I’d say that (in this company at least) you already have a pretty
good idea of what a Ghoul is, specifically and as a broader category, whatever
your media/gaming background.
There are no Pseudo-Ghouls; there are Ghouls, alive, dead,
undead.
They are paramortals, not unlike faeries and genies; they
descend from demons, through mortal humanity. They descend from myth, via Lovecraft, through Petersen and Gygax et al.
*The existence of thouls - beyond that a wizard-did-it - implies that the state of ghoulishness is not utterly inimical to mortals, or that regeneration somehow disrupts the transformation to undead.
 |
| Erol Otus, putting that Lovecraftian heritage on show. (Monster Cards Set 1/ 1982) |
What Do Ghouls Look Like?
Consider Tom Moldvay’s The Ungrateful Dead (pre-2e AD&D article from Dragon 138).
The Ghoul variants are significantly more diverse than the Skeletons and the Zombies, including djinn-kin, a reanimated cultist, a demon, a possessed mortal, Black Annis, the Wendigo, and the folkloric kallikantzaroi.
Also, mentioned monsters with an affinity to ghouls cover the carnivorous ape, centaur, satyr, djinni, werewolf, minotaur, ogre, troglodyte, troll, succubus, type V demon (marilith), windwalker (by Wendigo association via Derleth-Petersen rather than RAW), yeti, annis (by extension, all hags) and kech.
I’d add lamiae, (folkloric) vampires, su-monsters, orcs, gnolls, grimlocks, gibberlings, meenlocks, and bugbears, and that’s all just for starters.
Ghouls are at least partly recognisable as one of their host-kin and/or by their family ancestry, but mainly they look like All the World’s Monsters – anything that could be covered by anthropophagous/necrophagous, nocturnal/subterranean, monstrous demi-human/humanoid (intelligent or otherwise), and especially so in a setting without either the usual fantasy monster crowd, or in which monsters are a secret from Normal Humans.
There's no problem with some or all Ghouls looking like more or less like pale people, with or without overbites and pointy ears.
Ghouls change form, consciously and unconsciously, radically and subtly, in varying degrees of permanence. Their plasticity is innate; they are shape-changers by tradition and myth,
*Hit Dice: Mostly, Ghouls are derived from the lower end of the Tribal Humanoid Threat Hierarchy, or Normal Humans, or other Player Character ancestry options.
Options for Ghouls and Ghoulkin are a +2 hp modifier or an extra HD (or fraction, for Kobolds), based on the standard Ghoul’s 2 HD.
Or, they can keep their old Hit Dice, but the Hit Die becomes a d12 (later-edition style).
Being a Ghoul.
You are an anthropophagous/necrophagous,
nocturnal/subterranean intelligent (monstrous) demi-human/humanoid. This does
not automatically mean you are a bad person.
Your Intelligence is within the normal range for your host-kin (or 5 to 18 if you are Ghoul-born and Ghoul-raised).
Your alignment is normally Neutral, of any shade (including
parenthetically evil, True, and Hungry). Unlikely to be Good, especially in a
high-fantasy setting of moral absolutism.
You are 90% resistant to sleep and charm.
You can communicate with Ghasts, other Ghouls, and Nightgaunts.
You can see in the dark up to 60’ (pick or randomise dark-,
infra- or ultra-vision). Some Ghouls have a strongly reflective tapetum
lucidum; others have eyes that glow in the dark (various colours and degrees of
brightness), and some can see further (90' or 120', second sight, even into the Astral and Ethereal Planes).
Merely passing within 10’ of concealed doors or dead things
gives 1 on d6 chance of noticing; 1-3 on d6 if you’re actively searching. You
have 1-2 on d6 chance to detect secret doors or buried dead things, if actively
searching.
If alone and not in metal armour (or only accompanied by
Ghouls, and Ghouls prefer to go naked amongst their own kind), you move so
silently (only the rush of air, the vibration of your footfalls) that you
surprise 1-4 on d6. If you have to burrow through the grave-earth or leap from
a coffin, this drops to 1-2 on d6.
Your unarmoured Armour Class is equal to armour up to Chain,
depending on your ancestry/the texture of your hide (e.g. rubbery, leathery,
scaly, studded, chitinous) plus any Dexterity adjustment.
