Corruption

It is not just evil. It is not just mutation. It is exposure, temptation, compromise, and the slow realization that something has learned your name.

Corruption should threaten a character, not randomly steal them from the player.

A character should only fall completely after repeated dangerous choices, terrible bargains, ignored warnings, or willing service to powers that should have been left in the dark.

Characters track three Corruption values:

Corruption Points. Total accumulated Corruption.

Corruption Stage. Current severity of taint.

Taint / Mutation Notes. Visible marks, spiritual damage, mutations, compulsions, or strange effects.

The GM may assign Corruption when a character is exposed to the Warp, forbidden power, daemonic influence, heresy, or unnatural transformation.

Corruption usually comes in three severities.

Minor Corruption: +1

Gain 1 Corruption when:

• You fail a save against a warp phenomenon.
• You witness a daemon unshielded and fail your Willpower save.
• You read forbidden lore and understand enough for it to matter.
• You use a tainted object without knowing what it is.
• You suffer a minor Perils of the Warp result.
• You accept a small unnatural advantage.
• You witness something that should not exist and let it into your mind.

Minor Corruption is the cost of exposure. It should warn players, not punish them out of nowhere.

Major Corruption: +2

Gain 2 Corruption when:

• You knowingly use a forbidden relic.
• You accept power from a clearly heretical source.
• You perform an unsanctioned ritual.
• You bargain with a warp entity.
• You Push psychic power in a corrupted location.
• You conceal your taint so you can keep using it.
• You choose forbidden power over a safer path.

Major Corruption is the cost of informed risk.

Severe Corruption: +3

Gain 3 Corruption when:

• You sacrifice an innocent for power.
• You willingly serve a daemon, cult, or warp intelligence.
• You unleash forbidden power knowing it may damn others.
• You betray your oath for corrupted gain.
• You use a major heretical artifact after learning what it is.
• You knowingly open the door and invite something through.

Severe Corruption is not an accident. It is a step toward damnation.

Corruption is most dangerous when it is useful.

The Warp rarely begins with horns, blood, and screaming. It begins with an answer. A lucky shot. A door opening. A wound closing. A secret whispered at the exact moment a character needs it most.

Temptation is how the GM offers power at a cost. The player may always refuse. Corruption should feel like a choice, even when the choice is cruel.

Corruption should be useful, not mandatory. It should threaten the character, not randomly steal them.

The Basic Temptation

Once per session per character, when a character fails an important d20 roll, the GM may offer Temptation.

The Offer. Gain 1 Corruption and add +1d6 to the failed roll.

If this turns the failure into a success, the success happens — but something about it is wrong.

Examples:

• The shot lands, but the muzzle flash burns violet.
• The locked door opens before the tools touch it.
• The witness answers, then forgets their own name.
• The wound closes with black veins under the skin.
• The character knows something they should not know.

The player may always refuse Temptation.

Temptation should be offered during meaningful moments, not routine rolls. Do not use it for every missed attack or minor failed check.

Stronger Temptation

If a character is Marked or worse, Temptation becomes stronger.

When the GM offers Temptation to a character at Marked, Unraveling, or Damnation Crisis, the player may instead choose one:

• Gain 1 Corruption and add +1d8 to the failed roll.
• Gain 1 Corruption and reroll the failed d20 roll.

The new result stands.

This represents the corruption learning the character's shape. It knows what they want. It knows when to offer more.

Desperate Bargains

A player may ask the GM for a Desperate Bargain when they want to reach beyond normal limits.

The GM may refuse, offer a lesser effect, or name the cost.

A Desperate Bargain should always leave evidence: a smell of ozone, a whisper in the vox, blood that moves the wrong way, a reflection that smiles too late, or a witness who suddenly starts praying.

Forbidden Insight

A character may accept Corruption to learn something they should not know.

Once per session, a player may ask the GM one question about the current scene, mystery, enemy, relic, ritual, daemon, or hidden danger.

If the GM allows the question, the character gains 1 Corruption and receives a true answer.

The answer may be symbolic, disturbing, partial, or filtered through the character's worst fears — but it should be useful.

Good questions:

• “What does this symbol really mean?”
• “Who here is already corrupted?”
• “What is the ritual missing?”
• “Where is the hidden threat?”
• “What does the daemon want from us?”
• “What door should we not open?”

