If Taint were just a physical malady, I would be inclined to agree with you. But it isn't. It's a spiritual and moral affliction that spreads like a physical disease, and can end up with a soul ripped from the cosmic cycle, stripped of any chance to fulfill its destiny, and condemned to Jigoku's embrace.

This is actually pretty overblown, and mostly present to give an obvious source of cheap drama and lift the burden of writing complex evil characters. Otherwise, the Tainted character can just have some sort of "divine intervention" and get rid of her Taint by killing a random oni or he can just climb out of Jigoku and return as a 100% pure spirit-samurai to fulfill his destiny.

Also, I would like to point out that while Locust Shell has a fair point, being reminded to one's "mortality" can be quite counter-productive in a fantasy samurai game. You are supposed to piss all over your mortality in this genre, after all.

Do you mean that you think my comment is overblown, or the way Taint is handled as largely incurrable is overblown on the part of the writers?

The latter. It is overblown by the writers (thus giving the kinda-sorta-false perception you described) to cover up how a lazy excuse it is for cheap drama and one-dimensional evil villains. But then, it is just as bad and incurable as the story demands it, so there is no point saying that being Tainted is equal to being irreversibly doomed - it just means that the Tainted character is in the need of some random *sspull to get rid of his/her curse. Unless the character likes his/her Taint, but that's a different can of worms .

If Taint were just a physical malady, I would be inclined to agree with you. But it isn't. It's a spiritual and moral affliction that spreads like a physical disease, and can end up with a soul ripped from the cosmic cycle, stripped of any chance to fulfill its destiny, and condemned to Jigoku's embrace.

It bothers me beyond any "fairness" to the players in a game, beyond any issue with one particular GM.

I don't really see the relevance of this distinction, I suppose. That it's a physical and spiritual affliction is a big part of what makes it feel like it actually matters in the way I described, in fact, since that puts it beyond "that's gross, but I understand the biology here, so the feeling of danger it produces is finite" and "fine, then let's get a water tensai in here in and Regrow the Wound/Peace of the Kami this sucker." Drawing a bright line between afflictions of the body and stuff that affects your "soul," variously defined, is much more of a feature of the modern world than the premodern one anyway--hence how faith/invocation of Amida Buddha/exorcism/charms/etc. were as integral a part of so many pre-scientific medical traditions as things like herbs that we now understand to (sometimes, at least) have biological efficacy. Taint as a demonic affliction of both soul and body is another neat way--along with shugenja who really heal wounds and bring the rain, ancestors who really help you out, objects that have souls and magic powers, etc--that fantasy lets us explore all these aspects of life that were totally "true" to premodern people by making them literally true within the setting.

And in fact you only get "ripped from the cosmic cycle" and pulled into Jigoku upon your death once you become all the way Lost, which in the RAW takes a heck of a lot of Taint accumulation. Right up to that point, you can still be returned to the karmic wheel for a better chance after you die, third eye and tentacles and all. That's why so many of the the options for Tainted people in the setting (the ones who don't embrace Jigoku voluntarily, that is), boil down to "try not to become Lost before you die," or--different emphasis, same ultimate goal--"try to die before you become Lost."

The free will in this scenario (which--although correct me if I'm wrong--seems to be a major element in your concerns) is precisely in what characters do under this threat of spiritual as well as physical mortality. They can choose to fight it by embracing the virtues most celebrated in Rokugani culture--restraint, purity of spirit, and detachment, on the one hand, and/or bravery, sacrifice, and an early death on the other. Those are things that are supposed to matter to everyone anyway, but to a character facing the Taint their value gets a lot more concrete (yet another way it makes a nice analogue to the premodern world of deathbed confessions of faith and "he's taken a turn for the worse, better have him take holy orders!", in fact). If they succeed in embodying those virtues, they're all the more noble for having done so despite greater challenges. Alternately, they can look eternal damnation in the face and go, "fine, then, YOLO b*****s," embrace the darkness, and use it for their own ends--or try to, since it will also be trying to use them, of course. Or they can try to walk some kind of perilous line in which they try to turn their misfortune to a good cause without completely sacrificing their souls. One point or even one rank of Taint doesn't remove all that much player/character agency, really.

