History Main / EvilTaintedThePlace

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': Voldemort leaves behind a pretty nasty SoulJar during his time at Hogwarts but his left overs are small potatoes next to the nigh demonic Basilisk the founder of the Slytherin House stored in the pipes.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** The Nightfort played host to some terrible happenings in the Night's Watch's history. It was the headquarters of the Night's King. It was the post of the 79 Sentinels. It was there that a king was served his own son in a pie by a vengeful cook. It was where Danny Flint was raped and where Mad Axe killed his brothers. It was where Symeon Star-Eyes witnessed hellhounds fight and where those apprentice boys saw a thing that came in the night. A commander of the Nightfort once plunged the Watch into a civil war. It was finally abandoned during the reign of Jaehaerys I. [[spoiler:The forces of Stannis Baratheon are currently occupying it.]]
** The places burned by dragons are said to become haunted by horror and trauma. Old Valyria, the Rhoyne, Harrenhal, Rook's Rest, Tumbleton and Summerhall are bywords for tragedy and disaster.

* The [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Hook_Elementary_School_shooting Sandy Hook Elementary School]] was torn down in December 2013, a year after the massacre that killed 26.
** Likewise, there have been talks to do the same with Columbine, where a similar shooting happened.

* TrueCrime author Ann Rule, while doing research for her book Literature/TheStrangerBesideMe (about the SerialKiller UsefulNotes/TedBundy), visited the spot where he abducted one of his victims, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Georgann_Hawkins Georgeann Hawkins]]--an alleyway between hers and her boyfriend's dormitories--and describes a visible chill in the air at the precise location she was taken, in stark contrast to the surroundings.

* TrueCrime author Ann Rule, while doing research for her book Literature/TheStrangerBesideMe (about the SerialKiller UsefulNotes/Ted Bundy), visited the spot where he abducted one of his victims, [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Georgann_Hawkins Georgeann Hawkins]]--an alleyway between hers and her boyfriend's dormitories--and describes a visible chill in the air at the precise location she was taken, in stark contrast to the surroundings.

* At one point in ''ComicBook/XMen'', Magneto raised a previously constructed base he somehow found out about from the ocean floor. This place is said to be where arcane rituals were carried out, rituals so terrible they permanently tainted the place with evil that no force could cleanse. Nothing much seems to come of this besides young Illyana Rasputin getting dragged into Limbo and becoming Magik.

* PlayedWith in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' when Marge sells a murder house to her neighbors without explaining the history of the property. Of course, Marge feels guilty about this soon after the transaction, and she decides to offer them their deposit back the next time she meets with them. When she finally goes to explain and apologize about the omission she discovers that they aren't angry at her about it and are in fact delighted with the house's history. The most troubling part about it is, the neighbors exhibit a bus load of horror movie tics during the conversation. Marge and the audience can't tell if they're just joking or if an actual remnant of evil exists within the property.

* Sandy Hook Elementary, where an infamous shooting occurred in December 2012, was torn down for this reason.

* Likewise the home of Fred and Rose West, infamous British serial killers and child abusers. Not only was the building razed and the land turned into a memorial garden, but the street was cordoned off while the demolition work was undertaken and the rubble was taken away under police guard and buried in landfill to deter CreepySouvenir hunters. The county did not ''quite'' go so far as to ask the local vicar to make a referral to the diocese's exorcism taskforce, but one suspects it must have been under consideration.
* Like the home of Fred and Rose West, this happened to the house of alleged South African pedophilic serial killer Gert van Rooyen. Van Rooyen is generally considered guilty because one of his victims, 16-year-old Joan Booysen, escaped captivity in the house and informed the police, but Van Rooyen was never taken into custody as he killed himself and his accomplice, Joey Haarhoff, before police could question or charge him. Despite a lot of circumstantial evidence, none of the bodies of the missing children he is believed to have abducted and assaulted have ever been found. The bank claimed the property but eventually donated it to the South African Police, who systematically demolished the house and gardens in search of traces of the missing children. They never did, and the plot of land in Pretoria is still empty as of 2023.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'':
** Areas invaded by the Legion are often heavily corrupted by fel energy - plants become sickly or die, animals are driven mad, and even water becomes contaminated. Felwood, the Badlands, and other regions are so badly tainted that even decades later they remain ruined.
** Shadowmoon Valley was a vibrant grassland until Gul'dan used the Cipher of Damnation to sever the connection between the Orcs and the elements. This created a massive fel volcano at the center of the valley which turned the entire region into a volcanic hellscape. Even decades later, the act was so vile that the memory of Gul'dan's betrayal continues to repeat itself.
** Pandaria is a continent wide example of this phenomenon. Although it looks charming, Pandaria is infested with the disturbingly powerful remnants of an exceedingly nasty Old One known as Y'Shaarj. Although he was defeated by the Titans long ago, Y'Shaarj cursed the land with his dying breath to be forever riddled with shadows of "his former self". The curse is thought to be behind the shadowy emotion eaters known as the Sha, as well as other mysterious phenomena that plague the island.
** On Draenor, the god Sethe was killed long ago but the land where his body and blood fell were corrupted beyond recovery. His blood still boils in pools between the Spires and any arakkoa who touches it is twisted physically and magically.
* [[TheCorruption The Blight]] from ''Franchise/DragonAge'' corrupts everything it touches. Even after the Archdemon is dead the lands the Darkspawn ravaged never fully recover as a result of the corrupting effects. Some areas of the Anderfels are so ravaged by the Blight that not only does nothing grow/live there, but also ''corpses don't decompose''. No insects, grubs, or even bacteria can exist in such wasted places.
** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOriginsAwakening'': The Baroness of the Blackmarsh was an Elizabeth Bathory {{Expy}} in life, and she actually became a demon to torment people further after her (deserved) death, filling the Blackmarsh with evil. While the Blackmarsh itself was able to recover after her second death, both of the people who lived upon the grounds where her house once stood died mysterious deaths. After the second one, no one ever built a house or lived on that spot again.
* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'': in the backstory, the Black Beast ravaged the world while leaving seithr, ToxicPhlebotinum that pollutes the ground and waters, and can cause deterioration of the human body and mind. After the battle against the beast (called the Dark War) is over, most of the world in the lower elevations (including the seas) have been covered in seithr, forcing the survivors to build cities in high mountains to avoid them.

* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'': If the statement that "the Demons have brought their own reality with them" in ''VideoGame/DoomII'''s story text is anything to go by, being tainted by evil is why none of the canon levels from the ''Doom'' series' 2D graphics era to be set in the land of the living look at all recognizably or convincingly like a real-life example of the type of location the level name suggests it is supposed to be. This trope could also be seen in the first game when going from Phobos to Deimos. The facilities on Deimos show various signs of demonic influence -- rivers of blood and magma, vines growing on the walls, a [[RedSkyTakeWarning blood-red sky]], demonic symbols inscribed in various places, and a few rooms with surfaces of flesh and intestine, with or without skin. It all builds up to TheReveal that [[spoiler:Deimos has been transported to Hell]].
* ''VideoGame/TheSuffering'' and its sequel are set in locations where the atrocities of the past have left a supernatural imprint on the land, eventually resulting in manifestations of hideous beings modeled upon the violence and corruption that took place there, from [[HellholePrison Carnate Island]]'s executions to [[WretchedHive Charm City]]'s urban decay. Worse still, it's implied that this isn't abnormal, not even in the case of the island: ''any location in the world'' that's seen enough bloodshed and torment can manifest this phenomena - [[ParanoiaFuel all it needs is the right catalyst]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'', Cursed Zones are lifeless areas covered with animate shadow, rivers of ooze, and statues that used to be living people. Only ''gods'' can move freely in a Cursed Zone, and even then death awaits them if they stay too long. TheHero's only recourse is to strengthen the nature around it, at which the point the world's inherent purity will instantaneously overcome the Zone and revert it to how it used to be.

* ''VideoGame/SongOfHorror'': Locations where the [[EldritchAbomination Presence]]'s titular song has played become permanently haunted by it, and anyone in these locations is vulnerable to [[DraggedOffToHell being spirited away]] by its manifestations. Most of the levels take place in locations where it has been played via the [[OminousMusicBoxTune music box]].
* ''VideoGame/Ashes2063'': Locations in the old world that look clean and un-scavenged often contain a phenomenon called in-game by the name "[[TheCorruption background despair]]", that seems to originate from people dying in despair and manifests as visual and auditory effects, and mechanisms working on their own accord; in high enough concentrations, [[UncertainDoom people can simply vanish]]. More often than not, [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Haunts]] hang around these places. Background despair makes places inhospitable enough that you find part of a military base affected by it boarded off entirely.

** The Nightfort played host to some terrible happenings in the Night's Watch's history. It was the headquarters of the Night's King. It was the post of the 79 Sentinels. It was where Danny Flint was raped and where Mad Axe killed his brothers. It was where Symeon Star-Eyes witnessed hellhounds fight and where those apprentice a thing that came in the night. The commander of the Nightfort plunged the Watch into a civil war. It was finally abandoned during the reign of Jaehaerys I. [[spoiler:The forces of Stannis Baratheon are currently occupying it.]]

* In the ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' series, the places burned by dragons have all become places of horror and trauma. Old Valyria, the Rhoyne, Harrenhal, Rook's Rest, Tumbleton and Summerhall are bywords for tragedy and disaster. Some are considered haunted.

* In the ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' series, the places burned by dragons have all become places of horror and trauma. Their names are bywords for disaster; old Valyria, the Rhoyne, Harrenhal, Rook's Rest and Tumbleton.

[[folder:Podcasts]]
* ''Podcast/SibyllineSounds'': This is discussed in "The Disappearance of Vaim Manor." Vincent asks Oreo to help him investigate why Vaim Manor disappears into another dimension every year and comes back with the normally hospitable [[GeniusLoci personality of the manor]] changed to be more sinister. Vincent compares it to the grand palaces of the [[SnakePeople naga lords]] built upon the bones of their conquests. Oreo notes that the coffee shop across the street from his bookstore which is run by a naga has a similar feel. Calister the naga is actually a NiceGuy, so the taint of evil in his coffee shop is actually coming from his ancestry rather than anything bad that happened there. Oreo also mentions that the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army Terracotta Army]] has a similar evil energy.
[[/folder]]

* ''Podcast/SibyllineSounds'': This is discussed in "The Disappearance of Vaim Manor." Vincent asks Oreo to help him investigate why Vaim Manor disappears into another dimension every year and comes back with the normally hospitable [[GeniusLoci personality of the manor]] changed to be more sinister. Vincent compares it to the grand palaces of the [[SnakePeople naga lords]] built upon the bones of their conquests. Oreo notes that the coffee shop across the street from his bookstore which is run by a naga has a similar feel. Calister the naga is actually a NiceGuy, so the taint of evil in his coffee shop is actually coming from his ancestry rather than anything bad that happened there.