Quote Originally Posted by Alleo View Post
If you are tempered you will follow the one that tempered you but at the same time can act and move just like you once did. Sometimes they break your mind too much (like the woman in the Amalja quests) and sometimes you are turned into a monster. But every one that just got tempered will lose their free will. There are no stages between that.
Actually, no - this example (Loon Gah's mother) IS one of several pieces of evidence that there are degrees of tempering, not just tempered/non-tempered. It's explicitly stated in the Beast Tribe quest that she was demented due to being OVER-tempered, exposed again and again. It wasn't just a case of tempering affecting different people in different ways. You can be tempered a little, or tempered a lot, and being tempered a lot can affect your mind (as with the woman) or your body (as with the pirates in Sastasha (Hard)), or, presumably, both.

If this is the case, then Sin Eaters could be similar to extreme tempering, twisting the body and mind both. It may still be a different phenomenon than tempering, but could still be close enough for the Scions to make the logical leaps they're making.