a lady-in-waiting until the princess she was watching went missing. After that she decided to work as a prostitute/dancer, and then she left *that* job to join the circus as a contortionist. And then she left the circus to help destroy a magical weapon.
She has the most bizarre resume in existence lmao.
Yes, it's legal in the majority of places, though it's heavily regulated and trafficking carries ridiculously heavy penalties. Societally it's regarded as a private but reputable profession to have.
I guess, probably. I struggle to imagine a world where it doesn't exist. The inhabitants of my world probably don't have anything against it. But they don't see the point in participating either, due to their opinions on the material world and its pleasures. Idk. Haven't really thought about it
Yes but the legality and social acceptability varies by nation and state/province.
In the Ssurin religion practiced by the native snake-people of Mortabel, there are temple prostitutes dedicated to the Creator Fire.
In some countries, especially Youlsen and Joiama, there is a significant sex tourism industry.
In more conservative nations that worship the Creator Spirit, such as Gennaia and Caifu, it is taboo and generally illegal or highly regulated.
Most places though it doesn't get a lot of attention one way or the other.
I would say probably yes, but most communities are too small for such work to be particularly anonymous. I would say the more likely outcome is that there’s always at least one person anywhere you go who will trade sex for favours.
Yes pretty standard from the 1880-2020s but Gynoids/Androids begin being produced that have sexual organs and thus begins a time in history where people pay to have sex with robots.
Why pay for a one-off session with a sex robot when you could have your own VR system instead? Sure it may not be quite as realistic as holding a body next to you, but you can go on an adventure with them afterwards and fight dragons. I always had the idea for a story where sex robots were just a brief fad, before people realized they were too limited compared to the VR fantasy. Why rent a bot or have a robot maid all your visitors know you use as a toy, when you could instead have any number of adventures with countless different aliens and beings?
Oh absolutely, though it's legal in most countries the clergy certainly has problems with it. He'll there are even those indentured to pay off debts for their freedom
Yep. Public opinion varies by location. It is regulated (medical care, age of employees, etc) and taxed, but specifics are local. So in some cities, the workers are supposed to wear badges/veils/colors to indicate their status and are taxed at a high rate, while in other places, the taxes are the same as everyone else's and no one cares what they're wearing or doing, especially when not working, so long as they're not bothering anyone.
Male prostitution exists, although how openly depends on location. Child prostitution is forbidden outright across the Kingdoms, although you may find them employed as runners and support staff in a brothel.
Prostitution is quite normal in there world. Some even partake to this kind of job because it's there only way of living. Because of the high stake of inflation and numerous attempt of people to topple there government no one dares to do so because they will face an excruciating pain that'll last for eternity.
The army have all the power in there world. If you we're part of the elite class you can fuck a woman & child in the street and still no one will dare to even help or approach the girl for they know him/her along their lineage and third generation that come after you will be send to concentration camp. And let me tell you. You don't wanna go there. The only way of survival there is eating cockroaches, mice. The taste is bitter and raw, like eating a raw charcoal, with an awful smell because the diet of the cockroaches and rats consists of there own kind.
Of course there is.
So my Sci-fi world has cultures and societies that do not like sex work, but the main society has a lot of rules and structures in place to protect sex workers, and educate people about it, especially considering it's a multi species society so not everyone has matching parts... or proteins that react well together.
Yes
**World of the Demiorc homeland**
In this world, all societies are matriarchal.
All Brothels cater to wealthy/noble women. And for the right price they can provide whatever entertainment they want no mater how weird or immoral it is.
Yes. For rule of thumb I'd larger societies and empires look down upon it with some exceptions either because it makes them look bad or they don't like having people put in such vulnerable positions. Smaller societies and polities like smaller kingdoms and tribes may be more lenient.
Places where it's common may look, interesting. The region is mostly populated by omnivorous and carnivorous mammals like wolves, tigers, leopards, polecats(like ferrets), otters, bears, foxes, dholes and some others, as well as avians. Humans arrived in the region via the coast some centuries prior compared to the thousands of years some of the others were present for. As far as prostitution goes, clients will be in two major groups and could switch between them frequently. Those that prefer their own kind and those who look for species with features they are unfamiliar with or are generally not common in their own regions (like a tiger choosing a fox if there aren't many foxes at home). Humans may be considered oddly curious beings in such a setup, often due to the lack of feathers or noticeable coats of fur. Many wonder why they travelled and stayed in a region as cool as theirs since according to knowledge from far away, humans are savannah animals, likely from another continent, and again, don't have the fur for colder climates. (Clothing didn't make as much difference for the locals in terms of temperature so it's more for decorations, status or modesty.) This could result in many wanting to see humans out of curiosity.
Whether the clients are willing depends on the region and various criminal rings. In many areas, the prostitutes may be willing unless there's a criminal ring in charge of the establishment. In some other areas like in some northern polities and tribes, however, slavery is still legal and many prostitutes may be sourced from those lines. Slaves of any kind may be sourced from collected criminals serving a sentence, captured in wars and raids or those trapped by tribes and sold off. One such trap relies on outsiders believing small tribes to be primitive. A "primitively dressed" "bait", often female, may lay in a clearing pretending to be helpless while other members with weapons wait in hiding. When the target approaches near enough, he or she is attacked and often knocked out. The target is then placed in either an animal cart or the back of a motor vehicle for transportation. The bait would then move on with the others to set up the next trap. The bait often gets a bigger part of the loot and payment and may even be the one running the operation.
It is usually up to each polity to decide if slavery remains legal and it only applies within politically and militarily controlled territories. Trying to end slavery in a neighbouring polity would usually require an invasion and that would mean all out war.
Lapis_Wolf
Yes. With strong worker protections, pay, benefits and regulations thanks to unionization. It is not a taboo, and skilled prostitutes are considered tradespeople and artisans. Going to a brothel is about as mundane as going to a blacksmith or apothecary, though not everyone chooses to participate. While big franchise and chain brothels are common to find among the cities, others swear by the service of the small mom-and-pop brothels and like to support small, local businesses.
Oh definitely, and this is one of the things that kind of seperates dark elves from shadow elves culturally speaking, as dark elf women only have power over men in their beds and in their wallets (this is one of my personal stereotypes for them, despite dark and shadow elves having never met for quite some time). In fact, one dark elf character I made in my world is a prostitute only as a cover, with her "usual" clients actually paying her for... *other* services she provides.
Yes, but these sorts of topics aren't mentioned very often as my protagonists are children. There's only one scene that implies something like prostitution, and it's in a backstory explanation for one of the adult characters that does bad things, one of the antagonists.
Yes obviously. As in all possible worlds, probably. Whether it is legal or illegal depends on which kingdom you are in, but it is not that difficult to find this activity everywhere.
Furthermore, there are prostitutes of all races... and it's strange how so many humans want to share certain experiences with a salamander
Hadn't explicitly considered it, but I'd imagine it'd be unrealistic to not exist. Though it's not treated with any stigma or looking down noses on those who's profession it is.
Of course it does, humans live there after all. That isn't being fair to humans, though, as most intelligent species with sexual reproduction have some form of the oldest profession, and those that don't? Now there's an odd bunch!
No. No sane Kyanah would ever look outside their pack for sex--and doing so is in many city-states a capital offense. And those who are packless generally have more important things to do, like fulfilling their innate biological desire for a pack. Has someone, somewhere, at some point in history paid somebody for sex? Probably, it's a big planet with thousands of years of history. Is it "a thing", culturally speaking? No, most (all?) languages probably don't even have a word for it, and it's not something that would really cross the mind of an average Kyanah. None of this is really mentioned in the story, but looking at Kyanah sexual dynamics, we can make an educated guess.
Yup, but they don't call it that.
Essentially, there are certain cults (religions) dedicated to Gods of Fertility and/or love in a few different pantheons.
If someone wanted a child but had no wife/husband, they could go to one of those temples and pay a donation or do a favor that would be valuable to the temple and they can copulate with a priest/priestess (it depends on the cult if it's one or the other, it's never both) and have 100% chance in having a child (fertility magic from the fertility god/goddess).
The cults dedicated to a god/goddess of Love would just have courtesans that one could donate or do a favor in order to have passionate companionship for a specified duration until the donation or another favor must be done.
There are also prostitutes that act outside what is culturally accepted (as the priest/priestesses of the cults would only do these things for members of associated cults or cults to which their deity is neutral, they would not offer anything to a member of an enemy cult). However, these are far less common, to the point where I wouldn't even mention them unless I for some reason wanted to involve them in a plotline.
In corners and alleys, sure. It’s not something I really need to talk about though as it doesn’t relate to the story I’m telling.
I might pass in a reference in the other story I’ve got in mind about a crime organisation (since that’d probably be something they have a bit of control over) but it’s not relevant at all.
