Gibbet

The gibbet is a device used in The Realm of Aerlon as the primary form of capital punishment. All major settlements have a gibbet, usually set up in a square along a wall where public executions can be carried out.
Like an early guillotine (which has not been invented in Aeramis), the gibbet is a tall wooden structure. A large axe head is affixed to a wooden beam set into groves, and the condemned laid on their knees with their neck resting on a block below the axe. When the rope supporting the axe was cut or its pin removed, the axe head fell and decapitated the condemned.
In situations when a gibbet is not available, criminals are beheaded in more conventional ways through the use of a headsman wielding a greatsword or greataxe. Hangings are uncommon but not unheard of.