Taint

Taint
Taint is the process of physical and mental corruption gained by entering or associating with the shadowlands, oni, or the practice of maho, or blood magic.

Effects of Taint
The effects of taint can range wildly from physical effects such as hardening and cracking of the skin, warping of the skeleton, and pus covered boils on the body, to mental effects, such as unhealthy obsessions with the dead, to eating raw or still living flesh.

Some, such as Maho-Tsukai, can repress the taint on the outside, appearing normal to regular people. Closer examination on such subjects, however, can lead to internal defects such as extra limbs, and pus covered organs.

Avoiding Taint
Some people, such as Crab Samurai, regularly work with the taint and tainted creatures. To avoid becoming tainted themselves, they use one of the mystical properties of organic jade, which is to absorb taint. Many people traveling through the Shadowlands will carry a jade finger or two (a piece of jade roughly the size of a human finger, lasts the person a week before being fully corupt and useless) to protect them from the taint.

Ratlings are naturally immune to taint