2025 May 5: Ghouls Pt 1.

 One of the greatest taboos all around the world is eating the flesh of other sapient mortals. Of course by "sapient mortals" usually only the more humanoid-looking are meant, the great 'peoples' who build settlements and practice agriculture or pastoralism. Sky cattle and dragons are a bit controversial, most agree that eating their meat invokes a different, much less predictable curse.

Those who eat the flesh of the peoples, however all end up basically the same. They become ghouls, ever-hungry undead of fearsome magical powers. Ghouls can only sate their hunger with the bodies of the people, though they can never actually feel full. Hunger always gnaws on their minds, even as their stomachs burst from eating a whole cadaver. But a well-fed ghoul can overcome its hunger, and act like the person it once was. They can be downright jovial, and most share a generally positive outlook on their unlife. The ones that didn't have long since thrown themselves into a volcano, or entered the great temples to be killed by the priests.

A ghoul who hasn't eaten for a few days, however becomes more and more feral, first losing the appreciation for beauty, then the ability to speak, then, all higher reasoning, then finally the ability to move, save for one last burst of movement to hopefully kill and eat one last mortal. Those that retain the ability to speak can also invoke fearsome demons to work strange and powerful magics. Indeed many sorcerers intentionally fell to ghoulism both as a way to extend their life, and to gain occult powers unobtainable by the living. Most ghouls can paralyze their victims, usually either by locking eyes with them, or using the necrotic venom dripping from their claws. Some can also summon rats, insects and other vermin to do their bidding, bring drought or plague to cities, or make people follow their orders in their sleep.

 

Picture by Antonio José Manzanedo