Compiled and commented by Albert Weaver
I once asked a Black Caster why people feared Corruption more than necromancy. He didn't look up from his tea. Just said, "Because death ends suffering. This doesn't."
Corruption doesn't raise the dead. It just kills things slowly.
Not through trauma or fire - but through rot.
You see it in wilted crops. Rusted beams. Flesh that bruises from wind and never heals. The magic doesn't attack. It undermines. Mana, twisted into entropy, leaks into whatever's closest - plants, tools, animals, people.
It's the quiet killer.
***
[Transcript – Research Debrief, Port Velen Outbreak Case]
Dr. Ilene Sho (Mana Pathologist, Arco Institute):
"Symptoms presented like a fungal infection, but didn't respond to antifungals or heat sterilization. Skin necrosis, fever, neurological fade. No bacterial source. Eventually we found traces of residual Mana - Black alignment. Someone laid a Corruption field under the reservoir."
Albert (off mic): "How many affected?"
Dr. Sho: "Four hundred and twenty-three reported. We think more just never came in. You don't go to the hospital for a cough until it's too late."
***
Curses are the surgical version. Harder to trace, longer to wear off. One field report from the coast mentioned a single glyph laid under a mayor's chair. Months later, he couldn't stand without trembling. His blood tests were clean.
Some curses sap energy. Some twist the senses. The cruelest make your own body betray you.
***
[Excerpt – Field Interview, Black School Disciplinary Tribunal]
Defendant: "I never touched him. Just slipped a whisper-glyph into his jacket lining. He laughed at me for failing the exam. That was all."
Tribunal Officer: "The curse unraveled his muscle tissue. You know that, right?"
Defendant: "I only meant for his hands to shake. I didn't think it would spread."
***
Intent rarely matters. Corruption doesn't care.
And if the spirits section of Black Magic gives you a corpse to fear - Corruption makes you fear what's still alive.
Albert once followed a rumor to a small mining town north of Kisera. Workers had gone blind one by one over six weeks. No toxins. No structural issues. Just Mana, sinking through their drinking water. A lazy, slow spell - left like a stain in the wellstone.
***
[Field Notes – Kisera Incident]
"Local caster admitted guilt. Said he was protesting work conditions. Claimed he used the weakest version he knew. When arrested, he cried. Said he never meant to hurt anyone. Only slow them down."
***
Corruption isn't loud. Isn't fast. Isn't showy.
It's the soft sigh before collapse. The reason some cities test their air for Mana particles like others test for mold.
Albert scratched out a note at the page's end:
"We blame Black Magic for raising the dead. But it's Corruption that makes the living wish they hadn't stayed."