75% chance that undead will not attack you on sight. Sapient
undead have an initial Reaction of Neutral/Indifferent.
*You have a complicated relationship with your undead
cousins, as you are perfectly good to eat.
You are immune to Ghoul paralysis, Ghast stench and non-magical
disease (including parasitic infestation).
You are resistant/immune to non-magical spores, mould and
fungus, and sometimes allow them to grow on you.
You are subject to the Hunger and the Fading
(turning feral if you succumb).
You will rise as an undead ghoul after death (unless proper rites carried out).
Wounds from your natural attacks (claw/claw/bite, and possibly hoofs and/or horns) are infected with Ghoul Fever and/or Grave Rot, but rigorous hygienic practices can temporarily restrain this (if it suits you).
*If not immune to horror checks, you at least save with advantage/bonus.
Being a Feral Ghoul:
You are a monster NPC. You exist only to satisfy your Hunger.
Your inner and exterior experience could be at odds with one
another, maybe in grandiose delusions of chivalric/courtly adventures, or fantasies
of laconic/stoic heroism in a dead world surrounded by monsters, while really you writhe
and scrabble in the earth and bolt down reeking gobbets of rancid human flesh.
You always attack the living without fear (but are still
subject to Morale; and at -2 vs. fire and/or bright light).
Unless commanded, you will stop fighting to feast on any
fresh kills 1-3 on d6 each combat round.
Anything they feed on is infected with corpse-eating sickness.
If you cannot satisfy the Hunger, you lose d6 hit points per
week and do not heal naturally.
You will rise as an undead Ghoul after death.
Being an Undead Ghoul:
You are as detailed in the basic setting/system bestiary,
seasoned to taste. You are a monster NPC.
You are feral by default. This is only reversible
under special conditions.
You do not suffer damage/Ability Score loss from the Hunger
or the Fading; you are past all that now. You want (more than anything) to eat
intelligent beings, but your suffering if you don't is non-mechanical.
*As convention dictates d4 days to pass before you rise again, a shorter death state could mean more retention of intellect and not automatically going feral on becoming undead (especially for full Ghouls). Undead played this way would be subject to the Hunger and the Fading - some describe/venerate these as Pureblood/Purestrain Ghouls.
The Hunger.
Primary characteristic of the Ghoul. Salient indicator of
metamorphosis in Ghoulkin.
Your overall nutritional needs are reduced to 20-50% of what you needed
before, but you need to eat at least one meal from the body of an intelligent
being per week/ 7 days, or be subject to the Fading.
It can be suppressed, presumably to delay or resist
metamorphosis in those that view it as an Affliction. To satisfy
it is to become a Ghoul.
If you die Hungry (or merely suppressed), before your
final metamorphosis, then +24% chance to rise as an undead ghoul.
Your levels of satiation are otherwise unaffected, and you
need not dine exclusively on corpses.
The Hunger has an instinctive component, directing you to the
correct diet through a variety of changes in appetite, intensity of sensory
experience, intrusive thoughts, involuntary clutching and snapping.
Your requirements can also be learned through research and
observation, parenting and tuition, trial and error, initiation.
*The amount of active ingredient needed to stave off the Fading is surprisingly small, and does not seem to be affected by the freshness (or otherwise) of the cadaver. Ghouls lack the motivation to test this empirically, but Ghoulkin (also, Necromancers and Plague Doctors) might.
The Fading.
For each day beyond a week/ 7 days you cannot satisfy the
Hunger, lose 1 Charisma, Intelligence and Wisdom until your Intelligence
falls to 7 or lower. You then need a feat of willpower each day to
resist going feral.
If you do not go feral with d8 days, you need a heroic
feat of willpower; within another d4 days, a superheroic feat of
willpower. Thereafter, auto-feral.
You can also just give in to it.
You suffer d6 hp damage per week you are Fading
(until you turn feral). If this kills you, you will rise as an undead
ghoul.
No Ability Score can be taken below 5 by the Fading, and
points come back at 1 point per hour after successfully satisfying the Hunger.
