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eemawrites · 3 years

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I’ve been researching medieval torture for the past four hours.

So here’s a list of possible Medieval Torture Things! (categorized for your convenience!)

Warnings: torture (that’s literally all this is), one mention of nudity, a lot of burning, a few mentions of hand/foot/mouth whump, etc.

Piper’s List Of Medieval Torture Methods

Things That Will Definitely Kill Your Character

(Not sure why you would want to do this, since I’ve never seen anyone actually kill their whumpee, but hey, if your character’s immortal, go nuts. Also, while a lot of these could be survivable if stopped soon enough, they were used for execution, not torture, so I’m putting them here.)

• Beheading (widely regarded as relatively painless, but only if done well. If done by an inexperienced person, this could be incredibly painful.)

• Breaking wheel (this one was usually public. The victim was tied to a large horizontal wheel (usually held off the ground a bit) and just hit indiscriminately- historically a hammer was used, but try some more creative options! After that the victim was left there to die from either their wounds or exposure.

• Boiling (yeah, no surviving this one. The victim was either cooked alive, or put in the water/oil headfirst when it’s already boiling, for a more merciful end. For a less merciful fate, they could be lowered in feet-first.)

• Burning (specifically a summer thing- the victim was covered in a mix of boiling water and oil, and simply left in the sun to die.)

• Burning at the stake (do I need to explain this one? Oh, fun detail- if the victim recanted or confessed, they were strangled before lighting the fire, as a last act of mercy. Or not.)

• Crushing (This one can be used as a torture method, but was used for execution, so it’s in this category. It basically consisted of laying a piece of wood over the victim and adding weight on top of it until their body couldn’t take it anymore.)

• Disembowelment (this was the drawing part of the famous “hanging, drawing, and quartering”, and it’s very hard to survive. Red-hot knife optional.)

• Ducking (usually used to make someone confess to witchcraft. If they confessed, they were usually killed anyway; if they didn’t confess, they drowned. One kinda…weird part of this was that in order to prevent the victim from getting a good breath before they were submerged, their nose and mouth were often plugged with fruit? Not sure why fruit, specifically.)

• Freezing (specifically a winter thing- the victim was stripped, taken outside, and then had water poured over them until it froze. After that, they were left to die.)

• Hanging (possible either privately or in public! And a lot more painful than you’d think.)

• Hanging, drawing, and quartering (a famous medieval execution method, and regarded as the most painful! The victim was hung until they were almost but not quite dead, then disemboweled, and finally horses were used to pull them apart. Messy and very agonizing, and historically reserved for as punishment for high treason.)

• Gibbet (okay, technically, this one was usually used after an execution- a gibbet was a suspended metal cage, sometimes person-shaped, sometimes with holes for the head, legs, or arms. Historically it was used to display a body as a warning, but hey, nobody said you can’t put your character in one anyway. As an added bonus, the metal would get hot in the sun, and the open framework would provide no protection and allow other creatures to take a bite out of the victim.)

• Immurement (a simple, but effective, execution- the victim was just walled up and left to starve. If the torturer wanted to draw this out, they could leave a hole and give the victim water, but no food. This was also used as a form of imprisonment, and the victim in those cases was given both food and water.)

• Live burial (this was a public punishment- the victim was buried up to their neck, and simply left to exposure and wild animals. Unless someone came along and put them out of their misery.)

• Quartering (definitely not possible to survive this. The victim’s legs and arms were tied to opposite horses (two is an option, but typically four were used, one limb tied to each horse, hence the name) and the horses were sent running, tearing the victim’s legs and arms from their body. It was like the rack, but a lot faster and more painful.)

• Rat torture (this is a nasty one, and almost always fatal. The victim was tied down, and the torturer would place a container with at least one rat in it upside down on the victim’s stomach or chest (sometimes they would speed things up by cutting slits in the victim beforehand.) Once a heat source was applied to the container, the rat would have no choice but to chew through the victim’s insides to escape. This could take hours, and it was pretty fatal.)

• Sawing (yeah, your whumpee is dead if you do this. The quickest and most merciful way was to start at the head and go vertically down, or to saw through the middle. The slower, more painful way was to start between the legs with the victim hung upside down, and cut through to the head. You can live through this a lot longer than you’d expect.)

• Stoning (this was also usually public, and took a long time. Typically the whole village/shire/hamlet/what-have-you was allowed to participate.)

Things That Might Not Kill Your Character But Will Hurt Like A Big Dog

(These are the most severe methods of medieval torture I could find. While a lot of them often did end in death, that wasn’t the intention of them, so they’re in this category.)

• Chair of torture (extremely painful and often ended in a slow death. This was an iron chair covered in spikes, which the victim was forced to sit on. The spikes didn’t penetrate any vital organs and closed off most of the blood loss, so death was very slow. Some variations included holes in the chair seat for hot coals, or weights to be set on the victim’s thighs and feet, pushing them further onto the spikes.)

