[Alneyan]

Totemised! Or totemized, if working under the nefarious spell of "confusing grammar": why have some verbs ending in -ise and others ending in -ize? Truly, it only seems to be a marketing device to increase the sales of aspirin and... Why are you speaking of a wild tangent?

Totemisation is the process transforming someone into a small totem, as introduced in the Zork series. It really is faster than torture, cleaner than execution, and it takes very little place. Besides, the creatures contained in the totems are still alive, so the tormenting value remains quite high. Because of all the merits of the process, totemisation has become the highest punishment in Zork, and virtually the only one too. Lenience is only the kind of things used by writers to create plot twists, allowing the heroes to merely remain imprisoned, thereby allowing them to save the world; if there was no laxness, heroes would stay dead when their time is due.