Tainted

The Tainted are a minority of Metal Demons that currently exist around Filgaia, primarily centred around their home in the Gutter of the Photosphere. They are a sizable minority at about 5,000 members, inevitably growing with each conflict that the Metal Demons enter.

Origins of the Term

In 79 PC, 420 years ago, the Photosphere experienced a resource crisis following the difficulties imposed by the Day of Collapse. All available living metal of acceptable quality had been exhausted by then to replenish soldiers and personnel that had been lost in the catastrophe. At the start of that year, the only batch of living metal that had been recovered from the wastelands were of exceptionally poor quality, due to an extraordinarily high impurity rate compared to the materials used to construct new demons.

The Photosphere, forced with staffing shortage, attempted to salvage and use this material anyway. The results were less than stellar, however -- the Metal Demons produced from this corrupted batch were without much of the advantages of their race. They had strength, agility and endurance only comparable to that of a human's, instead of the greatly enhanced ones of Metal Demons. They were brittle and incapable of smoothly shapeshifting from one form to another due to the weakness of their metal, making it impossible form them to blend in amongst other demons.

The backlash was significant -- the Tainted that were produced during this time were treated little better than Metal Beasts, as unfit soldiers to fight in the name of Mother, and cast off to the lowest sections of the Photosphere where they were to be forgotten, not even fit to be disposed of.

The Tainted as a Community

At around this time, the Tainted began to band together and form a ghetto within the place that they then called the Gutter -- living off off little more than scraps and salvage, their existence was meager but relatively peaceful, as they were all there for the same reason: society as a whole had rejected them. As the years passed, a culture of stronger together and no one left behind began to spread amidst the Tainted, owing to how they had nothing to compete to and no glory to seek.

Riesenlied was one of the Tainted from this time. She led an expedition lasting more than two years to the Steppes that eventually unearthed quality metals that ended the resource shortage, thus granting some minor leverage to the tolerance for the Tainted as a minority. She frequently espouses and champions for the rights of the Tainted as a demographic, and though she hasn't had much luck in convincing them to have basic rights, she has at least spared them from any drastic action.

The Tainted began to seek refuge outside, as well. The able, humanoid-looking ones started to learn skills and professions that were not frequently taught within the Photosphere, such as foraging, hunting, mining and gathering. They became foragers and scouts, gathering what meek remains they could bring back to their humble home at the Photosphere. The upper echelons of society frequently liked to forget that they existed in budgeting -- it was largely up to them to provide for themselves.

Modern Usage of the Term

In the centuries that have come to pass, the term Tainted have also come to denote Metal Demons that have become unfit for service, whether through accidents or combat injuries physical, mental or emotional. Though not born with inferior materials, their inability to continue contributing to the cause of Mother and the conquest of Filgaia has earned them scorn amongst their 'pure' peers. With little in the way of support and nurture once they've been injured, it is unfortunately somewhat common for heavily wounded Metal Demon soldiers to be cast to the Gutter, to join the Tainted.

Plenty of Tainted soldiers do not find that they fit in their new community; some grapple with their new circumstances and try to 'mend' themselves back to try to climb the ladder back up. Others find that there is a strangely more accepting community down at the Gutter than there often is up there -- a network of support and assistance to get them back up their feet to find other work often is ultimately satisfying, if slow and difficult to adjust to.

The Ebony Wings

Very recently, under the banner of the Ebony Wings, a small group of able Tainted (roughly 100 people) have struck out along with their leaders to attempt to find a new home abroad in Ignas. Their first attempt at this was the village of Old Petra, where they formed an impromptu village that served to support their brethren and their troops.

Unfortunately, this village was decimated in the wake of Id's attack, though most of the Tainted survive to seek another home in the west...

The Tainted are a weary and somewhat wary folk, owing to how they have no place to call home -- not even back at the Photosphere. But at the same time, their experiences have been tempered by moments of cooperation and solidarity beyond even that of other demons, and they are considerably some of the most world-wise Demons in terms of experience.

Notable Figures

(Feel free to add your character here if you think they have significant overlap or relation to the Tainted!)

• Riesenlied - One of the original Tainted from 79 PC, Riesenlied has done her best to try to advocate for the rights of the Tainted as a people, and seeks to try to find them an accepting home.