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With flesh sloughing off their faces and vocal tones that can only be described as, well, ‘fried,’ ghouls are one of the hallmark creatures inFallout’spost-nuclear apocalypse. With the advent of the Fallout show, the stories of these irradiated humanoids once again took center stage, in part due to Walter Goggins' excellent portrayal of the Ghoul—the latest addition to a long line of ghoulish gunslingers.
Ghouls are spread throughout post-apocalyptic America and often live very separate lives from their human counterparts due to discrimination and fear from settlements and organizations like the infamous Brotherhood of Steel. To the unirradiated, a ghoul’s existence is complex.
What Is A Ghoul?
A ghoul is a human who, during the bombs or after,was exposed to a large amount of radiation.This radiation changed these humans on a biological level, altering their body chemistry to soak up ‘rads,’ potentiallygranting them the ability to heal and replenish parts of their bodies.
While quite a few ghouls were created during the initial dropping of the bombs,a few ghouls were created pre-warduring experiments with radiation.
Many ghouls are sentient, sapient, living creatureswhose skin resembles that of radiation burns. Often pictured withsoft features like their noses or earlobes missing, ghouls have a very distinct appearance. This makes it easy to discern their mutation.
There is also a virus called FEV: the Forced Evolutionary Virus, amutagen that changes its host into a mutated version of itself.Multiple ghouls are a product of exposure to FEV.
In the Fallout show, the Ghoul is shown to require a drug to keep himself sane. Within the show’s universe, this keeps him from becoming a feral ghoul.
Ghoul Physiology
Because of their radiation exposure,ghouls will often have various medical issues, excluding but not limited tonecrosis, arthritis, glaucoma, or diverse forms of atrophy.Most are sterile.
As if becoming a walking medical disclaimer wasn’t bad enough, some ghouls even reportwaking up having lost extremities.However, given their purported healing ability, it’s unclear whether they can regain or heal over the limbs.
Some people even induce ghoulhood on themselves willingly, for reasons that may includefringe religious beliefs, seeking immortality, or to help them brave the Wasteland.
Ghouls can eat or drink like most folk.Still, some ghouls can survive years without eating or drinking, leading to some in-game examples of ghouls being interred underground or within objects and sustaining themselves through radiation alone!
Types Of Ghouls
Because of the nature of radiation, ghouls can come in various forms: ghouls, feral ghouls, and glowing ones.
Feral Ghouls Vs. Ghouls
Regular ghouls have complex lives the same way anyone else does, and have slang, settlements, and communities with both humans and with other ghouls.They have a full cognitive functionand behave the way a human might.
Because they once were humans and cannot exist outside the context of being human, it may be more accurate to say some fans think of ghouls asa state of being rather than an entirely separate entity.
Others may argue that, like supermutants,they have become ‘other’and, because they cannot live life the way a human can, they cannot now refer to themselves as such. Their altered biology hasmade them inhuman.
Feral ghouls, however, have none of that. Deterioration in parts of the brain made feral ghouls into husks of who they once were, roving around cities and desert landscapes, andattacking any creatures they may encounter.
The existence of feral ghouls often lends to Wastelanders' ideas of ghouls going ‘feral.‘Some people believe that it can happen to any ghoul, and as such, will ostracize them from their community.
There are also feral ghoul reavers —ghouls whose armor fuses to their skinand makes them harder to take down.
Glowing Ones
Existing within both of these categories of ghoul is the glowing one,a ghoul who has taken so much radiation into its body that it becomes bioluminescent.
Though there are a few examples of fully cognitive glowing ones within the games, such as Jason Bright in Fallout: New Vegas, most glowing ones are feral.
Animals can also become ghouls, with many of the creatures of the Wasteland taking on shriveled appearances.
Most named sentient glowing ones within the gamesexperience delusions. This is potentially a result ofradiation-based brain damage— if it isn’t the developers just wanting to make a particularly quirky character a glowing one.
Ghouls In Society
While ghouls may form their own societies, they are also subject todiscrimination in every area of the post-war world.
This is partially due to the widespread belief that ghouls will turn on their loved ones when theyinevitably go feral, and partially becauseferal ghouls are so much more numerousthan those with their sanity still about them. Others believe their state of necrosis will pass on diseases.
On the East Coast, Diamond City ejected its ghoul population into the city, leaving them to fend for themselves.Other areas of the Wasteland have ‘kill on sight’ policies, includingfactions like the Brotherhood of Steel.
Other factions, such as the NCR, are implied to employ ghouls butkeep them separatefrom their greater army. As such, many ghouls strike out on their own to seek their fortunes.