However:
- if you went feral you need an equivalent feat of willpower to the one you failed to start regaining your Ability Scores.
- Undead ghouls (feral by default) can only get their points back under special conditions, not by a spontaneous feat of willpower.
*17+ Intelligence (Genius) meals might help. It’s rare
enough amongst Normal Humans, if not Player Characters.
Corpse-eating Sickness and Ghoul Fever.
The two non-magical diseases are very similar in effect.
 |
| Because of British Beef, or just ACAB? (The Monster Club, 1981) |
You are exposed to the sickness by eating corpses generally, infected corpses specifically, and specific parts of the corpses
even more. As long as you keep doing it, you’re not going to get better.
Unfortunately, once contracted, it’s addictive. Makes you giggle and grin
inappropriately. Interval of progression: 1 week.
You are exposed to the fever by contact with Ghouls,
with the level of risk/virulence increasing on a scale from looting a
crypt-lair, through close association (e.g. adventuring, necromancy,
life-drawing/modelling, romance, tutelage), to being bitten and mauled almost
to death. Makes you drool and snarl-snuffle-twitch. Interval of progression: 1
day.
Following exposure/incubation, you lose d3 Constitution and
d3 Dexterity (plus d6 non-lethal damage) each interval you fail a save/Recovery
Roll. If you die, +48% of rising as an undead ghoul.
If Dexterity hits 0 before Constitution, you spontaneously
recover but you are now Ghoulkin (or suffer the Hunger, if you prefer to
speed things along).
If you recover naturally (no magic), you are now 5% likely
to rise as an undead ghoul after death.
The corpse of anyone who dies from the Corpse-Eating
Sickness or Ghoul Fever carries the Corpse-eating Sickness.
The Corpse-eating Sickness can affect and be carried by animals, but concentrates best in intelligent humanoids.
Grave Rot.
Also known as limbdeath, Grave Rot is a non-magical bacterial
wound infection (cf. botulinum, tetanus).
Narratively or randomly determine which body-part has been
affected, as granular as you like but at least covering sword arm, shield arm,
leg(s), torso/full body, head.
Standard penalties (e.g. Armour Class, attack, movement,
spell-casting) apply to limbs out of action. Torso renders you helpless but
conscious (risk of asphyxia on crit. fail); head stops you verbalising out loud
(blindness and/or risk of asphyxia on crit. fail).
If not treated properly/promptly (or each failed Recovery
Roll if not healed), it can spread to adjacent body-parts.
Incubation/onset can be at the next rest period, or within
d12 hours (either can be the interval of progression).
If you survive 3 or more interval periods of Grave Rot
without being healed or recovering, you develop Ghoul Fever (or the Hunger,
becoming Ghoulkin, if you prefer to speed things along).
If you die of Grave Rot, you are +24% likely to rise as an
undead ghoul after death; if you recover without magic, 5%.
The corpse of anyone who dies from Grave Rot carries the
Corpse-eating sickness.
What is Ghoul Paralysis?
 |
| How long does Ghoul Paralysis last? Just the rest of your life. A very wet undead ghoul. Russ Nicholson/ 1982/ The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. |
For purposes of this post, it’s the mythologising of
Grave Rot infection, and elves are no more or less immune to it than they are
to other diseases.
It’s been glossed as the mortal fear of death, so long-lived
elves (and faerie-folk) are immune (Tall Tales of the Wee Folk, but
elsewhere too, I’m sure).
Or the ghoul being suffused with negative/necrotic energy,
and elves being suffused with positive/radiant (Gygax, I think – but then why
aren’t elves immune to other undead special abilities, eh, Gary?).
Or a type of glamour that paralyzes through suggestion
and enchantment (Baur, 1989). A bit close to ‘a wizard did it’. Further suggestive of kinship with fey-folk and genies.
Undead ghouls still paralyse by touch, RAW, and Elves and Ghouls both are immune.
Host-kin.
 |
| The Monster Club (1981). |
Humans – several commentators believe that Ghouls cannot
be found where humans are not found (Gillman, 1984) (Petersen, 1988 & 2015)
Anything that can be half- with a Human. Elves, for example;
Orcs, too. Vulcans and Klingons.
Other types of Pseudo-Undead.
