Chapter Text
Decapitation has served as a method of execution for millenia, with the practice falling in and out of favour over the years but never waning completely. A sharp and precise slice through the neck is quick, effective and aesthetically pleasing in the eyes of some, a smooth cut indicating the headsman's skill.
However, this practice is regarded in quite a different manner by sects of the Divided, for the tales of their god tell of its own beheading at the hands of the Helper. While many would join the godless in dismissing the notion of a head remaining conscious after being severed, these followers have formed three main conclusions utilising their most holy, all-ignorant and all-knowing God as an inspiration:
-As their God was ripped in half, its near-death experience is what provided it divine insight and inspiration over the matters of the world. The separation of the head and its body may also separate the foolishness of the flesh and the wisdom of the mind within their own halves.
-The cut caused by the Helper was a perfect one, which was able to truly split the halves in twain without killing either. Instead, the Divided lives on, its near-death experience prolonged to infinity.
-Thus, the more skilled the beheading, the longer life is prolonged in both parts. Even if momentarily, such a state of insight is achievable for mortals as well.
While in modern times such rites are rarely committed to the full extent, only enacted symbolically, there are many rumours of those who were able to live for years without a head, and of heads who lived for millenia. Decapitation is rarely practiced as a mere method of punishment among Divided, as beyond its religious significance, it is believed that too clean a cut may grant mercy to one who does not deserve it. Only those whose crimes stemmed from seeking knowledge may be deemed worthy of such a fate, if they willingly submit to it, to allow them one final chance at achieving the wisdom they sought.
