A summary of how people die (and don’t) in swordfights
This is a really good article about how quickly people actually die from cuts and punctures inflicted by swords and knives. However, it’s really really long and I figured that since I was summarizing for my own benefit I’d share it for anyone else who is writing fiction that involves hacking and slashing your villain(s) to death. If you want the nitty gritty of the hows and whys of this, you can find it at the original source.
…even in the case of mortal wounds, pain may not reach levels of magnitude sufficient to incapacitate a determined swordsman.
Causes of death from stabs and cuts:
- massive bleeding (exsanguination) - most common
- air in the bloodstream (air embolism)
- suffocation (asphyxia)
- air in the chest cavity (pneumothorax)
- infection
Stabbing vs cutting:
- Stabbing someone actually takes very little force if you don’t hit bone or hard cartilage.
- The most important factor in the ease of stabbing is the velocity of the blade at impact with the skin, followed by the sharpness of the blade.
- Stabbing wounds tend to close after the weapon is withdrawn.
- Stabbing wounds to muscles are not typically very damaging. Damage increases with the width of the blade.
- Cutting wounds are typically deepest at the site of initial impact and get shallower as force is transferred from the initial swing to pushing and pressing.
- Cutting wounds have a huge number of factors that dictate how deep they are and how easily they damage someone: skill, radial velocity, mass of the blade, and the size of the initial impact.
- Cutting wounds along the grain of musculature are not typically very damaging but cutting wounds across the grain can incapacitate.
Arteries vs veins:
- Severed veins have almost zero blood pressure and sometimes even negative pressure. They do not spurt but major veins can suck air in causing an air embolism.
- Cutting or puncturing a vein is usually not fatal.
- Severed arteries have high blood pressure. The larger arteries do spurt and can often cause death due to exsanguination.
Body parts as targets:
- Severing a jugular vein in the neck causes an air embolism and will make the victim collapse after one or two gasps for air.
- Severing a carotid artery in the neck cuts off the blood supply to the brain but the victim may be conscious for up to thirty seconds.
- Stabbing or cutting the neck also causes the victim to aspirate blood that causes asphyxiation and death.
- Severing a major abdominal artery or vein would cause immediate collapse, but this takes a fairly heavy blade and a significant amount of effort because they are situated near the spine.
- Abdominal wounds that only impact the organs can cause death but they do not immediately incapacitate.
- Severing an artery in the interior of the upper arm causes exsanguination and death but does not immediately incapacitate.
- Severing an artery in the palm side of the forearm causes exsanguination and death but does not immediately incapacitate.
- Severing the femoral artery at a point just above and behind the knee is the best location. Higher up the leg it is too well protected to easily hit. This disables and will eventually kill the victim but does not immediately incapacitate.
- Cutting across the muscles of the forearm can immediately end the opponent’s ability to hold their weapon.
- Cutting across the palm side of the wrist causes immediate loss of ability to hold a weapon.
- Stab wounds to the arm do not significantly impact the ability to wield a weapon or use it.
- Cuts and stab wounds to the front and back of the legs generally do not do enough muscle damage to cause total loss of use of that leg.
- Bone anywhere in the body can bend or otherwise disfigure a blade.
- The brain can be stabbed fairly easily through the eyes, the temples, and the sinuses.
- Stabs to the brain are more often not incapacitating.
The lungs as targets:
- Slicing into the lung stops that lung from functioning, but the other lung continues to function normally. This also requires either luck to get between the ribs or a great deal of force to penetrate the ribs.
- Stabbing the lung stops that lung from functioning, but the other lung continues to function normally. It is significantly easier to stab between ribs than to slice.
- It is possible to stab the victim from the side and pass through both lungs with an adequate length blade. It is very unlikely that this will happen with a slicing hit.
- “Death caused solely by pneumothorax is generally a slow process, occurring as much as several hours after the wound is inflicted.”
- Lung punctures also typically involve the lung filling with blood, but this is a slow process.
The heart as a target:
I’m just going to quote this paragraph outright with a few omissions and formatting changes for clarity because it’s chock-full of good info:
…[stabbing] wounds to the heart the location, depth of penetration, blade width, and the presence or absence of cutting edges are important factors influencing a wounded duelist’s ability to continue a combat.
- Large cuts that transect the heart may be expected to result in swift incapacitation…
- …stab wounds, similar to those that might be inflicted by a thrust with a sword with a narrow, pointed blade may leave a mortally wounded victim capable of surprisingly athletic endeavors.
