The victim that lies on the torture rack, his body torn and bleeding is
a beautiful sight. Bloody froth issues from his mouth as he whimpers
Please no more, no more. What is going through his mind? Does he think
that by simply asking for mercy it will be granted? Does he think that
his captor has gone to such lengths to capture him, bind his body and
then endlessly cut at his limbs and brand his torso just to show pity?

This concept has troubled me somewhat in recent years. Why is it that
Mhun and Arcadians alike plead for mercy as I decay their pathetic
bodies into a moldering heap of bones and desiccated flesh. They know my
reputation, they know that I hunt them for pleasure, indeed the young
and infirm are often the most entertaining to kill even though they do
not supply my Gods with much essence or indeed strengthen me greatly.
They know that they will receive no mercy from me, I have never shown it
before, so why on a whimsy would I suddenly spare the life of some
pathetic weakling simply because they ask of it.

This intriguing quandary has churned around in my head at my leisure as
well as during the hunt, until finally the solution has crystallized in
my mind. They hope.

Hope drives on the condemned to plead for leniency. Hope spurs the
victim to ask for the pain to stop. Hope goads the prey to ask for his
or her life to be spared even when they know it will not.

What then would happen if these individuals had lost the capacity to
hope. What if before taking the victim to the torture chamber we first
had Jirken or Doctor Kortoxian lobotomize out the part of the brain that
allows hope to be felt. Well I would have little doubt that the torture
session would somewhat lack its usual savor. I would think that the
victim would simply lie on the table accepting the pain that is being
inflicted on him. Oh he would scream in pain but he would not ask for
the process to stop, he would not have the capacity to hold out that
spark of hope that this is all some gruesome mistake and most upsetting
of all he would not truly Suffer.

His body would Suffer but not his mind. I would think that the victims
mind and intellect would have to accept the pain. The victim knows that
the pain is not going to stop until he is dead and so he waits for the
inevitable.

Hope is a true ally of Suffering, without it our victims would only feel
pain they would not Suffer, they would only feel the firing of their
pain receptors and not the mental anguish that it true Suffering.


Penned by my hand on the 16th of Glacian, in the year 432 AF.