The Corruption: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

A variation on [[The Virus]] with elements of [[The Dark Side]], the Corruption is a force of chaos that gives some of its victims a [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] before (or while) it mutates them into mindless monsters. The [[Body Horror]] transformation progresses gradually, and the final result tends to be a hideous, slithering creature which looks like [[Lovecraftian Superpower|the spawn]] of an [[Eldritch Abomination]], an [[Enemy to All Living Things]] capable of inflicting the Corruption on any creature falling into its [[Combat Tentacles|tentacled clutches]].

 

 

 

 

In video games, a [[Nonstandard Game Over]] may occur when the player is corrupted too much. You can tell you're getting too close to the edge if the PC gets [[Tainted Veins]] and [[Undeathly Pallor]].

* Ichigo's hollow persona in ''[[Bleach]]'', until he does his training with the Vizard {{spoiler|or maybe not, as of chapter 350}}.

** Again, like in Naruto, No longer an Issue.

* In ''[[Claymore]]'', being turned into a Claymore is much like this. In fact one of the requirements for being a Claymore is heroic will power, without it you lose control of the power and Awaken into an extremely powerful monster.

** Yugi plays the Seal during one match, proving that he ''can'' be a mean little bugger... [[For Your Own Good|Of course, it was implied that it could well have been an act]]. Yugi was putting on to force Yami out of the mental rut he'd gotten into in Yugi's absence.

* Happens to Yomi in ''[[Ga-Rei]]'' {{spoiler|at least a couple of times,}} because a [[Mineral MacGuffin|Sesshouseki]] possessed her.

* In ''[[Freezing]]'', the Stigma that grants the [[Super Soldier|Pandoras]] the amazing powers they use to fight against the [[Eldritch Abomination|Novas]] {{spoiler|is essentially ''Nova tissue''}}. The risk of [[The Corruption]] taking over a Pandora is actually pretty low since Pandoras only have a few Stigmas attached to them. {{spoiler|The people in charge of Pandora development came up with this policy after one Pandora with about ''twenty'' Stigmas fell victim to [[The Corruption]] and ''became a Nova''. This Pandora was the protagonist's ''older sister'', Kazuha. Since Kazuya has a similar "Stigma body" (the reason he can use "Freezing" without first forming a bond to a Pandora), Yumi Kim is concerned that he might suffer the same fate}}. {{spoiler|The Novas can also force [[The Corruption]] to take over the Pandoras by ''eating them''}}.

** {{spoiler|And now the people in charge want to see if the Corruption can be controlled and weaponized after the main character forced herself into Nova Mode and managed to bring herself back. Two Pandora veterans are horrified at this idea as they saw what happened to the aforementioned Pandora with the twenty Stigmas.}}

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* Arguably [[Iron Man]] and the Extremis Dose.

* In [[Marvel Comics|Marvel UK's]] ''Captain Britain'', the superhero-killing machine the Fury repairs itself with [[Human Resources|organic material]]-- and anyone unlucky to have contact with it in its fix-up mode gets infected with its [[Nanomachines]] (though the term wasn't used back then) and turned into a monstrosity. Unusually for this trope, it didn't [[Super-Powered Evil Side|make you evil]], just insane, hideously deformed, and easily mistaken for the Fury in a world where superheroes were trying to destroy said machine on sight.

* Every time ''[[Spawn]]'' uses the powers being a Hellspawn grants him, he gets a little bit closer to completely losing his humanity and becoming the commander of [[The Legions of Hell]].

* {{spoiler|Donna Troy}} after she's bitten by [[Nightmare Fuel|her own dead infant son]] in ''[[Blackest Night]]''.

* The Technarch Transmode virus in [[Marvel]], even in an otherwise benign symbiosis, such as between Warlock and Cypher, and works both ways; as the organic lifeform becomes techno-organic the infector becomes Magus, a more powerful entity hostile toward organic forms and it's own offspring.

 

 

== Fan Works ==

 

 

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* [[Michael Moorcock]]'s final story in his ''Elric of Melniboné'' series basically IS this trope....poor {{spoiler|Zarozinia}}. Blood and souls for <ref><s>Lord Jagged</s></ref>Arioch! {{spoiler|Zarozinia}} was almost a [[Heroic Sacrifice]], under the circumstances. {{spoiler|Rackhir the Red}}, on the other hand...