Essentially, the heart can temporarily seal itself well enough to keep pressure up for a little while if it’s a simple stab. The arteries around the heart, while they are smaller and harder to hit, actually cause incapacitation much more quickly.
(via valerie1972)
Source: realfighting.com
This Polish commercial is the purest thing I ever seen in my entire life.
I’m not crying, you’re crying.
I WASN T REA DY 😭
hOLY FUCK
SOBBING
MY HEART OMFG
Source: margalotta
imagine a vampire going “fuck it” and just taking some antihistamines before going to town on a plate of garlic bread
later on it’s wheeled into the ER with like a puffed up face and it just goes “I have been on this earth 10 thousand years but i have not lived until this day”
#a film with vampires doing all the things they aren’t supposed to do (x)
I would not only watch but fund this
(via sarlione)
Source: nindabob
gay8:
they’ve been here…………
#touches the ground#it is still warm and there are dorito crumbs spread around#the stench of men’s rights in the air
*stands up slowly* *sniffs air*, “the stench is still strong” you whisper to yourself. You feel eyes from the other end of the aisle. Cautiously you turn around to see a white cis male in a black fedora and an ironic t-shirt with a meme reference.
“Hello” The brony squints “I see you’ve found the reminder I’ve left for you”
“Reminder?” you say, confused
“REMINDER THAT I DON’T BELONG IN THE FRIENDZONE” all of the sudden the brony does a magical girl transformation but nothing changes. He takes off his fedora, revealing another fedora. He throws the fedora at you. “I’LL SEND YOU TO THE FRIENDZONE” he shouts
You dodge the fedora “Good that’s where I want to be. The friendzone”
He continues to throw fedoras “I. DON’T. WANT. TO. BE. IN. THE. FRIENDZONE!!!” His eyes glow red
“I THOUGHT FRIENDSHIP WAS MAGIC” you cry out as you dodge fedoras
All of the sudden the brony stops. His arm fall to his side and the fedora tumbles out of his hand to the ground. Slowly, he lays on the ground in fetal position.
“You have used my own logic against me” and with that he fades, slowly disappearing into thin air. You turn back to the shelf just in time to see the fedora begin to fade into thin air. There’s a note on the fedora. You pick it up.
There’s a message written in cheeto dust “I’m a nice guy” reads the note. You crumple up the note and throw it in the nearest recycling bin.
This story is amazing
well, this was my christmas present
(via noodle2thedoodle)
Source: izyurfimenipaflanyant
The significance of plot without conflict
In the West, plot is commonly thought to revolve around conflict: a confrontation between two or more elements, in which one ultimately dominates the other. The standard three- and five-act plot structures—which permeate Western media—have conflict written into their very foundations. A “problem” appears near the end of the first act; and, in the second act, the conflict generated by this problem takes center stage. Conflict is used to create reader involvement even by many post-modern writers, whose work otherwise defies traditional structure.
The necessity of conflict is preached as a kind of dogma by contemporary writers’ workshops and Internet “guides” to writing. A plot without conflict is considered dull; some even go so far as to call it impossible. This has influenced not only fiction, but writing in general—arguably even philosophy. Yet, is there any truth to this belief? Does plot necessarily hinge on conflict? No. Such claims are a product of the West’s insularity. For countless centuries, Chinese and Japanese writers have used a plot structure that does not have conflict “built in”, so to speak. Rather, it relies on exposition and contrast to generate interest. This structure is known as kishōtenketsu.
I received so many messages to make this! And so I finally did. I’m only putting the freakiest of all the stories.
STORIES THAT RECEIVED THE MOST INTENSE REACTIONS
Here are stories I’ve posted. I get them mostly from reddit no sleep (not every story here is from there however). They’ve received intense reactions from tumblr and reddit users alike. Some of them maybe long but trust me every word is worth it.
Betsy the Doll: most popular creepy story I’ve post, I’ve received the most insane reactions from you guys about this story
Annie96 is typing: an interactive chat story, nothing will pop out at you but the screen shakes a bit. the ending creepy a lot of people out.
My father’s long, long legs: another interactive spooky story
I found a girl I knew in a porno: extremely sickening, going to put a huge trigger warning here for the horrifying NSFW concepts
Dr.Ramsey stalker story: some people have twisted minds, and what makes this even more horrifying is how the user who posted this claimed these are real life events
Autopilot: voted the most popular no sleep reddit story
630-296-7536: what’s horrifying about this is how when you call the number you hear the exact same terrifying message as said in the story. It honestly works.