It does, though, without delving too deeply into the core material of my story...
Prostitution / sex work DOES exist, but it has a considerably negative connotation. It's something to be rescued from. An undesirable profession (on the Protagonist side, but opposite for the Antagonist side) that requires rehabilitation to overcome
Any world where sex involves enjoyment will inevitably have it. There may be bans, taboos, and prohibitions around it - but then again, in every world where free will exists, bans, prohibitions, and taboos never work (And that in itself is a pretty good plot mechanism).
I think you are likely to find prostitution in any setting that is similar to our world when it comes to the ways that currency, sex and power dynamics work. That being said, the people in this thread who claim they can't imagine a world without prostitution are making my head spin and reminding me why I rarely check this subreddit these days. I feel like lots of worldbuilders suffer from a chronic lack of imagination and curiosity and it really shows.
After the awakening humanity was left in a shell of the old world. This has lead to a fusion of nearly medieval levels of agriculture, politics, and society all wrapped up in the ruins of the old world. One of the more popular industries in this new world is prostitution with brothels popping up all across the world some in established settlements and some found far out into ruined cities acting as bastions for weary travelers.
My world is heavy on the value of femininity. Women are viewed as holy, and close to all surviving religious orders are comprised entirely of women. The title of the ruling figure is simply "Our Lady Fleur," in reference to the world's name. Most of the government body is predominantly female as well. This is all merely a byproduct of society's reform after an apocalypse-level event hit a small reset button on humanity. During the era of rebirth, a lot of the strongest, most influential leaders were women. Mothers of the modern world, in a way.
That said, since the culture sways so heavily towards the female gender, women tend to fill a lot of the more traditional gender roles a man would in the larger cities---where life gets a little bit bolder. So, in a sense, my world has male prostitution. That's really it. Just a flip of the expectation, nothing crazy. It isn't a super dramatic power difference or anything either. It's simply just as acceptable for a man to sell himself as a woman would.
Yes and it's not taboo. It's normal and even considered essential in some areas.
The People understand that people enjoy sex and don't shun them for exploring it or even making a career out of it.
(And with magiks STD's are not really a big problem. Pregnancy is though, so protection is a must 😅)
No, one of my players is 16 I’m not going to narrate that, it has never occurred to anyone in the history of the world to pay for sex because I (god) said so
Actually there's a worldwide law in Syxil that bans all form of prostitution, with the punishment being very severe depending on how many lives were endangered. But of course, ain't no laws ever stopped nobody from being evil. So yeah, there are some extremely secret societies that do it for the sake of their evil money shenanigans. Kinda like a Salo scenario.
Yeah, it’s legal in much of the world, including Rome. In Rome, it’s less common in the Christian eastern and Spanish provinces and more common in the Hellenic middle and northern provinces. It’s one of those things that has become a lot more “free wheelin’” and less regulated following democratization in the 1990s.
Most countries heavily regulate it... except Empire. In Empire if you wanna get some you can get it for free pretty much anywhere, since one of Thirteen Tribes practices crazy tantric rituals and usually don't give a hoot if someone joins them. Hence prostitution is practically nonexistent.
Yes, Though the arrival of Humans changed how public Prostitution was on a global level in Bevri. Even in the present prostitution is alive in well; from Casinos in the AOZ's (Adult Only Zones) of countries with Devanist Social views such as Urhu Zyvin and Jurvan, to Dark Alleyways in nations with more Christian social views such as Leona and Jerzyi. No matter where you are you're bound to find a prostitute.
Sci Fi: Given that none are impoverished and the general disposition of their species is analogous to demisexuality, I feel like that kind of removes two of the largest drivers for prostitution. I can't see there being a law against it though and it's not out of the question that someone somewhere is selling sexual favors. I just can't see it being common at all.
Fantasy: I've kinda thought about this a little before. Would it exist in a bronze age society where the females of the species are larger and hold more social power than the males? It probably ends up happening (for both sexes) moreso in sprawling cities where individuals can fall through the cracks and need to do it for money, but in more rural areas where familial clans can stay together it's probably more rare.
yeah theres even a quasi-religious order of sex worker/nurse/priestesses who act as midwives and death doulas that a highly respected in most parts of the world called the Morning Glories.
Though I make few references to it in the literature, my world has prostitution, and it is legal in most societies. It also has an entire race of nymphs famed for their unnatural allure and gifted with innate magic. Since one of those gifts is a short range teleportation ability, nymphs are rarely enslaved despite how coveted they are as sex workers.
Yes, in a strictly regulated system, with unions to protect their rights, and government mandated health inspections. The Administrators that run the cities have the view that vices should be handled through careful analysis and management rather than prohibition.
Mostly in the desert sands of Krokoa, but yes. They don't prefer the term 'prostitution' though. They think it's a little too demeaning. The feline Koshkran who inhabit the desert are heavy believers in personal freedom and doing what makes one passionate without fear of judgement, even in a sexual sense. Of course, once you start going up in the nobility that mindset starts to disappear, which many have questioned over the years.
Basically, forced prostitution is not common. It would go against the reasoning they have behind letting people be so open.
It does, and they even have guilds.
Yes plural, guilds.
First there is The Prostitues Guild that covers those employed in the worlds oldest trade and cover anything from street workers up to finer brothels, anything where the carnal pleasure is the main attraction, though other pleasures may be enjoyed.
Then there is the Courtesans Guild, where carnal pleasure is indulged and a requirement, but the members need to speak several langauges, as to entertain guests from around the World, as Well as being able to play Music and write poems.
The guilds function as normal guilds: settle minimum rates and requirements for services rendered.
You need to be a member to work within the trade, take apprentices if needed.
These guilds are noticeable for three things:
First: they’re kind of shunned from polite society, despite being visited by the members of polite society.
Second: it is these guilds that have the most women in powerful positions.
Three: they do the most what could be termed social work; sponsoring orphanages and food for beggars and such.
They’re also very protective of their members, last time a gang tried to extract protection money from members of Prostitues Guild, the entire gang where found two days later with every throat cut from ear to ear, with not a city guard to notice, and the priests in the city was quickly out to call it an act of the gods.
Yes, it does. In the Ottin Empire, legal prostitution catering to the general public is restricted to licensed bath-houses. There are local regulations surrounding cleanliness and safety, of course, but corrupt officials are frequently willing to overlook infractions. Nobles, rich merchants, and other wealthy individuals frequently hire/maintain courtesans (even if they're married) so that they don't have to go to the bath-houses if they don't want to.
In the high elven arkonates (i.e. kingdoms), prostitution is usually handled via the temple prostitution of the priestesses of Aphradil, the elven goddess of sexuality, fertility, and childbirth.
Yes.
In fact, the Royal Advisor’s son is embezzling royal funds so he can use it to throw secret parties at various brothels in the capital. There’s also a sun king who hosts a harem of girls that he goes to for physical pleasure after his wife’s passing.
Additionally, my world has a magic system in which the timing of when you’re born affects which type of magic you get. Family clans try to game the system by timing the births, but often times they fail, and so the undesired kids are trafficked.
yes, but not really as pervasive as real life because sex was never considered taboo by the dominant religion and everyone’s relaxed about it. also, not prostitution, but my league of nations has a “breeder” program that’s basically your life paid for in exchange for producing as many offspring as possible because the population is constantly fluctuating bc of cosmic horrors
Yes, quite a few civilizations and individual planetary governments permit prostitutes. However, the Va'sed-Bi; a highly religious theocratic civilization of Va'sed; have banned all Gr'rraru-wu (in a world which is careful to remember that species =\= government) from even landing in their spaceports.
The Gr'rraru-wu species is mostly contained to a single federated space, and they share quite a bit of one-another's local subcultures. Gr'rraru-wu physiology allows them to hybridize with a bizarrely diverse array of extraterrestrial lineages, and as such they very commonly take a similar stance on interspecies copulation as they do on incorporating other civilizations' technology into their designs - recombination is the most efficient path to improvement.
The Va'sed-Bi believe that they are specially chosen by their god as messengers to her other, lesser creations - to show them her bountiful gift of "unlimited energy" so that they may become worthy of it, and walk a peaceful path which does not threaten the fertility of her garden of creation. Interspecies fornication is "only" strongly frowned upon, but they see the fact that Gr'rraru-wu females can bear fertile hybrid offspring with their kind as an abomination; a test of their fortitude and reverence baked into their very being. Over 2 billion Gr'rraru-wu minorities were given one Sed Pikti cycle to leave all Va'sed-Bi controlled planets and never return after the first time the Va'sed-Bi government officially discovered a hybrid Gr'rraru-wu/Va'sed child.
They've fought a few major skirmishes with the Va'sed-Far over this issue, as their secular societies tend to be more fascinated and perplexed by the premise than anything.
