troll crime and punishment

This came up in /o last night, and we decided to move it to a forum thread. The main topic would be: What kind of punishment would be suitable for HoS for killing one of our members like they did? But I though we may as well discuss proper punishments for lesser crimes as well, for future reference if nothing else.

My thoughts is that troll punishment probably are physical often, and in the eyes of other races very cruel. In a human society, getting your hand or ear cut off is something really serious, and mostly used against bad crimes or repeat criminals. In troll society... it would grow back after a few weeks. That kinda takes the edge off of it. But it also opens up for much worse things. Having both your eyes poked out? Would probably take a month or so to heal up. Your spine broken? Paralysation is bad, but it would also be temporary.

What are your thoughts and ideas? Someone mentioned something about curses, I think.

ok, not much time but plenty of ideas...

Curses: Obviously, i think trolls with their level of superstition would find curses more serious that mutilation. i see 2 levels. 1st, simply a curse on the individual. this would be of set duration and effect depending on how severe the crime was.. ]
2nd...heridatary curses. For example, you could curse the 1st born son of a family for so many generations.

Mutilation: Not as bad for trolls as you pointed out but...we know fire (magical fire especially) is bad for trolls. In the case of forsaken, as they're already dead, i think restricting their freedom would be worse than anything (considering on how much thwy all hated being slaves to the Lich King). Maybe would cut off their feet/ arms making them dependant on somebody else? Or, bury them upto the neck and let stuff attack them. Probably won't kill them but it would be pretty nasty having your face eaten by animals but not even being able to look forward to dying to end it.

i have more, but need to get some work done right now...

One of the most well-written troll stories that I have ever read is called 'A Voodoo Story' and it can be found on the forum of The Darkspear Tribe (see http://thedarkspeartribe.forumcircle.com/viewtopic.php?t=616). Perhaps some of you have already read it . . .

The story tells of a troll called Makal'zuun who is punished by the Darkspear tribe in Sen'jin. He is beaten so severely that he will possibly never walk again and, just as importantly, he is made an outcast by the tribe. The guards spit on him, no troll will speak to him, no-one will give him shelter, food or water. He is effectively banished from the tribe.

A troll might slowly recover from a savage beating, but he or she would find it extremely difficult to find a way to rejoin the tribe. They would remain an outcast, a no-name, disowned by family and kindred. For a troll, to be cut off from one's tribe and robbed of one's name and ancestry would be a harsh punishment.

I realise that this doesn't help us with our response to the House of Sylvanas, but it's an interesting view of troll justice. Incidentally, the story also gives a great description of voodoo and of some of the loa. It's a long, long story, but well worth reading.

Ooh, i'll have to go check that out when i have time. And Zan beat me to it, Banishment would have been the next on my list of punishments that would be bad for trolls. Proably not as much of a problem these days as they would still have a place in the Horde but i can imagine in the past it would/ could have meant almost certain death for a troll. No easy access to food and water (the tribe would have the most available sources covered), no one to administer to their spiritual needs (very bad for a supersticious troll) and nobody to help them against disease/ wild animals/ other tribes or any of the other dangers that might arise.

Vypra wrote:...but it would be pretty nasty having your face eaten by animals...

Made me giggle


Many good suggestions already. One other aspect to keep in mind would be this: Which punishments are the most fun to rp on for the one recieving them? Will they cripple someone's rp? Add to it? Ruin it completely? In many ways, that's the most important thing to keep in mind.

Head shrinking is the most fun of course! You can even make your own ArchSkull in GHI

I have also heard of some tribes who use branding as a punishment. A brand on the cheek or forehead, for example, especially if caused by magical fire, would be long-lasting and indicate to everyone that the troll was an outcast, beneath respect, not to be trusted.

And what would happen if you cut off a troll's tusks and burned the cut end? Presumably they would take a long long time to regrow. Being tuskless means being without courage, without honour.

Being detusked is a likely punishment. I don't know if tusks would grow back, but I'd guess not. More sadistic trolls might be included to embalm and bury someone alive. Or if they are already dead, destroy the body so that the spirit gets lost in the nether.

With the forsaken guild I can only really think we'd kill them if we could. Nothing imaginative jumps out of my mind on how to deal with a walking corpse (except maybe wrapping it up and burying it un-live to go mad in some hole somewhere).

Ry has done the desrtoy the body completely to get their spirits lost in the nether thing a few times. Only to those really deserving it, of course

And while I agree that simply killing the undeads would be the most effective and likely solution... But we can't just start killing of people's rp characters. They'll never let us do that, since I'm sure they're all very fond of their chars. We need to come up with something that their likely to enjoying rping as well.

Traditional and most cruel troll punishment is decapitating the criminal, shrinking his head by removing his skull first, latter though hot rocks and sand filling the fist sized head making it rubbery and stitching its mouth and eyes.

In troll believes you capture this way the victims spirit in his head not allowing him to enter a after life just as being sure that the spirit won't hunt you after his death. There are also other ways to shrink a head by partly removing skull fragments.

Voodoo is the best way to punish someone troll ways if the criminal is a non troll because as said above exiling someone of the tribe is equal to certain death.

Taking someone hostage and acting dumb would be a nice way to take revenge on the House maybe? As long they cannot prove it it was you they can't do anything against the Heritage. Become a troll and play tricky, try use the Horde as an alliance to get immune to a possible counter attack after you've striked.

That's the most obvious way, yes, but... Head shrinking equals killing anyway, so we can't just do that to other people. Though it would be really fun