#anyway read corrupted core it has a bit where the pcs break into a bakery that was sealed behind a magical vault door

[kradogsrats]

Corruption and Primal Magic

So previously I've written two big posts that cover dark magic corruption: one on corruption as functionally a stand-in for Aaravos's influence, and one specifically analyzing the visibility of Viren's corruption in s1-s4.

Pictured: it turns out you can zoom WAY in on the pictures in the Tales of Xadia PDF, and these dudes have little black eye-veins!

I've long headcanoned theorized that "corruption," in the physical symptoms of dark magic sense, is lingering buildup of magic in conduits (humans) not designed to channel it. Now, it's a little more complicated than that with regard to how it's linked to Aaravos and other factors covered in those more extensive posts, but I'm still hanging on to that theory.

What we're seeing now is further exploration of corrupted primal magic. Because it's not inherently corruption of the mage, it's corruption of the magic.

Like, maybe it's kind of stupid to spell this out, but: dark magic consumes and converts primal magic to work. That's the corruption, that change to the primal magic's nature. (I.e. being Aaravos-ified.) What we're seeing in the characteristic physical symptoms expressed by dark mages is then the buildup of that corrupted magic.

And now, in After Darkness, we've seen the other side of that. Humans don't actually have magic in them to be corrupted. Elves do. Corrupted magic slowly builds up in humans because it's stuck. In elves... well, we see with Osato that the effect is a) rapid, b) intense, and c) complete. Because elves naturally have primal magic channeling through their bodies from their arcanum. The corruption seizes on the magic, consumes it to grow stronger, and spreads.

Everything in Xadia is inherently magical. Kim'dael drinks the blood of other elves to increase her own power. Osato is infected with corruption through a minor physical wound.

Just to dig a bit deeper into this, the other place we've gotten fairly in-depth about the corruption of the Sunforge, i.e. the Sun nexus, is in The Tale of the Corrupted Core, which is the starter adventure included in the Tales of Xadia rulebook.

In Corrupted Core, it's only days after the battle at the Storm Spire, Lux Aurea is still being evacuated, and the corrupted Sunforge's power is escalating. The people remaining in the city, including the PCs when they enter, are explicitly suffering various degrees of ill effects from the Sunforge's radiating magical energy (now corrupted). It's believed that the Sunforge will soon release its power explosively, which would have severe consequences for an unknown area surrounding the city, the heartland of Xadia.

Pictured: corruption of the Sun nexus, or possibly the miracle of conception.

The PCs are tasked with mitigating this world-altering event by bringing a container of magical serum into contact with the Sunforge itself, which will suppress its imminent explosion to (hopefully) not reach beyond the confines of the city. The serum can also be used at various points throughout the adventure to suppress the effects of corruption on other characters—Orta, for one, a fire dragon who made physical contact with the Sunforge and was left thrashing in mindless, rage-filled torment. Using the serum on her leaves her exhausted and weakened, but her mind clear.

Where did this serum come from? Interestingly, it was developed by Vaake, a Sunfire elf mage, for personal use. Vaake's arcanum is out of control—when she is under emotional stress, it shunts out a large amount of magic and leaves her exhausted and in pain. It's not clear if this is a condition she was born with, or if it's the result of some kind of trauma, but she developed the serum to essentially suppress her own arcanum. The serum works similarly on the corrupted energy, suppressing its effects rather than cleansing it.

It's not clear whether the serum works on all magic or if it specific to Sun magic, and therefore corrupted Sun magic. The point, though, is that something designed to suppress primal magic also works on this corruption. This is because corruption is not a separate entity from primal magic, it is primal magic, just with its nature having been twisted. By Aaravos.

What we are now seeing in After Darkness is a later stage of Lux Aurea, after the events of Corrupted Core. If the PCs are successful, they deliver the serum to the Sunforge and escape, along with an unspecified number of refugees (the guide specifically says not to dwell on that, because it will bum the players out lmao), before the explosion that floods the city with corrupted energy. There are no nightmare shadow-creatures in Corrupted Core—that's all a result of the massive spike of corrupted energy released from the Sunforge affecting anyone left behind, plus presumably anything/anyone that unwittingly entered the city after the fact and got bit.

Pictured: not ominous at all.

A few interesting things to consider, here:

It's at least strongly implied that Aaravos personally corrupts the Sunforge, which again, is in fact the Sun nexus. As in, he's the originator of the corruption. Viren is his vessel, a container that brought Aaravos to where he needed to be.

Additionally, it kind of(?) feels like Aaravos really goes out of his way specifically to corrupt the Sunforge and taking the Sunfire elves out of the "conquer Xadia" equation is secondary. Is his goal to corrupt all of the primal nexuses? But he was also like... right there at the Sky nexus (a.k.a. the Storm Spire) and didn't do anything. Maybe it was next on his to-do list after Viren helpfully feeds him Zym? Or maybe the other nexuses aren't as easily corruptible, being more naturally occurring and not... channeled into some kind of industrialized concentrated orb?

Are??? Humans????? Perhaps?????? Actually MORE???? Resistant?????? To Corruption????????? 🤔 🤔 🤔

Though on that note, who has an arcanum? Oh right, Callum. Callum has an arcanum.

Anyway, there are also still a few questions that boil down to whether there's a distinction between corrupted Sun magic vs. corrupted magic of other primals. Would someone not a Sunfire elf be affected as dramatically as Osato, since it's already a corruption of his natural magic? We do know that corrupted primal magic is essentially a thing in its own right, adjacent but not the same as dark magic—Claudia's spells with the corrupted Sunforge staff are corrupted Sun magic that Aaravos has presumably taught her. Would the staff, containing as it does a now-corrupted Sun primal stone, release a similar, smaller burst of corruption if smashed?

Pictured: a corrupted Sun magic spell then used to amplify a dark magic spell. Huh.

Fun side note: in Corrupted Core, it specifies that the PCs can clear the "Corrupted" stress (otherwise part of the dark mage player mechanics) they receive from magical objects (such as the Sunforge) using Sun magic. Stress received from casting dark magic spells still has to be cleared with dark magic. Now, this is probably mostly to preserve a way for groups of PCs who don't have a dark mage among them to clear that stress, which otherwise does not naturally clear and can quickly become a problem. But it's still interesting—is the specification due to the presumed purifying properties of Sun magic itself, or because the corruption received from the Sunforge is corrupted Sun magic, specifically?

As usual, do I have answers? No. Have I thought about this possibly too extensively? Yes. Is it all coming together?

#the dragon prince #dark magic #primal magic #/wheezes #anyway read corrupted core it has a bit where the pcs break into a bakery that was sealed behind a magical vault door