Taint

The Taint.

The dark influence, a disease created in Maldrobog, to corrupt the world, and transform it into the vile vision of the unknown lord of the dark fortress.

Some have come to believe, that Taint is similar to matter, in some ways, due to the existence of purely Taint-made beings. In normal species, Taint commences by mutating them into monstrosities, and slowly growing their influence over then. These entities are simply referred to as infected.

However, if given enough time, the Taint will consume the infected entirely, replacing it with a being of pure Taint.

The difference is that Infected can be purified more easily, and generally knocking them out is enough, to deal with the situation. Magi who mostly work with purifying Taint, are best here. Once purified, the former infected will have no recollection of what happened, and will be able to continue their life without consequences. They will also be immune to future instances of infection.

A Tainted, however, needs to be explicitly killed. Once destroyed, the tainted being will come back. Unfortunately, they will also have felt the entire pain of the whole dying thing, and generally be traumatized quite a bit by it. PTSD is not uncommon. These people are, also unlike the infected, not immune to future instances of Taint.

In the case of Tainted humans, Guardians decide to be merciful, and pour some of their power into them, granting them the same immunity as if they had been just infected instead.

There exist a few beings of pure Taint, that are not Tainted, but natives of Maldrobog, or direct servants of it.

The Cauldrons, Witches , the Goblin Lords, the undead as well as the destroyers.

Below, are some of the most common Taint creatures, as well as their masters, and dwelling spots.

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1. Tainted Animals: Pretty straightforward, these being normal animals which were infected by the taint, and mutated to be especially dangerous and hostile to any living thing. But especially Magi.

2. Tainted Fusions. When two or more Tainted animals fuse together, leading to things like a humanoid lion for an upper body, and a rhino for the lower, mixed in with spines, fire breath and massive claws, or extra arms. Clearly more dangerous than simple animals.

3. Tainted Legends. Creatures that are, very rare to usually spot, and often thought of to not really exist, are not immune to taint. A particularly nasty example involved an ancient dwarf smith, who used his newfound corruption and dark powers to modify his goat mount with gun barrels, flamethrowers and other weaponry...and then wreaked havoc until the Magi purified him. ... And his goat.

4. Tainted Nexuses. One step below the Masters, these creatures exhibit the rare trait of being centers for the spread of Taint, as well as a means of directing the lesser tainted beings towards a goal. Very dangerous, and can sometimes be humans as well, in theory. Such a thing has never happened before...and hopefully, never will.

5. Tainted Humans. Tainted Humans undergo a transformation, much like Magi do, and gain something akin to magical powers. At the moment they reach the stage of Tainted, no longer being simply Infected, these beings will transform to a monstrous form and gain even more powerful abilities.

6. The Malicious Elements. Whenever taint influences something lacking sentience...like a tree, in the simplest case...or perhaps a bunch of rocks, to form a tainted golem...or even worse, an entire storm. Malicious Elements fit a strange spot. They are immediately tainted, and never count as infected, but the way to defeat them is through purification based magic, not destruction/killing magic.

And many other, probably unknown as of yet, forms of Tainted beings.

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The Taintborn. Servants of Maldrobog.

1. Cauldrons. Sentient "locations" that seem to "call" to fully Tainted entities that currently have nothing to do. The Cauldrons serve as mission control centers or headquarters, for a specific area, and large amounts of Tainted are gathered inside them, and in their surroundings. Cauldrons look relatively simple, massive dens or caverns, the walls of which are made of pure, hardened Taint. Within a Cauldron, untainted beings risk becoming Tainted.

2. Witches. Their origins are unknown, but they seem to be either created by the Goblin Lords, or are born in the small islands surrounding Maldrobog. Whenever a Cauldron grows populous and large enough, Maldrobog sends a Witch to it. The Witch forms a symbiotic relationship with the Cauldron, gaining greater power, regeneration as well as control over the beings inside the Cauldron.

The Cauldron in turn is refined by the witch into a proper fortress, or maze or dungeon or whatnot. Witches then can organize massive raids, or whenever Magi are on the offense, gather Tainted i to their Cauldron, to protect them.

3. Goblin Lords. The "scientists" of the Tainted forces, Goblin Lords rarely ever show up on the islands, although Giaris has the largest amount of them. Their duty is to use their unparalleled mastery with the Taint, to help it evolve, or create new Tainted and improved Tainted creatures. After the MDF cleansed Astolte of Cauldrons and Witches, after a preplanned onslaught, the Goblin Lords gathered at Maldrobog, and tried coming up with a come back. Shortly after, the first Tainted Humans begun appearing

4. The Undead. The guards of Maldrobog, and one of the two main reasons the MDF has been unable to enter the fortress. The undead stand at the optimal position for Taint. Dead bodies cannot resist Taint, and they skip the infected phase, into Tainted. But once the Tainted form is destroyed, the corpse is immediately reinfected (due to the surrounding Taint, ever-present around Maldrobog), and brought back.

Not just that, but sometimes, Magi can die and become infected as well. And while most powers need an effort of will to work, Magi who have, for example, super strength, and die in their transformed state... Are still as dangerous as ever.

5. The Destroyers. The worst Maldrobog has to offer so far. Gigantic monsters of pure taint, the Destroyers have only been ever held back by large numbers of Magi, with MDF's strongest at the lead. Terrifying creatures on their own right, they have proven impossible to get rid of. But unlike the undead, Deatroyers don't just sit and defend Maldrobog...they actively seek to attack the Magi, the MDF, as well as anything else that isn't tainted. Four of them are said to exist. Two have appeared relatively commonly, and one has been sighted, but not fought.

5.1 Destroyer Lurga: A 30 meter tall monstrosity, covered in a thick exoskeleton, that seems to bounce back any magic that cannot break through it (90% or more of them in general). Lurga is, quite mobile for it's size, and coating, and has blades growths out of it's body parts. A centaur-like creature, with the lower body of a scorpion, and a more humanoid, yet still fearsome, four armed shape. After a while of showing up and reaching a specific location, uses it's tail to fire a beam of Taint at said key location. Power plants, hospitals, or even prisons, and academies where Magi had been gathered at large, are known to be targets.

5.2. Destroyer Yadaroth. 40 meters tall, very Godzilla like. Has quite the fat belly, and scaled skin. Doesn't reflect magic, but is harder than Lurga's exoskeleton. Has a nasty fire breath, as well as surprising agility , and the ability to suddenly extend the length of it's arms, neck, or tail, to deal terrible damage to Magi. When damaged enough, it begins regenerating and slowly consumes Magic from the surrounding area...or from Magi, quickly killing them if they remain too close, or are not careful. If fought by the same Magi for too long, it will begin to analyze their Magic...and create copies of it, through it's Taint. Destroys everything in it's path, indiscriminately.

5.3. Destroyed Odan. A mysterious, serpentine entity, witnessed in the waters surrounding Maldrobog. It seems to possess some form of long ranged power. Can grow wings, and fly at mach speeds. It allegedly between 45 and 70 meters tall. Believed to possess a new level of mastery over Taint, able to produce effects that were it not for the differing source, would be considered Magic. Has not been fought.

5.4. Rumors speak of a fourth Destroyer, that for some reason, stands at the other side of Maldrobog. It's shadow, and silhouette, that has very rarely been seen (it COULD even be something entirely else), suggests that it is immense. Easily double, or even triple the size of known Destroyers.