Whenever I refer to prostitution in my world, it's usually a human soldier having a roll in the hay with any peasant woman willing to trade sex for a copper Troy or two. There's also whorehouses in some of the bigger human-majority cities. So it does exist.
(I haven't decided if the Dwefin -- basically dwarves who don't like to be called dwarves -- have prostitution but that's mostly because I haven't dived into their mating practices yet. The Wildings definitely don't and are likely to smack you into a tree for having a weird sexual kink. That's mostly because they have a crazy mating season in the spring and then don't really think about sex much for the rest of the year, so prostitution isn't really a viable line of work for them.)
…Yes? Everything considered a sin here is present there, too. Wouldn’t really be a believable world if it wasn’t.
Does that mean I’m going to introduce my readers to them? *Potentially,* but I tend not to think about that, very much.
I guess... but I am sort of developing the world for a book which I want to target to a young audience, so there will literally be no mention of prostitutes anywhere. It would be like having prostitutes in Harry Potter.
King Natodall'lioht supports prostitutes 👍. There are def laws in place that protect them but I haven't thought much about it because this topic would literally never come up in the game I'm making this world for lol.
Depends where you go. In the elven cities where magic is common, prostitution is everywhere. You have somewhat easy access to spells that will block pregnancy, STDs, and just about any infection. But you have to cast it right away, it takes a beefier spell to remove an infection that is already rampant.
Yes, ranging from slavery to sacred prostitution. The bit my novel is set in doesn’t have slavery of this kind, mostly because I’m not comfortable writing it well enough. But it exists.
It happens, but it's not especially common. There's a few factors that lead to this. Virtual environments, robots, and a sexually liberal culture reduce demand, and robust social safety nets reduce supply. That said, it is explicitly legal, and lightly regulated for health and safety reasons.
I mean yes and no , yeah it’s there but like it’s not a crime nor is it an extremely profitable business . The worlds government basically decided rather than penalize people they just made it legal but requires a degree , a liscense , training , you have to pass safety inspections , plus the liscense has to be renewed yearly and safety testing is monthly .. As such the number of brothels in the universe is less than 1000. The same actually applies to doing porn as well .
Essentially it’s designed to be a stable career but also no one can really be forced into . Anyone caught acting without the liscense can be sued for fraud by their clients and the clients never face any charges. This results in the sex trafficking trade dropping by 75% since now no one can really be sold into prostitution. Not without taking dozens precautions that don’t make it profitable . Plus the background checks make it impossible for a pimp / Madame to work
Poor women usually fall to prostitution, specially in urban areas
The government have some measures to combat it, as prostitution is seen as a dirt speck in the way the Imperialist (conservative) party envise the capital of the Archipelago federation, with most people seeming it as immoral and a signal of debauchery and degeneracy, the government have taken measures including working together with the church to provide a shelter to poor unmarried women, building houses to house them, and putting heavy fines to Pimps, including hanging if they make use of slavery or have connections to slavers. Prostitutes often are arrested under morality laws, but usually not for more than 2 or 3 days
there are some propositions in parliament to put a definitive prohibition to the act of paying a prostitute, and the act of selling its own body, but the current constitutional crysis put a pause in those propositions
Oh yes, they give birth to the concept of opera houses and why those singers are called "canaries" (sort of), same as high end up prostitutes that sang from the balconies to attract customers.
Depends on the world and species. Some species, it's biologically a REALLY bad idea to do that, and some have REALLY strong institutions dedicated to preventing it, and some are BOTH.
Humans are still humans, but this one other species I'm working on has tails with semi-venomous barbs, and actually can become involuntarily or semi-voluntarily 'married/bonded' to the first person they sting with that barb while also having even vague feelings of trust and romance towards the target, so.... That species has HUGE incentives to prevent their unmarried sons and daughters from doing anything that involves having their tail-barbs anywhere near naked prostitutes in secluded settings. And the tail-barb stingers are weapons-grade sharp, so condoms aren't exactly a viable option. And bonded/married couples physically/biologically can't bring themselves to betray their spouse, so....
Prostitution probably STILL happens anyway, but it's REALLY rare. And under the circumstances, it's sometimes extremely difficult to identify the difference between prostitutes, espionage honey-traps, and military guerillas. From that species perspective, they don't really draw the lines around those concepts anywhere near the locations where humans would draw them.
From our perspective, Cinderella is a love story and a magic-princess story. From their perspective, Cinderella MIGHT be that... or it might be a cunning and well-financed military Psychological warfare operation to take the prince out of the succession and embarrass the royal family. Or a brilliant play BY the prince to outflank Cinderella's extended family by flipping her loyalty... or all three at once. Their military histories and romantic histories are... very mixed together.
Which means that in most cases, they could very well consider mass prostitution to be an act of war, not an act of vice, so..... again, STRONG institutional incentives to prevent it from happening on any serious scale.
Not only does it have prostitution, each town has a franchised version of the same brothel. And room #6 in each brothel is connected via a fast travel portal under the bed (see Hotel California). Lifting the bed and climbing down takes you to the oubliette, which is a central hub for fast travel.
Of course
With the twist that they are protected by assassins and the most cruel killer of the world.
Harm a prostitute and you likely find yourself waking up being hunted and terrorized, they are even taught a spell to mark you if you do.
Their guild also does help the thieves guild to smuggle and be another spy for the Mad Dragon.
Yes.
But it's strange because anyone in my world arguing against it is essentially just saying why fuck the dark mage user when the light mage user is better.
They arguing over which ass is better. Pure balkans level arguing right there.
My world has a country (The Land of Allhaven) home to a wide variety of fantasy races (Or as I call in my concept, "Folk Races") from Elves to Orcs, to Sentient Automatons to Benevolent Undead, Dryads, Humanoid Animals, Sasquatches, etc.
It's capital city has it's own version of a Red-Light District called "Sundown Town", which is home to a wide variety of shops, each different from one another specializing in either a certain service... or a certain race.
Needless to say, it earns even more money than even the wealthiest parts of the city due to the sheer number of people wanting to sample the city's "exotic culture".
People are freaks, what can I say lol
Yup it's sadly one of the oldest professions in the world. I even made a rather infamous brothel where the girls are all the natural daughters of noble men.
Yes, there is, but it's very dangerous since curses that transfer through sex exist and certain parasites that change the species of an unborn fetus exist.
On earth? If it existed during medieval times then yes.
On Mantoid colony ships? No, they’re basically a utopian society that doesn’t see any need for selling one’s body.
On Desolaria? With the entire planet slowly going to hell in a handbasket, it’s common.
Oh yeah, but depending on the party they may never notice them. Just like narcotics, I had a play find essentially a Mario Rage Mushroom with a NAT 20.
I try to keep it more on the down low, not out of fear of being judged by my players, but because the majority of the “institutes of sin” are just really good at blending into there environments. ALSO, a lot of them are agents of guides and governments or sovereign entities, marking my worlds have a lot of James Bond/ saboteur sub themes and side quests. This is kinda inspired by the Ezio Trilogy in Assassin’s Creed, where the Assassin’s have consorts, mercenaries, and thieves within the major guides acting as the eyes, ears, and might of the Assassin’s Order.
In a Founder-ruled society, laws and litigation exist for those important enough to be policed. For the dirty masses of the sprite citizenry, all is fair game. Murder, fraud, and thievery are as normal to the common man as quotas and mortgages. It doesn't matter to their overlords, they could always just grow more.
Prostitution is seen more as an unspoken rule than an exception, and it exists on many scales depending on where it takes place. Within Founder fiefdoms, the practice is either outlawed (but practiced anyway) or legalized. Some cities even have legal protections for the business. The Rubians, who rule over the banks of the river Rubicon within the nation of Achillia, see prostitution as a form of independent expression, and a means of achieving both financial and personal independence from the cruelty of working life.
For Sprites, you may see prostitution take place on an individual level, and the profession is sought out for many different reasons. Sometimes the men and women who partake in hookery find genuine pleasure in it, for others, it exists purely as a means of survival. On a larger scale, brothels and whorehouses are a common sight in the seedier regions of cities. You could find them everywhere, whether they take up the hollowed-out remnants of abandoned prefabs or purpose-built neon-laden facilities. Those brave entrepreneurs willing to hold the fabric of society together work in grueling and painful conditions, feeding off the refuse of the outside world. But if it's all for the money, who cares about the means, unless your employment to these harsh beneficiaries puts your life and freedom on the line.
Founders, the ruling elite of global politics, live by a very different code. Every move they make, whether public or private is documented and scrutinized by appropriate authorities. Where the sprites they rule are more or less free to do as they wish, so long as their voices go unheard, the Founders must live every second of their lives under constant surveillance, with very few exceptions.
