Human Sacrifice

Human Sacrifice is a ritualistic killing of one or more human beings so as to appease a deity, demon or other supernatural force - often it is considered a barbaric act but depending on the time period or culture it could be a common occurrence (as was the case with Aztecs).

It is also used in some forms of black magic to obtain power from the death and/or suffering of victims - often this is done with ceremonial daggers, pyres or other ancient execution methods and a victim is usually picked for specific reasons (such as being a virgin).

Methods

 * Ritualistic Dagger (the most common, where a victim is held atop an altar and a priest(ess) cuts them with a dagger while reciting a prayer or spell, sometimes a victim's heart is removed or their blood is collected for use in other rituals)
 * Spread Eagle (a type of human sacrifice mostly associated with the Norse Berserkers and reserved for Christian opponents, dedicated to Odin)
 * Volcano Sacrifice (a stereotypical type of sacrifice performed by "natives" in jungle settings, where they take a virgin to a nearby volcano and toss them in as a means to appease the god(s) of the island / jungle (can be considered offensive in modern use) )
 * Pyre (the act of burning a victim atop a ceremonial fire, the most infamous of all pyres is the Wicker Man)
 * Impalement (some sacrifices involve impaling a victim on stakes or spears, an infamous example of this occurred in Cannibal Holocaust due to Alan Yates rape of a native woman and the tribe's impalement of said woman as part of a "cleansing" ritual)
 * Scalping (most associated with Native Americans, this involves killing an enemy and removing the hair and scalp using a tomahawk - often keeping the scalp as a trophy)
 * Head Hunting (some societies would kill a victim and take the head as a trophy, some went further and would "shrink" the head - creating the infamous Shrunken Head)
 * Cannibalism (some tribal societies would eat victims, often to try and gain their strength or wisdom - some would also resort to cannibalism to "cleanse" their territory of evil influences : as happened in Cannibal Holocaust when Alan Yates and his crew were ritualistically devoured to cleanse the jungle they had shamelessly ravaged)