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| 1E |
Ghouls are originally a creature of Arabic folklore, in which they are a kind of demon (as in the name of the comic-book character Ra'as al-Ghul) that lives in the desert and lures people to their doom in order to kill them. In the eighteenth century, this was introduced to Europeans by Antoine Gaillard, who added the additional detail that they live in graveyards and eat the dead buried there. This has remained the standard version ever since, although with significant variation.
Gygax's primary inspiration was likely the ghouls of Clark Ashton Smith and H.P. Lovecraft although these, like many other interpretations, are not actually undead but a race of degenerate subterranean humanoids that feast on human corpses. In some respects, the ghouls of D&D also resemble the entities in some modern zombie fiction rather more closely than the D&D version of zombies do.
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| 2E |
1E
Ghouls are initially described as human corpses returned to a semblance of life; in this context, "human" means any of the "good guy" humanoid races other than elves, so that dwarf and halfling ghouls (for example) evidently exist. However, they do not look like regular corpses, since they undergo a physical transformation that grants them sharp teeth and claws. The illustration also shows an elongated tongue and a bestial warping of the facial features as well as, possibly, elongated toes.
Ghouls are marginally tougher than regular humans and have a body that is more intact and resilient than that of the typical zombie - that is, there is no evidence of decay or of any death wounds. This, together with the fact that they presumably do not suffer from pain or blood loss, is probably a better explanation of their stated armour than a literally leathery hide. Whatever animates the ghoul has no sense of its prior life and is more an animalistic spirit than anything else, but while ghouls have low intelligence they are also said to be "cunning".
New ghouls are created through contagion, with anyone they kill rising again as a ghoul after an unspecified period. They live in packs of a dozen or so individuals and, while they do eat human dead this presumably does not extend to those that they kill themselves (or at least, not all the time). The 2E version is essentially identical, although the illustration shows a less dramatic physical transformation with a more visibly corpse-like look.
3E
The physical transformation here is closer to that in 1E than 2E, with obvious malformations of the face, teeth, and skull and an almost complete loss of hair. The body is cadaverously thin, perhaps with some elongation of the neck and extremities, but has no visible gaping wounds or the like (although this may, for all we know, depend on how the ghoul originally died). It is apparent that ghouls are physically stronger and more agile than the typical living human, and their "cunning" nature is now reflected in a higher intelligence as well.
While ghouls can still propagate by contagion, it is clarified that they arise spontaneously as well. How and why this happens is apparently unclear even to inhabitants of their world, although the general belief is that they were evil - perhaps even cannibalistic - in life. If so, then, given the rarity of cannibalism among humans, one wouldn't expect such spontaneous ghouls to be at all common (the Liber Mortis supplement adds the detail that many of them were orcs or hobgoblins in life, which would make more sense).
The ghouls of Pathfinder, being based on the 3E version, are intelligent, and sufficiently so that some have established relatively sophisticated civilisations of their own, in opposition to the lands of the living.
The ghouls of Pathfinder, being based on the 3E version, are intelligent, and sufficiently so that some have established relatively sophisticated civilisations of their own, in opposition to the lands of the living.
5E
The ghoul in 5E is more visibly muscular than the 3E version, but similarly hairless. The claws are more visible on the hands than before, and the tongue is, for some reason, greatly elongated - much more so than in 1E. A significant change is that ghouls are now animalistic, rather than cunning, and their intelligence has accordingly dropped back down to the 1E/2E level.
It's even less clear how ghouls are created in this edition, since their condition is no longer contagious. We are, however, told that they were originally created by demons from the souls of the damned, so perhaps they still are.
It's even less clear how ghouls are created in this edition, since their condition is no longer contagious. We are, however, told that they were originally created by demons from the souls of the damned, so perhaps they still are.