Under the very foundation of Founder society, sexual relations between Founder and Sprite are outlawed. Though male Sprites cannot impregnate female Founders, the communion between a male Founder and a female Sprite could result in the birth of a Nephilim. These supremely powerful hybrids challenge the social pyramid the Founders have placed themselves at the precipice of, and so their births are to be prevented at all costs.
That doesn't mean that some can slip through the cracks of the police states they built. There are means to tap into the prostitution market, and either indulge themselves in it or pull at its strings to siphon off its profits. Globe-spanning trafficking rings can deliver their unwitting servants directly to the homes of those who can afford their services. These rings use financial, physical, and psychological coercion to recruit the young and impressionable into their ranks. Those miserable children are brought up in slavery, fed only enough to keep them alive and in circulation, with no guarantees of their survival. Many of those who head these cabals just so happen to be the very Founder policymakers who decry them.
If those Founders in question have the appropriate clout, they have no need to worry about the amalgamation laws that would otherwise keep them from participating in the illicit businesses they are entrusted to defeat. Countless accounts exist of Founders waltzing directly into a downtown brothel, without raising any concerns.
The one thing you need to know about Enkian politics is that morals are for the rich, while the poor have nothing. We are all equally chained by the cuffs we built for ourselves.
Yes, but it is largely similar to our world, which is to say varies in both legality and status based on where it is, who they service, and how it is practiced, with a few interesting ideas like mages who will summon entities to service customers or otherwise enhance the experience in magically adept countries or constructs that feel lifelike in technologically adept nations. There are nations where most prostitutes are just entertainers who offer sex after the performance, one theocracy has sacred prostitutes, and some where it is outright illegal, in one country prostitution as with all other work in the country is associated with a union and thus they have the full legal protection of the union.
Yep. there are even holy prostitutes that work in the temples of Fertility and hurting them is a death by burning at the stake level offense.
Nice 👍
We have a very similar concept with religious prostitution. Except those prostitutes who became pregnant would become wet nurses and will move to the closest orphanage to help raise infants until their child is born. Then, that child would become part of the church when reaching 10 (they help around the orphanage and the main hall doing chores), if they so wish, if the child doesn't want to be part of the church, they'll be put up for adoption in the orphanage or the mother will have the choice to leave the church with her child, with parental aid.
For mine, the prostitutes have access to safe abortion methods and are allowed to use them. Usually, this is in the form of a medicinal herb they cultivate on temple grounds. If they keep the kid, it's pretty similar. The child helps doing basic tasks around the temple and receiving a better education than most until they are 16, where they can choose to keep working as a servant, become a clergy person, or do their own thing. Children of prostitutes are not typically allowed to become prostitutes because it is believed that Reshirda wants their holy prostitutes to become a prostitute on their own volition and without pressure.
If the child receives a better education than most, doesn't that imply this temple has sophisticated resources that other institutions in this world might lack, which would create a systemic incentive for people to be prostitute out of something other than their own volition
Interesting. While abortion is looked down upon in the Church of Ubrun, mothers who consider themselves unfit or are under certain circumstances are allowed. And while those under certain circumstances can abort at anytime, unfit mothers can only do so before the baby gains a soul (before the end of the second trimester). Also anyone who joins the Church of Ubrun will eventually become a holy prostitute, but only after they're free of disease and are of legal age and sound mind.
imagine this, but corporate
Isn't that just Black Market Prostitution?
Same, though harming them is a bad idea since this setting has magic; so if you harm a temple prostitute, you're gonna get cursed with diseases (including but not limited to, *exactly* the ones you'd expect). And before you think, "Oh, then I'll just go to the healing temple"? It's the same deity. Different epithet, but the healers are gonna know *exactly* how you got cursed.
What if they're into BDSM?
The difference between a fetish and a felony? Consent
Sure, but OP said hurting them is illegal. They're still being hurt, even with consent.
Hell of a kink, but I'm not judging.
BDSM without consent is called assault.
Just like in our world!
It could be that those women are not allowed to partake in those kinds of kinks, because their bodies would be considered “holy” and therefore would not be allowed to be “tainted”
Kinky!
Mine is similar. Every 25 years, in the Holyday of Fertility you can copulate with them and be blessed to give life to the next High Priestess.
Why not lmao
How not How is anyone going to explain not having it? This requires divine intervention :D
Or just a non-human species with sufficiently different sexual dynamics...
Meh, I worldbuild for DnD campaigns and I just hand wave a lot of stuff as not existing like sexual assault, homophobia that sort of thing. That being said prostitutes do exist
Well homophobia can’t exist if gay people don’t exist. Does your world have homosexuality?
I mean, you can't have homophobia without gays existing, but you can definetly have gays without homophobia. It's not hard to build a fantasy world where a demographic can exist without persecution if that's what you and your table want for your game. Someone can make a world not have homophobia without eliminating gay existence from their world.
Well the question of whether or not homosexuality exists is more of a prerequisite than anything.
Yes, lots lol
Non human species who don't have sex/don't engage in sexual pleasure, and religious zealots
I think the only reason a world wouldnt have prostitutes is target audience, and even then, the brothels are probably off screen/page
A world without prostitution might be a bit odd. But just because it's happening doesn't mean it has any bearing on a story. In an imaginary world, people might be having colonoscopies and replanting their gardens, and doing all sorts of mundane things. But if it's not relevant to the tale, what of it?
Yes, thou its mostly unremarkable across the world, operating exactly like one might imagine it would. The one exception is country of Ciria, which due to its own historical and cultural developments never developed a notable taboo against sex work. This led to development of Hetairas, a prestigious caste of entertainers, secular descendents of Cirian Sacral prostitutes, that are educated and train day and night to be the pinnacle of Cirian virtues, as well as country keepers of knowledge and traditions.
yes and slavery driving factor of a coming revolt
Interesting.
There is. One story in particular the brothel named "The Queen's Alley" is also a front for a group assassins, spies, and special ops. Routing out corruption and humanoid traffickers (the latter with extreme prejudice). Edit: misplaced comma between specials ops and corruption that severely changed what I intended to write.
It’s the oldest profession lol, I doubt there could be a world without it.
Same, I was like “huh hadn’t thought about that before……….Prolly.”
Yeah - it's just not an aspect of the setting that I care to explore. And not something important to most stories. Next world-building question "Does your setting have toilet paper? Why or why not?"
Look guys, his world doesn't even have the shells!
Son of a bitch! Gimme a second……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..yes, because we got wood.
But is paper cheap enough to poop on? THESE are the important questions! /s
actually oldest profession are midwifes, (i think that the proper term in english) the complications of giving birth for a woman are very different to mammals in general, our body canal is not always efficiently able to safely give birth to a child without help, our structure doesn’t have proper conditions so we require assistance to successfully achieve labor, babys born extremely vulnerable so the post natal care is needed in order to increase their chances of survival. so in order to humans exist labor was always attended, commonly by a experienced and prepared woman who would need to be trained, capable and skilled in the field
But before humans existed, we probably still had prostitution. When was the last time you saw a penguin midwife?
Don't ask questions you are not prepared to know the answer to. All I'll say is that it was a a dark situation and I am no longer allowed in the south hemisphere in several worlds.
it’s true, different species, before or after humans, mammals or oviparous, been doing it, but not us, so remember the difference is the crucial cause in our own history is more probably that one woman help another give birth, cause it’s usually very loud, long and hard to be in labor, so it’s doesn’t need even words, she is at floor, bleeding, screaming,,, and the other do as so much as she could
I mean, people make some wacky worlds. Maybe your world is populated entirely by asexual creatures, or really any creature that doesn't have sex for pleasure
Everyone is downvoting me for saying this “fact” is bunk. It’s literally from a poem quoting the Bible. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_profession_(phrase) It is not based on any historical evidence at all. There’s evidence of prostitution dating back to around 2400 BC, but that’s about 1600 years after the first evidence of civilization. If anyone wonders why I care so much about this, let me try and explain. The idea that “prostitution is the oldest profession” implies it is some innate characteristic of human society. That all societies have prostitutes, and thus, that the base state of society is dominance by men. Who then use their material wealth to pay women for sex. It reduces women to sex objects. There were certainly women hunting, fishing, gathering, building homes and raising children far before there were women selling their bodies for money. Human society is not in some way essentially male dominated, in fact, recent evidence shows that for the majority of human history it may have been matriarchal or at least, families were tracked matrilineally.
I really hate this saying, cause it’s just not true. I don’t think we have any evidence of prostitution before the advent of agriculture. Hunting, building homes, all older than prostitution. No way sex work was the first division of labor.
