Quote Originally Posted by nekohime1138 View Post
It might be legal in some areas but not others. Off the top of my head I can't think of any examples in Gridania or Ishgard so it may not be legal there. Even where prostitution and slavery are legal there seem to be laws regulating the practice. It's seems illegal to kidnap people and sell them, but proving that someone was kidnapped and not forcibly sold to pay their or their parent's debts may be difficult.
Right. The impression I get is that it exists in some places in Eorzea, particularly the relatively lawless Limsa Lominsa and the corrupt and exploitative Ul'dah. If there's anything limiting it in Limsa, it's probably that human trafficking and slavery occur in the underworld instead. Still, with Limsa making some effort to clean up its act, circumstances may be improving. As for Ul'dah... well, we've seen erotic entertainment there, and indeed some problems resulting thereform. Ul'dah is sufficiently amoral when it comes to money that it's easy to imagine Ul'dahn brothels, though from what we've seen directly, they may be considered inappropriate for the upper class.

There are no signs of anything of the sort in Gridania, which would fit with Gridania's portrayal as probably the 'nicest' of the core three city-states, and as for Ishgard, it seems extremely unlikely to be legal there. There's structural sexual abuse in Ishgard - we've seen enough in the way of nobles' bastards to indicate that - but I suspect that actual prostitution, in the form of currency directly exchanged for sex, would be limited to the poorest classes.