Ghouls
"Dead" is just a word
It was a ghoul. A corpse brought to undeath by vile magic that roams the streets at night. You'll get used to them.
My first encounter with the Abyss was dead, smelly, with a sharp appetite for human flesh. Was it not for the man who will then become my mentor, I might have died this very night. Of course, as anyone coming to the city at the heart of the occult world, I had heard many tales about the ghouls that blight the streets. It is always good to remember that neither bedtime stories nor science manuals can prepare for the real thing.
What's in a ghoul?
All ghouls were once living humans, now supposed to be resting. Obviously, they are not. Arose from the dead, they are the proof that nothing, not even a corpse, is sacred down here. They hide in their sewers and caves during the day, only crawling to the surface at nighttime. About any cadaver can get reanimated like that, and if the most recent keep their human features and even tattered clothes, the most rotten individuals are barely even humanoids, dried and crumbling skeletons. Eventually, they will all wither away, replaced by newer bodies.
If a lone ghoul is no threat to experimented Abyss dwellers, their strength is in number. A ghoul is slow, clumsy and all its senses are dulled, just like its decaying body. However, even their brittle bones are enough to overpower a Crown's hunter ten to one. And dying at the hands of those walking corpses may be one of the worst ways to go. Before joining their ranks the following night.
Foul Smell
The first thing to notice when a ghoul is nearby is its horrible stench. A mix of rot and stagnant water that reminds the neighbourhood of a run-down port. They reek of death, making them noticeable even when silent. If they can be easily avoided this way, it turns to their advantage during unfortunate confrontations. Battling while brought to tears by smell alone caused the demise of more than one hunter. The weakest go as far as to faint in front of their enemy or try to hold their breath during the confrontation. In that sense, they are great to sort out the people with the mental fortitude to bear the stench of the weaklings.
Death's claw
It goes without saying that the real threat of a ghoul is not its strength or its teeth. Although they carry legions of harmful pathogens and a bite will surely get infected and necrotise, it is nothing that an elixir drunk early enough cannot fix. The real danger lies in their fingers and sharp nails. The filth and dust that accumulates underneath mix with their decaying blood and turn into a lethal poison. A scratch is all it takes to kill a healthy adult in a matter of minutes. And the process is not a painless one.
The older the ghoul, the more concentrated the poison will be. The oldest specimens have under one nail enough of this mix to overwhelm the insane regeneration of a superior vampire. Not that they would ever be able to pierce their thick skin in the first place. More than anything else, the powder under the nail of a ghoul is a premium ingredient in alchemy. It can be used as is to cook a poison, of course, but if correctly refined, the deadly substance can be the main element of a near-universal antidote.
Undeath
One would think that, being brittle and prone to breaking, the population of ghouls would go down if only by being caught in the crossfire between factions of the Abyss. That would be correct, was it not for their undeath. As a ghoul is not alive, it cannot die. The magic that animates the corpse is not broken so easily, and even a severed head or cut-down limbs can only do as much as slow them down. Hitting the brain has proven an effective way to neutralise them for a long time, but they will ultimately get up, if only to crawl back down into hiding and come back the next night.
Weak to the sunlight
There may be a way to completely dispose of a ghoul. They flee the light of the sun as if it burns their rotten skin. Rather than the ghouls themselves, it is the magic that flows through them that cannot bear the light of the day. Forcefully binding a reanimated corpse in plain daylight will make the occult energy evaporate from the body, leaving behind mere remains of a past man. Be careful when trying to kill a ghoul this way, as a slightly dark cloud is all it takes for the curse to flow through their bone again. Countless hunters lost their lives by being carefree around a ghoul they thought was done for.
Theories and fairytales
If anyone confidently claims to know where the ghouls are from, they would be lying. Theories and hypotheses are endless, some are more plausible than others, but ultimately no one, not even the wise mages, knows the true nature of the magic that keeps reviving our fallen.
The dark land
A theory shared among cultist circles says that London was built on top of a dark land stained by ancient and powerful magic. Some versions claim it to be a Celtic tomb, others a bloody battlefield, and a few lunatics tell stories of the corpse of a divine creature felled by their god. Whatever the cause, they all agree that this mysterious and indecipherable magic lingers in the depth of the city, a source of unexplainable phenomena. According to them, ghouls are but a side effect that this enchantment has over the bodies buried too deep or lost in the caves.
I give them the credit for coming up with an unprovable theory that conveniently explains everything they are not able to understand. How cultist.
The dark lord
This is the tale of Bismarck, Alejandro, or Kalmal. Again, the tales cannot agree with each other. He was a dreaded necromancer, a magician whose name would make a mage shiver. Though necromancy is not firmly outlawed, practicians have a poor image and this one, in particular, was said to go so far as to lose his humanity. Driven into the caves of London, he is said to plot his revenge in secrecy, turning anyone who dies in his territory into a mindless puppet. They act as watchdogs around his lair and dissuade anyone to come near him.
Interesting how a man in hiding would be as stupid as to tirelessly send minions on the surface for the sole purpose of reminding his presence.
The Eldritch Being
Now this is a hypothesis I am even less ready to accept. It says that deep under London, near the mantle of Earth, lies an eldritch creature whose power is comparable to that of a god. Is it sleeping? Is it waiting for something? Perhaps it lives on a timescale we cannot even comprehend. Its aura itself is enough to wither the rocks and corrupt all life in its vicinity. The thing animating the corpses would only be the residual magic of its body.
So a beast buried miles under the ground would be located at the perfect distance of London so that undeads appears in the capital but not in the neighbouring town? And the main sign of its existence would be ghouls. I don't even know how one can invent such a story.
As for myself, I don't have any theory, nor the time to dig one out of my imagination. The Abyss is deep, complex and some layers are bound to be incomprehensible to mere humans like us. Perhaps this knowledge is not something we should possess. Or perhaps the truth lies in an unexplored corner of this endless maze. Either way, I am fine with not having a firm opinion on the origin of the ghouls. All I care is that they are a fine source of income.
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