It can be difficult to define exactly what 'life' is, so defining 'unlife' - even restricting ourselves to the wilful corporeal undead - isn't necessarily that easy either. Indeed, by many of the physics-based definitions of the concept, such as those involving negative entropy, ghouls would, in fact, count as 'alive'. Which is, doubtless, because real-world physics has never had to contemplate the question of what exactly a vampire or ghoul is... The standard biological definitions are, in this case, slightly more helpful.
The most common identifies seven features that living things possess, although some, such as the fact that it evolves, don't really apply in the case of individual organisms, but rather groups of them. Others are clearly true of both life and corporeal unlife, such as the ability to respond to stimuli and being composed of structured organic material. Undead creatures, including ghouls, also reproduce after a fashion, although this is closer conceptually to the way that viruses replicate - hijacking the structure of other organisms in their entirety - than to true biological reproduction. (In any event, the ability to reproduce is another one that doesn't apply to individuals, since a gelded horse, for example, is clearly still alive).
That leaves us with homeostasis, metabolism, and growth. Homeostasis - the ability to minimise changes to one's internal environment - is debatable for undead, but, since they aren't powered by chemical reactions, is likely minimal at best. Growth is also very much reduced, although (at least in 3E) ghouls can heal their own wounds over time, which is a sort of localised growth.
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| Pathfinder |
Instead, they are powered by 'negative energy' - a concept which could take us down a rabbit-hole all by itself. It's also noteworthy that they don't sleep, something that, so far as we can tell, every living organism complex enough to have a brain does in some fashion. That undead do not do so is likely because their neural pathways are not biological but, again, are powered by negative energy. This would also explain why, for example, they cannot be paralysed by any of the usual methods.
In addition to oxygen, metabolism also typically involves digestion, or some other means of incorporating new organic material and inorganic elements into the body. Undead often don't seem to do this, but ghouls do, in fact, consume the flesh of dead sentients. The Liber Mortis goes so far as to say that this is essential for 3E ghouls, although the 5E Monster Manual makes it clear that the same is not true for that version.
Lacking body chemistry, we can assume that ghouls don't have digestive enzymes, so presumably, the consumed flesh is directly converted into negative energy or redirected elsewhere in their body to heal wounds (if they do, in fact, do this). The conversion is presumably close to 100% efficient since ghouls don't appear to defecate.
The signature attack of ghouls is the ability to paralyse their victims by touch. Since it seems unlikely that non-living entities could produce the chemicals required for a toxic venom, and, in any event, the effect still works on creatures otherwise immune to poison, this is likely a 'negative energy' effect, perhaps dampening nerve impulses in the target. In the real world, this would have a high chance of also killing the victim (it's how nerve agents work) but here it's evidently weak or specific enough not to affect the autonomic nerves that, among other things, keep the muscles of breathing operational.
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| Call of Cthulhu |
What this would imply for, say, ghouls raised from the bodies of dwarves, or ghouls living in worlds where the Common Tongue doesn't exist depends on how this works. The original language of the relevant soul is presumably the determinant, and we don't know how that relates (if at all) to the body or geographical region that it happens to be inhabiting.
While 'ghouls' do exist in other systems, they are typically something different from the D&D version since the interpretation of ghouls as undead creatures, rather than demonic entities or degenerate humanoids, is largely original to that game. Call of Cthulhu, for instance, explicitly uses the version from stories such as 'Pickman's Model', in which ghouls are obviously living, if monstrous, beings.
Ghouls are slightly tougher and more agile than the average living human, but not exceptionally so. They may have some slight resistance to damage - possibly due to being unaffected by blood loss and/or immune to pain - but, again, it's not all that impressive. In most versions, they are notably unintelligent. Versions also differ on whether the paralysis effect is invoked by general skin contact or only through the ghoul's claws. It typically only lasts a few combat rounds (on average, just the one in 5E, unless the victim has a remarkably low constitution). Elves are immune in D&D, but this might not be true in systems where that race isn't particularly Tolkien-esque.
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