Editing Midnight Taint Rules (section)

='''MIDNIGHT TAINT RULES'''=
:  When Izrador was flung from the heavens, his flaming god-flesh was destroyed as it tore a great wound in the earth. The dark god’s spirit was shattered, dispersed like a foul mist over the frozen north. Then followed countless years, long ages in which his black essence coalesced, gathering strength with painful slowness until finally it was able to manifest as a shadowy presence in the north: bodiless, malevolent, and no longer truly a god. In all this time, Izrador’s dead god-flesh had mouldered in an icy grave deep within the Scar. As strength returned to his spirit, the Shadow reclaimed this divine flesh and began to reshape it to suit his purposes, pushing dark tendrils into the surrounding lands in order to leach out their vitality and tap the arcane energy that pulsed in Aryth’s flesh. For millennia these black veins infiltrated the northern lands, transforming the already ravaged region into a desolate and malignant wasteland. But still Izrador’s recovery was too slow, and so the dark god devised the zordrafin coriths and set his legates to building a network of black mirrors to steal the very magic of the world. 
:  But Izrador didn’t just steal the world’s arcane energies. He polluted and tainted them with his touch. The vile liquid of the mirrors is the same tarry substance that moves through the dark god’s monstrous black veins: arcane power corrupted by the essence of evil.
:  Every day spent in the Shadow’s tainted heartland exposes the mind to the dark god’s insidious whispers and the flesh to his crawling taint. The hardiest warrior feels strength drain from his limbs and the staunchest soul finds doubt creeping into her heart. When a living creature (corporeal or incorporeal) enters a tainted area, comes into contact with a tainted object or tainted creature, or is the subject of a spell cast with tainted spell energy, it must succeed at a Will save or gain taint. A creature that accumulates enough taint may eventually become a corrupted creature or corrupted spirit. The DC of the Will save is determined as described in the Tainted Places sidebar, which also indicates the interval of the saving throws and the amount of taint gained.
:  Taint is a measure of the Shadow’s corruption and can be increased by several different means (see Increasing Taint, below). Once a creature gains a certain amount of taint, the creature undergoes a transformation depending upon its nature. The Shadow’s dark essence works its corruption in different ways. Living, corporeal creatures become twisted physically and mentally; when they gain taint equal to their Constitution, they gain the corrupted creature template. Spirits fade into shadow at the dark god’s touch, their incorporeal forms becoming hateful and foul. When a spirit gains taint equal to its Charisma, it gains the corrupted spirit template. However, those who can channel magic expose themselves most directly to the foul essence of the dark god, and are corrupted most completely. A creature with the Magecraft feat risks becoming a tainted channeler, as described below. The corrupted creature and corrupted spirit templates are detailed in Chapter 3.


==Increasing Taint==
:  A creature’s taint is increased when it comes into contact with an area, object, person or effect that has a higher taint score than its own (for areas, objects, and spells, this is its Taint DC). The creature must succeed at a Will save or gain taint. The DC of the Will save is determined as described in the Tainted Places sidebar, which also indicates the amount of taint gained on a failed save and the interval at which a save against taint must be made if the creature remains in the area.
:  For Example: Aryn, a tainted Dorn fighter with taint 9, enters the icy wastes of the Vale of Tears (Taint DC 12, interval 1 week). After one week in the Vale, Aryn must succeed at a DC 12 Will save (with a –1 penalty to his save because of his 9 Taint points) or gain another point of taint. Aryn fails his save and his taint increases to 10. Later, his mission accomplished, Aryn heads south and sneaks into the Weal. He does not need to make another Will save during his time in the Weal because his Taint is already equal to the taint DC of the Weal, 10. However, if Aryn ever returns to the Vale of Tears and stays for a week, he will have to make another DC 12 Will save (this time with a –2 penalty to his roll because of his increased taint); if he stays for two weeks, he will have to make two saves.
:  Upon acquiring the corrupted creature or corrupted spirit template, the creature is thereafter immune to taint—the shadow’s essence has infused it completely, changing it forever.


==Resisting Taint==
:  Once touched by the dark god’s corruption, it is hard to resist the insidious growth of his taint. However, there are certain herbs, charms, and spells that offer some protection against the spread of taint. Of the former, the leaf of an unassuming herb called uryl can be used in the preparation of infused oil to give up to a +5 alchemical bonus to Will saves made to resist the Shadow’s taint and its effects.


==Shadow Born==
:  Creatures born and bred beneath the dark skies of the Northern Marches, such as orcs, goblin-kin, giant-kin, and shadowspawn, are more resistant to the effects of the Shadow’s taint. Instead of making Will saves to resist taint, these races instead make Constitution checks to resist its effects. Furthermore, they gain a +10 racial bonus to these checks. However, it is still possible, though more difficult, for one of the shadow born to become tainted, and they can purposely fail the check; many of the kurasatch udareen drink the vile fluid of the Shadow in order to receive his dark blessings.


==Redemption or Destruction==
:  The ultimate result of taint is destruction. If a creature’s taint reaches 30 or higher, the creature must succeed at a Will save (DC 10 + Taint score) each day or dissolve into a pool of black ichors and foul smelling vapor. From this vile mess, the last remnant of the creature’s spirit rises as a near-mindless wraith called an allip (see MM), a tattered shadow wracked by madness and cold hunger. These creatures flee into the north, drawn to the depths of the Scar and the Endless Ice where they wail in darkness until they fade altogether. The same thing inevitably happens to those who attempt to fight taint, however. Outside of a tainted area, tainted creatures lose 1 point of taint each day. For the purposes of losing taint, the area of effect of a black mirror is considered tainted, though it does not have a taint rating or otherwise cause taint except as described in the Tainted Places sidebar. If a creature goes from 1 or more taint to 0 taint, however, it suffers the same effects as above . . . but it automatically dissolves and becomes an allip, with no saving throw.
:  As described under dark energies, a tainted channeler can reduce his taint to zero by using it to power spells; if he does so, he suffers a similar fate. Even a creature that has gained the corrupted creature or corrupted spirit template, though immune to future taint, can suffer this effect.