Mods/Thaumcraft/Taint

Taint is a multilayered affliction, affecting the landscape as Tainted Land, and the player as a Taint status effect. Some tainted areas are created during world generation, either directly or by way of a Tainted ../Node/. However, the player can also create such areas, most likely through careless use of magical implements such as a ../cauldron/.

Tainted areas tend to spread over time, but slowly. While the taint affects the whole vertical range, it spreads through blocks, and even in a tainted area, not all blocks may be tainted. A tainted area often extends further underground than the visible corruption on the surface. The spread of taint can be limited with a option in Thaumcraft's config file; if taint spread is disabled, any existing taint will continue to fill in the infected chunks, but will not spread beyond them. Tainted areas can be healed or blocked from spreading, by "pure nodes" (notably those produced by silverleaf trees), or the player's production of ../Ethereal Blossoms/.

A tainted area can be fairly forbidding, starting with the discoloration of land and water, and the progressive decay of any plant life that was there before. (Tree trunks will become Crusted Taint, while most other plants will become Fibrous Taint.) Mobs entering or spawning in the area will be converted to tainted versions, and there are several unique monsters found as well, notably the grotesque Taintacle. The player will also be affected -- when passing over tainted areas, they will occasionally suffer a few seconds of the Taint status effect, which may cause damage or other effects.

Taking souvenirs is tricky: Tainted dirt, stone, etc mine as normal materials, and fibrous taint drops nothing. Some of the monsters do drop remains, but getting them home is non-trivial; after 45 seconds in your inventory, they will decay (infecting you with taint for a while). However, tainted relics can be stored in a chest or tossed through a magic hand mirror into storage. They can even be gotten to storage by playing "hot potato" with them, tossing them on the ground and picking them back up every 30 seconds or so.