NO! youre doing it wrong. apply pain theory:
torture effectiveness = time * suffering^2
the pain is more significant than the time allotted to experience it. granted some forms of torture-murder significantly shorten the effective time of the torture part of the punishment and this should usually be avoided. but one should not underestimate the psychological torture imposed by inflicting mortal damage and then allowing the victim time to contemplate their situation. vlad the impaler took steps to perfect his technique so as to have the victims remain alive for as long as possible. for example, blunting and greasing the steak so as not to damage organs, using a wider steak so as to restrict blood loss, and imposing the threat of impalement on your executioners should they do it wrong and let the victim die to early. if you compare that to something like getting put in the stocks till you die of exposure, starvation, or consumption by wild animals, the pain is limited to discomfort and eventually becomes hardly noticeable, and the onset of death is quick and/or unexpected. it also invites the option of escape, since there is no mortal damage to
should also point out that torture-murder if used as a form of execution must prioritize execution. executions need to be cost effective. i mean you could come up with a really elaborate torture system involving medical technology to keep the victim alive for months before they die, while simultaneously providing constant, severe pain. for example directly torturing dense nerve clusters, like those in the genitals. you could use sleep deprivation drugs to keep the victim awake and conscious and apply psychological torture techniques to compound against the physical ones. but at some point this gets expensive. which is bad if you need to do this to a lot of people.
thats why i like impalement, its cheap, slow, painful, humiliating, almost impossible to survive it, it serves as a warning to others and is a good way to decorate a landscape, providing a form of public works.
