The Corruption (Tales Of Siapra)

**The Corruption** (otherwise referred to as The LTC Poison) is the name given to an unknown but very dangerous and galaxy-subsuming infectious super-virus that is from beyond Siapra and is capable of infecting and converting exposed organic life-forms into mutated monsters as it has been labelled as a level 5 biohazard threat by Siapran scientists.

Across Tales Of Siapra, the virus serves as the origin of most enemies hostile to the Resistance after they were infected.

## Virology

An artificial super-virus, created by an unknown source through genetic modification, the Corruption has the ability to expand across and overtake entire worlds through literally poisoning the planets while it functions through being strong enough to survive within any possible climate as well as also mutates at a high and unpredictable rate which means it is impossible to effectively exterminate the virus through medical means. It is has also proved difficult for organizations to detect or measure the level of Corruption within an area or subject unless it is an overwhelming amount while there is no known way of attempting to prevent or reverse the effects of the Corruption if one has been exposed to it for too long, although those that have certain blood types can genetically suppress this virus for a unidentified total period of time.

Research into the virus has noted that it is made up of several traces of multiple pathogens that originate from off-Siapra which makes the virus obviously artificially created and even harder to even create a vaccine against the virus.

It is known that the process of it's corruption works through going through three distinct development stages. The first stage involves the virus effecting anything that comes into direct contact with it, whether it be through spores or surface touch with anything or anyone that is still carrying the virus and hasn't been sterilized, and effecting the organic matter in a way that causes it to be tainted with the same form of corruption before a strain of the virus then develops from this and continues to grow out and onto other organic matter through its host, both during and after a host's transformation.

During the second stage for sapient subjects, which varies between hours and days, vital signs will display them as unwell and the infected will get common disease symptoms while their behavior alters them to act more sluggish and fatigued and starts to compels them to perform corrupted deeds, typically in the form of evil acts based on the subject's own independent motivations. This essentially turns the subject into a mindless slave of the Corruption, and causes them to betray their own species and world due to their own inner evil, while subjects who attempt to resist this influence suffer greater than those who don't, the pain potentially being able to cripple them if their resistance is severe enough.

In the last stage, subjects will suffer from headaches and hallucinations before experiencing extreme seizures and finally fully succumbing to the virus which leads to their final transformation into one of the Corrupted, also considered monsters.

Unlike other viruses, the Corruption can physically appear outside of what it infects and can appear as a luminescent black ooze-like substance which expands like gas and encases any living organisms that it touches in order to then infect the organism. This ooze is the starting point of all strands of the virus while, in its natural state like this, is capable of becoming volatile enough to harm infected and non-infected and can be highly explosive in the right circumstances.

Overall, the Corruption is considered to be an anomaly to most known biology and regular life which can be explained by the idea that it could be from a whole other planetary system. Whatever the cause, the virus's ability to survive and even thrive in the harshest of environments as well as the fact that it can have no functional cure, makes it an extreme threat.

## Virulence

The effects that exposure to the virus has on living beings is dependent on the level of exposure but can be predicted. A prolonged period of time including exposure to the virus will cause organisms to become a host for a strain of the virus and ultimately be changed through mutations while suffering from memory loss and essentially become mindless husks of who they were previously, maintaining only primitive functions and modifying their instincts to follow a highly aggressive nature with no self-preservation. However, relatively brief exposure is known to not bring about many changes to subjects but can still result in harm to living organisms, which can be treated as long as their infection isn't at a genetic level.

Due to unknown reasons, some infected subjects will undergo different mutations to the most common which causes them to become various types of "special" monsters that are even more dangerous than most who get infected by the virus. It also seems that some infected subjects that have been mutated retain some sense of their previous existence and are aware of themselves but cannot restrain their new nature. On top of this, the corpses of formerly living organisms can also become infected but can only serve as hosts to expand the virus rather than allow for a new strain of the virus to develop.

On top of effecting living beings such as Siaprans and animals, the Corruption also widely impacts fauna and flora, such as plants, and causes them to decay overtime before then growing into strange and fungal-like mutations compared to what they were previously which then continues to spread the virus catastrophically with spores. In terms of the flora specifically, most infected fauna is classified as what it had been previously and just a infected variant of it but no infected flora can be utilizied in any way like they would have before the infection, such as for food or medical reasons. However, the process of flora becoming corrupted includes infected matter to slowly fuse together as time passes and it grows which leads to plants and such being altered without regard while simply becoming just a fungal covered environment.

Aside from the negative effects that the virus has on organic matter, the Corruption also allows for mutated subjects to become immune to all forms of diseases, gives heightened senses and increased physical capability, including harder to pierce skin, as well as overcomes ageing which causes them to be practically immortal. Research into the virus theorizes that this may play a part in the origin of what or who had created this virus. However, active subjects that have been corrupted also show no active pulse which suggests they may somehow also be deceased in a zombie-like state but infected still rely on more than just their brain to survive which means decapitation alone will not kill the subject.

For unknown purpose but due to the effects that the virus has on organic matter, the Corruption uses itself as a means to overwhelm the genetic structure of anything biologically capable and effectively reproducing itself via this until no other life remains due to the entire planet having become "assimilated" by the virus. This appears to be be it's overall goal.

## Known History

The origins of this virus remain a mystery but its theorized that, at some point in history, members of an advanced species from another, far away, planet engineered a virus that became the "the Corruption" which, over an unconfirmed period of time, started to expand over various planets across the galaxy. This has been done through mostly unknown means but it is known that the virus arrived at Siapra within devices that had been deployed from space, although the alien faction that deployed said devices aren't who created the virus and had instead only managed to weaponize the Corruption.

Since the virus had arrived to Siapra in late 2582, Siapran scientists, on orders of the Council, have attempted to study the Corruption and perform, often unethical, experiments on samples and test subjects during a project dedicated to discovering a way to use the virus to develop biological weapons and alter DNA to create cures for diseases that arose in recent years as well as other possible ways in which they could re-purpose the Corruption for their own use. This project took place in a few locations worldwide and for several months but was ultimately shut down after numerous incidents.

The end result of all these experiments was more of the world being exposed to and then ravaged by the virus while various Siaprans have gotten transformed into mutated creatures, that now serve as a threat to Siapra as a whole, which has mainly happened in the various epidemic outbreaks spawned in cities and towns that have since perished. Prior to these experiments, there was no epicenter for the virus as it was unleashed on Siapra in various regions worldwide, although not including the regions with high populations and instead only within those that are considered untamed.