Corruption/Corrupt/Corrupted
This page will go over the differences in terminology between the Corrupted, Corrupt, and Corruption in this universe. Some parts may sound like the ramblings of an idiot (which I am) but please bare with me.
Corruption:
Corruption is the base of all that is wrong in the world. It’s the ‘power’ that divides the Pure from the Unpure, the sheep from the wolves. Demons are the primary source of Corruption in the Prime (the mortal plane). Pure know of their existence and to keep some sort of peace, have given the Unpure large chunks of land the Pure deem ‘useless’. Most of the land is what Humans see as desert wasteland, untameable forests, areas that they consider ‘too expensive and time consuming to terraform’.
Most of that land is unusable for Pure and Unpure alike, but in all of those territories are small oasis’ that have been hidden from the Pure with pure Corruption. These places are where the Corrupt make their home on the Prime, or even where there’s portals to Below, to their home.
While demons produce Corruption, it can also be created by humans in the event of great evil. The events of WWII left large portions of Germany unfit for human life, and thus were handed over to the Corrupted and demons to make use of. While it’s extremely rare, it can happen.
Corruption can also corrupt humans, alive or not, with prolonged exposure. See: Corrupt for details
It is the job of the demons and horrors that make their homes in the Prime to protect all of the Corrupt/ed they can, while keeping their kind safe and out of sight from the Pure.
Many demons still kill humans to feed, and thus try to move their dimensional anchor as often as possible. While their safe haven may stay in the same place, as soon as the Corrupted leave the pocket dimension, they are taken to a different part of the country they live. Getting home is a bit harder. They need to either find exactly where they exited the dimension from and return there within six hours (time the door is still open), hope there is a demon/horror around to help, or have a corrupted item that can create a personal door to their home)
Corrupted: (ex. Jeff)
The corrupted are those that have died. They have come back as something else. Something more sinister. Something better. There are a few different ways one can become a corrupted. By being wronged in your human life is the most common way; the leftover, extreme emotions from their past manifesting into something else. Sometimes you just die in the wrong place at the wrong time, the pure Corrupt energy from Below wrapping what’s left of you in its cold embrace and forcing you to return to the mortal plane.
Being a Corrupted can be a good thing, but is extremely dangerous. All Corrupted have something that makes them not human. Be it inhumane strength, speed, or Corruption infusing with their very essence and giving them some demonic powers, they are feared and hunted by the Pure (humans). When a Corrupted is reborn, they come back as they were when they died. (Jeff died when he set his house on fire from smoke inhalation)
As a Corrupted learns more about what makes them Unpure, a Corrupted, they learn more about what their actual ‘ability’ is. (Jeff wanted to protect his brother. Reborn, he is physically stronger than the Pure can ever hope to be.) Unfortunately, being Corrupted comes with a price. The more they use the ability/abilities the Corruption has gifted them, the more Corrupted they become. (Jeff can use his inhumane strength, but the more he does the more his sanity and empathy slip).
All Corrupted come back where they died, or where their bodies are; depending on how long the metamorphosis takes. (Jeff died in the fire. Due to the sheer amount of unadulterated rage he was feeling at the time of his death, he was Corrupted at a rate that hasn’t been seen before- completing his metamorphosis before the fire department showed up to put out the remains of his house, allowing him to escape and be presumed ‘missing’ instead of ‘dead’)
The abilities gained by a Corrupted directly relates to what they wanted and were interested in as a Pure. This does not mean that it correlates with the spread of their own Corruption. The speed of the corruption differs from Corrupted to Corrupted. To put simply, there’s no way to effectively predict how often a Corrupted can use their ability before the corruption consumes them. (Jeff has an increased strength, but at the cost of him losing his own sanity and remainder of empathy when he uses it too much and strains himself.)
Corrupt:
Corrupt are humans that have been corrupted by demonic energy. They’re still alive and thus not considered a corrupted, but that have been corrupted by the energy from being too close to demons/horrors. The corruption changes what the human looks like depending on what corrupts them.
For example (Ellie) was corrupted by Slenderman. Thus, the corruption forced her body to grow two extra arms (similar to his tendrils) that come out of her back. Unlike Slenderman, Eleanor can’t ‘retract’ her arms.
The severity of the corruption depends on how long the human was near the demon/horror while living with the pure. Once a Corrupt is taken in by their corrupter and are out of the Pure society, they get corrupted at a much slower rate than before. Nobody is quite sure why this is, but working theory is that the mark their corrupter gives them helps the Corrupt release extra Corruption they don’t need.
After initial corruption, a Corrupt needs the corruption to keep surviving. The dark energy changes the person down to their very soul, corrupting their being before death can claim them. Since they aren’t dead before they get corrupted, and thus still have a soul in their body, the dark energy fuses with their soul and creates something different. Being marked by the one who corrupted them acts as a conduit, controlling how much corruption the Corrupt takes in so as not to be further corrupted but enough to keep them from dying.