Curses are a powerful art that come from the mixing of the earth, dark, and lightning affinities. The art centers around applying curses to the opponent or environment that range in effect from draining one's energy to creating an army of shadowy figures. In modern application, it is impossible to handle this powerful art yourself and so the art needs to be utilized through some sort of conduit, be it specially made items or another art. Thought to be the precursor to character arts, the curse art is not actually a character art itself, but looks similar to one due to the fact that it usually manifests in the form of white characters that are outlined in black and have a dark green static arcing across them.
The Barys family is said to have specialized in curses and kept a complete record of all curses that they knew and created, and were even skilled enough to be able to apply curses without the use of a proxy. These records were thought to be lost with the destruction of the Tynar but have been found around the world and is what aids the proliferation of this technique, as it is notoriously impossible to develop new techniques for this art.