Something off in my basement: a story written by horror writer Cliff Barlow. It’s both upsetting and terrifying.
String Theory: this one really makes you think
The story of her holding an orange: while the creepiness isn’t apparent at first to some, many found it psychologically twisting
The girl in the log: tumblr users really liked this story, while it is haunting it has a sweet ending
The shadow web: what’s really freaky about this is that it based on the real concept of something called the deep web
True Schizophrenia Story: a terrifying look into someone’s real hallucinations
Grandpa’s 2nd Voice: what makes it haunting is how there are true cases of this story
Lunch: don’t read this while eating is all I can tell you
Why I didn’t shower for 21 years: beautifully written and you probably won’t want to be alone in a bathroom after this
Conversation over skype: when I first read this one I got shivers down my spine, talk about a twist
World’s Best Psychologist: this really messes with your minds and leaves you more questions than answers
The Creature: it knows. it knows everything.
MOST POPULAR STORIES ON CREEPY PASTA
The first time I found out about this site was my junior year of high school. After reading a couple stories, I was so incredibly terrified I vowed never to go back. But ofcourse that didn’t last for so long, because they are so addicting.
You can view a ratings index of all creepy pasta stories here. They are numbered from most spooky to least spooky. Have fun ;)
SHORT ONES
These are only a paragraph or two long.
Creepiest things children have said
As more and more creepy stories are written or if I discover anymore cool ones, I will be posting them! Please look back my freaky story section for updates on stories!
(via sixpenceee)
- Island of the Dolls: south of Mexico, literally an island full of creepy discarded doll parts, supposedly dedicated to the soul of a little girl who drowned
- Aokigahara forest: a forest in Japan known as the suicide forest, if you walk around you’ll probably find the bodies of many depressed souls
- Lalaurie house: American Horror Story Coven fans, an entire episode was based off of this. It’s a house that belonged to this wicked lady that performed MANY, MANY hideous crimes towards her slaves. Don’t eat while reading what this woman did.
- Catacombs of Paris: underground cemetery which hosts over 6 million bodies, only ½ a mile of this immense structure is open to the public. It stretches for 600 km. Here’s a supposed recording of a guy who got lost here
- Sedlic Ossuary: also known as the Church of the Bones in the Czech Republic, holds the bones of more than 40,000 human skeletons, and they’ve all been artistically placed inside this small chapel. It’s haunting, gruesome, and just plain odd.
- Abandoned Takakanonuma Amusement Park: located in Japan and built in 1973, this park closed permanently again in 1999. Instead of dissembling everything, they abandoned the grounds. Rumor has it there were several deaths during its first run, so perhaps the ghosts still linger in the park.
- Forensic Anthropology Research Center (Body Farm): located in Knoxville, Tennessee, this is where decomposing human remains are studied for forensic science and other purposes. More than 100 bodies are donated to the facility every year, and then they are left there to rot and decompose.
- Tual Sleng: located in Cambodia, it used to be a prison and is now a genocide museum. Horrible torture went on here, over 20,000 people have died.
- Stanley Hotel: it’s located in Colorado, and is the inspiration for Stephen King’s The Shining. You can read about the hauntings here
- Poveglia Island: located in Italy, it served as a dumping ground for those who were sick because of the plague. It later served as a mental hospital, where rumor has it the doctor was driven mad by the ghosts and jumped out of a bell tower. It’s now for sale
- Overtoun Bridge: Since the 1950s, dozens of dogs have leapt from the bridge to the waterfalls 50 feet below, at a rate of one every month. The most plausible explanation is that the strong smell of male mink urine, detected in the undergrowth beneath the bridge, has been luring dogs to their death.
- Bunny Man Bridge: a bridge in Virginia where there is alleged sites of a man in bunny suit terrorizing people with his axe
- Hashima Island: Hashima was used as a coal mining facility between 1887 and 1974. After petroleum replaced coal throughout Japan in the 1960s, Hashima was abandoned, and is now known as “Ghost Island”. What’s really cool is how you can explore this place on google maps!
- Tower of London: London’s imposing stone tower is, according to legend, haunted by dozens of regal souls, many of whom met their end within its grey walls.
- Edinburgh Castle: One of Scotland’s most haunted sites, Edinburgh Castle is said to be home to a phantom piper, a headless drummer and a spectral dog.