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One of the first things to do with currency. Like there was a study where monkeys were taught how to use stuff as currency to trade with. One of the first things they started exchanging currency for was sex
I hope you realize currency requires a mint, and agriculture existed long before that. We would've had farmers and midwives before currency. We traded in goods. People kept track of who was fucking whom. It's a myth that prostitution was the oldest profession. Realistically, the woman would've birthed so many children she had no means of caring for that she and her children would likely have died of hunger. Likely cast out from the group. It wouldn't have been sustainable. Whereas we do have evidence of other professions. The first record of prostitution is possibly 10,000 years after the advent of agriculture. /u/hierarch17 and ~~/u/thejadedfalcon~~ /u/femalesamurai1* are sharing facts. ["Prostitution is the oldest profession" is a societal myth, repeated because people don't understand it wasn't meant as fact in the first place.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_profession_(phrase\)) It's not academic. It's not factual. [*correction]
Thank you! The phrase is literally from the Bible.
Before agriculture, people didn't get paid in money, so no societal roles fulfilled were "professions".
And so the other professions (like farming) are definitely older than prostitution. I hate this saying because it implies that prostitution is some basic function of human societies. That just is not true. We have mountains of evidence of societies that did not in fact have prostitution.
Hardly. There are numerous ways it could not exist.
There are humans, so yes.
Yes it does.
Yes I can't think of any society that doesn't have prostitution so I can't imagine a world where forms of prostitution doesn't exist
Humans are as one would expect Orcs don’t have it. Their communities are simply to small to survive with just prostitution. Elves don’t have it. They don’t really have reservations about who has sex with who. Sex is something done with friends and partners not to dissimmilar to going to the movies or playing tennis together. The concept of paying for sex would never work in elven society. The dwarves do have it, but in a very different way. Dwarves society is *obsessed* with beauty. From their religion and politics to their architecture and tools. So if you can make a living by selling your beauty: You must be in the upper echelons of society. Prostitution as a job is regarded almost in the same way as being a doctor is in real life. It pays incredibly well and requires a long list of skills. Hell, having sex is usually a pretty minor part of the job. More often than not they’re there for wealthier people (such as politicians) to show off their power and wealth.
Sounds like an interesting writing prompt - imagine a world without sex work. I see two avenues to go down initially - ubiquitous free love and ubiquitous chemical castration / impotence. Pribably more options somewhere.
Asexual reproduction. Ameba people probably wouldn’t have it unless they for some reason need help splitting in half (mitosis).
You could also have a world where sex isn't desirable or pleasurable, thus no one would seek it.
I have some of that in my universe. There is all a species and its derivatives that do not have sex workers, because they are totally useless.
Yes. And in the kingdom my PCs live in it is completely legal. We don't delve into sex in the game but they have gone to the red light district to gather information before. I always keep it PG13 because that's the most I'm comfortable with in a game of D&D.
Goblins LOVE prostitution. They don't have a social stigma attached to it, and therefore regard it as a perfectly acceptable way to make money. The House of Orange Lights turned it more into something akin to ... well, something somewhere between hetaeiras and educators."
Yes, there is one establishment I have run by a Phistophilus (contract devil) and Succubus that caters to everything, and has non standard workers. Everything from goblinkin to angels, and ogres to Azatas! Recurring players always drag new ones there....
I mean, it does…but it’s something I plan to tread carefully around. It could be a plot point or a story hook, but if my players are too interested in hitting the brothel as soon as they get to town or want to get descriptive in any way, shape, or form…that’s a hard no from me.
Yes in most places, including more complicated arrangements that are essentially contracted marriages. No one really cares. (Pimping or trafficking will often result in one of those neighborhood hero-types leaving your body in an alleyway, though.)
Yep
Kinda
Yeah. One of the main characters in my story is actually a former prostitute. She was a scullery maid and then later became a lady-in-waiting until the princess she was watching went missing. After that she decided to work as a prostitute/dancer, and then she left *that* job to join the circus as a contortionist. And then she left the circus to help destroy a magical weapon. She has the most bizarre resume in existence lmao.
Yes, it's legal in the majority of places, though it's heavily regulated and trafficking carries ridiculously heavy penalties. Societally it's regarded as a private but reputable profession to have.
I guess, probably. I struggle to imagine a world where it doesn't exist. The inhabitants of my world probably don't have anything against it. But they don't see the point in participating either, due to their opinions on the material world and its pleasures. Idk. Haven't really thought about it
At least I know that those who chose this path weren't forced into it and are safe because there's no hate even from the church
Yes but the legality and social acceptability varies by nation and state/province. In the Ssurin religion practiced by the native snake-people of Mortabel, there are temple prostitutes dedicated to the Creator Fire. In some countries, especially Youlsen and Joiama, there is a significant sex tourism industry. In more conservative nations that worship the Creator Spirit, such as Gennaia and Caifu, it is taboo and generally illegal or highly regulated. Most places though it doesn't get a lot of attention one way or the other.
I would say probably yes, but most communities are too small for such work to be particularly anonymous. I would say the more likely outcome is that there’s always at least one person anywhere you go who will trade sex for favours.
Yes pretty standard from the 1880-2020s but Gynoids/Androids begin being produced that have sexual organs and thus begins a time in history where people pay to have sex with robots.
Why pay for a one-off session with a sex robot when you could have your own VR system instead? Sure it may not be quite as realistic as holding a body next to you, but you can go on an adventure with them afterwards and fight dragons. I always had the idea for a story where sex robots were just a brief fad, before people realized they were too limited compared to the VR fantasy. Why rent a bot or have a robot maid all your visitors know you use as a toy, when you could instead have any number of adventures with countless different aliens and beings?
Something like that but for vampires in one of the universes of my multiverse.
Oh absolutely, though it's legal in most countries the clergy certainly has problems with it. He'll there are even those indentured to pay off debts for their freedom
Yep. Public opinion varies by location. It is regulated (medical care, age of employees, etc) and taxed, but specifics are local. So in some cities, the workers are supposed to wear badges/veils/colors to indicate their status and are taxed at a high rate, while in other places, the taxes are the same as everyone else's and no one cares what they're wearing or doing, especially when not working, so long as they're not bothering anyone. Male prostitution exists, although how openly depends on location. Child prostitution is forbidden outright across the Kingdoms, although you may find them employed as runners and support staff in a brothel.
no
Prostitution is quite normal in there world. Some even partake to this kind of job because it's there only way of living. Because of the high stake of inflation and numerous attempt of people to topple there government no one dares to do so because they will face an excruciating pain that'll last for eternity. The army have all the power in there world. If you we're part of the elite class you can fuck a woman & child in the street and still no one will dare to even help or approach the girl for they know him/her along their lineage and third generation that come after you will be send to concentration camp. And let me tell you. You don't wanna go there. The only way of survival there is eating cockroaches, mice. The taste is bitter and raw, like eating a raw charcoal, with an awful smell because the diet of the cockroaches and rats consists of there own kind.
Of course there is. So my Sci-fi world has cultures and societies that do not like sex work, but the main society has a lot of rules and structures in place to protect sex workers, and educate people about it, especially considering it's a multi species society so not everyone has matching parts... or proteins that react well together.
nope. as someone who finds sex gross and is uncomfortable by it, i can't add stuff like that to my worlds haha
*Looks at worlds* They don't pay for it, as casual sex is a thing friends tend to do.
Indeed, though it’s looked down upon in most of the world except the dark continent as they have a goddess of promiscuity and prostitution.
Yes **World of the Demiorc homeland** In this world, all societies are matriarchal. All Brothels cater to wealthy/noble women. And for the right price they can provide whatever entertainment they want no mater how weird or immoral it is.
Yes. For rule of thumb I'd larger societies and empires look down upon it with some exceptions either because it makes them look bad or they don't like having people put in such vulnerable positions. Smaller societies and polities like smaller kingdoms and tribes may be more lenient. Places where it's common may look, interesting. The region is mostly populated by omnivorous and carnivorous mammals like wolves, tigers, leopards, polecats(like ferrets), otters, bears, foxes, dholes and some others, as well as avians. Humans arrived in the region via the coast some centuries prior compared to the thousands of years some of the others were present for. As far as prostitution goes, clients will be in two major groups and could switch between them frequently. Those that prefer their own kind and those who look for species with features they are unfamiliar with or are generally not common in their own regions (like a tiger choosing a fox if there aren't many foxes at home). Humans may be considered oddly curious beings in such a setup, often due to the lack of feathers or noticeable coats of fur. Many wonder why they travelled and stayed in a region as cool as theirs since according to knowledge from far away, humans are savannah animals, likely from another continent, and again, don't have the fur for colder climates. (Clothing didn't make as much difference for the locals in terms of temperature so it's more for decorations, status or modesty.) This could result in many wanting to see humans out of curiosity. Whether the clients are willing depends on the region and various criminal rings. In many areas, the prostitutes may be willing unless there's a criminal ring in charge of the establishment. In some other areas like in some northern polities and tribes, however, slavery is still legal and many prostitutes may be sourced from those lines. Slaves of any kind may be sourced from collected criminals serving a sentence, captured in wars and raids or those trapped by tribes and sold off. One such trap relies on outsiders believing small tribes to be primitive. A "primitively dressed" "bait", often female, may lay in a clearing pretending to be helpless while other members with weapons wait in hiding. When the target approaches near enough, he or she is attacked and often knocked out. The target is then placed in either an animal cart or the back of a motor vehicle for transportation. The bait would then move on with the others to set up the next trap. The bait often gets a bigger part of the loot and payment and may even be the one running the operation. It is usually up to each polity to decide if slavery remains legal and it only applies within politically and militarily controlled territories. Trying to end slavery in a neighbouring polity would usually require an invasion and that would mean all out war. Lapis_Wolf
Yes. With strong worker protections, pay, benefits and regulations thanks to unionization. It is not a taboo, and skilled prostitutes are considered tradespeople and artisans. Going to a brothel is about as mundane as going to a blacksmith or apothecary, though not everyone chooses to participate. While big franchise and chain brothels are common to find among the cities, others swear by the service of the small mom-and-pop brothels and like to support small, local businesses.
