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Our Ghouls Are Creepier: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''They are neither man nor woman''
''They are neither brute nor human''
''They are Ghouls''
|'''[[Edgar Allan Poe]]'''}}
Much like [[All Trolls Are Different|trolls]], ghouls are one of the least consistently portrayed creatures in fiction, partly because the phrases "ghoul" and "ghoulish" are poorly defined terms that can refer to anything or anybody interested in the macabre and morbid, giving writers the ability to name any almost any cannibalistic, flesh-eating or just creepy monster after them.
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* [[Our Demons Are Different|Demonic Ghouls]] - The original ''ghul'' of Arabic lore was a demonic [[You Are Who You Eat|child-eating shape-shifting]] jinn that inhabited graveyards. Only rarely, however, do ghouls get such a degree of supernatural power in modern fiction.
See also: [[Our Goblins Are
{{examples}}
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* In the anime/manga series [[Hellsing]], ghouls are zombie-like creatures that are created when a vampire drains the blood of someone who is [[Virgin Power|not a virgin]]. If fatally wounded, they instantly crumble to dust. They are under the control of the vampire who bites them, eat human flesh, and are ''just'' intelligent enough to use firearms but little else.
* In ''[[Tsukihime]]'', "ghoul" is a stage of turning into a vampire, between the mindless "living dead" (a zombie, for all intents and purposes) and a full-fledged vampire.
* In ''[[Rosario
* In ''[[Blue Exorcist]]'', Ghouls are lesser demons possessing the corpses of human and animals.
== Comic Books ==
* While he's never called this, Buzzard from ''[[The Goon]]'' is a "reverse zombie"
* In the [[Fables]] spin-off miniseries ''Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love'', [[Cinderella (novel)|Cinderella]] and [[Aladdin (novel)|Aladdin]] face off against ghoul henchmen. These ghouls are the ones from the original Arabic myth, being huge, superstrong shapeshifters.
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== Folklore ==
* One folklore story about the origins of ghouls goes: the originals were the students of a powerful sage who, envious of the sage's favorite student, murdered the favorite, then cooked and ate the body to hide it. When the students returned, the sage asked the students where the favorite was. When the students lied, the sage caused the favorite to speak, from the stomachs of the students that had eaten him. Angered, the sage cast them out, and cursed them into becoming ghouls, forced forever to be monsters that ate the dead and dwelt in darkness, as well as giving ghouls a weakness: any ghoul who devours a tongue dies a slow, agonizing death.
* ''Less'' creepy example: In the folktale of "The Ghul's Daughter", a ghul shows mercy to a human girl whose family have been murdered, and gives her some of his powers. An [[Older Than Print]] subversion of [[
* In Arabian legends from which they originate, ghouls typically belong to two different groups: evil djinns that eat human corpses, and mostly ordinary humans who for some reason lust the flesh of the dead.
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** In ''Pickman's Model'', ghouls are depicted as horrible and potentially dangerous canine-humanoids, capable of growing to titanic sizes, who live in a complicated network of underground tunnels and raid graves for food from the bottom up. They also leave their own young as [[Changeling Fantasy|changelings]] in the place of human children. The young ghoul grows up to resemble a human, but retains a ghoulish mindset, while the fate of the human child is vague. Ghouls also appear to have a morbid sense of humor.
** In ''The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath'' ghouls ({{spoiler|now including Mr. Pickman, who has evidently retied from the world of art in favor of the underworld}}) are shown more sympathetically, and they even aid Mr. Carter. The ghouls demonstrate that they can travel between our world and the dreamlands, and that they even ceremonially discard bones from the Crag of the Ghouls into the Vale of Pnath. Later additions to the [[Cthulhu Mythos]] have given ghouls their own culture, [[Eldritch Abomination|god]] ([[Incredibly Lame Pun|Mordiggian]]) priests and temples.
*** Which is a
*** Mordiggan probably originates from [[Clark Ashton Smith]]'s short story,
** Ghasts, a far more deadly species that coexists in the dreamland underworld with ghouls, are described as semi-humanoids with hooves and kangaroo-like legs. Though "ghast" originally was a synonym for "ghost", the word is often used to describe ghouls or, a type of ghoul, in other media, possibly due to HPL's influence.
* In [[Fritz Leiber]]'s ''[[Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser]]'' stories, ghouls are a humanoid race that just so happen to have transparent skin, muscles, and organs, giving them the appearance of [[Dem Bones|animated skeletons]] . . . oh, and they just so happen to be cannibals too.
* Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's "Count Saint Germain" novels depicts the count as a vampire. His manservant Roger is a ghoul Saint Geramain created in roman times. Roger is apparently immortal, and stronger than a normal human. His only requirement is that he only eats raw meat. So he buys chickens, cuts it up, and eats it with knife and fork like a civilized person rather than tear at it with his teeth.
* The ghouls of ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' are humanoid beasts that look like someone mixed a baboon with a hyena. They can pass as human most of the time. They eat human meat, a
* ''
* In ''[[World War Z]]'', in addition to undead zombies, there are ''living'' humans who have gone mad and convinced themselves that being a zombie is safer than being alive, dipping into this trope. These "quislings" act just like Zombie Ghouls and are still breathing like Mutant Ghouls.
* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', it's no coincidence that the [[Black Speech]] word for "ring wraith" is Naz'''gul'', though these are actually halfway between ghost and lich.<ref>''nazg'' is 'ring' (cf. the Ring inscription "''Ash nazg durbatulûk...''"); ''(g)ûl'' could be 'wraith', or could be a loanword from [[Con Lang|Sindarin]] ''gul'' meaning 'sorcerer' or 'sorcery' (cf. a lot of placenames eg. ''Minas Morgul'', 'Tower of Black Sorcery'); [[J. R. R. Tolkien|Prof. Tolkien]] constructed the Elvish languages in a way that makes it look like old human languages have elvish loanwords in them: hence ''gûl'' becomes Arabic ''ghul'' (wraith, ghoul), and ''gul'' becomes Persian ''gul'' (sorcerer, illusion, from which English ''gull'' as in ''gullible'').</ref>
* In the ''[[Night Huntress]]'' series, ghouls are a sister race to vampires, created when a human drinks vampire blood during life and is given a ghoul heart transplant after death. They retain their same personalities. They must eat human flesh on occasion but generally stick to raw meat. They can only be killed by decapitation.
* In ''[[The Elric Saga]]'', ghouls drain the strength of those they touch, possibly the inspiration for [[Dungeons and Dragons]] ghouls. They are, however, summoned from another world, rather than undead.
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s ''Hour of the Dragon" they are humanoid, man-eating forest critters living in northern Argos.
* In ''The Vampyres of Hollywood'' their is a ghoul named Ghul who's an [[Evil Albino]] and the servant of Lilith.
* In ''[[The Graveyard Book]]'', ghouls are seemingly mischievous, about the size and build of children, but turn out to be very menacing. Every graveyard has a ghoul-gate, which you really ought to stay away from. They live in the underground city of Ghulheim and take their names after the main course of their first meal, including "The Famous [[Victor Hugo]]" and "The [[Harry Truman|33rd]] [[Our Presidents Are Different|President of the United States]]."
* Jack Prelutsky's children's-poetry book ''Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep'' includes a poem titled "The Ghoul", and combined with Arnold Lobel's illustration it's the stuff of nightmares. You can read it [http://the-haunted-closet.blogspot.com/2008/09/nightmares-poems-to-disturb-your-sleep.html here].
== Live
* Ghouls in ''[[Supernatural]]'' are of the Arabian demon variety and take the appearance of the last person they have fed upon. Though to give an actual reason for why they have to be killed (saying that they desecrate human remains would be a bit weak when the Winchesters have to have burned a whole ''cemetery'' by this point) the ones they encounter have started eating living people.
** Funnily enough the second set of ghouls they encounter are ''also'' perfectly happy to eat the living. What, did a ghoul write an awesome new recipe book for fresh meat in the last few years?
* A sleazy reporter becomes dinner for the charitable organization known as the [[Fun with Acronyms|Grateful Homeless Outcasts and Unwanted Lawaway Society]] while investigating the murders of the city's homeless population in the ''[[Tales from the Crypt]]'' episode "Mournin' Mess."
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== Tabletop Games ==
* The portrayal of the Lovecraftian ghouls in ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)|Call of Cthulhu]]'' varies widely, mirroring the source material. Sometimes they are savage corpse eaters with no redeeming virtues, and other times they are intelligent and even show human emotions and attitudes.
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' has [[Loads and Loads of Races|quite a few examples]].
** Edition 3.5 has the regular ghoul, plus the ''ghast'' (a more powerful ghoul with a nauseating stench) and the ''lacedon'' (an [[Underground Monkey|underwater ghoul]]). The ghoul's trademark ability is its diseased bite, which transmits a supernatural disease called "ghoul fever."
