Corruption is the force that causes many to commit evil and fall into madness. Corruption is usually seen physically as a black material that sticks to any surface, including living ones, and sometimes with yellow crystals.

OriginsEdit

Corruption was born from the hatred of Absalom when the leader of the Nephilim fell into darkness after his defeat at Death's hand at Eden.

Spread of CorruptionEdit

The spread of Corruption starts out mentally such as, a person having doubts or a painful truth being revealed to them. Early signs of Corruption are hard for other people to notice since the corrupted indivual will profess their purity, such as with the Archon. But, over time their behavior will change drastically in the form of sudden aggressive and obsessive behavior. The final step of corruption of an indivual is the physical manifestation of corruption on their body appearing as a strange slimy black material, and in some cases the sprouting of yellow crystals along with black tentacles. Corruption does not need living things to spread itself as with the constructs throughout the Forge lands, and since constructs have souls of Makers it could be suggested that Corruption only needs a soul and not a living body.

Corruption also affects the land with its presence, manifesting as large patches of black material and large crystals, and in one case this Corruption can be alive, as such with the large manifestation blocking the way to the Tree of Life in the Forge lands.

The Destruction of CorruptionEdit

Since Corruption is a nearly unstoppable force, it cannot be destroyed so easily since it spreads too quickly, though it does have weaknesses. However, only two of them are effective enough to actually succeed in combatting it, holy light and the death of the host. Shadow bombs are used against it, but only to destroy the large green crystals from corrupted structures. Holy light can destroy the black matter of Corruption, but usually the death of the corrupted individual is the only way to end their corruption.

Darksiders IIEdit

Death first encountered the corruption when he arrived in the Forge Lands, being attacked by Corrupted constructs. A Maker, Elder Eideard, told him the Corruption was causing the destruction of their realm and told Death that it blocked the way to the Tree of Life. After restoring the Maker's Forge and awakening the Warden, Death and Karn activated the Guardian. Unfortunately, one Heartstone was corrupted and infected the other two, corrupting the entire construct and causing it to go on a rampage. Death defeated the Guardian, which was then resurrected by Eideard's sacrifice, and respectively the Guardian sacrificed itself to destroy the Corruption blocking the way to the Tree of Life.

Death entered the Kingdom of the Dead after encountering Absalom in the Tree. There he met Ostegoth who spoke about how Corruption might well be the balance of life. After recruiting the Dead Lord Judicator, Basileus confronted Death with claims that the realm now belonged to Corruption and that Death was too weak to stop it. Basileus confronted Death again at the Psychameron, asking if he was strong enough to stop the Corruption.

In Lostlight Death encountered angels that had been taken by Corruption and found that it covered the Ivory Citadel. The Archon, ruler of Lostlight and holder of the angelic key to the Well of Souls, helped clear the citadel of most of its Corruption with the Rod of Arafel after Death retreived it. By Archon Lucien's advice, Death found the scribe Jamaerah within the citadel, but the scribe was unfortunately Corrupted, forcing Death to combat him. After the scribe's defeat, Death discovered that the Archon was the first angel in Lostlight to be corrupted and that it had spread from him. With this new knowledge, Death confronted the Archon about his key to the Well of Souls, but the angel had become fully corrupted and attacked the Horseman, forcing Death to kill him and take his key.

After retrieving the demonic key from Shadow's Edge, Death opened the Well of Souls, where he encountered its avatar, Absalom. Absalom and Death did battle, and even with the powers of Corruption Death was able to defeat Absalom. With Absalom's death the threat of Corruption was ended.

Trivia/NotesEdit

• The concept of Corruption may have been inspired by the "Outer Darkness" of Christianity and Latter Day Saint belief.