Magical Corruption Methods

[SirenSon117]

So I have a few "corrupted" races in my Mythos, "Bloodtrick Demons(not to be confused with Vampires), Dark Elves, and Hell Dragons". The thing is, while I say there are many ways to corrupt Humans, Elves, and Dragons into Demons, Dark Elves, and Hell Dragons, I only have three and they're very specific.

Lilith Beetles are genetically engineered bugs developed by a Demon scientist, Dr. Cornelius Abbadon, in order to make what he saw as the perfect wife. Once injected into a female of any species, the Lilith Beetles breed and die inside their hostess relasing pheromones as they do so. The pheromones empower the victim's Freudian Id as well as the Yinforce that exists naturally within all Souls, resulting in a slippery descent into animalistic madness. In Elven and Draconic females, this madness is strong enough to result in a transformation into a Dark Elf/ Hell Dragon. The bugs, and all of the victims, were destroyed when Terra Sola rejoined the Blank Sea in the final act of the Mystic World Series(keep in mind that I'm still writing book 1 of this series).

The other two methods are derived from Mother Winter, the dread goddess in charge of the hellish realm called Bloodworld. The Hell Chalice is one of Mother Winter's greatest treasures. Constructed from the flesh and bone of one of the goddesses' many unborn children, the Hell Chalice contains enough raw magical power to bind the True Hell with Bloodworld. It also is infused with Mother Winter's breastmilk and the blood of the creator god Animum Primum. With this foul cocktail, any Spirit from any realm can become a powerful being of darkness, one of Mother Winter's elite.

Those few babies unfortunate enough to attract Mother Winter's loving gaze can receive Winter's Blessing, a curse that grants the child great power at the cost of being marked as one of Winter's Children. Essentially, a child marked like this belongs body and soul to the goddess. The curse affects the body too, the hair and skin are bleached snow white, the eyes become blue, and the brain almost always is affected by some form of madness. If the Blessed child is consumed by their madness, they can turn into a Demon/Dark Elf/Hell Dragon. More commonly, Winter's Blessing is passed down and eventually results in a snow-based subrace. These subraces have internalized the Blessing, and don't suffer from it's effects.

 

[Chasejxyz]

Once injected into a female of any species, the Lilith Beetles breed and die inside their hostess relasing pheromones as they do so. The pheromones empower the victim's Freudian Id as well as the Yinforce that exists naturally within all Souls, resulting in a slippery descent into animalistic madness. In Elven and Draconic females, this madness is strong enough to result in a transformation into a Dark Elf/ Hell Dragon. The bugs, and all of the victims, were destroyed when Terra Sola rejoined the Blank Sea in the final act of the Mystic World Series(keep in mind that I'm still writing book 1 of this series).

When you say species, do you mean sapient species? What happens if you inject them into, say, a horse? Also how are you defining "female" ? If you're doing it....:

• "biologically" i.e. via chromosomes, what about XXY males? XO people? Genetic chimeras? Women with XY chromosomes but their body doesn't react to testosterone, so they developed female?
• "biologically" i.e. via organs/body parts, what about people naturally born without uteruses or have had them removed because of injury/illness? What if the ovaries are not working as they should because of PCOS? And the many, many intersex conditions out there, how does that work?
• "biologically" i.e. hormonally, is it because of low T or high E? Are there different effects depending on when the subject is in their menstrual cycle? What about pre-puberty? Post-menopause? What about eunuchs?
• spiritually via souls, what determines a female soul? What if a creature lost some or all of their soul? Is there a way one can protect their soul or merge it with someone else? Are there non-gendered souls (like those of animals)? Is it possible for people to be born with a soul that doesn't match their body?
• culturally, how exactly do the insects know what is or isn't female? What about cultures that have radically different ideas of femininity? What about species that have nonbinary gender/sexes (bees/ants being a great example).

