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[ModernAcademic]

The taint is a lethal and unknown substance that causes fast degeneration of living tissues. It consumes life like a highly infectious disease that corrupts both mind and body.

 

Some examples are the Warden Utha having her taint sped up by the Architect in The Calling and in DA2 we have Ser Wesley's death and the Hawke brothers becoming sick in the Deep Roads.

 

If the taint accelerates the decay of the cells in your body, then why can't darkspawn die from the taint like regular humans, elves and dwarves that became infected? Why do they remain alive and reasonably aware of their actions? Or are they walking corpses whose minds are degenerated to the point they can no longer think? If so, then what is their difference to the ghouls? What makes them "smarter" than ghouls?

[thats1evildude]

Because they exist only because of the corruption. If we imagine the Blight to be an evil magical force eating away at the world like a cancer, then the darkspawn are that magical force's living embodiment. Ghouls are just carriers of the disease; darkspawn ARE the disease.

[Cyrus Amell]

Whatever the Darkspawn are, they are not only immune to the taint but have a sort of symbiotic bond with this disease. The Taint in question is likely magical in nature, not unlikely given it was reportedly first brought to Thedas by Tevinter Mages walking through the Fade, if so then it could be similar to a demon: it needs a host. 

 

Bioware came close to revealing the true source of the Taint when they trotted Corypheus onto the stage, but the exact specifics are still largely unknown. I believe Thats1EvilDude is right when comparing it to a cancer given the nature of the Taint to self-replicate using infected women that become Broodmothers (shudder). In this way it does not use single individuals but rather entire species as carriers. 

 

So, there are some big questions to answer in the next Dragon Age game:

 

What exactly brought the Taint to Thedas? How was it made? How is it connected to the Fade and the Black City? How is it connected to the Archdemons? What happened the other Tevinter Mages who traveled alongside Corypheus? How does the Architect figure into all of this? 

 

We are going to Tevinter after all, if any place would be fitting to uncover all of this it would certainly be there. Bioware already kicked the lid off the Elven Pantheon so they may as well try dramaticaly revealing the truth about the Taint before moving on to Andraste (the Miss Jesus/Joan of Arc of Thedas).

[ModernAcademic]

Because they exist only because of the corruption.

 

That's what's bugging me. The taint is a force that brings death in its wake. It's the antithesis of life. How can it be a force that sustains life, even decaying lifeforms such as the darkspawn? Have you ever heard of a disease that keeps anyone alive? 

 

Which is why I think the darkspawn are not kept alive because of the taint. My belief is that this is a misconception which we, the players, were forced into by lack of clear evidence in the games as to what the taint truly is.

 

Whatever keeps them alive may not be the taint. It may be something connected to the ancient Magisters that first entered the Fade - the first darkspawn in existence - and their unexplained connection to dragons (Archdemons). I personally believe it might have something to do with the secret of effective immortality (Solas in Trespasser), the blood of Titans (lyrium) and sharing your soul with other living creatures such as dragons, considered to be powerful in the DA lore. 

 

The taint might just be the darkness found in the Black City, nothing more. Some form of twisted magic from Arlathan and the Evanuris that infected the Magisters. What keeps darkspawn alive may be something entirely different. Some form of blood magic practised by the Magisters, tied to the blood of dragons, perhaps. Their blood is supposed to be special, since they were revered creatures, mistaken as gods by old Tevinter.

 

The taint might not be the key to understanding the darkspawn immortality at all. That's what I'm trying to figure out.

[ModernAcademic]

Speculation:

 

We now know it's possible the Evanuris used to share a piece of their soul with dragons and that this might be the secret of effective immortality.

Morrigan was instructed by Flemeth to save one of said pieces, to "save it from the grasping fingers of darkness", to save it from the taint. Through Morrigan's pregnancy, it would be born anew in this world, cleansed.

 

So the whispers the Magisters heard from the dragons might've been the bits of soul communicating with them. They didn't know about the Evanuris, so they might've mistaken the dragons for highly intelligent creatures knowledgeable of magic and came to consider them gods.

[thats1evildude]

That's what's bugging me. The taint is a force that brings death in its wake. It's the antithesis of life. How can it be a force that sustains life, even decaying lifeforms such as the darkspawn? Have you ever heard of a disease that keeps anyone alive?

All the time in fantasy fiction. For example, vampirism.

Anyway, the Blight originated in the Fade, right? Whether it was created the moment the magisters entered the Golden City or had always been there, it didn't have a physical presence and couldn't affect the real world.

The Blight sustains the darkspawn because they are its physical manifestation, and their sole purpose is to spread its corruption and slaughter all that lives.