From a host-kin perspective (and that of some Ghoulkin, and
even Ghouls), Ghoulishness is mainly an Affliction.
But recall that ‘host’ has positive and negative
connotations.
A Ghoul population is always within reach of a (potential)
host-kin population, even if the latter is utterly ignorant of the former (and
the reach can be trans-dimensional, rather than physical distance). This is mostly
about nutrition, not reproduction or society.
*Counterintuitively, beings that have more things in common with
Ghouls already, or are often reasonably mistaken for Ghouls, are less likely to
be host-kin. Presumably, an element of transgression is necessary for Ghoulkin-Ghoul
continuity that can be overwritten by existing cultural norms.
*Sentience/sapience and humanoid morphology need not be limiting factors, but when we talk about Ghouls and their host-kin, we usually mean intelligent humanoids (any level of cultural/technological sophistication).
Lifespan.
If you have Ghoul parents (or sometimes a concentration of Ghoul ancestors), you can expect to live 251-325 years.
If Ghoul-born and Ghoul-raised, you become a Young Adult at 12-15 and remain in this age category until 41 (Mature; same categories as AD&D 1e half-elf).
Some describe/venerate these as Pureblood/Purestrain Ghouls.
If raised by host-kin, you age as they do, until you metamorphosise; then you move to the new Mature category.
All other Ghoul-kin can expect to live 145-199 years. They age as their host-kin until metamorphosis, at which point they start again as Mature (same categories as AD&D 1e halfling).
Lifespans can be extended through dietary vigilance and spending time on other planes.
It is possible for Ghoul-kin to age and die as their host-kin without ever metamorphosising, with a 5% chance of rising as an undead ghoul. Their presence in the lineage still contributes to Ghoul-ancestry.
 |
| John Bolton/ The Monster Club (1981) All monsters can breed with all others (and humans, there at the bottom). |
Ghoulkin.
Anyone with the potential to become a Ghoul, who has not been born to and raised as a Ghoul.
Includes Ghoul-born changelings. Start out monstrous to behold, but quickly grow into the characteristics of the host-kin (even taking on family resemblance) until it may even be forgotten that they were anything other than an ugly or sickly babe.
Host-kin raised by Ghouls pass as their birth-kind (at least, once they are bathed, groomed and dressed again), even up until they metamorphosise.
Ghoul-descendants in the host-kin pass Ghoul potential, without diminution, down through the generations. There may be no Ghouls at all in a generation, just one or two weird cousins, or an entire branch of the family might lope off into the darkness.
Ghoulkin do not automatically know what they are, or even the existence of Ghouls.
Most Ghoulkin pass as host-kin, physically, narratively, and mechanically.
There’s no sure way of detecting/identifying Ghoulkin (beyond the Hunger). Certainly not behavioural analysis/observation, considering the parameters of host-kin aberrance/abhorrence (and existence of Necromancers), and maybe not even with contemporary genetic testing.
However, some markers of Ghoulishness include:
- Appropriate backgrounds for Ghoulkin from this linked previous post.
- Punishments and Handicaps: Physical Deformity, Bodily Affliction, Insanity and Madness, Unholy Compulsion (The Complete Book of Necromancers, 2e AD&D).
- Black Wizard Malevolent Effects (Lankhmar: City of Adventure, AD&D, either edition).
- Unholy Attributes from this linked previous post.
- Appropriate Mutations from this linked previous post.
- Disabilities for Daemonologists, Evil/Chaotic Wizards, and Necromancers (Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay - and Zweihander, presumably).
- Fallout (Liminal Horror, link to SRD).
- Advance or randomise on the Terror Track of the Ghoul (Book of Shadows netbook, linked).
- Advance or randomise on this Curse Template on the Alone in the Labyrinth blog.
*If it's useful to you, like you're building background using a family tree: flat 10% chance a Ghoulkin will never manifest Ghoulish features until the Hunger, and 10% chance that they never metamorphosise.
Alignment tends to Evil, because habits and sub-culture are set against the host-kin (which they ultimately deceive and prey on), rather than high-fantasy moral absolutism.
Psychologically and morally, you are in many ways very different to the Ghoul you could become.