Also, I would like to point out that while Locust Shell has a fair point, being reminded to one's "mortality" can be quite counter-productive in a fantasy samurai game. You are supposed to piss all over your mortality in this genre, after all.

Hah, true, though there are multiple senses in which you can "piss all over your mortality"! In quite a lot of tabletop fantasy games you laugh in the face of mortality because mortality is, well, kind of a joke--death is just another status effect. As I said, L5R, for me, does a pretty good job of letting you do so in a more interesting sense--when your characters laugh in the face of mortality it's a truly brave and exciting act, because there is uncertainty and there are things to fear. Two different kinds of wish fulfillment and fantasy at work: sometimes you want to be an indestructible goblin stomper who fears nothing because you've got enough Astral Diamonds in the bank for at least two resurrections, and sometimes you want to vicariously experience a kind of mental state and emotional arc not too common in everyday life (while also being a badass, of course--don't get me wrong. ).

If Taint were just a physical malady, I would be inclined to agree with you. But it isn't. It's a spiritual and moral affliction that spreads like a physical disease, and can end up with a soul ripped from the cosmic cycle, stripped of any chance to fulfill its destiny, and condemned to Jigoku's embrace.

It bothers me beyond any "fairness" to the players in a game, beyond any issue with one particular GM.

The character will end up to the Jigoku's embrace if he's not fighting against it. One of the most common way to help when the taint is low is the Tea of Jade Petals or preventing the gain of it by having Jade Fingers before hands. Sure the Jade Fingers aren't always easy to get, but these are the most common way to fight it. Then comes, as Locust Shell said, fighting the heck out of it, with the objective to die before turning into a Lost. Sure, that means that your character will die, but die in honor. Also, there's nothing more honorable to die as a Sacrifice to save others. Then comes the rare occasion where the character gets a divine intervention to remove this Taint. Let's keep in mind, this is far from being common.

I have a feeling the main topic isn't the about the character is tainted but the fact that at a certain point, there's no turning back and dying is the best option. We all like our character but we must also keep in mind that it's just a character. We also have to keep in mind that their duty is to do whatever they can to protect others, including dying for them. How many oriental movies do you see a Samurai that tells his lord: "Go ahead, I'll stay here and hold them to save you." which ends up into a dead Samurai, and that Samurai isn't a random one, it's one of the main character. I will say that it's very often. Afterward, there's a lot of respect toward the sacrifice he did to make sure the mission was a success.

I have this feeling because we all know that when the Taint is getting stronger, it will end up as a loss of a character. I know a lot of people who gets mad when their character dies, I used to be that way. I said "used to" because now, I don't care much if they die as long as they die in a nice way. What's the nice way? Just not in a cheap shot like: "You wake up and die!" and the emphasis toward "fairness" in the quote I've pick kinda show me that using Taint seems to be a cheap way to kill someone. I would say it's an opportunity to step up your character and makes him shine and die in a great cause in order to achieve something great.

I really liked the comparaison with today's sickness. I'll bring the cancer because of the psychological effect of it. I'll focus on two ways to think: "It's the end of the world" or "I'll make sure to enjoy any moment until the end". One of them will end up into a degeneration, sorrow and sadness, the other will end up into a model of courage. In the end, both will die, but one of them will be seen as a model. It's the same way for the Taint. The character may think it's the end of the world but I don't feel it's very honorable. If we want the character to keep up with his way of life, then we have to think otherwise, we need to find a way to shine through the situation to prevent him to turn into a Lost. In my eyes, I would be more angry if I let my character becomes a Lost then let him go back into the cosmic cycle.

I doubt that anyone's opinion on contagious Taint is going to change at this point, so all I can do is explain why I don't like it.

By the same token, I have no issue with people who want to take their Taint willingly; I just happen to much prefer it being an uncontrollable ailment, as IMO it feels like something Jigoku would be more apt to use in its hunger to consume Ningen-do. If no honorable samurai would dare accept the Taint into themselves, what good is the Taint for Jigoku in the end?

Just my take.