Gruesome execution methods

efreysson

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I'm writing fantasy and I need something extremely nasty for my savage wilderness raiders to inflict on their captives. Something that doesn't require advanced technology or specialized tools.
Can someone give me some historical examples?
 

Caledonia Lass

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Tying people over anthills, using ropes and trees to do the whole "Rack" thing. Be inventive, have your raiders brew up some of their own poison and antidote and continually poison/save the captives. Have unusual creatures be their pets, but the pets actually crave human flesh... make them like cannibals and cook their captives or just hang their captives low enough in cages to be attacked by wilderness creatures. Have the captives be cut and tied to trees to attract bears... I could go on and on. XD
 

CACTUSWENDY

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In Braveheart ....the splitting of the mid-portion and pulling out the intestines, .....that did it for me. :flag:
 
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In Braveheart ....the splitting of the mid-portion and pulling out the intestines, .....that did it for me. :flag:
The second part of the process known as "Hanging, drawing and quartering."

I recommend the whirlygig.
 

BunnyMaz

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The wheel was always my favourite. Break the arms and legs in enough places that the limbs lose stiffness and can be woven around the spokes of a large wheel such that the victim is spreadeagled. Usually requires the ankles, knees, hips, wrists, ankles and shoulders to be shattered. Once the victim is secured, raise the wheel up atop a post so they are facing the heavens. Death by exposure, provided they survive the bone shattering.

I read a short story once that included one person being executed by having molten silver poured in the eye and ear cavities before being dumped in a deep pit and left to die over several days, blinded and deafened, but I don't know how realistic survival of that is.

Crushing is fairly brutal... tie the victim down, between wooden doors, and start slowly piling boulders on top until their chest collapses.

Death by wild boar dinner.

Lashed into a cow-shaped device and wheeled out to the bulls in the field.

Anything suitably slow, painful and needlessly cruel can work.

Oh! Almost certainly fictional, but have you considered the bloodeagle?

Oh! Enclosing in an iron cylinder and roasting to death.

What was that one they used to do with living bamboo?
 
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Mutive

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There was that one priest who had his fingers chopped off by clam shells by the natives. That always sounded gruesome. Of course, you could also skin someone that way...or burn them alive. All are pretty low tech, and just something about being skinned alive by a clam shell sounds even worse (to me) than being skinned alive by a scalpel.

Castrating a man is actually pretty easy, if you want your victim to be male. As is, um, cutting off other parts. That's a good one if you want the person to survive. (Same for removing eyes, fingers, ears, a nose, etc. A tongue is also possible, although there are some arteries there.)

Really, the sky's the limit, I would think.
 

Marian Perera

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I'm writing fantasy and I need something extremely nasty for my savage wilderness raiders to inflict on their captives. Something that doesn't require advanced technology or specialized tools.
Can someone give me some historical examples?

Peine fort et dure, though I'm probably spelling that wrong.
 

maxmordon

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Tie them to trees and let them use them as target dummies, then let them bleed to death there. Or cover their wounds with honey as previous stated...

What about tied up inside a dead animal's carcass so it would be devoured by a predator?
 

BunnyMaz

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Ooh! Pluck out the eyes, remove the tongue, skin off the lips, sever the end of the nose, sever the tendons in the arms that make the hands useable, castrate and dump somewhere in the wilderness.
 

BunnyMaz

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My beloved has reminded me of the catherine wheel. Lashed to the rim of a spiked wheel and rolled down a hill.

Judas cradle. Positioned anus over the tip of a VERY wide pyramid, add weights to the ankles progressively until, y'know...

Oh I remembered what the bamboo one is, now. Bamboo grows pretty fast, so you lash someone to the floor over a bed of new shoots and let them grow through the victim.

Enclosed between two boats with the limbs sticking out and gorged on milk and honey until you get a- diarrhoea and b- eaten alive by insects.

I'm sure there's loads more but my mind has gone blank.
 

BigWords

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Tie their arms and legs to four horses with rope, then make a loud noise so they run in different directions. :D
 

BunnyMaz

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Or you could always use bees.
 

DeleyanLee

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An ancient Persian king had the worst I've ever heard about. He used a boat, but any enclosed container would probably do.

Put the victim into the boat and seal it, so only his head is exposed. Make certain that he takes food and water every day, so he does not die quickly.

As he relieves himself, as he can't help but do, the insects and small predators will find their way into the container (as they always will) and will begin to feast and start devouring him alive.

IIRC, the record stated that most people survived 21 days before dying.

Probably the most gruesome one I've ever heard of.

I've seen it adapted in fiction so the man was staked out, his torso lightly slashed and a dead rabbit placed over the wounds. A full water canteen was place within reach of his mouth. As the maggots and other things dropped from the rabbit into his body, they'd start to eat him. He could be dead in three days if he doesn't drink--but if he drinks, he'll live through being eaten alive by maggots. Then he was guarded so nothing interrupted his decision.

Very effective.
 

Wayne K

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I was going to say boredom but SP beat me to it :)
 

crunchyblanket

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trapped in a narrow pit, just slightly wider than the human body, where the walls are studded with sharp implements coated in human faecal matter. The person has to remain upright. When they get tired, they'll droop to the side. The sharp implements cause injury, the faecal matter causes infection. They either die from massive bodily infection or blood loss, whichever comes first.
 

PorterStarrByrd

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Bend two trees down .. secure them .. tie a leg to each one .. loose the trees

Bury them on the beach at low tide until only the head is out maybe seed the beach with sand fleas before walking away.