Well that's sort of what I was implying with the weak/strong contrast between them. Didn't quite know lichdom was the deciding factor and I suppose that makes me wrong on some counts of what I thought though.

That being said, the only area I could find that had genuine orclach was in the Presidio when Hyrtakos was a youngin, so I modeled most of his RP around that. I suppose the orclach there willingly serve the viscanti nobels and are somehow affected by the taint or at least attracted by it, but I played Hyrtakos as if he was once a slave there and got away. You can notice one of the scars on his back creeping up past his armor and of course the limp from when they gimped him as a child so he wouldn't run away again. He despises the houses of Magnagora and consequently anything tainted really, but orcs most of all (I remember him once running through a Serenwilde village to kill off invading orcs ).

Well, the Cacophony song that makes people undead would be able to work as "tainted" too in that respect, since tainted Orclach become Undead Orclach or Orcs (no other options). That's not permanent, though, so I'm not sure how that plays in. Lichdom is the only really "permanent" undeath, and thus the only one that actually has a chance of imbuing its user with taint, using the Orclach Theorem (though it doesn't NECESSARILY do so, I'd have to say that undeath is a strong indication of Taint).

If I remember right, Urlach had undead soldiers that weren't tainted, and I think you could say a taint breathing Geomancer is tainted without necessarily being undead. I forgot what my point was, but that sounded relevant.

He did. However, the Taint either killed Orclach or made them undead, which made the Orclach in general believe that Urlach was involved (undeath was a very big deal for them, a sign of Urlach's blessing). A few splintered from this belief and saw it as an abomination by the helpfile, but by-and-large, the undeath was a "Hooray" thing. However, in the modern era, undeath was caused by the Taint (Rowena, Brennan, all the Magnagoran folks). Beings were either killed and reborn very vile by Kethuru's taint-cloud, or warped / mutilated / maimed. It was just more of a "Wow" to Orclach who revered undeath, and more of an extreme reaction that continued to occur later, by the helpfile at least (and other evidence: there are a lot more warped orcs/orclach than any other race).

I don't think you can actually say a taint-breathing Orclach is tainted (on an OOC basis) unless they're actually undead or an orc, which casts doubt on other non-Tainted races. IC is, of course, a completely different matter, but we know that the Taint reacts to Orclach in one of two ways. Death, or orcage. As it is possible to contain something without actually *being* something (I am not a lobster, after all, despite the fact that I will be digesting one shortly), that seems an alternative solution that does fit the puzzle quite well.

Out of Glomdoring?

Okay to everything else, but I'm not so sure about this. Things that are tainted aren't taint; they are things that are tainted. After eating that lobster you'll break down the proteins and incorporate them into your body. While you may not be a lobster, one could argue that you've been lobsterfied.

I feel full, but not like going swimming in the (very cold) ocean. In a bit, the lobster will be all gone, and it won't be any different than having eaten another meal of similar amounts of fats/etc.

Like I said, you're not a lobster. If your body became host to a virus, your very DNA would be altered, but you wouldn't experience sudden urges to attach to the protein coats of other people's cells and invade them. I would use taint itself as an example, but by (probably) arbitrary design, tainted beings do in fact tend to behave like actual taint.

Which just goes to further demonstrate my point-- at that point, they are becoming tainted, so the Orclach would either die or become an orc. They don't, so the taint-virus isn't applied by simply using the tainted products, or spitting it out. They don't become "tainted" until they actually use the pinnacle of the Tainted arts.

Here, this smiley should summarize the last few posts.

I think it'd be fun if we could take on characteristics of things we eat. Or maybe really worrisome! I mean, you'd have to start thinking carefully about what you ate. Imagine eating cotton candy... in the rain!

I think that is something I would try to avoid.

Exactly! Melting into a gloopy puddle would ruin an entire day.

Bit more than a day...

Prolly so! Though once you'd dried out and your sugary structure crystalized again, it might be kind of interesting at least.

I think the "brain" part would be thoroughly ruined at that point.

You are indescribably awesome.

Aah, Rathergood. I'd forgotten about them until now.