Executioner

I mean, it's an easy way to get rid of political enemies completely legal. I understand why the Empire used it.

One of the first things that was abolished when Tosormi established their own government after the Empire left, was the death penalty. This punishment for crimes had been used during the whole reign of the Lomians, although its popularity had varied through the decades.

History in Tosormi

The death penalty had actually been used in Tosormi before the Lomians arrived. Both The Wanderers and The Rooted have used death as punishment for severe crimes at different times in history.
However, times are always changing, and debates about the morality of the death penalty has been common for a long time now. During the Empire's reign, it was at times used a lot as a political tool and often targeting Rooted and Wanderers who treathened the Empire. The executioners became a symbol of terror.

Down with the Empire

When the Empire was kicked out and a new government was put into place in Tosormi, they quickly decided to get rid of the death penalty. It became illegal to use death as punishment, and executioner as a profession went with it.

Work as an Executioner

Very few people ever became executioners by free will. It was often given as an option to the death penalty itself.
As an executioner, you had more to do than simply pulling the lever of the trap door under a noose, or of a guilloutine. Before torture was deemed illegal in the mid-500's, this job often fell to the executioners as well. Their tasks was then to get confessions out of a suspect. Of course, torture was proven to give more false confessions than true which led to its abolishment.
When executions were made illegal, those currently in the profession were pardoned of their previous crimes. Most of them failed to get a proper profession however, as the trauma of their past often proved too much.