Becoming a Ghoul: Narratively, metamorphosis occurs as drama/plot demands, or in the Mature age category of the host-kin (the Innsmouth Look in Deep One Hybrids as a model).
Mechanically, you can just use Ravenloft Dark Powers Checks whenever the Ghoulkin does something suitably ghoulish. You can make metamorphosis advance in stages, or have it so three consecutive pass/fails and/or six total triggers the Hunger.
Exposure to the Corpse-eating Sickness, Ghoul Fever and Grave Rot can help things along, adding percentiles as you see fit. These diseases only seemingly kill the Ghoulkin, instead triggering metamorphosis (possibly involving live internment trauma/ecstasy).
Percentiles can also be boosted by intention, association and location. Don't interpret these numbers as representing how this plays out in the wider world (unless that's the setting background), they're just for the characters and events in the spotlight.
Metamorphosis can be as leisurely as d4 days or as immediate as not even losing Initiative when it happens. Whether it’s painful or elevating depends on what vampire and lycanthrope fiction you’ve consumed recently.
Metamorphosis allows a soft-reset of the character (alignment change, affliction removal, lasting wound recovery), or may simply be a milestone passed. Some Ghouls are utterly innocent of their previous lives and identities. Others are tortured by their past/future and seek atonement/recovery; others double-down on being a creature of havoc.
*Paladins can be Ghoulkin, or of Ghoul ancestry without it affecting their Paladinhood/class abilities - as long as they don't break their Lawful Good alignment restriction.
The Hunger (behaviour) and the Fading (ability score loss) present obstacles to achieving and maintaining Paladin status, but it's conceivable a Ghoulish Paladin could maintain themselves on rigid ascetism and licking saintly relics.
Also, consider an un-metamorphosised Ghoulkin Paladin rising as an undead ghoul after death.
*Ghoul Venom.
Sometimes known as sperm or spore, Ghoul Venom
is a type of weird life seeded throughout the mortal sphere, and it is
from this that Ghouls arise.
In its most primal form it is little more than data, or
thermo-electrical/chemo-electrical processes, allowing it to exist as a
biological agent (when bonded to cellular life) or as a cognitohazard.
It is unintelligent, but only in the way our genes are; it
is otherwise a hardy, capable, adaptable and overall opportunistic mechanism
for its own reproduction.
It’s not quite in everything, but it’s not as far from our
normal experience as we think.
That is why Ghouls can come about by sex, violence, diet,
social behaviour, consuming cursed/forbidden media, thinking horrid thoughts,
spawning vats, transplants/vivisection, the various necrotic vices, and just by studying them.
*The Mythos conceit that, via Yogash, Ghouls descend through
Cthulhu and thence from Yog-Sothoth and Shub-Niggurath is mere mortal
comprehension of unfathomable principles underlying the fecundity and variety
of the exotic universe.
*Also in a Mythos vein, Ghoul Venom as a construct or
by-product of Elder Thing bio-tech. The Shoggoth lurking in our base-pairs, Humans and Ghouls intertwined in the double helix.
*Monsters Aren’t Real, and Dimensional Shamblers are a Type of Ghoul.
Not just paramortals, but ultraterrestrials.
Ghouls are familiar with the thin places, slipping easily between the mortal sphere and the realms of the dead and of dreams. As such, are they even native to our reality?
When a Ghoul approaches a thin place or is in a window area, it might:
- adjust its vibrational frequency, appearing as if affected by a blur spell, and shift to another dimension after d4 rounds;
- reconfigure its coordinates in mundane space-time, as if affected by a duo-dimension spell (any clone/edition/system) and pass through the thinnest of spaces includes shifting to another dimension (where they are already 25% materialised, rather than on the Astral Plane, per the spell) after d4 rounds;
*Special Characters.
Use any monster from the basic Tribal Humanoid Threat
Hierarchy to determine HD/rank equivalent of special characters in a Ghoul
lair.
Swap any shared-lair monsters (e.g. ogres, trolls, thouls*)
for Ghasts, or any of the monsters with an affinity with ghouls.
Females and young are not non-combatant.
As well as tribal spellcasters (shaman/witch-doctors), there
can also be high priests with sub-clerics.
