Ghoul

Ghouls are vile undead that live at graveyards and devour corpses.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Ghouls are humanoid in appearance, with dry, flaking skin and unkempt hair. They have longer teeth than when alive, and their lips are torn to shreds. They carry the vile stench of the newly diseased, their skin is pale, and they are freakishly contorted, but they are not in the state of ongoing decomposition.

Ecology and Habitats

Ghouls inhabit graveyards and burial grounds, both those abandoned and those currently in use. Ghouls prefer habitats with a greater abundance in yet eaten corpses, and abandon old ones where all have been consumed. Ghouls are often somewhat slow to migrate, and have a period where they wait at old graveyards for more corpses to arrive. During this period, Ghouls become more and more aggressive, and might even attack the living for sustenance.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Ghouls are strictly carnivorous, eating buried corpses in any state of decomposition, even withered bones. They have a preference for the corpses of sapient species, and a particular one for the species they once belonged to. They do what they must to obtain these corpses, and are adept gravediggers, coffin bashers and burial shroud tearers. If they have not eaten for long, they may attack and try to devour even the living. This behavior can also be seen if somebody tries to steal or dig up "their" corpses.

Biological Cycle

Ghouls living in still used graveyards are mostly nocturnal, hiding during the day. Those in abandoned ones are often less shy, but still mostly active at night.

Additional Information

Uses, Products & Exploitation

Ghouls are sometimes used by those who control and create the undead, as tools for war and conflict. They are also a thorough way of corpse disposal, leaving no remains, though most necromancers would have no need for this.

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

Ghouls can be considered having a parasitic relationship with those burying their corpses. From the Ghouls' perspective, they have a commensal relation with the grave diggers working on the graveyards they inhabit.