Corruption

**Corruption** in *Empires SMP* comes in several forms. In season 1, the rulers most often use "the corruption" to mean the prominent demonic corruption that was wiping across the land.

## Types of corruption

### Demonic corruption

Demonic corruption is the primary kind seen in season 1. Demonic corruption runs rampant in the Nether everywhere except its warped forests. Its block palette is netherrack, crimson fungi and lava. In the second act of season 1, the corruption reached through the portal at Rivendell, and Shrub Berry accidentally tracked it throughout the empires. When the demon Xornoth was released, he spread the corruption throughout the world, summoning up massive tentacles made of the stuff.

The empire rulers did their best to scrape up the corruption and contain it in boxes. Wizard Gem distributed corruption containers to some of the other rulers, and at one point they suspended it in the air in a far-off mountain range. Shrub the Gnome found success placing her corruption box inside a fairy circle (until she briefly changed up its design). The Grimlands discovered its deepslate redstone successfully repelled the corruption, and in the City of Eastvale they employed salmon scrubbers to clean the streets and compost it all. Mythland too erected a composting facility to render it into harmless bonemeal.

### Blood sheep corruption

Blood sheep corruption looks the same as demonic corruption, but it is allegedly different. In fact, it did not disappear from the Church of the Blood Sheep when Xornoth was defeated and the Corruption was lifted from the world.

### Deepslate redstone corruption

Deepslate redstone was harnessed exclusively by the Grimlands against the demonic corruption. Count fWhip greedily hoarded it an used it to power the Grimlands' machines. Giant spikes of it started to push up around the City of Eastvale, and the landscape grew completely barren except for wither roses and crimson sprouts.

### Sculk

*Main: Sculk Saga*
Sculk runs rampant in the Deep Dark, and with careful tending it can spread across the surface. It is a vanilla element of Minecraft, and *Empires SMP* portrays it as a sort of soul corruption.

In season 2 the earliest to encounter the sculk were fWhip the Goblin, while exploring the ancient city in the goblin caves, and Pixlriffs the Archaeologist, who uncovered the Machine. Much later in the season the Sculk Saga started when Cubfan135 was possessed by an angry spirit in the Evermoore fog. He was given two directives: spread the souls, and spread the sculk. He went on to darken lanterns and emplace several thousand sculk catalysts throughout the empires, so that whenever mobs were killed, their released souls would spread as sculk.

Pixlriffs and his museum security chief JoeHills worked hard to manually combat the sculk spread. They got Shelby the Witch's help to effectively restore Cubfan to normal by dousing him in a complete cocktail of potion effects. Pixlriffs obtained some LORE glasses which revealed the hidden catalysts to him, and he got to work removing them. Shelby later discovered the source of the fog in the heart of the Evermoore, and that it held the souls of anyone it had ever consumed.

When Sausage of Sanctuary was trapped in a dungeon in the alternative world, he brought a touch of the sculk along. Dark Sausage started studying it.

Once Dark Sausage made an appearance in the Season 2 world, Shubble started to become slowly corrupted. Dark Sausage eventually gave shubble a skulk catalyst, a "sacrifice" was needed however. Oli just so happened to appear. And just like that, Shubble went fully corrupt. She mentions feeling "*Empty*".

CubfanPixlriffs (Fake Corruption)Shubble - Stage 1 CorruptionShubble - Stage 2 CorruptionShubble - Fully Corrupt
## Warped fungi

King Sausage saw the same warped, teal fungi of the Nether while on his episode 33 journey to the Spirit Realm. He figured it to be the antithesis to demonic corruption, and after his redemption, he started replacing the demonic elements of his kingdom with warped fungi. Not really a corruption per se, warped fungi does not spread rampantly and apparently has no ill effects on those who handle it.