• Flogging (there are a ton of possible variations on this. It was used as both punishment and torture, and could do little damage all the way up to fatal damage, depending on the skill of the person wielding the whip, the whip itself, and the overall condition of the victim.)

• Rack (a very well-known torture method and the favorite of the Spanish Inquisition, consisting of stretching the victim’s limbs on a special table, usually used to extract a confession. This could end in dislocation, and in extreme cases paralysis or dismemberment. There were variations, though- one involving setting hot coals beneath the victim, and another in which the rack had spikes positioned along the victim’s spine to rack up the pain even more.)

• Strappado (another favorite of the Spanish Inquisition. This was a simple one, but effective- the victim’s hands were tied behind their back, and they were suspended from their wrists. This dislocated their shoulders. Variations include adding weights to their feet, or jerking them up and down while they were suspended. Keep in mind, however, that the Inquisition limited this to no more than an hour for a reason- any longer and it could cause death.)

Things That Won’t Kill Your Character But Will Make Them Have A Very Bad Day

(These torture methods have little or no risk of death, but they’re still painful and can cause permanent damage. Enjoy.)

• Boot (basically a bigger, stronger version of the thumbscrew, and used to squeeze the victim’s foot and leg, sometimes crushing the bones to powder. Usually made of wood, but some versions were made of metal- heat it up for some extra fun. One very painful version from Venice included a spike which could be drilled through the victim’s instep.)

• Foot roasting (in a word? Ouch. The victim’s feet would be smeared with lard or fat, and then held over hot coals. The Inquisition liked this one, too.)

• Scavenger’s daughter (this one is very hard to describe. It’s basically the opposite of the rack. It consists of an A-shaped metal frame with holes for the head and hands. Once the victim’s head and hands were secured, the frame was folded and locked in place, forcing the victim into a compressed position. Apparently this caused bleeding from the nose and ears, but the source is dodgy.)

• Spanish donkey (another Inquisition method! This was a triangular block of wood mounted on supports, with the sharp edge of the triangle turned up. The victim would be forced to “ride” the device, which often crippled them- especially if their feet were weighted down while on the donkey. This was a medieval method, but it was used all the way up through the Civil War.)

• Thumbscrew (despite the name, this could also be used on the big toe, and some versions were usable on all ten fingers or toes. It was a simple vice used to squeeze and crush the victim’s appendages, although some were spiced up with studs or spikes.)

Things That Are Painful But Probably Won’t Cause Permanent Damage

(These are methods that are meant to be painful, but not damaging- when used correctly. They can be damaging in the right situation, of course. Some of them aren’t specifically torture methods, but rather punishments- although they can certainly be used as torture.)

• Branding (in medieval times, this was more of a punishment or a way to mark a criminal, not a torture method. But it has torturous potential for sure.)

• Cramped cell (most dungeons have one of these. It’s a very small cell, which wouldn’t let a prisoner stand up, sit up, or in some cases, lie down. Bonus points for the few that would get flooded in rainy weather- since the prisoner couldn’t get away from the water.)

• Denailing (this was used as a torture method, and special tools existed to tear out a victim’s fingernails and toenails. By itself, not very damaging. But it was often used in tandem with other methods, such as the boot- some boot devices actually left the toes free just for this purpose.)

• Pillory (another punishment, this was similar to the stocks, but only held the victim’s fingers. The pain didn’t come from the pillory itself, but rather the exposure that came with it- often including villagers throwing things at the helpless prisoner.)

• Scold’s bridle (this was an iron mask or muzzle, with a (sometimes spiked) bit for the tongue, which forced the victim to stay silent. Often used on “nagging” wives, usually at the request of their husbands.)

• Stocks (not stonks. Very similar to the pillory, but held the victim’s arms, legs, head, or a combination of the three. Pretty much every village had one of these.)

Things That Are Debatable

(These are methods that sound or look horrifying, but it’s not really known that they were ever actually used. But whump doesn’t have to be true to life- use these debatable methods to your heart’s content!)

• Choke Pear (this kinda nasty device had a pear-shaped metal body with four spiked petal-shaped segments that could split apart when a screw was turned. It was allegedly used to painfully force a prisoner’s mouth open, but there’s only dubious evidence of it actually being used.)

• Iron maiden (we all know what this looks like. The Inquisition did have these, but it’s likely they were used only as a scare tactic, and not for actual torture.)

• Oubliette (this one is tricky. An oubliette was a bottle-shaped cell or dry cistern, which a prisoner was lowered into for extra-secure imprisonment (or just left to starve, since there was no way to escape.) Oubliettes could be real. But a lot of supposed oubliettes seem more like storage chambers. That’s not to say no one was ever thrown down one, however.)

That’s all I’ve got so far! Feel free to let me know if I missed one, and I’ll add it to the list!

#saving for later

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