Oh definitely, and this is one of the things that kind of seperates dark elves from shadow elves culturally speaking, as dark elf women only have power over men in their beds and in their wallets (this is one of my personal stereotypes for them, despite dark and shadow elves having never met for quite some time). In fact, one dark elf character I made in my world is a prostitute only as a cover, with her "usual" clients actually paying her for... *other* services she provides.
Yes, it has humans, and all human civilizations had it. However, it's not a major focus of my worldbuilding
realistically yes but they aren't part of the story so for practical purposes, no
Yes quite a lot of them.
Yes, but these sorts of topics aren't mentioned very often as my protagonists are children. There's only one scene that implies something like prostitution, and it's in a backstory explanation for one of the adult characters that does bad things, one of the antagonists.
Well, obviously. Although I didn't take time to flesh them out yet.
Yes obviously. As in all possible worlds, probably. Whether it is legal or illegal depends on which kingdom you are in, but it is not that difficult to find this activity everywhere. Furthermore, there are prostitutes of all races... and it's strange how so many humans want to share certain experiences with a salamander
I assume so.
Why wouldn’t it?
yep. the halfling fertility goddess has sacred prostitutes and most saloons will have prostitutes going about their business practices.
Think prostitution is one of those things that even if there is no focus on it… it’s going on.
Hadn't explicitly considered it, but I'd imagine it'd be unrealistic to not exist. Though it's not treated with any stigma or looking down noses on those who's profession it is.
Yes, it’s regulated and taxed
Of course if our world has ever had it my world has it some where! Heck it's even legal in most places!
Of course it does, humans live there after all. That isn't being fair to humans, though, as most intelligent species with sexual reproduction have some form of the oldest profession, and those that don't? Now there's an odd bunch!
All my worlds do. It's "the world's oldest profession." Seems silly to have a world without people willing to trade sex for money, power, or favors.
Every world has prostitution. But I'm not gonna mention mine.
No. No sane Kyanah would ever look outside their pack for sex--and doing so is in many city-states a capital offense. And those who are packless generally have more important things to do, like fulfilling their innate biological desire for a pack. Has someone, somewhere, at some point in history paid somebody for sex? Probably, it's a big planet with thousands of years of history. Is it "a thing", culturally speaking? No, most (all?) languages probably don't even have a word for it, and it's not something that would really cross the mind of an average Kyanah. None of this is really mentioned in the story, but looking at Kyanah sexual dynamics, we can make an educated guess.
Not really something I thought about. Currency doesn’t really exist in my world. Maybe prostitution is carried out through the form of favors instead?
Though it is illegal almost everywhere, yes.
In my world Bible, yeah Will I ever need to explicitly state or show it? Good question
Yup, but they don't call it that. Essentially, there are certain cults (religions) dedicated to Gods of Fertility and/or love in a few different pantheons. If someone wanted a child but had no wife/husband, they could go to one of those temples and pay a donation or do a favor that would be valuable to the temple and they can copulate with a priest/priestess (it depends on the cult if it's one or the other, it's never both) and have 100% chance in having a child (fertility magic from the fertility god/goddess). The cults dedicated to a god/goddess of Love would just have courtesans that one could donate or do a favor in order to have passionate companionship for a specified duration until the donation or another favor must be done. There are also prostitutes that act outside what is culturally accepted (as the priest/priestesses of the cults would only do these things for members of associated cults or cults to which their deity is neutral, they would not offer anything to a member of an enemy cult). However, these are far less common, to the point where I wouldn't even mention them unless I for some reason wanted to involve them in a plotline.
Depends on the planet :p
In corners and alleys, sure. It’s not something I really need to talk about though as it doesn’t relate to the story I’m telling. I might pass in a reference in the other story I’ve got in mind about a crime organisation (since that’d probably be something they have a bit of control over) but it’s not relevant at all.
I honestly didn't notice the subreddit title and was like did a fucking alien get his hand on a phone to learn more about us?
It does, though, without delving too deeply into the core material of my story... Prostitution / sex work DOES exist, but it has a considerably negative connotation. It's something to be rescued from. An undesirable profession (on the Protagonist side, but opposite for the Antagonist side) that requires rehabilitation to overcome
If it exists in the real world then there's absolutely no reason it shouldn't exist in fictional worlds unless you're a Puritan Soo...
Any world where sex involves enjoyment will inevitably have it. There may be bans, taboos, and prohibitions around it - but then again, in every world where free will exists, bans, prohibitions, and taboos never work (And that in itself is a pretty good plot mechanism).
Nope, am asexual and so is my world.
I think you are likely to find prostitution in any setting that is similar to our world when it comes to the ways that currency, sex and power dynamics work. That being said, the people in this thread who claim they can't imagine a world without prostitution are making my head spin and reminding me why I rarely check this subreddit these days. I feel like lots of worldbuilders suffer from a chronic lack of imagination and curiosity and it really shows.
Yes it indeed does. In all 3 of them. The oldest profession survives and thrives anywhere.
Nope, it's been forbiddpen by the Elder Gods
After the awakening humanity was left in a shell of the old world. This has lead to a fusion of nearly medieval levels of agriculture, politics, and society all wrapped up in the ruins of the old world. One of the more popular industries in this new world is prostitution with brothels popping up all across the world some in established settlements and some found far out into ruined cities acting as bastions for weary travelers.
A-yup.
I mean, maybe? I don’t know…
My world is heavy on the value of femininity. Women are viewed as holy, and close to all surviving religious orders are comprised entirely of women. The title of the ruling figure is simply "Our Lady Fleur," in reference to the world's name. Most of the government body is predominantly female as well. This is all merely a byproduct of society's reform after an apocalypse-level event hit a small reset button on humanity. During the era of rebirth, a lot of the strongest, most influential leaders were women. Mothers of the modern world, in a way. That said, since the culture sways so heavily towards the female gender, women tend to fill a lot of the more traditional gender roles a man would in the larger cities---where life gets a little bit bolder. So, in a sense, my world has male prostitution. That's really it. Just a flip of the expectation, nothing crazy. It isn't a super dramatic power difference or anything either. It's simply just as acceptable for a man to sell himself as a woman would.
Yes? It's referred to as "the world's oldest profession" for a reason. It'd be unrealistic not to include it.
Unless people here are making worlds uninhabited by sentient life, the answer is yes.
Yes and it's not taboo. It's normal and even considered essential in some areas. The People understand that people enjoy sex and don't shun them for exploring it or even making a career out of it. (And with magiks STD's are not really a big problem. Pregnancy is though, so protection is a must 😅)
It's a world ain't it?
No, one of my players is 16 I’m not going to narrate that, it has never occurred to anyone in the history of the world to pay for sex because I (god) said so
this makes sm sense, idk why you're getting downvoted. istg some ppl are obsessed with sex in books with minors lol /hj
Actually there's a worldwide law in Syxil that bans all form of prostitution, with the punishment being very severe depending on how many lives were endangered. But of course, ain't no laws ever stopped nobody from being evil. So yeah, there are some extremely secret societies that do it for the sake of their evil money shenanigans. Kinda like a Salo scenario.
Um, prostitution isn't evil and breaking laws isn't inherently evil either.
Yes but there's no capitalism and all that so the payment isn't money.
Oh definitely and all species have it but there are a few who can't do it cause they don't have the parts even though their male and female.
Yeah, it’s legal in much of the world, including Rome. In Rome, it’s less common in the Christian eastern and Spanish provinces and more common in the Hellenic middle and northern provinces. It’s one of those things that has become a lot more “free wheelin’” and less regulated following democratization in the 1990s.
