What does a torture room smell like?

[Aprella]

I'm writing a scene set in a torture room that is located the dungeon of a castle. The room is rather large and has a heigh ceiling and is badly lit. I can picture the whole room but I have absolutely no idea what a torture room can smell like. I thought of using the cliché 'it smelled like fear' but my character doesn't know how fear smells and the smell of fear is produce through sweat and since it's a big room I doubt that it will quickly smell like sweat anyway.

So any ideas or suggestions are more than welcome.

 

[Ireth]

Sweat, blood, urine and feces, possibly vomit as well.

 

[GeekDavid]

If your character has an exceptionally sharp nose, they may also be able to smell fear.

The smell of fear is real, claim scientists - Telegraph

 

[deilaitha]

the smell of fear is produce through sweat and since it's a big room I doubt that it will quickly smell like sweat anyway.

So any ideas or suggestions are more than welcome.

Firstly, what Ireth said.

Second, a big room can still smell like sweat, even when frequently cleaned--a gym, for example. It just has a kind of dank sweaty smell even when people are wiping off the equipment with lemon scented sanitizing cloths. If we are talking medieval style torture I imagine that frequently cleaning is not happening. All kinds of bodily fluids will be getting on the floor and even if mopped up, it's going to be with a basic fat-and-lye type of soap, not clorox.

I go hunting occasionally and so I have field-dressed deer. Basically this means gutting them. It is an absolutely horrific smell, I can tell you that. (However, the deer's musk is not released as long as you are careful not to rupture the scent gland). Also, if the gall bladder is ruptured, that is a completely different kind of smell. Bile--straight, unadulterated bile--is beyond description. A lot of times when we say something smells like bile we mean vomit, but it can be far more concentrated than that, trust me. If your characters are being drawn, a burst gallbladder wouldn't be out of the question (especially if you have a clumsy torturer).

Basically, your room should smell like every bodily fluid and excretion you can imagine--and add to that mildew, mold, and the decay of said bodily fluids because medieval soap wouldn't be able to remove it from all of the stone crevices. The smell would also permeate all of the clothes that the torturers wear while working. There might be some incense burned for the sake of the torturers, but they would probably be numb to the stench after a while.

I don't know what fear smells like, and even though it can be smelled by some, I wouldn't know how to describe it. I would simply stick with what you can personally imagine.

 

[Lawfire]

Sweat, blood, urine and feces, possibly vomit as well.

I would say all of the above. In addition to blood, there could be the smell of open body cavities and damaged organs. It is a very distinct and awful smell. Depending on if it is currently in use, you could include the smell of fire, hot metal, burning flesh. It certainly could have the smell of death and/or rotting flesh, again very distinct and horrible scents.

 

[Addison]

Also think about what torture devices are in there. Those could bring new smells or make the smells of blood and sweat and such more terrible. If there's a device involving fire or hot irons then you can add the smell of burnt flesh to the mix.

 

[GeekDavid]

Also think about what torture devices are in there. Those could bring new smells or make the smells of blood and sweat and such more terrible. If there's a device involving fire or hot irons then you can add the smell of burnt flesh to the mix.

Burning wood and hot iron also have their own aromas.

 

[Scales]

Some torture equipment might have a metallic smell and of blood smeared on them.

 

[Aprella]

Hmm thank you all... just thinking about it makes me a little nauseous, but that's a good thing I suppose

 

[CupofJoe]

I visited an abattoir a few years ago [before the government tightened lots of rules] and the overwhelming smell was of wet iron and faeces. There was an under-note of what I was told was Lye. It was a sharp acidic-like and vaguely lemony smell - yes I know Lye is an alkali and not at all lemonish and that really bit into my nose. That is what I've always thought a torture chamber would smell like. Somehow the sharp Lye smell made it worse, like the place was full of death but they still tried to keep things clean.

