Dark Influence is corruption, the weight of other dimensions bearing down upon humanity from beyond the veil. For your Operatives, it represents their fall into damnation from which there can be no retreat.
Now, as your Operatives begin their descent into darkness, it may occur to them that the Company might take aggressive action to eradicate Dark Influence from the organisation.
They could not be more wrong. The Company is very interested in the effects of Dark Influence on the human mind and body, and how it might be harnessed and turned against its enemies.
Gaining Dark Influence
It is very, very rare, but it is possible for Operatives to gain a point or two of Dark Influence during their initial careers. Every now and again, they might stumble upon something that really does not feel right in this world, and become just a little corrupted.
Probably nothing to worry about. Just a bit odd.
Some careers do seem to attract more Dark Influence than others, of course. Empaths run a very real risk of attracting the attention of the Dark, and there are few Test Subjects who have not been tainted in some way.
Beyond this, Operatives may discover there are Dark Minions who radiate corruption, and will become very wary of getting too close. However, not all is equal here. A Minion Lord might radiate corruption, and thus Dark Influence, in virulent waves that can be physically felt when within a few metres. Another Dark Minion might generate far less powerful waves but do so over a distance of several kilometres - we might imagine one buried deep beneath a city, slowly corrupting every citizen above...
Demonground, those twisted areas where Dark Minions have created a portal directly to their own dimension, have many dangers associated with them... but gaining Dark Influence when stepping inside is guaranteed.
And then there are the Operatives who might think to turn the enemy's weapons against itself, harnessing the supernatural capabilities of DarkTech. They might even get away with it, but those who go too far and begin merging with this insidious technology might gain powers beyond those of any human... but will end up paying a terrible price.
It should be well noted that, at this time, there are absolutely no known methods of reversing Dark Influence...
The Gains... and Losses
So, you are an Operative and have marked a few points of Dark Influence onto your character sheet. What happens next?
Well, nothing to begin with. Absolutely nothing. You might think you have dodged the proverbial bullet.
It so does not work that way. The Dark is insidious and nothing more than the conversion of our world and all its inhabitants into another Dark Dimension will suffice.
As you gain more Dark Influence, you will start to feel pretty good about yourself. You get a little stronger or a little tougher - then a lot stronger or tougher. Hey, this is pretty good, you are even better at fighting Dark Minions now!
Okay, so very occasionally you might hear voices in your head or bleed from your eyes, or forget whatever it was you were doing at the time... but those are small prices to pay. Especially as now you seem to be mastering Empathic powers - and if you were already an Empath, you suddenly have access to a far wider range of talents that are more powerful than anything humans have wielded before. By now you are literally able to use the enemy's weapons against Dark Minions.
You go a little further down this path, and why not? You are now capable of doing some pretty funky things. True, your skin is beginning to turn translucent or little tusks have started to sprout from your jaw but, well, you never really went outside of your HQ unless you were on a mission anyway and besides, your Empathic abilities are really starting to blossom.
However, there soon comes a point where you realise that you must gain more Dark Influence. You are hungry for it, and without its presence you feel a lot weaker - and there seems to be no remedy for that known to medicine. You must acquire more Dark Influence.
This carries on for a while, and everything seems pretty good. You are knocking down Dark Minions on every mission now, and the Company is showering resources upon you.
You don't tell anyone that your mind seems to be full of a fog that it making it harder to think. Also, your fellow Operatives no longer seem quite as friendly as they used to be. However, your Empathic powers are world class and there may be no other human as powerful as you.
The hunger for more Dark Influence grows ravenous, and you find that you can no longer predict how much you need to stay... sane and healthy. Best you grab as much as you can by whatever means you can, month after month.
Next time you come face-to-face with a Dark Minion, it treats you differently. You feel its presence and you know it feels yours - but it completely blanks you, instead focussing on your teammates. Is this a boon? You feel in your soul that something is very, very wrong.
As you enter the final stages of Dark Influence, you begin to feel detached from the world. Sometimes you feel an onslaught of dark energy lancing through your body, but at others you think you are barely clinging onto reality. One day, perhaps, you will go too far and be dragged from this world into another, to spend an eternity in the worst of hells...
Dark Influence in the Game
Dark Influence is corruption, and every rules mechanic built around it reinforces this.
This will be a lot of fun for the Referee!
Operatives may (sensibly) do everything they can to avoid acquiring Dark Influence but the nature of their missions means they will almost certainly gain a little. And that is just fine. They will be okay.
The first effects of Dark Influence are entirely beneficial. It offers things the Operatives will want. However, there comes a tipping point and it lies just before all the bad stuff happens - the slope becomes slippery and they will actively start hungering for Dark Influence and be driven (in terms of game mechanics) to gain more. For which the Dark will reward them.
However, the end will always be damnation - literally dragged from this world into a Dark Dimension from which there is no escape.
The key for Operatives is to dangle their toe into Dark Influence, just a little dip into the calm waters... without falling in and drowning.
