tormentors

Tormentors is a term used to describe individuals or entities that inflict torment, pain, or fear on others. It can refer to real-world actors who cause sustained distress, as well as to fictional beings or roles within stories and games.

In psychology and sociology, tormentors include bullies, abusive partners, coercive authorities, and interrogators who apply pressure to induce a response. The dynamics often involve power imbalances, repeated harm, and attempts to control or degrade the victim. International human rights law forbids torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, and establishes norms against such acts.

In fiction and media, tormentors are a common archetype representing authority, fear, or malevolence. They may appear as cruel rulers, demonic beings, or ritual torturers who impose suffering to demonstrate power or test protagonists. The term is also used as a fictional epithet or title within certain universes.

The term derives from the Latin tormentare, meaning to torment.

See also: bullying, torture, coercion, oppressor, sadism.