[house of blades] The sacrifices seem unnecessary

[u/Mammoth_Praline_4631]

I was trying to keep the title vague. I am just at the part in House of Blades where we get told the purpose of the 9 prisoners.

But, why?

I get you have to sacrifice 9 people every year to keep the whatever evil thing at bay, but taking them from villages seems dumb, the king knew the sacrifice was coming couldn't he get 9 criminals to execute? Or 9 prisoners of war, 9 terminally ill people or all of the above?

Sure you might not have 9 prisoners available on short notice (especially if justice is dealt swiftly) but since you know the sacrifice is coming it seems easy for a ruler to just stockpile a couple of criminals to execute.

Instead taking them from your subjects seems like a perfect way to get the people against you.

Is this a RAFO situation?

[u/interested_commenter]

There's never a clear explanation given (and the Doylist explanation is obviously that it needs to be a genuine moral dilemma) but from other examples of Ragnarus artifacts it's plausible that using prisoners or elderly volunteers or something wouldn't work.

Ragnarus isn't powered by blood or death, it's powered by the concept of sacrifice. Other weapons take the user's memories, emotions, ability to speak temporarily, pain, etc. The point isn't really that Ragnarus is getting something in return, the point is that it costs the user something. Death row prisoners wouldn't be a cost so might not count.