Scoured By The Light

While there are many punishments utilized by the Halsyona Republic, the act known colloquially as "Scouring" is considered to be especially brutal. When the standards of Halons are taken into account, that a punishment startles them and unsettles them should be enough of a warning as to how the punishment works, or the brutality it offers.

History

Scouring began shortly after the death of the fourth Invictus, who had been killed by two of his lovers. The two men had never loved the Invictus, you see, and they had used him for his power and then sought to kill him when he became too much to keep up with. Once the other lovers found these two men, they seized them and, in a furious rage, tore the two open before leaving them beneath the sun. When carrion birds settled on the men -- who were slow to die courtesy of their augmentations -- they were chased away. Exposed meat blackened slowly, but was not mended.
It took three days for the two men to die. In the end, it was the fifth Invictus who saw them killed.

Execution

To be Scoured by the Light is to be held in the dark, first. For up to two weeks, the one to be punished is kept entirely in the darkness, thrown food through a pitch-black door.
When the time is declared, the punished individual is brought up, marched through the church they were held in, and is taken into the light. Outside, after such a long time with little sensation, the mind fractures and struggles as stimulation floods in without control; the eyes water, and the victim writhes and shouts as the sun bears down on them. They are chained, then, to a statue of the Grand Soul, or one of the fragments of the Soul, and their head is lashed up, forcing them to keep their dark-adjusted eyes held up towards the sky.
All who pass by the victim are free to strike them as they see fit on any exposed flesh. Thin whipping rods made of flexible metal are provided for this purpose. No individual is permitted to hit the victim more than six times.
During this time, the Victim is scoured with water, as well-- it is thrown over them, scrubbed into their wounds, splashed into their eyes. As their skin or fur is soaked, the sun burns all the more on their skin. The process is survivable, but those who have survived it have reported that it feels mentally breaking.

"I. I'm not who I was, before. I was saved. I felt it, when the Soul Triad pried my mind open and forced me to see what I should have seen all along."

Octaviana Hannibal Malius,

Cleansed Dissenter