** In Lee Lightner's ''Wolf's Honour'', {{spoiler|all the Space Wolves}} are threatened by its taking over.

** {{spoiler|According to the 6th book, he is past the point of no return.}}

* 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.

* 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 ''[[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-Frontal Assault|eventually stripping naked]]. By the end, he's [[Jumped Off the Slippery Slope]] and become the traditional [[Big Red Devil]] in mind and body.

** The gods Tzeench, Nurgle, Slaanesh and Khorne are descended from beings reflecting hope, determination, love, and honor respectively. The evil deeds and thoughts of the Warhammer galaxy's inhabitants spawned the overpoweringly evil versions of [[The Heartless|those beings]] that now rule [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|the warp]].

*** Warpstone is Chaos energy solidified into crystalline form, so while it's still as corruptive as true Chaos, it can also be used as [[Green Rocks]] by those blessed with either ignorance, a good sense of denial, or a willing embrace of Corruption.

* In ''[[Legend of the Five Rings]]'', the Shadowlands is a vast wasteland infected with the evil of the hellish realm of Jigoku. Prolonged exposure to this evil realm infects living things with the Shadowlands Taint. Even the slightest scratch by anything in or from the Shadowlands can infect someone. The Taint causes increased strength, speed and reflexes along with psychological changes such as violent outbursts and paranoia. Even when killed, a Tainted body often becomes re-animated as a zombie. What few 'cures' exist are usually fatal and are more concerned with the well-being of one's soul than one's mortal body.

** The [[Demonic Possession|Possessed]] (from ''Inferno'') turns into the embodiment of their Demon's Vice, and so on.

** ''[[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 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-Player Character|acquiring too many made you lose your character.]] In the D20 version, it [[Poison Mushroom|eventually reduced your stats]].

** 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.

** Desecration, the [[Abusive Precursors|Yozis']] power to modify humans and animals into [[Our Demons Are Different|forms more to their liking]]. This does ''not'' have an effect on minds unless the Charm causing it is [[Charm Person|supposed to be doing that]], and for the most part, it's willing (although in the case of Cecelyne doing it, [[Jackass Genie|"willing" is a matter of semantics]]).

** The ''straight'' one is Gremlin Syndrome, a sort of pseudo-cancer derived from the Primordial Autochthon's sickness. See [[Nightmare Fuel]] for an explanation.

* [[Call of Cthulhu]] may have been the original game to use this concept, with the Sanity score. The more you learn about the Cthulhu Mythos, the more effective a monster-hunter and magician you become . . . and the lower your Sanity drops until you eventually go mad and join the forces of cosmic horror.

* Rather than having a special stat for corruption, '''''[[GURPS]]''''' cuts out the middleman and gives you disadvantages worth some number of [[Point Buy|character points]], in proportion to the evilness of whatever's corrupting you this week.

* ''[[Blue Rose]]'' has an actual mechanic named Corruption. How does it work? If you get corrupted, the more corruption you have and the more deliberating effects your character suffers. Get too much and it will kill you. But you can embrace corruption, in which cause you instead get buffed. The more corrupted you are, the more POWER you have!

 

 

*** Interesting to note, only one Ing was willing to touch Phazon without a middleman. That should have warned people.

** [[Metroid Prime|Metroid Prime 3: Corruption]] opens with attacks on three planets by Leviathans. Bryyo and Elysia are impacted by the meteorites, while Norion is saved in the last moment by Samus and the other hunters. In the process, all four hunters become infected with Phazon, and their bodies develop a tumor-like Phazon-producing gland that slowly corrupts them. The Galactic Federation decides to take advantage of the hunters' corruption by adapting their body suits with a phazon powered 'P.E.D.' weapons system. [[MP 3]] partially averts the mook-rule, as GF troopers can safely use phazon via tanks<ref>For the most part, anyway. While on the Valhalla, you can scan a dead P.E.D. Trooper whose suit malfunctioned. The results are quite disturbing.</ref>, while Samus is under serious threat of ''Terminal Corruption'' whenever she uses her P.E.D for extended periods. Her fellow hunters all fall victim to it. Samus is later sent to investigate the other attacked planets as well as {{spoiler|the corrupted Space Pirate Homeworld and Phaaze, a seemingly sentinent planet entirely made of Phazon.}} With each main boss Samus beats, the resulting blast of Phazon energy further infects her, visualized by the tumor growing in her stomach. {{spoiler|On Phaaze, her corruption grows so great ''her ship stops recognizing her'', and she's forced to continually vent energy however she can to prevent the corruption from consuming her.}}

* The Chimera in ''Resistance: Fall of Man'' utilize [[The Virus]] to transform humans into aliens and fight for your side. The protagonist of the game is also infected, but although he is mutated, he manages to retain his personality.

