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The Corruption: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|Don't you feel the power? Soon EVERYTHING will be corrupted. Including YOU.|''' {{spoiler|Ghor}}''', ''[[Metroid Prime (Video Game)|Metroid Prime 3]]''}}
[[File:spidermandoeswhateverasimbiotecorrupts_6033.jpg|link=Spider-Man (Film)|
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** In Lee Lightner's ''Wolf's Honour'', {{spoiler|all the Space Wolves}} are threatened by its taking over.
** In [[James Swallow]]'s ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' ''[[Blood Angels (Literature)|Deus Encarmine]]'', many of the Blood Angels succumb to their "flaw" and begin to hallucinate that they are fighting the final battle between their primarch, Sanguinius, and Horus, and so become [[The Berserker]]; all of them are tempted by it, every fight, though Rafen notices that this time, it struck with uncommon quickness, among veterans.
** In ''Deus Sanguinius'', at the climax, {{spoiler|Rafen succumbs to this; on the other hand, it does unlock the powers of the [[Blade On a Stick|Spear of Telesto]] for him, and the daemon he fights is shocked to see that the many futures in which Rafen failed instantly vanish. Then the spear protects him. When the dying daemon unleashes it in the other Blood Angels, they terrify their enemies, who retreat although [[Attack! Attack! Attack!|they never retreat]], and the spear even lets Rafen bring back his battle brothers who had succumbed.}}
* In ''[[Keys to The Kingdom]]'', if Arthur uses the Keys too much, he will be permanently transformed into a Denizen, due to "sorcerous contamination".
** {{spoiler|According to the 6th book, he is past the point of no return.}}
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* The Rings in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. The more you wear one, the more it corrupts you. Gollum was a normal hobbit once and the Ringwraiths were human kings. This only applies to the rings that Sauron helped make, however, and even then only to humans or closely related races like the hobbits. Dwarves are just too bloody stubborn to corrupt (they turn really greedy instead), while Sauron never touched the elven rings and are thus not subject to his taint. {{spoiler|Tom Bombadil is immune to the ring's effects because he has absolutely zero interest in anything outside his little part of Middle Earth}}.
* Robert Jordan's ''[[Wheel of Time]]'' novels had not one but two examples. Mordeth lurks in the ruins of Shadar Logoth offering gifts to visitors, which will corrupt them with the genocidal madness that destroyed his city and lead them to infect everyone close to them. And the Dark One occasionally "blesses" some of his followers with access to the True Power, a powerful destructive force which happens to be massively addictive and drives those who use it too often violently insane.
** And that's without getting into his spiteful counterstroke as he was [[Sealed Evil in A Can|(re)sealed into Shayol Gul]]: he tainted saidin (men's magic) so that using it drove male Aes Sedai (the only legal order of magic) insane. This caused the Breaking of the World since the more they used saidin, the more it broke their minds, and since magic in this setting is already somewhat addictive, and most people [[How Do I Shot Web?|start off not realising]] [[Power Incontinence|what, how or why weird things happen around them]], male channellers tend to wind up nutso relatively fast. There's a ''reason'' the Red Ajah exists. {{spoiler|Not anymore. Nyneave, Rand and [[Loads and Loads of Characters|friends]] removed the taint from saidin.}}
* The ''[[Parrish Plessis]]'' series has the Eskaalim parasite. It grants a bounty of powers to the infected: [[Healing Factor]], [[Feel No Pain]], [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]], and more. Of course, by the time you've allowed it to advance that far, [[Demonic Possession|you're no longer in the driver's seat]], and it's too late to do anything about it...
* In [[Robert E Howard]]'s ''[[Queen of the Black Coast (Literature)|Queen of the Black Coast]]'', one of [[Conan the Barbarian]]'s companions is [[Driven Mad By The Revelation|driven insane by a winged ape]], and then attacks him in a homicidal rage.
* In ''[[The Dresden Files]]'', there are the Thirty Coins, the Blackened Denarii. They are the very coins used to pay Judas Iscariot for his betrayal, and each one is now host to a bound Fallen Angel. They cannot affect the world until some mortal touches them, but at that point a variety of unpleasantness can ensue. They are ''very'' corruptive, literally avatars of Hell on Earth.
* ''[[Paradise Lost]]'': Gustav Doré's illustrations show Satan's progressive shift from [[Fallen Angel]] to [[Our Demons Are Different|Devil]]. During the flashbacks he appears like a normal angel, albeit with a [[Horned Hairdo]]. In hell, his wings [[Good Wings, Evil Wings|molt and become batlike]], and on his way to earth he begins [[Evil Costume Switch|removing his angelic armor]], [[Full
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** ''[[Ravenloft]]'' has Powers checks: every time a character does something sufficiently wicked to call the attention of the [[Powers That Be|Dark Powers]] of the demiplane, they may reward him with a special ability, which only serves to accelerate his damnation. Fail enough Powers checks and you end up a mockery of your former self, trapped forever in a domain of your own making.
* In ''[[The Dresden Files (Tabletop Game)|The Dresden Files]] RPG'' players have to spend precious refresh points to gain new abilities, and when the refresh rate hits zero the character becomes so corrupted by power that they become unplayable. Interestingly, these abilities need not be supernatural and are sometimes forced upon characters who act in certain ways. A wizard breaking one of the laws of magic, for instance, must buy the Lawbreaker ability.
* In both D6 and D20 versions of ''[[Star Wars]]'' the RPG, PCs could acquire Dark Side points by committing evil acts. In the D6 version, [[Non
** In both d20 versions you can also lose a character with too many Dark Side points if the GM wants to run a light sided campaign, it's mentioned briefly in both rulebooks.
** Note that the ''Dawn of Defiance'' campaign has this as a rule. You cannot be dark side, period.
* ''[[Trinity Universe (Tabletop Game)|Aberrant]]'', White Wolf's superhero RPG, had Taint. The explanation was that the human body, [[
* ''[[Exalted (Tabletop Game)|Exalted]]'' has three examples, which, [[Grey and Gray Morality|in true Exalted style]], has only one that is played straight.
** The Wyld, [[Chaos World|the unformed elemental Chaos that is the foundation of all things]], has a tendency to mutate unprotected individuals, resulting in bizarre hybrids of man, animal, and [[The Fair Folk|Raksha]]. While it ''does'' have an effect on people's minds-it's [[This Is Your Brain On Evil|addictive]], and it tends to simplify people's personalities so that they're more literary character than man-the first is (usually) curable and the second is mostly an [[Informed Attribute]].
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== Web Original ==
* In the ''[[Whateley Universe]]'', this is exactly what [[Big Bad]] [[Eldritch Abomination]] 'The Bastard' (real name unknown) is unleashing. It's so horrific that it corrupts werewolves into [[Body Horror]] slaves of The Bastard, which ''should'' be impossible. They're attacking a reservation of werewolves (and other were-animals) and [[Super
* In the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', this is one of [[Eldritch Abomination|The Blood]] [[Complete Monster|Red]] [[Anthropomorphic Personification|King's]] favorite tactics: find an innocent person and turn them into monsters by granting them power and turning off any sort of moral control over that power and then letting them loose on the unsuspecting populace.
* [[Zalgo]].
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[[Category:Horror Tropes]]
[[Category:The Corruption]]
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