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** The 2nd. ed. ''Al-Qadim'' setting has the Ghul, which is based on the Arabic ghoul; it's an undead genie with powerful magic and shapeshifting abilities.
** It is possible that D&D based it on Romero. D&D ghouls are stupid (in earlier editions; smart in later ones) but free-willed, they have a dangerous bite, they eat people, and they can kill people and make them into ghouls. D&D zombies have none of these traits and are more like voodoo zombies.
** Somewhat unlike Romero's zombies, however, D&D ghouls traditionally have the ability to paralyze their victims with their attacks. (Likewise by tradition, elves were generally immune to this one particular kind of paralysis.) 4th edition introduces a variation on the
** Even more amusingly, the 1st-edition ghouls in the original Monster Manual specifically ate ''corpses'',
** [[Vote Up a Campaign Setting|Hourglass of Zihaja]] contains Arabian Nights-styled ghuls, who [[Word of God]] states are the superpowered demonic variety.
** ''[[D20 Modern]]'' brings it all full circle, in that its zombies are simply the traditional voodoo type, but its ghouls are straight out of [[Night of the Living Dead|Romero's playbook.]]
** ''[[Pathfinder]]'' ghouls follow ''D&D'''s example and also take inspiration from Lovecraft, giving them an underground kingdom and a hatred of the more powerful ghasts.
* The Ghouls in ''[[Shadowrun]]'' are [[Mutants|metahumans]] who contracted a virus that 1) blinded them, 2) deformed them, 3) shunted them halfway into the astral plane, 4) made flesh a dietary requirement. Often ends up making the poor character either a monster, evil or (if they are lucky) a tougher shadowrunner.
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** The Old World of Darkness also included "The Families". Clans who had been ghouled, generally by the Tzimisce, for so long that it was now [[In the Blood]]. They could survive for centuries without vampire blood, as well as inheriting the ability to use certain vampire Disciplines. While some varied, particularly of the scholar family, most were so insane that even vampires didn't want to deal with them.
* Ghouls in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] '' are the degenerate descendants of humans who were driven to cannibalism. Though not supernatural creatures themselves, they have an innate connection to dark magic that allows vampires to easily dominate them. Mention must also be made of the Stirgoi [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampire]] bloodline, who were driven to the periphery of society by their vengeful rival vampires. The Stirgoi learned to survive by feasting on the blood and flesh of the recently dead, and preferred graveyards as their favored haunts. They are hunched, bestial creatures more ghoul than vampire, and are commonly referred to as "Ghoul Kings."
* Ghouls in ''[[Magic: The Gathering|Magic the Gathering]]'' were originally a separate creature type, but since the only ghouls for the longest time were the [https://web.archive.org/web/20090322002710/http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=82 Scavenging Ghoul] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20071219182719/http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=2438 Ashen Ghoul], Wizard of the Coast eventually decided to go the Zombie Derivative path and lump them under the Zombie family, (ghouls after those two had been printed as zombies). Given that the zombie creature type covers mindless dead to liches, it isn't that much of a stretch.
* Ghouls in ''[[GURPS
* In ''kill puppies for satan'', ghouls are depraved people who are addicted to a supernatural charge they get out of eating corpses. They're [[Fantastic Racism|looked down on]] by all the other supernatural types; the narrator describes them as "the desperate needle-sharing ass-peddling heroin addicts of our world".
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== Video Games ==
* The ghouls in ''[[Fallout]]'' are humans who have been mutated by the radiation, but are behaviorally still normal humans. They do resemble corpses, and are functionally immortal, but tend to be discriminated against. Some of them do go feral, however, and act like standard Hollywood zombies (eating human flesh and the like).
* Ghouls of ''[[Guild Wars]]'' are semi-bestial undead melee-fighters of the Orrian undead horde. Resembling Warcraft ghouls, they are poisonous and have the annoying habit of spawning by burrowing up out of the ground right underneath you.
* Ghouls in the ''[[Warcraft]]'' games are a basic type of undead. They are the basic footsoldiers of the Scourge in Warcraft III (who double as lumberjacks and eat corpses to replenish health) while the basic zombie is a very weak unit unavailable by normal means. In [[World of Warcraft]], they are slightly less common but still one of the most encountered types of undead along with [[Dem Bones|Skeletons]] and classic zombies. In the second expansion, they were promoted to Deathknight pets with a few distinctive abilities, while their old role as worker/melee seems to have been taken over by Geists (one-eyed, crawling zombies).
