Curse

Curse is the accumulation of excessive negative emotions and energies, a sort of spiritual debris of being that begins to drag the subject down by the weight of their sin. It is a disease of the soul, far from the petty frustrations and gossip of everyday life, into the realm of those who embrace hatred, jealousy, or greed like a lover. It is the ruin of the mind and soul by the persons own failings - not corruption, but your actions and their consequences. Those afflicted by curse start to show their inner selves on their flesh, and at pinnacle they begin to attraction the attention of Curse-eating Horrors.

The Weight Of Sins

To gather curse is no trivial matter, but a prolonged and extensive devotion to being awful. It is hatred, lust, greed, and every other dark side of humanity taken too far. It is a choice to indulge in your darkness, and to let it drive you. Like pollution, every little bit collects within the soul and poisons all around it, until it is too late and too much. Once it spills out of the confines of a persons soul, it starts to warp the flesh and change the sinner in question.

Most who suffer from the weight of a Curse doesn't really see it as such. For most people who fall to such depravity, it is just who they are or the goal they strive towards. The suffering of others or the pain of their own conscious are just collateral damage if not actively pursued. It isn't enough to just be wicked, however - Curse is accumulated either quickly through great feats of evil, or mundane hate over a long period of time. To be Cursed is to hold your flaws close to your heart and let them guide you.

Icon Of Wickedness

Once the Curse has reached a level where it starts to poison the body of the person, it starts to warp them. The effects are subtle at first; nothing that can't be dismissed as some disease or fluke of biology, before growing like a cancer. The exact manifestation of Curse is unique to each individual, flavored after whatever brought them there and the character of their history. Common manifestations are things like strange eyes, colored hides, buldging flesh, or animalistic traits.

Furthermore, the worst of people tend to come out once they are tainted by Curse. They embrace what they truly are, in all its petty glory - indulging in whatever behavior it was that brought them to this point. It isn't so a supernatural compulsion of any kind, but honest: people who reach this level of Curse chose wickedness, and now reveal themselves for what they are.

Curse can strike anyone. From begger to king, from pride to jealousy, anyone who doesn't take care of how they act and who they are can invite the seeping poison of the Curse into themselves, as readily as other consume drugs or alcohol. It is an inevitable consequence of mortalkind, fallible as they are. Monsters never fall to the Curse, but spirits sometimes do and there is the terrifying possibility that gods could. It doesn't turn men into monster, but into something worse. At any point, to dwelve deeper into your corruption is always a choice.

Redemption and Purification

There are several ways for a wayward soul to clear themselves of the Curse they have gathered on themselves. None are especially pleasant.

Asceticism

The most traditional way of purification is to devote oneself to a life of deprivation. By casting away all worthly pleasures and demands, one can find a way towards redemption. This is a path that demands a great deal of self-control and discipline; something usually lacking in the kind of people who fall to the Curse to begin with.

On the other hand, those who do chose the path of an ascetic often find themselves awakening to the path of Essence , or other forms of enlightened self-discipline. It is neither easy nor pleasant, but those who stay on the narrow path of deprivation can purge themselves of the Curse and onto a new, fresh path.

Alchemy

Curse can be purged from the body and soul through internal alchemy. It is a slow, costly process that requires expensive component and a deep understanding of both alchemy and the Curse. Such scholars are few and far between, and their services always in high demand. Like with Asceticism, purification through alchemy can take years.

Alchemical treatments of the Curse is not a passive process for the cursed, either. It is a program of excercise, meditation, and self-improvement. Only by rising above what caused the Curse to accumulate in the first place can the subject begin to purge themselves of its mark.

Hell

Not so much an option as a consequence, some tainted souls draw the attention of Demons - monstrous denizens of Hell, a place that separates the world from the endless abyss beyond. Demons can sniff out Curse like a wolf can smell blood, and part of their heavenly duty is to eliminate it from this world. What that means depends on the demon and their circumstance. If they are busy with other things or the Cursed subject is of no import, they'll simply kill them.

But the Demons true goals are to drag Cursed people back to Hell with them and purge the corruption from their body and soul. Unlike Alchemy or Asceticism, it is something to endure rather than a process to participate in. Demons rake the Curse from mortals like how a doctor might burn out a cancerous growth or hack off a gangrenous limb. Through suffering, the Demons drain the Curse from their victim, before releasing them back into the world. Not all survive, and all who do are profoundly changed.

Embracing the Darkness

But not everyone cares for notions of redemption. They embrace who they are, darkness and all, and turn it into a source of power. Entire schools of sorcery and martial arts emerge from the worst parts of mortalkind's soul, becoming some of the most feared people that walk the world.

Essence

Awakened can learn to turn their Curse into a temporary source of Essence, the first step on the path towards darker power. The amount of essence that someone can draw out of their curse depends on how far it has progressed. Once depleted, it will gradually refill as regular Essence would, but there are several arts of recovery that are unique to Curse.

For example, someone afflicted with Curse related to greed can learn to more quickly recover their essence through covetous acquisition. That is the most basic art of recovery - indulge in the sins that brought them to this point this far. The cost is to deepen their taint further and further, until it threatens to consume them.

Essence pulled from Curse is dark and oppressive, warping whatever it is used for. Those who see it know that the user is someone best not trifled with, or someone to be hunted down and killed.

The Dark Arts

There are some arts of magic or martial force that can only be mastered by those who have given into the dark. Sometimes called the Cursed Arts, they tap into all the worst instincts of their user for their power. Where so many Arts depend on discipline, focus, and self-control, the Cursed Arts throws all of that to the wolves in favor of frenzied indulgence.

There are few masters of these arts, and even fewer teachers. Almost every time these spring up again in the mortal world, the wielder has to learn them for themselves, building an art of anger and hate unique to them. Many never get far before the Curse consumes them whole, but those who do are some of the most terrifying being in the world.

Some afflicted by the Curse insist that none of the above is the true blessing of embracing the dark. To them, it is the freedom of social mores and expectations of others that is the greatest boon.

The Mark Of Inevitable Doom

As the Curse burns into a sinners soul, it lights a candle in the vast dark of the void and summons predators to it. Once a Curse becomes great enough in a mortal, they are marked by the Horrors that live beyond Hell as prey. Scholars might argue why it is and what exactly happens, but the effects are the same. When the cursed have become marked, they will live the rest of their lives being hunted by the Horrors. It is only due to the vigilance of demons that such attacks are not common, but they are inevitable. The doomed, cursed soul has to fight to avoid being devoured.

Worse, death is not the end. Something about the Curse serves as a channel to the abominable terrors beyond and allows them to take possession of a mortal corpse, becoming Abominations. These creatures fuse unreality with meat, becoming marauding evils that even monsters fear. They are severed from the natural flow of Essence in the world, manifesting powers and abilities beyond anything mortalkind can muster.