Taint

"Taint" is a physical corruption spread by the darkspawn that ultimately makes the victim hear the call of the Old Gods.

Origin and nature
A Neverran cult known as "The Empty Ones" believed the Blight to have originated from a place called the Void ("a place of nothing"), and that it is by the Maker's will for all of his creation to return to it.

Darkspawn
The darkspawn horde is connected through the taint, functioning as a hive-mind. While high ranking darkspawn like emissaries or alphas have a limited influence upon small groups, and the Architect and the Mother also command larger groups yet, only an Archdemon can command the entire horde.

Ghouls
Those who come in contact with darkspawn blood or their taint often become diseased themselves, becoming ghouls. Once the taint progresses enough, the darkspawn recognize them as their own kind and ghouls can sense darkspawn. Such people show signs of insanity and schizophrenia and usually work for the darkspawn in order to craft their weapons and armor, while females are typically kept alive in order to morph them into broodmothers to expand the horde further. Males are used as food and killed once their effective labor is used up.

It seems that the taint suppresses higher function over time, causing those infected to go mad and potentially cannibalistic. It also allows the tainted to feel the thoughts of the Old Gods.

The corruption (or "taint") spread by the darkspawn twists and corrupts all living organisms, which go mad, develop physical afflictions, and/or perish outright. Survivors are transformed into ghouls. Most infected subjects are put down to prevent them from transforming and/or spreading the disease further - or to spare them a slower and/or uglier impending death. Even "ghouled" victims will ultimately be killed by the disease, leaving whole areas completely lifeless. The longer an infected creature 'lives', the more it will manifest hair loss, aggressive or even rabid behaviour, and numerous deformities, protrusions, boils and sores.

Animals and plants
Animals can also be tainted e.g. blight wolves, bereskarns and corrupted spiders.

When the taint comes into contact with the local flora it usually poisons and kills the plants and trees making the area infertile for many years. However deep mushrooms seem to grow near the taint.

Eluvians and lyrium
Eluvians can be tainted as shown in the [[Dalish Elf Origin].

Bianca Davri says that her research indicated that Red Lyrium has been infected with the taint. This would suggest that lyrium is somehow alive, since the taint has never been known to affect minerals.

Taint as a source of magic
The darkspawn taint also carries magical power equivalent to lyrium, and allows darkspawn emissaries to cast spells.

During the Fourth Blight, Isseya witnessed Archdemon Andoral breath out a vortex "of darkness both spiritual and physical" that is described as unquestionably magic but having no connection to the Fade.

First Enchanter Remille who conspired with the Architect prior to the Fifth Blight explains that the darkspawn possess a different type of magic that is driven by the taint.

Avernus reveals that through his research, he has discovered a way to use the taint in Grey Warden blood to cast powerful magic. Even non-mage Wardens can access this power, since all Wardens carry the darkspawn taint.

Vivienne compares blight magic to one of the three wineglasses Corypheus is drinking from along with ordinary and elven magic. Solas adds that the false Calling created by Corypheus is a form of blight magic. He condemns it, saying that the glass is poisoned and no intelligent creature should attempt to use the taint safely as it corrupts everything it touches.

Resistance and Cure
In rare cases an infected subject (e.g. The Mabari Hound) may make a full recovery if given early care.

The Joining ritual dramatically slows the corruption of the taint in Grey Wardens, but after about thirty years the major effects of corruption set in. When a Grey Warden begins to hear the call of the Old Gods, they set off into the Deep Roads to fight to the death before their mind is overtaken, and eventually becoming ghouls themselves.