Torture Skill

[Irriari]

Hi all,

I'm writing this to gauge interest in and hopefully generate some discussion regarding the torture skill. It's not listed in the skill list, so it would be a completely from scratch article. I want to focus equally on the psychological and physical components of torture, but I have a feeling I'll end up having the final product leaning towards the physical nature of the skill. It's just too difficult to talk about the psychological consequences and reactions of those that are tortured since they vary so much from person to person.

So, I've sketched up a brief outline. Any thoughts or sections you would add?

1 Overview
2 Purposes of Torture
3 Different types of torture
4 Typical equipment and tools used in torture
5 Atypical/exotic equipment used in torture (will include static torture implements that cost more mizas and would likely have to be custom built)
6 Torture without equipment
7 Psychological considerations
8 Complementary/Supplementary Skills
7 Skill Progression

[Sayana]

Whoo Irri and the dark skills =) I'd love to see this expanded on.

[Irriari]

Whoo Irri and the dark skills =) I'd love to see this expanded on.

It's my niche, and I really don't feel all that confident in developing locations/NPCs/factions, etc. so I stick to dark skills and stuff. I have been wanting to tackle farming too, but it's so big and scary.

[Zhol]

Just a thought: instead of separating torture with tools, torture without tools, and psychological torture into separate sections, would it be easier to use (and easier to write) if you based your sections on the "type of torture" that you're dealing with?

For example, if you are someone intending to use torture so you can work as an interrogator for a gang in Sunberth, you are probably going to be dragging people into rooms, tying them to chairs, and using a mix of psychological torture, tools that you can easily carry on your person, tools that you are improvising from your surroundings, magical skills you happen to possess, Vexation marks, etc; something from several of your sections. There's also probably a sense of urgency in that situation, inflicting as much pain and harm as quickly as possible to get the information you want as quickly as possible.

That's a very different style of torture to someone working as an interrogator for the Black Sun in Ravok, you're still going to be trying to get information out of people, but you might be doing so with access to a torture chamber, with more of a focus on slow / long-term torture (sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, starvation, etc); instead of it being urgent like it would be out on the streets, it's more calculating, protracted, and methodical.

Both of those would be entirely different to trying to torture someone as a punishment (you don't have to care about whether or not the person passes out, you can cause more permanent damage, you might use magic to cause hallucinations just to break their spirit, with them fully aware that they can't "make it stop" by giving you the information), for brainwashing, and so on.

Might just be the way my brain works, but that might be more accessible for people reading it (they can read the section relevant to them, instead of having to filter out what they need from multiple sections), and it might be easier for you writing it - particularly since psychical torture (such as inflicting pain) and psychological torture (threatening to inflict (more) pain) can often be part and parcel of the same methodology... might save you needing to rewrite the same/similar stuff in different sections, etc.

[Molly Barlow]

Very excited for this, considering I'll be using the write-up in the future!

The only thing I can think of at the moment would be adding how different places view torture? Are their some races that do not use it? Some cities?

Happy writing!
-Molly

[Eren Turna]

I really like the idea of this being expanded upon! One thing I think would be good to touch upon is the line (blurry though it may be)/link between interrogation and torture, since they're two different skills that share considerable overlap.

I suppose the main difference would be that torture is, in and of itself, the knowledge and method of causing intense pain (physical, psychological, or otherwise) to a subject.

Torture can then be purposed towards things like interrogation (getting information out of a subject), etc.

In this, it'd be considered more of a side-skill. Something to enhance other, more purposed skills. Though torture itself could be enhanced with points in things like poison, and whatnot itself. It's quite a complex skill, really.

[Roderick]

I'd just like to quickly point out that magic wouldn't be used as a form of torture in Sunberth; they despise mages there. A mage is more likely to be the victim than the torturer. Overall though this should be a really useful write-up. And now its been mentioned it would be interesting to see if some races or cultures are against the use of torture. The Syliran knights might see it as being dishonourable and they don't use it, while the average Sunberthian probably wouldn't be too bothered by the idea of it. Also, you should make sure to mention how some skills could be re-purposed for use with the torture skill. E.g. skinning is usually used with hunting, but could be used to flay a victim. Like others have mentioned interrogation - and also intimidation - could aid in psychological torture. I think at the beginning it'd be simple stuff like beating them up, ripping teeth out, threatening loved ones etc. At competency they'd be waterboarding victims, going for stuff like flaying, using more aggressive forms of psychological torture etc.