** It's mentioned in the background that Ghouls are Zombies that have "ascended" (descended?) into "true" undeath. Their bodies have mutated to make them more efficient killers and instead of being lumbering and mindless like Zombies they are agressive and posess bestial cunning.
*** Of course, based on the classic definitions of the word, Forsaken characters qualify as ghouls, being undead that can eat corpses to heal.
* Ghols in the ''[[Myth]]'' games are apelike living creatures who resemble H.P Lovecraft Ghouls. They also take on some of the traditional aspects of [[Our Orcs Are Different|Orcs]], being tribal mountain dwellers who are the ancient enemies of the [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same|Dwarves]].
* Ghouls in ''[[Nexus War]]'' are a type of minion animated by the Lich class. They are stronger and more vicious than normal zombies, and gain health from successful attacks.
* In ''[[Boktai]]'', Ghouls, also known as Boks, are fairly close to the traditional zombie. Only they squeak when they see you.
* ''[[Final Fantasy I]]'''s Ghouls were the first really nasty undead you encountered in the game, who, like the ghouls of ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', had the ability to paralyze you. White Mages with the Harm spell were an absolute must for dealing with them, especially in groups, because if they managed to paralyze your entire party, you could only pray for the paralysis to wear off so you could get the hell away before they killed everyone. [[Demonic Spiders|God help you if they manage to ambush you...]]
* The Rakghouls of ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' belong the the "mutant ghoul" subtype.
* ''[[Battle for Wesnoth]]'' has ghouls of the zombie/mutant variety. Distinct from "[[Not Using the Z Word|Walking Corpses]]," ghouls are larger, eat their dead opponents instead of zombifying them, and have poisonous claws. Depending on the campaign, they can be created either by cursing live humans or reanimating recently dead.
* Ghouls in ''[[Dragon Age]]'' are people who have succumbed to the Darkspawn Taint after [[Squick|eating Darkspawn flesh]]. The Taint gradually eats away at their mind, body, and soul and allows them to hear the Song of the Old Gods. Most Ghouls spend the remainder of their twisted
** Some fans have described the Grey Wardens as effectively "high-functioning ghouls" since they've all drunk a mixture of darkspawn blood, Archdemon blood, and [[Green Rocks|lyrium]] that gives them some minor darkspawn powers (and eventually kills them, drives them insane, and/or turns them into full ghouls or darkspawn themselves).
* In "The Ghoul's Forest" series of [[Game Mod
* In ''[[Dungeon Crawl]]'', they are [[Loads and Loads of Races|one of the many playable races]], as well as an occasionally encountered monster. As a race, they get all sorts of wonderful immunities and abilities, but they gain experience slowly, and they need to constantly eat meat, preferably rotten.
* ''[[The Witcher]]'' has quite Lovecraftian ghouls, albeit without culture or language. According to the novel they originate from the "Conjunction of the Spheres" that brought magic into the world, making them an existence outside the natural order, though what exactly this means is unknown beyond the implication that the Witchers could theoretically hunt them to extinction with no averse effects to the native ecology.
* ''[[Ultima Underworld]]'' has ghouls that are technically still alive, but they've turned into the standard flesh-eating-monster (and even look the part) [[Space Whale Aesop|as a result of cannibalism]]. Which makes them somewhat more like [[The Time Machine|Morlocks]], but everything else fits the "undead ghoul" description.
*
* ''[[Castlevania]]'' ghouls are typically just [[Palette Swap
** Save the
== Web Comics ==
* In the Spanish
* In the ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' storyline "Aylee" another dimension is overrun by creatures called ghouls, which are basically humans, but with claws, fangs, much lower intelligence, and a tendency to speak entirely in hisses. Oh, and they feed on human flesh, of course. It's unknown at first where they came from, and some initial suggestions are that they're some form of undead, or people mutated by a virus or something. Turns out {{spoiler|they're actually alien/human hybrids, who are the [[Another Dimension|other-dimensional]] version of Aylee's species}}.
* In ''[[The FAN]]'', a group of characters fight a ghoul in a side story. A later [http://www.shastrix.com/thefan/index.php?comic=294 filler strip] provides more information of ghouls in the comic's world.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Undead Index]]
[[Category:Our Monsters Are Different]]
[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]
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