*For larger, older Ghoul nests, use whatever the equivalent
scale is for the Underdark demi-human/humanoid civilisations to determine
population distribution and special characters (including re-skinned savants
and students, cleric/assassins, whips, monitors).
Weapons and armour don’t matter (Ghouls have a notoriously non-material culture), but they have no global taboo vs. literacy or item use, and they’re as magic-ready as elves.
*Space Ghouls of the Future.
Ghouls are unaffected by the effects of radiation, bad air,and low/no gravity; they have d4 rounds grace when exposed to hard vacuum. Long
enough to swarm across the hull.
Ghoulkin respond to these environments as their host-kin
(though have advantage/bonus vs. stenches).
Undead ghouls are (un)affected as any other undead monster
would be.
Ghouls, undead or otherwise, can accumulate and transmit radioactivity. Atomic horror mutations to taste.
 |
| Alan Aldridge (c. 1967). Pickman's Model ('Ghoul Feeding') variations crop up in isolation from the story itself, with all kinds of shapes, sizes and adornments - and that itself is a literary variation on Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son. |
Commentary.
There are Ghouls and Ghoulkin all around us, but not every grave-robbing serial-killing necrophiliac cannibal is a Ghoul or even Ghoulkin - some people are just awful/evil. Though they are increasing their risk factors.
Do not ignore The Monster Club (1981), where Ghouls are one of three primary teratotypes. It's all a bit silly, but there's food for thought.
Lovecraft’s The Outsider, The Rats in the Walls, Pickman’s
Model and The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath are basic key texts. The
four stories suggest multiple interpretations/factions of ghoul.
The Hound touches on other types of ghoul, mention of a corpse-eating cult and even possibly the titular Thing. And, retrospectively, our narrator and companion.
See also And His Mouth Will
Taste of Wormwood (vampire story though it is), and remind yourself that the path to sexy vampires (Rare; Vampyres are Very Rare) winds through ghoul country (Uncommon). Ghouls can be surprisingly equitable, sympathetic and welcoming.
Or they will play with their food before eating. Just because we shouldn't judge them solely on their reputation, doesn't mean they haven't earned it.
The Deep Ones suggest a model for
infiltration/assimilation within host-kin populations (which leads to Genestealers as another model, especially the sweet-spot when they were
evolving from Pseudo-Xenomorphs into something else), though Ghouls are less compulsive and systematic about it.
Gygax states the ghoul is Lovecraft-inspired, but the one that appears in Chainmail and its descendants seems closer to the Living Dead of the eponymous Night: they spawn from their kills (what they don’t eat).
Wolfgang Baur's The Ecology of the Ghoul (Dragon 252) and Kingdom of the Ghouls (Dungeon 70). I missed them first time round, and it looks like some of this made it into canon/later editions. Not really my bag, but interesting. Irreversible hair-loss leading to wigs should have become an exaggerated cultural feature (c.f. the Crimson Court from Darkest Dungeon).
I initially assumed ghoul paralysis had its roots in Lovecraft, but there it wasn't when I first read the Call of Cthulhu monster section (and later the complete fiction). And, at first glance, I was intrigued that their bite inflicted 'Worry'.
The Fallout and Tokyo Ghouls, and the Flesh Eater Courts, have all encroached on the Ghoul Venn, the mythological ghoul (like the folkloric werewolf and vampire) further buried by new media descendants.
Ghoul-Christ(ians) instead of Zombie-Christ(ians).
I have not yet read Brian McNaughton’s Throne of Bones and I am genuinely surprised that this had not crossed my path.
In my headcanon, the Ghouls, Tcho-Tchos, and the various Men of Leng are all on the same continuum.
My oldest conscious treatment of ghouls as cultured undead had them as having human intelligence and a casual allegiance to Nyarlathotep, with bricollaged idols - a smoking cauldron perched on a tripod.
The corpse-eating sickness unambiguously draws on my pre-occupation with the Mad Cow Disease scare (#BOSR), and at the time extensive reading around cannibalism (anthropological and mythological).
Ghouls are one of my favourites, and lots got left out.
I haven't forgotten about (Pseudo-) Ghasts.
