I've released prisoners before.. No honor gain whatsoever. And somehow I'm at -48 honor now after finally getting back into the positive.. I'm not sure how it got so low.. The only things I've really done is trading and then some random event in between. A couple bards wanted to compose songs about me so I paid them, and I received a message saying peasants love me and are ready to join my cause or some such thing. Would either of those give me a major honor hit? And would there be any reason releasing prisoners wouldn't give me honor?