Ghoul

Ghouls are a type of Undead that exist in the world of Pact.

Ghouls are individuals who’ve interrupted the circle of life and death, usually by eating the dead, coming back from near-death one too many times, or practicing necromancy badly and ending up out of balance, only able to keep going with periods of convalescence, like hibernation, and bursts of life or death voraciousness. Once awake they have a three hour window to find food or perish, and then rest for months or years.<ref name=":0">“Ghouls are supposed to be thin,” Rose said.
[...]
“Ghouls are individuals who’ve interrupted the circle of life and death, usually by eating the dead, coming back from near-death one too many times, or practicing necromancy.”

“Black magic?” I asked.

“Yeah.  Maybe I should amend that to say ‘practicing necromancy badly‘.  Using terms we’re mostly familiar with, they’re individuals who are out of balance.  They’re the spinning plates that are only just hanging on, and that means they need a fine touch to keep going.  They do that with periods of convalescence, like hibernation, and bursts of… hunger is the wrong word.  Life or death voraciousness.  Maddened with a need for sustenance.  More like a rabid dog than human.”

“So they are basically super-zombies,” Evan said.

I heard Rose sigh.

“Sustenance?  Feasting on human flesh,” Maggie added.

“The go-to way, yeah,” Rose replied.  “If they have their wits about them, then they can use the necromancy they knew in life, or they just move between areas with an awful lot of death or life energy.”

“But they mostly manage by eating human flesh,” Maggie said.  “Right?”

“Essentially.  No warning, three hour window to find food or perish, rest for months or years.  Depending on where their personal balance is sitting, they eat either corpses or they scarf down bits of still-living victims they’ve found in isolated spots.”
[...]
“They’re dead.  They don’t feel the cold, they don’t get tired, the only thing that drives them is a need to gorge themselves with flesh.  They aren’t going to move until they have a reason to move.” - Excerpt from Void 7.5</ref> Another conception doesn't use a cycle but rather a spinners (tops, plates or etc.) that balances at the edge of life and death.<ref name ="tops">Ghouls live on the threshold of life and death, like spinning tops perpetually wobbling, and they keep themselves going by feeding on lives on the brink of death, or the freshly dead, as close to being still warm as they may hope.
[...]
“The closer they get, the more I hang out.  Until I’m there whenever nurses and staff aren’t.  If they have a place they want to be or a thing they want to do, I sometimes pay a bit of myself to keep… you said we were like spinning tops [...] keep them spinning for the last day or last few hours.  One day to sneak out of the hospital, go shopping, go to a movie, or maybe go to the beach.  Usually one thing.  The last one, I took her back to school, after hours, so she could sit at her desk again.  Then they go, I like to listen to music with them at the end.  Then I eat, I leave nothing behind unless they ask.” - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.5</ref> Of course there many variants who have diffrent presentation of ghoul traits.

Description

Ghouls are usually thin, resembling addicts or anorexia victims. They have an air of obsession or addiction in their eyes.<ref name=":1">A fat man, with two women and a man in his company, occupying a bus shelter when the buses had stopped traveling their routes days ago.  All four wore winter clothes, but they had a demeanor like some of the sketchier homeless I’d run into, once upon a time.  Little details that made me think of meth-zombies, cokeheads, or anorexic people.  There was a kind of look in their eyes, as far as I could make them out, a dark gleam that had a way of working its way into people’s eyes when one single idea dominated their existence.

Except these things were Others.  Their purpose was simple enough.

The fat one carried a dismembered arm, raising it to his mouth periodically to take a bite.

“Ghouls are supposed to be thin,” Rose said.
[...]
The Other stopped in its tracks.

It drew a charm from its pocket.  A necklace or macabre rosary, dangling with finger bones.

It pointed at the ghoul lying on the ground, the one I’d cut with June.

The body moved.

Maggie stepped forward, swinging the sword, taking the head of the ghoul before the undead necromancer could do anything with the corpse.