- Pripayt: an abandoned city in north of Ukraine where every left right after the nuclear disaster
- Iulia Hasdeu Castle: built by Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu in Campina, Romania after the death of his 19-year-old daughter, Iulia. Hasdeu dedicated the castle and the rest of his life to Iulia. He became a practitioner of spiritualism in an attempt to reconnect with her spirit, and designed one room in the castle solely for the purposes of these daily spiritual exercises. Its walls are all black. Iulia reportedly haunts the castle still, walking through the courtyard in a white dress and holding daisies. Oh, and she still plays the piano each night.
- Hellfire Club: on Montpelier Hill in Ireland. Built as a hunting lodge in 1725 and reportedly became a gathering place for a small group of Dublin elites who met for debauchery and devil worship.
- St. Louis Cemetary: Numerous cemeteries dot the landscape but the St. Louis Cemetery is the oldest in the city. While many ghosts are rumored to call this place their home, Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, reigns supreme.
- Winchester Mystery House: located in California, the home was originally built by Sarah Winchester. Sarah tragically lost both her daughter and husband to illness and later sought help from a spiritual advisor to overcome her depression. The medium warned Sarah that the Winchester family had been struck by a terrible curse, and would be haunted by the ghosts of the many deceased killed by the Winchester rifle. The only way to appease the dead according to the medium, was to build a house for the lost souls… and never stop building. This house is a result of that.
- Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum: Ghosts of Civil War soldiers and former patients are said to be walking through the two and half miles of hallways. Visitors claim to see things move or feel the presence of spirits.
- Stepp Cemetery: Legend has that it was founded by a cult called the Crabbites, who sacrificed small animals. Another story holds that a mother of an infant who died was so distraught that she went to the cemetery and dug up the child’s body after it was buried. Grieving, she took her own life. Visitors claim to have seen her ghost, dressed in black, weeping over her daughter’s grave, near the site of an old stump that has since rotted away years ago.
- Moundsville Penitentiary: It is estimated that one thousand inmates died while being incarcerated at this fearsome, Gothic style prison.Today, many ghosts are said to be lurking the halls, but the most famous is the Shadow Man. Visitors have also claimed to see the ghost of a maintenance man who was stabbed to death by prisoners in the basement for snitching to prison guards about inmate activity.
- Gettysburg Battlefield: Gettysburg stands the test of time as one of the most haunted places in America. Over 50,000 soldiers from the Union and Confederate armies were killed and their ghosts are still seen and heard today by tourists to the field and town. Visitors also claim to hear the thunder of canons, gunfire and screams and moans of the battle’s victims.
- St. Augustine Lighthouse: The ghosts of this haunted lighthouse are rumored to make their presence known by appearing as creepy shadows and making unexplained noises. Legend has it that the daughters of the Superintendent of Lighthouse Construction drowned, and continue to haunt the building ever since their untimely death.
- The Myrtles Plantation: Rumor has it that ten deaths have occurred on the site. One of the most famous involves a slave named Chloe, who was supposedly killed by fellow slaves after an ill-fated attempt to poison another house mistress. Visitors have reported seeing ghostly children on the verandah, a curly-haired woman who mysteriously appears and disappears, and odd hand prints that mysteriously appear in mirrors. One visitor reported a cold spot hovering over her bed while a rattling closet door kept her awake.
- Bell Witch Cave: The site where John Bell and his family were tormented by a ghost now known as the Bell Witch is open to brave visitors who wish to explore the spirit world. It’s located in Tennessee. Visitors claim that any object taken from the site is cursed, while many have reported encountering a violent force while on the property. Technology doesn’t work there either, with cameras mysteriously malfunctioning when users try to capture an image.
- Jacob’s Well: located in Texas. Jacob’s well is a tunnel opening (12 feet in diameter) in a small perennial spring that goes straight down for about 30 feet before leveling off into a huge underwater tunnel system. At least eight divers having died in this system trying to explore the caves.
- Death Zone in Mt. Everest: Lack of oxygen, exhaustion, extreme cold, and climbing hazards all contribute to the high death toll in this zone. Since rescuing or carrying an injured climber back to basecamp is impractical, they are typically left behind to die. About 150 bodies have never been recovered and it’s not uncommon to find corpses near the standard climbing routes. Even experienced climbers have perished in this zone.
- Killing fields in Cambodia: Killing fields were a number of site where at least a million people were killed at the end of Cambodian Civil War by Khmer Rouge. Human bones can still be seen sticking out of the dirt paths. There is huge stupa full of human skulls with holes in them from where they were bludgeoned to death.
