A villain or Evil Artifact able to attract many to the Dark Side via persuasion, temptation or manipulation, calling upon one's darkest desires and tempting them with the prospect of fulfilling their wishes or granting them power or simply because of the foul evil energy radiating from it so intensely that it twists the minds of any who come into contact with it and increases their inner darkness (i.e. Malefor).

Those submitted to Corrupting Influences change increasingly for the worse over time, depending on how the influence works and how often they are exposed to it. This corruption may only occur when in the presence of a Corrupting Influence (though the victim soon developps an unhealthy addiction to it - or gets convinced by the villain's arguments) or increase gradually over the time, but if nothing is done to stop it the corruption will soon become permanent and irreversible. On rare occasions this leads to Damned Souls as some go over the Moral Event Horizon.

Good examples of this are John Milton, Bill Cipher, Ego, Dormammu, Walter White, Mola Ram, Lord Voldemort, Sauron, Aku, Zhan Tiri, Turbo, The Joker, Evanora, Slade, Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear, Rex Dangervest, Isaac Ray Peram Westcott, The Taker of Souls, Jack Ferriman, Screenslaver, Dawn Bellwether, Drago Bludvist, Bradford Buzzard and Scar.

They are also the evil counterpart of Merciful heroes.

See also

• Corrupting Influence at the Evil wiki.
• Corrupting the Innocent at the Evil wiki.
• Corruption Inducement at the Superpower wiki.