Linsey Weave was a girl from southern Jalkin, poor but well-educated who worked as a translator for a printing firm. A quiet, polite girl she had never been in trouble before, but in 1333 was put on trial for attempting to kill a neighbouring couple. Linsey had poisoned them both, leaving them seriously ill but both survived. The reasons for doing so remain obscure, and at her trial Linsey offered neither explanation nor regret for her actions. This, and the pre-meditated nature of the crime was why a death penalty was sought by the state and, after Linsey unsuccessfully pleaded innocent, why the judges declared that she should hang. Though remaining passive throughout, Linsey broke into tears when the sentence was declared and had to be dragged away from the court. She was held in the condemned cell under the Halls of Justice for nine days while her execution was arranged for the 9th February 1334, the first hanging of the new year. The crowd in Swallow Square that morning was fairly subdued, though there were some angry calls about the severity of the sentence imposed (as attempted murder is rarely a capital offence). when the nine o'clock bell had struck, the rear door of the Halls of Justice opened and Linsey was brought out onto the platform. She was a very small, dark girl with a tiny plain face; she wore the standard dun-coloured prison smock and her hair had been clipped short. She was weeping uncontrollably, not seeming to recognise where she was and having to be led by the arms by the Guardsmen. Linsey ignored the shouts of support for her and barely noticed the crowd; asked if she wanted to make a final speech, she shook her head. The noose was placed round her neck and her hands tied behind her back. An Ellan priestess read her last rights, and then the trapdoor opened. Linsey's neck snapped instantly; her body shook convulsively, her feet kicking, but slowly hung still. Her head lolled forwards, eyes, which had widened in shock, glazed over and mouth hanging open. Linsey's body hung for the required ten minutes, then cut down and burned in the Halls of Justice incinerator. Linsey Weave was twenty when she was executed.
Kael Otranto was the manager and a part-owner of the Forgar Timber Mill. For some years it had been a by-word for bad business practices. The Guards were slow to gather evidence, but finally had enough to arrest Otranto in 1333. She was tried and found guilty of violating employment legislation, defrauding both potential investors and her own company, and evading taxes. She was found guilty; as well as substantial fines to compensate those injured by her activities she was banned from running a company for ten years and sentenced to thirty two strokes with a birch. Her appeal dragged on into the next year but it eventually failed, and she was taken into custody at the New Reystone Prison. Because of the prominence of her position, and so her failure to set and example to others, and also because her frauds had succeeded because she won the confidence of others, it was decided that her punishment should be carried out in public view. Therefore on 26th April 1334 Miss Oltranto was taken to Swallow Square by a Court Official. A large crowd had gathered in the square and the mood was of brutal jocularity. Miss Oltranto was bent over and fixed in stocks which stood on a raised platform. A judge read out her offences to the crowd, who reacted with much jeering, calling of obscenities and the like. A number of vegetables were also thrown at Miss Oltranto, several striking her in the face. After the Guards had restored some semblance of order the Court Official took the birch, pulled Miss Oltranto's skirt up so the back of her legs were bare and began the punishment. Each time the birch struck her legs she gave a loud, whinnying shriek; her cries were seized on an mimicked by some in the crowd, to general amusement. After the twentieth stroke Miss Otranto seemed to faint, which caused the punishment to be halted. This angered the crowd, who suspected she was acting, and one man broke onto the platform with a bucket of water. He poured it over her head, presumably to revive her. After he was pulled away the overseer consulted with the Court Official. They eventually decided that Miss Otranto was in sufficiently strong condition to receive the remaining twelve strokes. These were duly administered, and the sobbing woman was taken away through another barrage of missiles from the crowd.
Allinon Relton and Calli Davio were two women from a working class Forgar background brought to trial in 1330 for several murders; Calli's husband, his sister and a friend of hers. Relton (23) and Davio (26) claimed that they had fallen in love with one another and Davio's husband had found out. He had severely beaten her and in revenge Relton poisoned him and dumped his body in the river. The other two victims were later poisoned by Davio because they had discovered the killing and were blackmailing the women. The trial became the most sensational of 1330. During the course of it, Davio changed her story and claimed Relton had used sorcery to first seduce her and then commit her two murders. However, a freelance wizard was brought in to examine Relton and claimed she was incapable of using magic. Both women were found guilty and sentenced to death. Allinon Relton was dispatched in one of the Thoj's 'midnight hangings'. Calli Davio, due to her attempt to pervert justice, had to endure a public execution. She was hung on 17th September 1330 amidst stormy scenes in Swallow Square. Afterwards the bodies of both women were decapitated and buried. There was however a final grisly twist. Davio's head somehow went missing and was never recovered. The heads of executed criminals are used in necromancy spells, and Davio's is said to still be in the Cities and utilised for such grim purposes.