- Mariana Trench: Mariana Trench is currently the deepest known point on earth. It is deeper than average cruising altitude of commercial airliners and harbors some of the strangest life form known to men. Google some of the creatures. They are not cute at all.
- Door to Hell: The Door to Hell is a natural gas field in Turkmenistan. In 1971, a team of Soviet scientists set up a drilling platform looking for natural gases. The rig collapsed, and fearing the spread of poisonous methane gas, the researchers set the crater on fire hoping it would burn out in a few hours. That was more than 40 years ago. It is still burning today.
- Snake Island:This is an island, which is so densely populated by poisonous snakes the Brazilian Navy has quarantined it and a biologist once said that when on the island you are “never more than three feet from death.”
- Gates of Hell: located in New Jersey, this legendary passageway that leads to a network of underground tunnels and storm sewers, and some say to the lair of the evil one himself.
- Skinwalker Ranch: located in Utah, it is home to many mysterious phenomena such as vanishing and mutilated cattle, sightings of unidentified flying objects or orbs, large animals with piercing red eyes that they say were not injured when struck by bullets, and invisible objects emitting destructive magnetic fields.
That’s all I got so far guys! I included the most well known terrifying places. Feel free to add to this list, in case I missed some special, horrifying place.
The horror doesn’t stop here though. I have lots more masterposts:
masterpost of creepy online games
masterpost of gothic/horror novels (yes I link you to a PDF version of the entire book!)
masterpost to make you feel better (when all the horror is too much)
masterpost of creepy wikipedia articles
The following aren’t masterposts, but they have an abundance of information
creepy meaning behind nursery rhymes
map of monsters/ghosts/cryptids in the USA
Source: sixpenceee
The Artist - (r/nosleep)
There’s this painting my wife loves, called “Death and Life”, by Klimt. I don’t know what she finds so fascinating about it. I made all the right noises when she showed me her beloved framed print when we were first dating, oohing and ahhing and making up some bullshit about warm and cold color schemes and the specific choice of angles and line. She was an artist, our first few dates involved long walks through museums, starting in Picasso’s blue period and ending in heavy petting and blue balls.
I took an art history course as an elective when I was finishing up my doctorate, I remembered enough of the lingo to charm my fantastically gorgeous future wife and lure her back to my stupidly filthy apartment. We’re talking me as the foul bachelor frog, sitting on a lillypad made of empty take out containers surrounded by pond of enough unwashed clothes to keep a laundromat in business for a cool 6 months.
I remember scrambling to find 2 of any sort of cup-like container for the bottle of wine we had brought back while she was in the bathroom. I rinsed out a couple of coffee mugs and ran into the bedroom to try to clean up the condom wrappers that had been sitting on my bedside table since 2003. On the bed, neatly laid out against the rest of the chaos, were my wife’s dress, bra and panties. She came out of the bathroom completely nude aside from a pair of high heels, took the wine from me and took a swig straight from the bottle. I fell totally, completely and irrevocably in love.
I have no head for artistic things- I work in finance, I get creative with numbers, not paint- but I fucking love her stuff. She’s made a name for herself over the past few years, critics call her the American Damien Hirst. One of her first exhibits was composed of a dozen oil paintings of rotting pastries, surrounding an actual cake filled with thousands of dead lady bugs being fed to a mummified tarantula dressed up as Little Miss Muffet. I have no idea what it meant but it was sick, successful and catered by Balthazar so I ate about 20 croissants. They did not have bugs in them. I checked.
She was amazing. She had the body of a Laker girl and the face of a Modigliani model, and still does. She’s charming, charismatic, deep- the kind of person people flock to, want to be around constantly. She fucked like she had something to prove, she had a twisted sense of humor. As soon as I hooked a job with enough figures to keep a girl like her satisfied the way she should be, I proposed, bought her a historical brownstone in the city with a garden full of roses and hardwood mahogany floors. And for the first few years, she seemed happy. We were the kind of couple you see in New York Magazine and scoff at because they’re just too damned lucky…
But we had a rough spot, like all married couples do. She was still the superficially the same woman I fell in love with- looked amazing, people always asked me when she was going to host the next dinner party, she still had an amazing eye for art. I knew, though- I knew she was miserable. I could see it- the misery- in the corners of her eyes and the curve of her mouth.
Source: reddit.com
