Rules for Ghouls

- by Robert How, May 1998

Note: These guidelines have come about through play-testing and general arguing about the rules, and I hope they help to clarify the Ghoul and `flesh out' the system. Talking of which, the flesh-eating Cadavers are just for fun. :)=

Creation

There are in fact two ways of creating Ghouls, although these days the second is seldom used. The first is the standard method. A human must ingest a minimum of one blood-point of kindred Vitae three times, on three separate nights, before becoming a ghoul. There seem to be no firm rules on how long must be the period between the first and last drinks, although the "year and a day" as with blood-bonding may suffice. Stories abound that Holy Water blessed by Faith and drunk by a believer will combat this, as will other Faith-based curatives. But the period largely depends on the subject's Willpower and resistance. If the subject does not know, of course, they are in no position to resist.

Cadavers

The second method is more gruesome, and today is still used by the Samedi to create ghouls who are mindless, rotting corpses. The first point of blood must be given within minutes - up to an hour - after the subject's death, or preferably in the moments before. On the next two nights - and these must follow in succession otherwise the effect is lost - Vitae must be poured into the mouth, and on the third night, the corpse arises. There can be many variations of this, but as long as the third drink is given after the subject is dead, they will arise.

Ghouls resulting from this are essentially animated corpses, with no mind of their own, although they can follow instructions. These are the true Ghouls of legend, but after the imposition of the Masquerade their creation was banned by many Camarilla Princes. Spiritually these creatures are monstrous, because although their minds are gone, their soul is trapped within the body by the dark power of vampiric vitae.

Ghouls created this way - referred to as Cadavers - have no intelligence, social skills, courage or wits to speak of. They cannot speak or think independently, and unless cornered or instructed by their Master otherwise, they will usually hide and run when challenged by any display of force. They do have all the blood abilities for strength, stamina and dexterity however, and have an automatic point of Fortitude. They can also can be taught (or made) to use Potence and even Obfuscate, although nothing too complex.

As far as feeding is concerned, they have the usual Ghoul Vitae requirements as outlined below. But like a "normal" Ghoul they must also eat to survive, or starve - except in this case they must eat dead flesh. Commonly Cadavers will eat dead human flesh from corpses in graveyards, but they will eat anything dead, or, if hungry, will even attack living creatures unable to defend themselves. It is interesting to note that Ghouls will not eat vampire flesh, although their have been strange stories of unBound Cadavers attacking weak Neonates who have made the mistake of sleeping in old cemeteries, and drinking their blood.

Anatomy of the Ghoul

When kindred blood is ingested, its Vitae does actually pass into the blood-stream (NB it has been noted that some Ghouls have been "so old almost all [their] blood is vitae"). The actual blood is not physically swapped with their own, and remains in their stomach, but all the quintessence of the Vitae infuses into their own blood, which in practice amounts to the same thing. Ghouls can in fact have entirely kindred vitae in their systems without becoming a vampire themselves, as they still have their human avatar intact. It is rumoured that Ghouls actually survive longer if they consistently have a high amount of Vitae in their blood, and there are cases of Ghoul-servants who are more than a millenium old without needing vast quantities of Vitae to survive. Ghouls maintained by low-generation blood are also known survive much longer, and the Age/Consumption chart should be considered only as a guide for Ghouls of 8-13th generation Kindred. Kindred of Higher generation than this are incapable of making ghouls.

Blood and Maintenance

How often a Ghoul has to drink depends greatly on their age. Vitae must be spent to halt the ageing process, and this becomes increasingly difficult, the older the ghoul is. For this reason, as well as aesthetics, Kindred do not usually make Ghouls of those who are more than middle-aged.

As can be seen from this chart, vitae requirement begins to increase towards the end of the Ghoul's natural lifespan (50+), and increases greatly again once she is beyond the natural lifespan (100+). For this reason Regnants almost never keep Ghouls beyond two hundred years without discarding or embracing them, because of the increasing demands of blood they make on them. Ghouls of all but the eldest Elders cannot usually survive longer than a millenium, and there are stories of powerful Ghouls of ancient Methuselahs going insane in their lust to acquiring vampire blood to keep themselves alive.

Blood-Pool

Ghouls can generally contain a maximum ten points of vitae - the maximum human blood-pool. However when Thralled to an Elder, this can also be more. When attacked physically, or drained by a vampire, the Vitae is considered to "sink to the bottom" in their blood-pool, and is the last to be used. This can be explained in occult terms in that Vitae will, because of its effects and nature, gravitate closests towards the Avatar, and so is last to leave the body before the soul begins to leech away into death.

It can only be repeated that a Ghoul must at all times have at least one point of Vitae in her system or she will cease to be a Ghoul. Kindred can survive until sunrise having no blood, without entering torpor, because their Avatar is made up of vampiric essence. Ghouls are still essentially humans inside, and so must have vampiric vitae.

Illness and Ageing

As long as they use Vitae, Ghouls will stay at exactly the same age as when they became a Ghoul. In fact as a Ghoul, an individual's body does not change or develop at all, and as well as halting age, a Ghoul cannot grow, develop stronger musculature, or produce children - he or she is effectively sterile.

They are impervious to most illnesses, but the strange blood-borne maladies which also affect vampires will affect them too, except more severely.

As well as this, Ghouls must still eat, drink and breathe air like any human, or they will suffer the consequences. Ghouls are much less likely to die from the consequences of illness, suffocation or starvation, but lack sustenance will force them to use Vitae to sustain themselves. A starving Ghoul must use one blood-point per day, additional to any other costs in preserving themselves.

Decay and Death

A Ghoul is a Ghoul only as long as she can maintain herself with Vitae. If her supply is withdrawn, or depleted so that there is no longer only Vitae in her system, she is no longer a Ghoul, and very quickly decays to her natural state and age. This is harmless if she has been a Ghoul only a few years - she will age a little to her natural state. If it is many decades she will quickly become old and haggard; if it has been many centuries, she will crumble to a dusty skeleton.

Detection

A Ghoul does not have a detectable Wyrm-taint just from being a Ghoul, nor is there aura any different, and it is difficult to tell them from humans. A Ghoul may acquire Wyrm-taint by dropping to a low Humanity, but otherwise to Garou they smell like any other mortal. The only effective way to detect a Ghoul is to test (or taste) their blood, which will contain obvious signs of Vitae. Tremere can detect this through rituals, such as Chain of the Bloodline (which can also determine their Master) but routine medical blood-tests will show unusual results, cells being seen under the microscope as unusually deformed and hyperactive.

Blood-Bonding

A human must ingest blood on three separate nights to become a ghoul. She is not then automatically Blood-Bound as humans cannot be - she is only Bound once she has drunk three more times, as a Ghoul. The rules for Bonds on Ghouls is much the same as for vampires - the rule of a year and a day from the last time of drinking a certain Vampire's blood, and the bond is broken. Unlike Vampires, the Vitae does not penetrate their soul (or Avatar), and so the one who created the Ghoul has no more hold - in occult terms - over the Ghoul than any other vampire. Like any other Bond the year-and-a-day rule is flexible, depending on the subject's willpower and mental strength in resisting it.

"Order of Draco", (c) Robert D How, 1998