** ''Resistance 2'' reveals that he is not unique, but that all members of the special squad he's assigned to must regularly use suppressors to prevent them from becoming Chimera. And of course, these suppressors have side-effects, such as [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|prolonged periods of psychosis.]]

* The [[Roguelike]] ''[[Ancient Domains of Mystery|ADOM]]'' has several sources of corruption, including background chaos radiation which grows stronger as you approach the source ({{spoiler|The Chaos Gate}}). Corrupted monsters may turn into writhing masses of primal chaos. A corrupted player will gain additional powers and be a writhing mass of [[Body Horror]]. Corruption-removal methods are the most sought-after thing in the whole game, because getting the full set of corruptions means you're close to an unavoidable [[Nonstandard Game Over]].

** And because some of the corruption side effects are really, really bad for your character. For instance, you can be drastically slowed down, instantly drain every magic wand you touch, poison everything you handle (including your own food and potions), and worst of all is the "unholy aura" one; everyone you meet, including powerful NPCs, will become hostile at the mere sight of you.

* The Technocyte virus in ''[[Dark Sector]]''. The only reason that the protagonist has not gone insane is because due to an existing condition he cannot feel the pain that drives all other infected mad.

* The G-virus in ''[[Resident Evil]]'' works pretty much like this. William Birkin starts out with just an overgrown arm with claws, and ends up an amorphous mass of teeth, claws and tentacles.

** All the bosses in ''[[Resident Evil 5]]''. Yes, includes {{spoiler|Albert Wesker with the G-virus, Las Plagas and Ouroborous combinated in his body}}

* Ryu's "Dragon Mode" in ''[[Breath of Fire]]: Dragon Quarter''. The corruption accumulates slowly over the course of the game. If it reaches 100%, your game ends. {{spoiler|Which you'll have to do for the final battle, anyway, ironically}}.

** Gilgamesh gets [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] from his [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness|"All the world's evil? Ha! You'll need at least triple that to corrupt ''me!''"]] line. Then again, [[Pure Is Not Good|he was already kind of a]] Jerkass.

** Fate!Shirou shows his [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness|strength of will]] by mentally resisting this curse at point blank range {{spoiler|once, then blocking the second shot with Avalon}}.

* The Spirit Eater affliction in ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]: Mask of the Betrayer''. The game's storyline branches depending on how you resist it/use it leading to multiple endings. In the best {{spoiler|you're cured}}, in the worst {{spoiler|you become a god-killing abomination}} and [[Bittersweet Ending|Bittersweet Endings]] are also available.

*** The Sands of Time from the last-gen [[Prince of Persia]] corrupt people in a very similar fashion, and are responsible for the prince's [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] in the Two Thrones.

* Fel (demonic energy) has this effect in ''Warcraft'' universe. Demons seem to radiate fel energy and any area with large amounts of demons will become either a barren wasteland or a twisted mockery of its former self. Living beings exposed to fel energy will mutate, making them more powerful but turning them insane, and even causing them to become demons after long enough exposure. In fact, most demons were mortals before they were corrupted by fel energy.

** Turned into an actual game mechanic if ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' with Cho'Gall. He inflicts his enemies with "Corrupted Blood" which gradually twists and mutilates their body, causing them to eventually sprout hostile tentacles before [[Body Horror|transforming into a Faceless One]].

* In the first few ''[[.hack|.hack//]]'' games, the ones where Kite was the protagonist, Kite has an ability called Data Drain (which causes the enemy to be weakened to a point where they are pretty easily killable) but using it causes Kite to risk infection from a computer virus, the very same virus that created Data Drain no less. If the infection reaches 100% then it's game over (the Data Drain is necessary to kill certain bosses in the main quest, but no infection is received from those bosses. It's also required to get "cores" which unlock story levels). In fact, as the % goes up, there's always a slight (increasing) chance of getting a game over. Not using it reduces the number.

