Ghouls (Ghulas, Eaters of the Dead)

Below the surface of the Earth, dwelling in darkness and forgotten catacombs, the goat-headed Ghouls, dark spirits of murder, feast on the dead. Ghouls dwell in old, forgotten places, luring others down into the grasping claws of their evil tribes. Ghouls rarely appear in the daylight, though it causes them no harm, for it serves their secretive tendencies better to be shrouded in darkness. Ghouls have their own loathsome gods, terrible, nihilistic deities who mortals have luckily forgotten.
Ghouls are human enough in form from a distance, or in their preferred darkness, with two arms and two legs, despite a somewhat hunched stature. But when approached, the truth becomes clear. Their spatulate feet and hands are horrible splayed claws, stained a rusty-brown with dried blood. On their meaty chests, there are bloody wounds where their hearts should be. Long tufted tails hang from their backs. But their most inhuman aspect is their heads, for they have the heads of goats, with filthy, blood-crusted grey hair and curving black horns. Their red, strange-pupilled eyes represent the terrible evil of their former lives.

Ghouls seek only to do evil, for one reason or another. Some claim ulterior motives for their vile deeds, while others refute such rationalizations. Ghouls often spin elaborate fantasies to clothe their existences in, fearing to see the truth, that they may slay themselves of it. Some ancient, powerful Ghouls have made wickedness into an existence in itself, and do not even think that they do anything different than any other being. Young Ghouls are often vilely clever, and devise elaborate means to trick mortals into their lairs or traps. Elder Ghouls, having had centuries or even millenia to gain knowledge and power, are vastly intelligent, and more sagely even than mortal sorcerors (some ill-intentioned mortals seek out these elder Ghouls for forbidden knowledge, though the price is often far too high).

Ghouls can see in the dark, and have a taste for human flesh and blood. They use the skins and bones of their victims to create elaborate sculptures macabre and grotesque. Some Ghouls dwell in large tribes- such a life makes it easier to trick mortals by having the aid of others.

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