Without waiting, she swung again, the blade biting hard into the pavement, and she took the ghoul’s head.

The braver of the two remaining creatures stared at us.  The fat one, still bearing stubble on its face.

“If you attack,” I said, “We take you to pieces.  If you run, I’ll come after you and take you to pieces.  Can you communicate?”

It nodded.
[...]
It held up two fingers.

“Second choice?” I asked.  “Agree never to harm another living soul?”

“I swear,” it managed.  Even from ten feet away in the blistering cold, I could smell the breath.  It was the aroma I might expect from a coffin being opened.
[...]
The fourth ghoul turned to go.  Maggie stepped forward, swinging the sword with both hands.  She took its head.

I met her eyes.

“It was a danger too, and weaker ghouls can’t communicate on that level.”

“What was that thing I just talked to?” I asked.

“Process of elimination says it was a greater ghoul.” - Excerpt from Void 7.5</ref> They have white fangs.<ref>The skinnier male ghoul grasped in my direction, trying to get a grip on my coat, baring his fangs.  I leaned out of the way.  He stumbled forward, and I caught his neck with June.

The wound froze as I cut through flesh.
[...]
It drew a charm from its pocket.  A necklace or macabre rosary, dangling with finger bones.

It pointed at the ghoul lying on the ground, the one I’d cut with June.

The body moved.

Maggie stepped forward, swinging the sword, taking the head of the ghoul before the undead necromancer could do anything with the corpse. - Excerpt from Void 7.5</ref><ref name=":2">The fat one carried a dismembered arm, raising it to his mouth periodically to take a bite.
[...]
The ghouls noticed us, stirring.  The fat one had been gnawing on the arm, and when he turned his attention to us, I saw the gleam of white fangs stained with blood.  The bone of the arm had been gnawed, a little more pointed.   Maggie wouldn’t necessarily have a problem, but the makeshift knife coupled with his natural reach threatened to let him fight me with more reach.
[...]
“I don’t know if that’s a concern.  These guys don’t look maddened with hunger,” I commented.

“The contraction of the city is pushing locals out of their usual haunts,” Rose said.  “They’re probably trying to find their way back, maybe grabbing some food to keep nearby while they’re at it.” - Excerpt from Void 7.5</ref>

Greater Ghouls are comparatively fatter and capable of communicating, with some difficulty. Lesser Ghouls are thin and can't talk.<ref name=":1"/>

They are immune to cold and never tire.<ref name=":0"/><ref name=":2"/> Some have flesh-rotting bites that never heal.<ref>For ghouls that… well, they pretend to be soldiers that die like anyone might, but when you let your guard down and search the body, they bite you and get a hungry kind of death into the wound?”

He raised his hand, showing off the cast.
[...]
The ghoul’s bite had never healed completely.  Flesh had necrotized, turning black, and even now, bone was visible in places.  He could cut at the rot with a knife, and it would be a red hot agony, or he could let it linger, and he would feel his strength slipping.  It didn’t get worse, it didn’t get better, but the dilemma remained. - Excerpt from Histories (Arc 6)</ref> Some Ghouls (possibly limited to Greater Ghouls) retain the Necromancy they knew in life, which enables them to make use of more abstract ways of feeding, as well as necromantic magic like raising corpses.<ref name=":1"/><ref name=":0"/><ref name=":3" />

Hunger

Ghouls cycle between months- years-long periods of convalescence (although they will still snack on humans if they encounter them) and brief bursts of mad, rabid hunger that must be sated or they will perish.<ref name=":0"/> Depending on where their personal balance is sitting, they eat either corpses or they scarf down bits of still-living victims they’ve found in isolated spots.<ref name=":2"/>

Weaknesses

They can be staved off temporarily by reintroducing them to the cycle of life, using menstrual fluids, using plants connected with life and death like Holly, or funeral rites, done over the prone body or at a distance if you have the ghoul's name.<ref>“Conventional wisdom is that you stave them off by reintroducing them to the cycle of life.”

“Meaning?” I asked.