Forbidden Insight is not safe knowledge. The character does not simply learn. Something looks back.

Forbidden Push

When a character uses a psychic power, corrupted relic, forbidden ritual, daemonic bargain, or other explicitly tainted ability, they may accept 1 Corruption to Push it beyond safe limits.

Choose one effect if the GM allows it:

• Add one extra damage die.
• Increase the range.
• Affect one additional target.
• Impose disadvantage on one target's save.
• Ignore cover or concealment.
• Extend the duration.
• Use the power when it would normally be exhausted or unavailable.
• Make the effect louder, stronger, faster, or more violent than it should be.

Forbidden Push should not apply to ordinary weapons, ordinary skill checks, or normal class features unless a feature specifically allows it.

This is for powers that are already dangerous, psychic, heretical, corrupted, or unnatural.

Black Survival

When a character would drop to 0 Vitality, the GM may offer Black Survival.

The Offer. Gain 1 Corruption and remain at 1 Vitality until the end of your next turn.

At the end of your next turn, if you have not received healing, cover, aid, or some other stabilizing intervention, you drop to 0 Vitality as normal.

Black Survival is not clean endurance. It is something pulling the character upright.

Examples:

• Their shadow moves before they do.
• Their wound seals with black threads.
• Their dead comrade's voice orders them to stand.
• Their eyes burn with impossible light.
• Their blood refuses to leave their body.

Black Survival should be rare and dramatic. It should not replace Fate as the normal heroic survival mechanic.

Dark Boons

Corruption may occasionally grant small benefits, but every benefit should make the character more suspicious, more unstable, or more dependent on the thing inside them.

Use these as optional GM tools.

Dark Boons are not gifts. They are hooks.

Imperial Corruption vs. Future Chaos Rules

The rules above describe Corruption for Imperial characters: Human, Forge-Bound Human, and Astartes.

For Imperial characters, Corruption is contamination. It is useful, but dangerous. It stains the soul, threatens loyalty, invites daemonic influence, and can eventually lead to Damnation Crisis.

Future character paths may treat Corruption differently.

A Traitor Astartes, Chaos devotee, Daemonhost, or Warp-Touched character may not merely suffer Corruption. They may feed on it, require it, bargain with it, or use it to fuel patron abilities, mutations, dark miracles, or unnatural survival.

Those rules are not part of the current 1.0 Imperial corruption system.

Clean — 0 Corruption

You show no meaningful sign of taint.

This does not mean you are pure. It means nothing has left evidence yet.

Touched — 1 to 3 Corruption

The Warp has brushed against your soul.

Signs may be subtle:

• Bad dreams
• Static whispering your name
• Food tasting like ash
• Candles guttering nearby
• Animals recoiling from you
• Your reflection lagging for half a second
• A chill in rooms where you pray

Mechanical Effect. No major penalty.

Touched is a warning stage. It is the first smear of blood on the altar.

Stained — 4 to 6 Corruption

The corruption becomes harder to hide.

Choose or roll one Taint. Examples:

• Your eyes reflect light strangely.
• Your blood runs too dark.
• Your voice sometimes echoes.
• Your shadow points the wrong way.
• Faint script, burns, or scars appear on your skin.
• You hear prayers backward.
• Machinery glitches when you are angry.

Mechanical Effects:

• You have disadvantage on social checks against highly suspicious Ecclesiarchy, Inquisition, or anti-warp NPCs if they notice your taint.
• You gain +1 to Intimidation checks against ordinary people who can sense something is wrong with you.

Corruption should be dangerous, but sometimes useful. That is how it gets you.

Marked — 7 to 9 Corruption

The Warp has your scent.

Choose or roll a second Taint.

Mechanical Effects:

• You have disadvantage on saves against daemonic temptation, possession, or warp compulsion.
• Whenever you willingly use forbidden artifacts, unsanctioned powers, daemonic bargains, or corrupted rituals, you gain +1 additional Corruption.

At this stage, corruption starts feeding itself.

Unraveling — 10 to 11 Corruption

You are close to the edge.

Something in the dark knows your habits. It knows your fears. It knows what you want.