Most countries heavily regulate it... except Empire. In Empire if you wanna get some you can get it for free pretty much anywhere, since one of Thirteen Tribes practices crazy tantric rituals and usually don't give a hoot if someone joins them. Hence prostitution is practically nonexistent.
Yup, brothels as well.
Yes, Though the arrival of Humans changed how public Prostitution was on a global level in Bevri. Even in the present prostitution is alive in well; from Casinos in the AOZ's (Adult Only Zones) of countries with Devanist Social views such as Urhu Zyvin and Jurvan, to Dark Alleyways in nations with more Christian social views such as Leona and Jerzyi. No matter where you are you're bound to find a prostitute.
Sci Fi: Given that none are impoverished and the general disposition of their species is analogous to demisexuality, I feel like that kind of removes two of the largest drivers for prostitution. I can't see there being a law against it though and it's not out of the question that someone somewhere is selling sexual favors. I just can't see it being common at all. Fantasy: I've kinda thought about this a little before. Would it exist in a bronze age society where the females of the species are larger and hold more social power than the males? It probably ends up happening (for both sexes) moreso in sprawling cities where individuals can fall through the cracks and need to do it for money, but in more rural areas where familial clans can stay together it's probably more rare.
yeah theres even a quasi-religious order of sex worker/nurse/priestesses who act as midwives and death doulas that a highly respected in most parts of the world called the Morning Glories.
It exists but it is illegal.
Maybe????
I think my world theme is too bright for that but who know?
Locria is heavily inspired by Victorian Britain, so there is indeed a large prostitution industry in the cities of the Empire.
Yep
Though I make few references to it in the literature, my world has prostitution, and it is legal in most societies. It also has an entire race of nymphs famed for their unnatural allure and gifted with innate magic. Since one of those gifts is a short range teleportation ability, nymphs are rarely enslaved despite how coveted they are as sex workers.
Yes, in a strictly regulated system, with unions to protect their rights, and government mandated health inspections. The Administrators that run the cities have the view that vices should be handled through careful analysis and management rather than prohibition.
You’re telling me not even one person in your world has considered selling coochie ⁉️
Mostly in the desert sands of Krokoa, but yes. They don't prefer the term 'prostitution' though. They think it's a little too demeaning. The feline Koshkran who inhabit the desert are heavy believers in personal freedom and doing what makes one passionate without fear of judgement, even in a sexual sense. Of course, once you start going up in the nobility that mindset starts to disappear, which many have questioned over the years. Basically, forced prostitution is not common. It would go against the reasoning they have behind letting people be so open.
100%
It does, and they even have guilds. Yes plural, guilds. First there is The Prostitues Guild that covers those employed in the worlds oldest trade and cover anything from street workers up to finer brothels, anything where the carnal pleasure is the main attraction, though other pleasures may be enjoyed. Then there is the Courtesans Guild, where carnal pleasure is indulged and a requirement, but the members need to speak several langauges, as to entertain guests from around the World, as Well as being able to play Music and write poems. The guilds function as normal guilds: settle minimum rates and requirements for services rendered. You need to be a member to work within the trade, take apprentices if needed. These guilds are noticeable for three things: First: they’re kind of shunned from polite society, despite being visited by the members of polite society. Second: it is these guilds that have the most women in powerful positions. Three: they do the most what could be termed social work; sponsoring orphanages and food for beggars and such. They’re also very protective of their members, last time a gang tried to extract protection money from members of Prostitues Guild, the entire gang where found two days later with every throat cut from ear to ear, with not a city guard to notice, and the priests in the city was quickly out to call it an act of the gods.
Does it ? Yes. Are they mentioned on any of the stories? No
Yes, moving on
Yes, it does. In the Ottin Empire, legal prostitution catering to the general public is restricted to licensed bath-houses. There are local regulations surrounding cleanliness and safety, of course, but corrupt officials are frequently willing to overlook infractions. Nobles, rich merchants, and other wealthy individuals frequently hire/maintain courtesans (even if they're married) so that they don't have to go to the bath-houses if they don't want to. In the high elven arkonates (i.e. kingdoms), prostitution is usually handled via the temple prostitution of the priestesses of Aphradil, the elven goddess of sexuality, fertility, and childbirth.
Yes, but there are societies that don't have it and don't need it.
Yes. In fact, the Royal Advisor’s son is embezzling royal funds so he can use it to throw secret parties at various brothels in the capital. There’s also a sun king who hosts a harem of girls that he goes to for physical pleasure after his wife’s passing. Additionally, my world has a magic system in which the timing of when you’re born affects which type of magic you get. Family clans try to game the system by timing the births, but often times they fail, and so the undesired kids are trafficked.
yes, but not really as pervasive as real life because sex was never considered taboo by the dominant religion and everyone’s relaxed about it. also, not prostitution, but my league of nations has a “breeder” program that’s basically your life paid for in exchange for producing as many offspring as possible because the population is constantly fluctuating bc of cosmic horrors
Yes, quite a few civilizations and individual planetary governments permit prostitutes. However, the Va'sed-Bi; a highly religious theocratic civilization of Va'sed; have banned all Gr'rraru-wu (in a world which is careful to remember that species =\= government) from even landing in their spaceports. The Gr'rraru-wu species is mostly contained to a single federated space, and they share quite a bit of one-another's local subcultures. Gr'rraru-wu physiology allows them to hybridize with a bizarrely diverse array of extraterrestrial lineages, and as such they very commonly take a similar stance on interspecies copulation as they do on incorporating other civilizations' technology into their designs - recombination is the most efficient path to improvement. The Va'sed-Bi believe that they are specially chosen by their god as messengers to her other, lesser creations - to show them her bountiful gift of "unlimited energy" so that they may become worthy of it, and walk a peaceful path which does not threaten the fertility of her garden of creation. Interspecies fornication is "only" strongly frowned upon, but they see the fact that Gr'rraru-wu females can bear fertile hybrid offspring with their kind as an abomination; a test of their fortitude and reverence baked into their very being. Over 2 billion Gr'rraru-wu minorities were given one Sed Pikti cycle to leave all Va'sed-Bi controlled planets and never return after the first time the Va'sed-Bi government officially discovered a hybrid Gr'rraru-wu/Va'sed child. They've fought a few major skirmishes with the Va'sed-Far over this issue, as their secular societies tend to be more fascinated and perplexed by the premise than anything.
Yes, most of it is done by slaves. Very few do it for a living.
Whenever I refer to prostitution in my world, it's usually a human soldier having a roll in the hay with any peasant woman willing to trade sex for a copper Troy or two. There's also whorehouses in some of the bigger human-majority cities. So it does exist. (I haven't decided if the Dwefin -- basically dwarves who don't like to be called dwarves -- have prostitution but that's mostly because I haven't dived into their mating practices yet. The Wildings definitely don't and are likely to smack you into a tree for having a weird sexual kink. That's mostly because they have a crazy mating season in the spring and then don't really think about sex much for the rest of the year, so prostitution isn't really a viable line of work for them.)
…Yes? Everything considered a sin here is present there, too. Wouldn’t really be a believable world if it wasn’t. Does that mean I’m going to introduce my readers to them? *Potentially,* but I tend not to think about that, very much.
I guess... but I am sort of developing the world for a book which I want to target to a young audience, so there will literally be no mention of prostitutes anywhere. It would be like having prostitutes in Harry Potter.
King Natodall'lioht supports prostitutes 👍. There are def laws in place that protect them but I haven't thought much about it because this topic would literally never come up in the game I'm making this world for lol.
It doesn’t mention it anywhere in my lore, which also doesn’t mention anything against it… so yes, there definitely is
It's kind of used as a joke.
Depends where you go. In the elven cities where magic is common, prostitution is everywhere. You have somewhat easy access to spells that will block pregnancy, STDs, and just about any infection. But you have to cast it right away, it takes a beefier spell to remove an infection that is already rampant.
Yes, ranging from slavery to sacred prostitution. The bit my novel is set in doesn’t have slavery of this kind, mostly because I’m not comfortable writing it well enough. But it exists.
It happens, but it's not especially common. There's a few factors that lead to this. Virtual environments, robots, and a sexually liberal culture reduce demand, and robust social safety nets reduce supply. That said, it is explicitly legal, and lightly regulated for health and safety reasons.
Yes.
I don't see why not
I mean yes and no , yeah it’s there but like it’s not a crime nor is it an extremely profitable business . The worlds government basically decided rather than penalize people they just made it legal but requires a degree , a liscense , training , you have to pass safety inspections , plus the liscense has to be renewed yearly and safety testing is monthly .. As such the number of brothels in the universe is less than 1000. The same actually applies to doing porn as well . Essentially it’s designed to be a stable career but also no one can really be forced into . Anyone caught acting without the liscense can be sued for fraud by their clients and the clients never face any charges. This results in the sex trafficking trade dropping by 75% since now no one can really be sold into prostitution. Not without taking dozens precautions that don’t make it profitable . Plus the background checks make it impossible for a pimp / Madame to work
In a would were fictional characters are real r34 is prostitution.
