In the Luxion Empire, convicted criminals are made to repay the damage they have done to society through labour. After all, the state cannot be expected to provide food and lodgings for free to the parasites of society at the expense of the honest contributors, to whom it gives no such luxury. The work done by criminals as atonement by law must be toward public services. Petty criminals are given the option to do manual labour for the duration of their sentence, building and repairing roads, walls, railways, and other public works. However the worst criminals, the murderers, the rapists, the traitors, if they are not executed, are made to join...
The Prison Battalion.

A lone wooden cart trundled along the old flagstone road, the bumps jolting the uncomfortable occupants in the back. You are one of these condemned men...

>Vateus Aren, disgraced former military official and convicted traitor. You were found guilty of aiding the recent failed military coup against the Empress. Normally a man guilty of this crime would be executed, however the evidence against you at your trial was not strong enough to warrant a death sentence. Only one conspirator named you as a co-conspirator, and all other evidence against you was circumstantial. This was, of course, because you are innocent.

>James Dixon, an innkeeper. You had always been an honest man and obeyed the law your whole life. But when you found your wife in bed with that louse, you lost control. The betrayal was too much for you. You admitted everything at the trial, apologised, and begged for the mercy of the court. At least they spared you the noose.

>"Quiet" Tom Wiggins, a serial thief and burglar. You might have landed a safer sentence on a chain gang if that last job hadn't gone wrong. But regrettably, that new crew were rookies. Regrettably, those idiots alerted that guard. And regrettably, you acted quickly and did what you had to do to stop the alarm being raised and stay free. Or so you thought. While you were preoccupied with hiding the body, you were the only one to not escape the warehouse before the patrol came in. Now you've copped a murder conviction, and you're guilty as sin.

>Ned Tanner, a simple tanner as your name would suggest. When girls started to go missing from your village, eyes were turned towards you straight away. You were always an outcast, always distrusted. Everyone always thought there was something wrong with you. Someone might have been forgiven for pitying you as a victim of baseless rumours, until the constables found the bodies in vats in your tannery.