 

[GeekDavid]

I visited an abattoir a few years ago [before the government tightened lots of rules] and the overwhelming smell was of wet iron and faeces. There was an under-note of what I was told was Lye. It was a sharp acidic-like and vaguely lemony smell - yes I know Lye is an alkali and not at all lemonish and that really bit into my nose. That is what I've always thought a torture chamber would smell like. Somehow the sharp Lye smell made it worse, like the place was full of death but they still tried to keep things clean.

Now I'm curious... was the lye smell natural, or was the lye there because that was what they used to clean the room when it was, shall we say, in use?

 

[A. E. Lowan]

This could possibly be our most disgusting thread to date, and I strive to specialize in human injury and torment.

 

[CupofJoe]

Now I'm curious... was the lye smell natural, or was the lye there because that was what they used to clean the room when it was, shall we say, in use?

If I remember correctly it was a greyish powder that was thrown on the floor and brushed all over the floor and deep in to the cracks between the flags. It was left overnight and then sluiced out before the next day's animals arrived... I know it rotted/ destroyed the yard brushes they were using.
We had a family friend that was an "old school" butcher [the sort that if you'd hit a deer with your car, he'd clean and joint it up for a few steaks or a pint or two]. He thought we would find it interesting to see where our lamb chops were coming from. I wish I'd paid more attention... he had endless stories about butchery, country life and getting off-ration meat during the war.

 

[Dragev]

I had some discussions with a friend of mine who is a police inspector; he once met an eastern counterpart who told him about a kind of "torture room"; apparently the smell was a compound of:
- old blood (which really stinks)
- sweat
- old human fluids (excrement, urine, vomit)
- what he called "slaughterhouse" smell, so dead flesh but not rotting flesh.

Apparently, the smell alone was so foul the police officers (ALL of them) threw up the moment the door was open. And only one victim had been tortured in there. I'd rather not imagine what it'd be like in a room regularly used to that purpose.

The cellar had not been in use for some time, so obviously you'd add smells for the more recent...occupants (if any) and the heated metal of braziers, the smell of the torches (low quality torches smell quite a lot) if any are present.
Basically, all of the above posts put into one nightmarish (and bazooka-vomit inducing) heap.

 

[Kn'Trac]

All of the above, plus I imagine the following:

Soot, those torches in sconces leave horrible stains on the ceiling and that gives a smokey, burned smell. Ventilation isn't factored in when building these facilities.
Moss and clammy stones: I imagine most torture rooms are subterranian locales with maybe a small slit window opening up to the outside. Hence there would be moss and clammy, humid stones. While the predominant smells would most likely be blood, excrement, urine, metal and burned flesh, the stink of a very humid environment doesn't really appeal to me either, although I would describe it before entering the room proper, so the other smells can still overwhelm me upon entering.

 

[Lawfire]

...although I would describe it before entering the room proper, so the other smells can still overwhelm me upon entering.

This brings up a good point. You would likely be able to smell such a room before you were in it. Depending on the layout and conditions, you might smell it long before you entered.

 

[Aprella]

Thank you all! This helps a lot

 

[Xitra_Blud]

I made mine smell like rotting corpses (not to be too vile). Or it could smell like death or, like someone else said, urine and vomit. Think of a lot of disgusting vile things that can be related to a torcher chamber.

 

[Addison]

I have an older brother, two little brothers, a little sister, dogs, horses, cats and I'm currently working in prop and costumes. I have experienced so many vile smells I've almost lost my sense of smell completely.

 

[Sam Evren]

I honestly don't know about lye in cleaning, but I do know it's used to eliminate corpses.

I became curious after I'd seen pictures of bodies covered in white powder, at least that's what it looks like in black-and-white pictures.

I was told that it hastens the process of decomposition. After a quick google search that will probably flag me in some untoward way, I see that my memory still serves.

In Heinlein's Friday, I believe there's a room in a shelter/bunker that's used, essentially, as a corpse disposal pit. It's filled with "quick lye."