Also, in certain species, such as birds, bugs and reptiles, they do not use XX = female and XY = male, they have ZW = female and ZZ = male. Do dragons also have XY sex chromosomes? There's also the X0 system, which bugs and bats have, where X0 = male and XX = female. How do the beetles work on radically different anatomies and genetics?

Also: what exactly are these pheromones? Pheromones are just hormones, but they are outside the body and affect things outside-in. If they're being released inside of the subject, then wouldn't they be hormones? Are they related to estrogen and progesterone? If they were injected into a male (by whatever definition) subject, would it induce feminization? There's an interesting avenue there for a story, especially of someone who wants to induce feminization, but it would take a lot of care to do.

 

[SirenSon117]

When you say species, do you mean sapient species? What happens if you inject them into, say, a horse? Also how are you defining "female" ? If you're doing it....:

• "biologically" i.e. via chromosomes, what about XXY males? XO people? Genetic chimeras? Women with XY chromosomes but their body doesn't react to testosterone, so they developed female?
• "biologically" i.e. via organs/body parts, what about people naturally born without uteruses or have had them removed because of injury/illness? What if the ovaries are not working as they should because of PCOS? And the many, many intersex conditions out there, how does that work?
• "biologically" i.e. hormonally, is it because of low T or high E? Are there different effects depending on when the subject is in their menstrual cycle? What about pre-puberty? Post-menopause? What about eunuchs?
• spiritually via souls, what determines a female soul? What if a creature lost some or all of their soul? Is there a way one can protect their soul or merge it with someone else? Are there non-gendered souls (like those of animals)? Is it possible for people to be born with a soul that doesn't match their body?
• culturally, how exactly do the insects know what is or isn't female? What about cultures that have radically different ideas of femininity? What about species that have nonbinary gender/sexes (bees/ants being a great example).

Also, in certain species, such as birds, bugs and reptiles, they do not use XX = female and XY = male, they have ZW = female and ZZ = male. Do dragons also have XY sex chromosomes? There's also the X0 system, which bugs and bats have, where X0 = male and XX = female. How do the beetles work on radically different anatomies and genetics?

Also: what exactly are these pheromones? Pheromones are just hormones, but they are outside the body and affect things outside-in. If they're being released inside of the subject, then wouldn't they be hormones? Are they related to estrogen and progesterone? If they were injected into a male (by whatever definition) subject, would it induce feminization? There's an interesting avenue there for a story, especially of someone who wants to induce feminization, but it would take a lot of care to do.

I didn't know there was so much science behind that sort of thing. I'm kicking myself right now for n0ot doing my research. If I can figure out how to delete threads on this site I'll scrap the Lilith Beetles and come up with something else.

 

[Prince of Spires]

To be fair though, you could just handwave it and make it up when you need it. As long as you don't touch on it, very few readers will wonder: "is that beetle attacking the hormones or the genes of that female it's corrupting". Just keep it more or less consistent and you're good to go.

It's fantasy. A valid answer can very well be "the demon bugs know a female when they see it and so they corrupt it." And you can decide that it either does nothing for non-sapient species (since they have no soul or whatever) or they get corrupted and become a demon version of themselves (giving you demon horses and the like) or it can just kill them outright. It can even be that the bugs are too rare and expensive to experiment with and no one has tried it yet and you can get away with never answering the question.

It's a cool idea, so just run with it.

 

[SirenSon117]

To be fair though, you could just handwave it and make it up when you need it. As long as you don't touch on it, very few readers will wonder: "is that beetle attacking the hormones or the genes of that female it's corrupting". Just keep it more or less consistent and you're good to go.

It's fantasy. A valid answer can very well be "the demon bugs know a female when they see it and so they corrupt it." And you can decide that it either does nothing for non-sapient species (since they have no soul or whatever) or they get corrupted and become a demon version of themselves (giving you demon horses and the like) or it can just kill them outright. It can even be that the bugs are too rare and expensive to experiment with and no one has tried it yet and you can get away with never answering the question.

It's a cool idea, so just run with it.

I already have Vampiric and Divine animals, so introducing Demonic animals shouldn't be too much work.