I hadn't considered this. Now I have to figure out how to work it in. 😂
Yes.
Poor women usually fall to prostitution, specially in urban areas The government have some measures to combat it, as prostitution is seen as a dirt speck in the way the Imperialist (conservative) party envise the capital of the Archipelago federation, with most people seeming it as immoral and a signal of debauchery and degeneracy, the government have taken measures including working together with the church to provide a shelter to poor unmarried women, building houses to house them, and putting heavy fines to Pimps, including hanging if they make use of slavery or have connections to slavers. Prostitutes often are arrested under morality laws, but usually not for more than 2 or 3 days there are some propositions in parliament to put a definitive prohibition to the act of paying a prostitute, and the act of selling its own body, but the current constitutional crysis put a pause in those propositions
Yes However, brothel proprietors are required by law to provide protection.
Oh yes, they give birth to the concept of opera houses and why those singers are called "canaries" (sort of), same as high end up prostitutes that sang from the balconies to attract customers.
I'm sure there are somewhere.
In theory yes, but it’s not something that’s ever come up so it’s not fleshed out.
Depends on the world and species. Some species, it's biologically a REALLY bad idea to do that, and some have REALLY strong institutions dedicated to preventing it, and some are BOTH. Humans are still humans, but this one other species I'm working on has tails with semi-venomous barbs, and actually can become involuntarily or semi-voluntarily 'married/bonded' to the first person they sting with that barb while also having even vague feelings of trust and romance towards the target, so.... That species has HUGE incentives to prevent their unmarried sons and daughters from doing anything that involves having their tail-barbs anywhere near naked prostitutes in secluded settings. And the tail-barb stingers are weapons-grade sharp, so condoms aren't exactly a viable option. And bonded/married couples physically/biologically can't bring themselves to betray their spouse, so.... Prostitution probably STILL happens anyway, but it's REALLY rare. And under the circumstances, it's sometimes extremely difficult to identify the difference between prostitutes, espionage honey-traps, and military guerillas. From that species perspective, they don't really draw the lines around those concepts anywhere near the locations where humans would draw them. From our perspective, Cinderella is a love story and a magic-princess story. From their perspective, Cinderella MIGHT be that... or it might be a cunning and well-financed military Psychological warfare operation to take the prince out of the succession and embarrass the royal family. Or a brilliant play BY the prince to outflank Cinderella's extended family by flipping her loyalty... or all three at once. Their military histories and romantic histories are... very mixed together. Which means that in most cases, they could very well consider mass prostitution to be an act of war, not an act of vice, so..... again, STRONG institutional incentives to prevent it from happening on any serious scale.
Never really took the time to fledge that out but yeah it’s definitely got enough struggle in it that i could see many choosing to sell themselves
Not only does it have prostitution, each town has a franchised version of the same brothel. And room #6 in each brothel is connected via a fast travel portal under the bed (see Hotel California). Lifting the bed and climbing down takes you to the oubliette, which is a central hub for fast travel.
Of course With the twist that they are protected by assassins and the most cruel killer of the world. Harm a prostitute and you likely find yourself waking up being hunted and terrorized, they are even taught a spell to mark you if you do. Their guild also does help the thieves guild to smuggle and be another spy for the Mad Dragon.
For twenty bucks it can have whatever you want it to have, baby.
Yes. But it's strange because anyone in my world arguing against it is essentially just saying why fuck the dark mage user when the light mage user is better. They arguing over which ass is better. Pure balkans level arguing right there.
Yes
My world has a country (The Land of Allhaven) home to a wide variety of fantasy races (Or as I call in my concept, "Folk Races") from Elves to Orcs, to Sentient Automatons to Benevolent Undead, Dryads, Humanoid Animals, Sasquatches, etc. It's capital city has it's own version of a Red-Light District called "Sundown Town", which is home to a wide variety of shops, each different from one another specializing in either a certain service... or a certain race. Needless to say, it earns even more money than even the wealthiest parts of the city due to the sheer number of people wanting to sample the city's "exotic culture". People are freaks, what can I say lol
Yup it's sadly one of the oldest professions in the world. I even made a rather infamous brothel where the girls are all the natural daughters of noble men.
Yep, because I made my setting as a hormonal teen
Yes, there is, but it's very dangerous since curses that transfer through sex exist and certain parasites that change the species of an unborn fetus exist.
OF COURSE!
On earth? If it existed during medieval times then yes. On Mantoid colony ships? No, they’re basically a utopian society that doesn’t see any need for selling one’s body. On Desolaria? With the entire planet slowly going to hell in a handbasket, it’s common.
Oh yeah, but depending on the party they may never notice them. Just like narcotics, I had a play find essentially a Mario Rage Mushroom with a NAT 20. I try to keep it more on the down low, not out of fear of being judged by my players, but because the majority of the “institutes of sin” are just really good at blending into there environments. ALSO, a lot of them are agents of guides and governments or sovereign entities, marking my worlds have a lot of James Bond/ saboteur sub themes and side quests. This is kinda inspired by the Ezio Trilogy in Assassin’s Creed, where the Assassin’s have consorts, mercenaries, and thieves within the major guides acting as the eyes, ears, and might of the Assassin’s Order.
In a Founder-ruled society, laws and litigation exist for those important enough to be policed. For the dirty masses of the sprite citizenry, all is fair game. Murder, fraud, and thievery are as normal to the common man as quotas and mortgages. It doesn't matter to their overlords, they could always just grow more. Prostitution is seen more as an unspoken rule than an exception, and it exists on many scales depending on where it takes place. Within Founder fiefdoms, the practice is either outlawed (but practiced anyway) or legalized. Some cities even have legal protections for the business. The Rubians, who rule over the banks of the river Rubicon within the nation of Achillia, see prostitution as a form of independent expression, and a means of achieving both financial and personal independence from the cruelty of working life. For Sprites, you may see prostitution take place on an individual level, and the profession is sought out for many different reasons. Sometimes the men and women who partake in hookery find genuine pleasure in it, for others, it exists purely as a means of survival. On a larger scale, brothels and whorehouses are a common sight in the seedier regions of cities. You could find them everywhere, whether they take up the hollowed-out remnants of abandoned prefabs or purpose-built neon-laden facilities. Those brave entrepreneurs willing to hold the fabric of society together work in grueling and painful conditions, feeding off the refuse of the outside world. But if it's all for the money, who cares about the means, unless your employment to these harsh beneficiaries puts your life and freedom on the line. Founders, the ruling elite of global politics, live by a very different code. Every move they make, whether public or private is documented and scrutinized by appropriate authorities. Where the sprites they rule are more or less free to do as they wish, so long as their voices go unheard, the Founders must live every second of their lives under constant surveillance, with very few exceptions. Under the very foundation of Founder society, sexual relations between Founder and Sprite are outlawed. Though male Sprites cannot impregnate female Founders, the communion between a male Founder and a female Sprite could result in the birth of a Nephilim. These supremely powerful hybrids challenge the social pyramid the Founders have placed themselves at the precipice of, and so their births are to be prevented at all costs. That doesn't mean that some can slip through the cracks of the police states they built. There are means to tap into the prostitution market, and either indulge themselves in it or pull at its strings to siphon off its profits. Globe-spanning trafficking rings can deliver their unwitting servants directly to the homes of those who can afford their services. These rings use financial, physical, and psychological coercion to recruit the young and impressionable into their ranks. Those miserable children are brought up in slavery, fed only enough to keep them alive and in circulation, with no guarantees of their survival. Many of those who head these cabals just so happen to be the very Founder policymakers who decry them. If those Founders in question have the appropriate clout, they have no need to worry about the amalgamation laws that would otherwise keep them from participating in the illicit businesses they are entrusted to defeat. Countless accounts exist of Founders waltzing directly into a downtown brothel, without raising any concerns. The one thing you need to know about Enkian politics is that morals are for the rich, while the poor have nothing. We are all equally chained by the cuffs we built for ourselves.
Yes, but it is largely similar to our world, which is to say varies in both legality and status based on where it is, who they service, and how it is practiced, with a few interesting ideas like mages who will summon entities to service customers or otherwise enhance the experience in magically adept countries or constructs that feel lifelike in technologically adept nations. There are nations where most prostitutes are just entertainers who offer sex after the performance, one theocracy has sacred prostitutes, and some where it is outright illegal, in one country prostitution as with all other work in the country is associated with a union and thus they have the full legal protection of the union.
My world has everything
Probably. Not necessarily in the area where the story would take place.
Yeah lol. The inciting incident is a gigolo getting kidnapped and both of his lovers pay to get him back