Pure msawhat, grey msawhat, or just msawhat is the basic form of the corrupting energy.

The grey corrupting energy of the Grey Lands, pure msawhat that has not come into contact with any other energy (or which has not been affected by it) exists primarily in spaces where planar corruption is occuring, where the barriers between the prime realm and the Grey Lands are weak. These do not happen naturally, but through rites of corrupting power that invoke a violation of the laws of life and death. The laws simply state that all souls that have died must cross through The Gates. Any that do not slip into the Grey Lands, releasing a bit of msawhat that spills back into the realms of the living. The more profound or profane this is, the more msawhat is spilled over. Because the undead are so proliferated on Shem, much msawhat already exists there and can be found in violated places like Kael'Ras or Aldergast or Stolzen.

The arts that allow a mortal to use pure msawhat are mostly tied to other energies or to the undead, but two methods (outside of undead folklore) exist that can be done by one without access to other powers:

• Profane Ritual
• Grey Binding

The impure methods include

• Necromancy
• Necromagic
• Necromastery
• Greydancing
• Power draining
• Grey mist

A user of msawhat is called a Necromancer. Someone who can channel phantasmal undead is called a Medium.