** The [[Mega Man Star Force|sequel series]] has "Noise". Noise, unlike other examples of this trope, isn't actively ''evil'' or even intelligent, just so chaotic that it seriously screws up any other EM waves (as well as biological systems) in high concentrations.

** ''[[Mega Man ZX]]'', courtesy of another scientifically-based (of sorts, just like the other examples above) [[Artifact of Doom]], the original Biometal Model W.

** And judging by the artwork, Model O seems to be this as well.

** Does ''Megaman X'' series ring a bell? Zero is practically a walking virus magnet.

* The Corprus in ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] III: Morrowind'' kills plants, turns animals homicidal before slowly killing them, and mutates people into horrible, cancerous monstrosities. At the same time, the guy behind it is sending subliminal messages through dreams to random people, turning them into [[Mooks]].

** Only affects pirates though.

* Dark Eco in the world of ''[[Jak and Daxter]]''.

** Jak fights against his own corruption in ''[[Jak II Renegade]]'' after being pumped full of it by the Baron.

{{quote| '''Oracle''': I sense there is a dark rage burning within you, and in time, it will destroy you with its madness. Only the last power of the Precursors can save you.}}

** {{spoiler|In the Warden's Keep DLC, an old human mage does the most ingenious thing: he ''weaponizes'' the taint, creating an elixir which can give the player tainted blood-based powers. It's not pretty, ethical (or ''sane'' for that matter), but they are incredibly useful.}}

** [[It Got Worse]] in the ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' [[DLC]] "Legacy" with [[The Reveal]] that {{spoiler|Wardens don't die, but turn into ghouls when they hear the Calling. There is no avoiding ghoul-dom once the Taint enters a person's body -- the Warden's version of the Taint just delays it by a few decades. Seen all too clearly in Larius, a former Commander of the Grey who was unlucky enough survive his Calling and became a Ghoul.}}

* In ''[[Dark Earth]]'', your character Arkhan is literally poisoned by a face full of liquid evil while on his very first day on his new job as a Guardian of the Flame, and starts to mutate into a creature of the Dark. You must help him find a cure before the transformation is complete. While one side-effect of the mutation is a [[Took A Level Of Badass|Level of Badass]], the more you use it, the more the mutation takes hold. When the mutation reaches 100%, you get a [[Nonstandard Game Over|Non-standard Game Over]].

* In ''[[Bloodnet]]'', your hero is a vampire who has an instant-kill bite attack, but each use of it decreases his humanity a little and brings him closer to the [[Nonstandard Game Over]] (in addition to the [[In Universe Game Clock|normal decrease of his humanity with time]]).

* In [[Space Quest]] 5, a failed experiment in [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke|genetic engineering]] creates the Puckoid plague that takes over at least one colony and the Confederation's flagship. It causes the infected beings to literally melt into primordial goo.

* ''[[Terraria]]'' has a biome literally referred to as "The Corruption", which primarily consists of nigh-indestructible stone that spawns eldritch abominations and infects local plantlife, spreading it as far as plantlife can spread. It can effectively take over sections of the map far beyond where it initially appears. Fortunately it can't take over anything but dirt so it can't spread too far...usually.

** Ledgermayne, the seventh Lord of Chaos, is chaos magic personified. To be fair, it was just a mass of mana floating in the Para-Elemental Plane of Magic when Drakath's chaotic influence gave it self-awareness. So much that Ledgermayne was uncontrollable, even by its own [[Truly Single Parent]].

** There's also the Chaos Shaper class, which players can buy after having had 15 months of membership in total. It lets them use the power of Chaos to land unpredictable effects on either themselves or their targets.

== Western Animation ==

* Dark Energon in [[Transformers Prime]] is more or less the Transformer equivalent of Satan's blood. Anything it touches becomes motile and malevolent, including dead bodies. Living 'bots that take it in tend to get powerups, but also go insane as they bend slowly to Unicron's will<ref> Megatron, the primary infected so far, seems to be doing pretty well as far as independence goes so far, but he also seems to act like the dark energon is telling him what to do at times</ref>.

*** The novel Transformers: Exodus, which is sort of a prequel and adaptation of the game, is very explicit about the corruptive influence of Dark Energon. Start with euphoria, boosted power, and greatly increased violent tendencies... then add on instant addiction that will kill you real real slow if you try to kick the habit. Oh, and the stuff turns any normal Energon it comes in contact with into more Dark Energon.