(10-06-2015, 01:47 PM)SicketySix Wrote: Ishgardians don't really seem to be the take prisoners type, I'd assume if you was even suspected of being or aiding a heretic, your end came about pretty fast.
There are gaols in Whitebrim which you can visit. There's a Roegadyn heretic in one of them and a quest from the gaoler wanting you to bring one of the prisoners a dead rat or something to use in some heretic ritual so he'll shut up about wanting raw bloody meat for an hour. (He thinks the rat is a dragon and he'll turn into a dravanian by drinking its blood.) There's also a guy down there falsely accused of heresy that you end up proving his innocence in the questline.
So, yes, there are prisons and they do seem to remain there for some time. However, this could just be because places like Whitebrim and Dragonhead and beyond are outside the city-state and it takes time to get an Inquisitor out there to pass judgement on the prisoners. So they may just use the gaols as a place to hold heretics until they can put them to death.
Then again, we have this levequest:
Dance, Magic Dance Wrote:A fugitive that escaped from our grasp some time ago has been spotted in the Dravanian hinterlands. Her body broken and her face scarred with burns, the witch would have been recognizable to anyone had she not disguised herself as a goblin to live amongst the hinterland clans, naught to be revealed until she had been discovered taking off her false mask for a breath of fresh air. I grow weary of the goblins' impunity in attacking our men and harboring a fugitive, so I would employ an adventurer to rid us of the beastmen entirely. Once our path has been cleared and the suspect seized, I intend to peel back the layers of mystery regarding her break from the gaol, fingernail by fingernail.