Taint

AKA: The blight (not to be confused with a Blight, apparently some people aren’t fans of clarity.)

An unpleasant name for an unpleasant thing, the taint is the contaminating substance spread by the darkspawn. It manifests itself in several ways depending on what type of matter it has infected. In people, it is a contagious disease that turns their blood black, gives them dark splotches all over their skin, and usually either kills them quickly or kills them slowly. Sometimes, if the host survives, it drives them insane and they become a creature called a ghoul who can eventually hear the calling of an Archdemon and, if female, possibly even become a broodmother and create more darkspawn. Technically, a ghoul is any living creature that survives the corruption, but most notable creatures have different names. Bears, for example, become bereskarns, which exhibit many of the traits common to animal ghouls: changes in behavior, increased aggression, and horrible mutations like random bony spikes sticking out everywhere and missing chunks of fur and skin. There have been recorded examples of wolves, owls, giant spiders, Halla, and even dragons going through ghoulification. Plants usually just die when exposed to the taint, though there are a few exceptions. A large enough group of darkspawn can even corrupt the very ground they travel on. This is most pronounced in their lairs in the Deep Roads, and the more tainted an area is, the worse it gets, from simple wiry, black patterns on the surface to hanging, fleshy pods sprouting from the walls and ceiling. An Archdemon spreads a particularly virulent strain of the taint that can even kill those who get too close to the beast. Though the ravenous hordes of darkspawn are obviously a major factor, the spread of the taint during a Blight can be just as devastating to the lands they rampage through, and last much longer. There are even instances of inanimate objects being infested with the taint, namely an eluvian that Hawke’s companion Merrill once encountered. The Inquisition also eventually figured out that red lyrium was somehow infected, as well, which is why the two substances’ effects are so similar. The taint is even what gives darkspawn their ability to use magic. Most mages draw their power from the Fade, but the taint itself somehow contains magic that skilled darkspawn called emissaries can use to cast a form of blight magic. Corypheus himself was able to tap into the power of the taint, by the way. He used blight magic to both control Grey Warden mages, and trigger the Calling in all of the Wardens of Orlais in an attempt to get them to unwittingly summon him a demon army. There is a lot, probably too much, that we do not understand about the taint, but the lesson you should take from this entry is, no matter what form it takes, it wants to corrupt or kill you and will probably succeed.