Mechanical Effects:

• Once per session, the GM may offer you Temptation.
• You have disadvantage on saves against possession, daemonic influence, and psychic intrusion.
• Sanctified places, holy wards, and anti-warp relics may cause pain, nausea, bleeding, or minor damage at the GM's discretion.

You are still playable. You are still yourself.

Mostly.

Damnation Crisis — 12+ Corruption

At 12 or more Corruption, you enter a Damnation Crisis.

You do not automatically become an NPC.

Instead, your character is at the threshold. The GM should make it clear that something must change soon: penance, confession, purification, sacrifice, flight, denial, or surrender.

While in Damnation Crisis, certain choices trigger a Fall Test.

A Fall Test is only triggered when a character in Damnation Crisis crosses a serious line.

Trigger a Fall Test when the character does one of the following:

• Willingly makes a pact with a daemon.
• Sacrifices innocents for power.
• Uses a forbidden relic after being warned.
• Pushes psychic power during a clearly unstable warp event.
• Betrays the party to protect their corruption.
• Reaches 15+ Corruption.
• Fails a major Perils result while already at 12+ Corruption.

When a Fall Test is triggered, roll. d20 + Willpower modifier. The DC is usually 15. For catastrophic choices, the GM may raise the DC to 18.

On a Success

You remain in control.

You still suffer a consequence, such as:

• A new Taint
• A lasting scar
• A mutation
• A permanent oath
• A lost relationship
• A violent vision
• A faction marking you as dangerous

On a Failure

You gain 1 Damnation Mark.

At 3 Damnation Marks, the character becomes an NPC under GM control unless the table agrees to play out a final redemption scene.

This means falling is possible, but it is not random. A character must walk toward damnation again and again before the Warp finally takes the wheel.

Corruption can be removed, but never casually.

It should not be impossible. It should not be easy. Cleansing requires time, safety, confession, pain, sacrifice, faith, discipline, or meaningful action.

There are three kinds of cleansing.

Minor Cleansing

After a safe long rest, a character may attempt Minor Cleansing if they have access to at least one appropriate cleansing method.

Examples:

• Confession
• Prayer rites
• Medicae treatment
• Psychic warding
• Mechanicus purification
• Inquisitorial debriefing
• Destroying or abandoning the tainted source
• A genuine act of restitution

Make a Willpower check.

On a success, remove 1 Corruption.

On a failure, no Corruption is removed. You may try again after another meaningful rest or cleansing opportunity.

A character can remove at most 1 Corruption per safe long rest through Minor Cleansing.

Major Penance

Major Penance is a story action.

It can happen during normal campaign play. It does not require a mission hub, downtime system, or special structure.

Examples:

• Confess to a dangerous authority.
• Destroy the relic that tempted you.
• Save people you wanted to abandon.
• Refuse forbidden power at great cost.
• Hunt down the cult that marked you.
• Submit to painful purification.
• Perform a public act of faith or loyalty.
• Burn the notes, map, name, or secret that gave you power.

When Major Penance is completed. remove either 1d3 Corruption, or enough Corruption to drop to the previous stage. The GM chooses based on the severity of the penance.

Major Penance should usually cost something: time, gear, reputation, safety, a favor, a scar, a relationship, or an opportunity.

Absolution

Absolution is rare.

It is dramatic, costly, and campaign-defining.

Examples:

• Intervention by a Living Saint
• Purification at an ancient shrine
• Inquisitorial soul-scouring
• Destroying a daemon's anchor
• Self-sacrifice that saves others
• Burning Fate during a major redemption scene

Absolution may remove a large amount of Corruption, possibly all of it.

It should always leave something behind:

• A permanent scar
• A holy oath
• A missing memory
• A changed body
• A faction debt
• A mark of suspicion
• A miracle no one fully trusts

The stain may be gone.

The record remains.

Corruption should create tension, temptation, and horror.

It should not randomly delete a character.

A fall should feel earned, avoidable, and tragic.

The GM should use Corruption to ask hard questions:

• “What are you willing to know?”
• “What are you willing to use?”
• “What are you willing to hide?”
• “What are you willing to become?”
• “When the darkness offers exactly what you need, who says no?”

The character sheet tracks the numbers.

The campaign remembers the choices.