“The go-to answer is menstrual fluids,” Rose said.  “Drawn on their forehead, fed to them, ‘poison’ a weapon with it.
[...]
“Some plants are tied to the cycle of death and rebirth.  Holly.”

“We used holly against the Hyena,” Evan said.  “See?  I know stuff.  You can tell me stuff.  No need to leave me out because I’m a kid.”

“No holly near here, as far as I can tell,” I said.  “Not sure how that would work, either.”

“Funereal icons,” Rose said.  I heard her turning a page.  “Either done over the ghoul’s prone body or you can do it from a distance if you have the full name of the ghoul.  Not going to work.  Don’t have any of that.” - Excerpt from Void 7.5</ref> Eggs may or may not be unpleasant to them. <ref>“Ugh,” Evan said, then before I could reprimand him, he said, “What about eggs?”

“What?” I asked.

“When my mom told me about that stuff, I remember not getting it, and she said something about it being like chickens laying eggs.  It confused me more.”
[...]
whipped an egg at the first one to step outside of the bus shelter.  I missed, hitting the edge of the glass enclosure.

The ghoul stopped in its tracks, and the one behind it collided with it.

It was hard to say whether it had worked.

Maggie landed a dead-on hit.

It seemed to startle them more than anything.  Part of it might have been our relative lack of fear.
[...]
Maggie egged the thing, holding three eggs in one hand and whipping them at him one after the other.

“It’s not really working,” I said.

“I think it’s working a little,” Maggie told me.  She flashed a grin, not taking her eyes off the Other.  “He doesn’t like it.”
[...]
“The eggs totally worked, didn’t they?” Evan asked.

I wasn’t so sure they had, but it was hard to say.  Maybe the other stuff worked because it was human, and the ghouls were closer to humans than not.  Were eggs too far removed?

“Maybe,” I said. - Excerpt from Void 7.5</ref> Beheading them or cutting their throat also does the trick.<ref name=":1"/> Ways to deal with ghouls aren't necessarily well known not everyone has access to a library or a wiki after all.<ref>“We should do something about that one first.”

The eater.

“What do you want to do? Kill it?”

“You can’t kill something dead.”

“Then birth it or…?”

“I have no idea how you’d do that.”

“Yeah,” Verona said. “Bind it?” - Excerpt from Back Away 5.2</ref>

Variations

• Standard ghoul, ghoul scion, branch ghoul, family ghoul
• Brine Ghoul - an aquatic variant.<ref name=":4">Terrence Hegh is not an anecdote drawn from ancient times, but a relatively modern example of the unconventional relationship.  Awakened, Terrence was forbidden from taking a familiar without family approval.  Driven by a fascination with the sea, in part due to his belief that he could reunite with a drowned lover if he could find her body, Terrence met and forged a deal with a Selkie, Graeme.  [...] Terrence was ultimately interrupted by the Selkie in the midst of the ritual to revive his partner.  Death energies carried him to the edge of death, where he was left suspended, turned into a brine ghoul.  The Selkie, too tired to withstand the onslaught of the loose energies, was slain.  Before he could come to his senses, Terrence devoured the waterlogged corpse of both Selkie and lover, sealing his fate as a lonely undead creature. - excerpt from Famulus, quoted in Bonus Material: Famulus Text</ref>
• Couch Ghoul
• Dreck Ghoul<ref name=":3" />
• Eater of Unborn - as the name suggests, does something unspecified and grisly to pregnant women. Unlike most ghouls, tied to both birth and death energy. <ref name=":5">His face emerged from the darkness. It was an old man’s face, but it looked like someone had taken the old and baked it in a bit too much. Like those little details that made an old person look old, wrinkles aside, had multiplied. Too many liver spots, too many broken veins. Too many old scars, too much yellowing of the teeth, which were a bit too long as he fixed his eyes on her and smiled rictus-wide.
  [...]
  “A variant on a ghoul,” Matthew said, behind her. “Eater of Unborn. He causes women who were pregnant to… have you taken health class?”
  [...]
  “The details don’t need to be dwelt on. Ghouls can range from weaker than a kitten to impossibly strong, depending on how well they eat. Most tie themselves to death alone. He ties himself to birth and death both.” - Excerpt from Back Away 5.2</ref>
• ghul obitus, more spirit then visceral<ref>“A digression: those of you who have attended lectures on the habits of Others may recall that we can have Others who only exist in the context of their nature.  The ghul obitus is more ephemeral than many other types of ghoul, fleeting and vague, with a wide hunting ground and prerequisite for hunting that increase in scope as it gains power.  It simply does not truly exist in a real, physical capacity when it’s not active, with no hiding place and no bed, grave, or hovel it rests in where it may be hunted.  It is potential energy, an apple held in the air, waiting to be dropped, at which point it will take action for a short span of time, often days, before it makes its impact. [...] The ghul obitus holds off on existing, hibernating until someone passes through its sphere of influence.  This particular ghul obitus looks for young people who are slowly and inevitably dying and sufficiently detached from everything else.  It could be considered a vulture, circling.  Some unnerve or terrify the victim in their last moments.  Others simply watch, a recurring figure that eases the dying into the realization of what’s coming as they realize nobody else can see this dark figure.”

- Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.5</ref>

• Near Death Experience (NDE) Ghoul
• Profane Ghoul

Known Ghouls

• Toronto ghouls led by a greater ghoul
• WWI ghouls, one of which bit Aimon Behaim
• Terrence Hegh, Brine Ghoul<ref name=":4" />
• Dreck Ghoul (possibly) who messed with Clem's life.<ref name=":3">Summer 2010 – Clem discovers a crow pecking at something glinting, and discovers it to be a gold tooth.  The tooth belonged to an Other (thought to be a Dreck Ghoul) that sought to be whole again.  Thought by Clem to be a homeless man, it harassed her and tried to arrange deals, threaten, and use practice to obtain its tooth, upending trash cans and turning the refuse into sendings that could enter the house.  Due to the Other’s communication issues and Clem running in fear from most encounters with it, or else being too scared to look away, she never seemed to discover it was the tooth it wanted.  Due to residual taint in the tooth, her body slowly became more like that of the Other, with patches of her flesh undergoing various changes, including suppurating, drying out, tearing, scarring, and staining with ambient pollutants.  She lost a tooth, several fingernails, and the vision in one eye, which she would never fully regain.  Believing the Other had done it, she lashed out, attacking it, and drove it off, though it would continue to watch from a distance.  In the winter of 2010, in the throes of the tooth, she picked up a dead and rotting bird from the playground and stuffed it into her mouth, chewing and swallowing much of it before faculty were able to stop her, all in view of her classmates.  Distraught and confused, she ended up throwing everything she owned onto the lawn of the backyard, and called out to the ghoul to take anything and everything it wanted.  It did just that, taking everything from toy, mother’s keepsake, and clothing in three trips, along with the ‘black gold tooth’. - 4.8 Bonus Material: Dossiers</ref>
• Eater of Unborn near Kennet<ref name=":5">His face emerged from the darkness. It was an old man’s face, but it looked like someone had taken the old and baked it in a bit too much. Like those little details that made an old person look old, wrinkles aside, had multiplied. Too many liver spots, too many broken veins. Too many old scars, too much yellowing of the teeth, which were a bit too long as he fixed his eyes on her and smiled rictus-wide.
  [...]
  “A variant on a ghoul,” Matthew said, behind her. “Eater of Unborn. He causes women who were pregnant to… have you taken health class?”
  [...]
  “The details don’t need to be dwelt on. Ghouls can range from weaker than a kitten to impossibly strong, depending on how well they eat. Most tie themselves to death alone. He ties himself to birth and death both.” - Excerpt from Back Away 5.2</ref>
• Musette<ref>Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.5</ref>
• [[Nibble]]
• [[Chloe]]
• Faith

References

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