Corruption

We're all mad here

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Overview

Corruption is the warped magic of the Deepdark and an extension of Entropy's toxic influence, and both Gods and Soulbound are susceptible to it if they allow it to touch their Names. It appeared with Entropy and was first utilized by some ambitious and misguided Gods who hoped that wielding the raw magic of the Eldest would allow them to destroy Entropy entirely, Time being the leader of this particular insanity. The plan massively backfired, and the corrupted Gods were either consumed by other Nameless, became Nameless themselves, or had to be killed to prevent them from taking out huge sections of the Universe in Entropy's stead. Entropy considered this a resounding win and spread its magic throughout the Nameless to entice other Gods and Soulbound to the same fate, and unfortunately, it works more often than it should.

Augmented power is all well and good, but the inevitable conclusion of the condition is the worse-than-death sentence of becoming Nameless once the spread of corruption grows enough to consume the user's Name. The spread is inevitable, fed by certain physical actions or when the corruption is actively used. Actions required to cause the spread seem to vary somewhat between users, but eating is almost guaranteed to be a spreading action for every user. It's fairly simple to keep the corruption from completely consuming a Name, but the spread is also internal, replacing biological systems and parts of the brain as it grows and leading to madness that makes it impossible to maintain the wall between corruption and the Name.
Power transfers between users make it possible to bleed out large chunks of corruption so the overall spread is slowed. The real trick is finding someone to take it.

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Initial Infection

Mostly transmitted when a corrupted user transfers power to an uncorrupted user. Alternatively, if an uncorrupted user wishes to corrupt themselves and there are no corrupted users nearby for a power transfer, consuming enough pieces of dead Nameless in some way will also plant the seed, if the user-to-be can tolerate the initial corruption invasion (and stomach eating pieces of Nameless, which is unquestionably the least appetizing thing in the Universe).
Possible skills gained vary widely between users, often limited only by imagination and leading to some creative applications, as well as the ability to open portals into nearby Deepdark tunnels. Stronger users can find themselves commanding groups of weaker Nameless, but this isn't common.

Prognosis is grim. The inevitable end of the corruption's influence is becoming one of Entropy's Nameless, which doesn't dissuade people nearly as much as it should.

Initial power levels of corrupted users for both vectors match the initial power levels of the source and grow from there, so it's a somewhat attractive option for the short-sighted and frail, both physically and magically, to launch themselves ahead of the pack for as long as it takes to be overtaken. Of course, that requires either finding a powerful user, or defeating a particularly powerful Nameless that hasn't already become a Lord of the Deepdark. Lords of the Deepdark are considered a special sort of "user" by the magic, so consuming pieces of them does absolutely nothing to transfer power, but that doesn't mean there aren't other ways to convince them to share...

Symptoms

Before a user loses their Name, they're gifted with significant power with extremely flexible uses; unsurprising, since corruption is the direct magic of an apparent Eldest. Signs of corruption are always present somewhere on the body as void-black markings that differ in appearance with every user and grow more numerous as the spread progresses. The marks aren't painful, but they are striking and obvious, so corrupted users who wish to hide their corruption need to cover their skin with clothing or by some other physical means. Illusion doesn't work for hiding corruption in the Soulbound only; most magic in the Universe is fed through the Gods for the Soulbound to use, and therefore is less potent than the raw magic of an Eldest. The Gods can use illusion to hide their markings, but it's not uncommon for these spells to break down, and any God that's been corrupted is destroyed with extreme prejudice by their siblings.
Madness is all but guaranteed as the user reaches late stages of spread, sections of their mind replaced with corruption and hindering thought process beyond eating everything in sight. Once the madness hits, that's generally the point where Name consumption isn't far behind, and those who knew the user's Name before the corruption slowly lose memory of it. They say there are ways to stave off the madness and prolong the spread past normal levels, but corrupted who've figured them out aren't talking about them.
Lords of the Deepdark are exempt from the markings and the madness, but they're Lords of the Deepdark. That's more than enough sign anyone needs that they're unspeakably corrupted.

Prevention is as simple as refusing to allow the corruption access to a Name to consume. With such an easy method of avoidance, you'd think that there would be less corrupted users wandering the Universe, but the power is a temptation too strong for many to resist.

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Social Repercussions

Among the Gods, becoming corrupted is an automatic death sentence if any siblings find out about it and tell Death. There's too much at stake for such powerful, insane entities to be running around the Universe.
Among the Soulbound, reception varies, though for the most part, openly corrupted users are treated with fear and loathing and are quite often killed upon discovery to avoid spreading their influence. Gods who know about corrupted Soulbound are quick to destroy them, but corruption is somewhat prevalent and requires a deep awareness of a planet to find them, so direct destruction by a God is generally only possible when a Soulbound grows powerful enough to end the entire planet in one fell swoop.

Treatment

There is no treatment for corruption, though it can be slowed by transferring power to another user to rewind the spread. Power transfers do nothing to adjust power potential for the supplying user, instead merely "reversing the clock." Once they're corrupted to a certain point again, their power will be at least identical to what it was the last time the spread reached that far, and often even more so because of the experience gained from extra time using it. However, the power transfer speeds the spread of the receiving user. Fortunately, others can't be forced to take corruption, as even the most weak-willed have to give it some path of acceptance to their Names, but that's not to say people haven't been worn down through other means into accepting the power.

Further Reading

Type

Magical